A Day in the Life - 1998 Capital Key Classic travelogue
By Stephen Zerdelian
The Chronicles flips the calendar back into the 90's for a fond memory
In a previous basketball writing life, I spit out my thoughts about a specific day of hoops in 1998 because, well, I wanted to. The College of Saint Rose used to host the great Capital Key Classic and that season I decided to head to Albany and chronicle my day (December 29, 1998). Six games on offer at the University of Albany, three women’s games and three men’s games, starting at 10:00am. What else could you want? This was my take, as written; thought you might like the reflection…
A day in the life of a college hoop junkie; 14 hours in a gym with a half-dozen saints… and not enough water)
Everywhere you go around the holidays, you’ll find a college basketball tournament. Men’s, women’s, big schools, small schools, 4-team, 6-team, 8-team festivals; about anything imaginable, really. We love them here at the home office and we try to see the annual ones at least once every couple of years. This is the story of one.
6:30am – Up and out the door, on the way to Albany from Boston. It’s Day #2 of the Capital Key Classic, hosted by the College of Saint Rose but played at the University of Albany. The Capitol (Albany, obviously) Key (the bank, who function as the main sponsor) Classic (to be determined, I guess) has been in operation for a few seasons now and it includes 12 teams (six men and six women) in action over three days. Four of the teams get byes on the opening day, so today all dozen will be on the floor for the first time. Sounds like a fun viewing day for me. In particular, I enjoy seeing teams that are not from the region. Saint Rose (New York Collegiate Athletic Conference) is a Northeast Region power, so it’s good to see them during the season, and they like to invite a pair of non-Northeast teams for each gender to give the tourney some spice. The opening game is set for 10:00am, the final one for 8:00pm. My best estimate is that the last game will begin at least 30 minutes late but that’s a long way from now. Drive, gas up, grab some newspapers and water (must stay hydrated!) and it’s time for tip-off from Albany.
10:01am – The opener pits the women of Assumption against Millersville, an East Region team. It starts a minute late. Not a good omen.
10:45am – Halftime comes, and for such an early start, this is a close and rather decently played game, 36-28 Assumption.
11:50am – After Assumption takes a 39-28 lead early in the second half, Millersville comes back and makes it a game, even taking the lead with three and a half minutes to go. But AC guard Jamie Kelley picked an opportune time to score her only points (a steal and a layup) to tie it and then a pair of Stacy Mattioli foul shots with :20 left give Assumption the win, 57-55. Mattioli (19) and Katie Kerr (17) led the scoring for the winners while Ashley Hoffman (14) led Millersville. I wasn’t too impressed by the losers, who were 8-2 coming into the tournament and went home with two more losses. Good news, though, in that the hospitality room (yes, there is one) has bottled water and munchies.
12:10pm – Game #2 is a men’s game featuring St. Francis of Chicago and St. Paul’s of Virginia. Just what’ll draw people; two teams from hundreds of miles away, playing at noon on a Tuesday. St. Paul’s has no idea how to adjust to the officials, odd since they not only played on Day #1 but that they were also here last year. St. Francis makes them pay.
1:55pm – Finally it ends, with St. Francis holding off a late St. Paul’s charge to win, 65-57. The best player on show was 6-7 St. Paul’s All-American Antwain Smith (22 points and a couple of huge dunks) but they shot poorly as a team and couldn’t overcome St. Francis’ balance. Just noticed that there are too many Saint Somethings in this tournament. Hmm, looks like its’ lightly snowing outside.
2:15pm – Only a little bit behind schedule so far, nothing a quick game wouldn’t alleviate. But that’s not what we get. Instead the home team, Albany, takes on then-nationally ranked, 10-1 Edinboro, another East Region team, in a women’s game. Could be a good one.
3:10pm – Halftime has rolled around and Albany has rolled to a 45-34 lead by shooting 53%. Nice, up-tempo game here but it’s taking forever. At least my chair is comfy.
4:15pm - End of regulation. Yep, the dreaded word of any six-game day is finally uttered; overtime. Edinboro came back from a 17-point deficit to tie it up, which also included a magical 6-0 spurt over the last 35 seconds. Hope it ends soon, but at least it’s a good game.
4:35pm – Albany comes out on top, 89-86, with two Kelly Paolino free throws locking it up in the dying seconds. She led UA with 19 points while the active Marin Hightower had 27 points (the day’s best) and 12 boards for the losing Fighting Scots (the day’s best nickname). Gotta say that Albany deserved the win and that I can’t stand the arrogant look on Edinboro coach Stan Swank’s mug. Nice result. And still, there’s water left in the rapidly emptying hospitality room.
4:55pm – Now we’re really up against it time-wise. Next game on the docket is a men’s meeting between St. Anselm and Mount Olive of North Carolina. In chatting with St. A’s coach Keith Dickson before the game, he mentioned that no past opponent of Mount Olive’s supplied them with a game tape (a secret agreement or what?) and thus they knew nothing about them. Meanwhile, Mount got to scout St. A’s in person since they played last night. Upon tip-off, it was clear Mount Olive could do one thing – shoot – and even if Dickson had seen every game they’d played, he couldn’t have done much about it.
5:30pm – At least it was a quick half. Man, Mount Olive could not miss, it seemed – they shot 67% (18-27 FG) from the field. Still, the Hawks didn’t roll over, battling back from a 19-point deficit to get within 52-45 at the break. By halftime of game #4, I’m starting to get a little restless. The food is running out. At least I’ve seen a few familiar faces I’ve not seen in years, so that helps pass the dead moments.
6:45pm – As excellent second half performance from both teams ends with Mount Olive holding on to win, 94-87. St. Anselm stayed right with them but could never get any closer than two points. Quite a show of poise by Mount Olive, who ended up lighting it up to the tune of 59.6% overall (31-52 FG) behind a pair of 22-point scorers, Russell Royal and Chris McDonald. St. A’s can only curse their own luck, as they squandered a 46-32 board advantage by missing 16 foul shots. In going with the game’s 22-point theme, Joe Ingegneri and Adam Zedonis each had that amount of points for the Hawks. I think Dickson would like to see the tape next time.
7:05pm – The snow is picking up outside and the food, about a dozen pizzas, is now almost all gone. I’m left to resort to the bagel I brought with me (experience has taught me to always bring food you like as a precaution) and actually buying a bottle of water at the concession stand. Leading a glamour life, ain’t I? Oh, the last women’s game of the day is set to go, Saint Rose, unbeaten and ranked #2, against St. Anselm. Told you there were too many Saints.
7:40pm – Fine first half for the surprisingly good St. A’s team of coach Bill Vermette. They more than held their own against CSR and led much of the half. Saint Rose led 27-26 at the break of what a neutral observer would have to call a dire game, quality-wise. What is lacked in that respect was compensated for with later drama.
8:40pm – A crazy second half ends with Saint Rose lucking out, 58-55. St. Anselm deserved better. The highly regarded Golden Knights dominated the opening ten minutes of the half, though, ringing up a 53-35 lead and they figured the game was done and dusted. Not so. Kristin Penney (16 points) and Addie Stiles (17 points) led a determined St. A’s comeback, which coincided with Saint Rose forgetting to do much of anything offensively (only six points in the last ten minutes). St. A’s drew within three points a few times and had a shot to tie at the end but a lack of breaks ended their hopes. If you ask Vermette, though, I’m sure he’d have another view. He didn’t as much walk off the floor as storm off it, since he felt his players were fouled a number of times on the last couple of shot attempts and that Penney was tagged with a lousy fifth foul in the last minute. He had a point, I thought. Saint Rose’s pair of Mbuyi Mukendi (16 points, 20 boards) and Nana Lukengu (12 points) led their scoring but despite the end game excitement, this was probably the worst game of the day, quality-wise. The teams had 57 combined turnovers and shot a collective 37%. Yuck.
9:00pm – I knew it, an hour late for the last game. Goodness. By now, all semblance of food is gone from the hospitality room except cardboard-hard pizza, there are only four cans of warm Mountain Dew remaining and the snow looks rather ominous. Maybe I should’ve stayed overnight somewhere, but I was planning on driving home at the end of this game. Hmm. Let’s get this one moving.
9:40pm – Another good half, this time featuring the Saint Rose men against red-hot Pace. These two programs used to be conference foes in the NYCAC until Pace joined the Northeast-10 two years ago, so there is history between them. Jim Harter has Pace playing terrific ball, inside and outside, while Brian Beaury’s Golden Knights have a monster in 6-10 junior pivot Damon Reed leading the way.
11:05pm – Well, this turned out to be the best game of the day (have I really been in this building almost 14 hours?), something I’d hoped for but couldn’t expect. They traded leads for much of the game before Pace grabbed the contest by the throat late on. Down 62-57, guard Todd Ziogas scored the next five points to start a 9-0 Pace run giving them the lead for good. The Golden Knights didn’t make it easy for the Setters, however, as they were able to continue scoring down the stretch. Yet Pace executed as well as any team I’ve seen all season, scoring two points in some fashion each of their last seven trips down the floor in the final two minutes-plus, holding on to win, 80-71. Reed (21) and Greg Saunders (18) were solid for Saint Rose but the balance of Pace (Ziogas had 17 points to lead them) along with sharp foul shooting gave them the victory.
11:15pm – Okay, I’ve scraped my car off and I’m on the road. It would eventually take me almost three hours to get home, with snow showers all the way on Route 90 and road conditions not exactly the best I’ve ever seen. But I’ve had plenty of time to ruminate on the day’s events. Six games, all single-digit battles (margins of two, eight, three in overtime, seven, three and nine) and all competitive to the end helped my sanity a great deal. If I had to sit through blowouts, I’d have never made it. Plenty of good teams here, too; on the ride home I guessed that seven of the dozen teams would advance to the NCAA tournament (we will see how close I get**). It’s marathon days like this that make me feel like I’ve paid my dues and that I can get involved in any conversation about New England college hoops and hold my ground. But that’s not why I make the trip. I went to see quality basketball and I saw it in abundance. Maybe someone closer to home will host something like this next year. Or maybe I’ll just stay overnight.
** Three women’s teams (Millersville, Saint Rose and St. Anselm) and three men’s teams (Pace, Saint Rose, St. Anselm) made the made the 1999 NCAA field, so I wasn’t off by much on that prediction.