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Friday, December 15, 2000
East: Spiders' caught in postseason web
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
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No team in the nation has a harder road to the NCAA Tournament than Richmond.
The Spiders were banned from the Colonial Athletic Association tournament because they breached their contract and announced they were leaving for the Atlantic 10 next season. Selection committee chair Mike Tranghese said Richmond's only hope is to get in as an at-large team, meaning the Spiders likely will have to put together an unbelievable record to get in over a sixth-place Big Ten team for two teams from the CAA to get bids.
There is a real possibility Richmond will win the CAA, but won't get into the tournament.
The Spiders (6-1 through Thursday) lost to Wake Forest at home by eight, but won at Mississippi State and George Washington. Richmond has one more non-conference chance to make its mark when it goes to Charlotte to play the College of Charleston in a tournament with the winner likely getting North Carolina (which plays UMass).
"It's a very unique situation," Richmond coach John Bielen said. "It's making us play better. We're like every team in the Pac-10 and Ivy which don't play a conference tournament. We have a few opportunities (for key wins) and we've got to take advantage. We've got to take care of business in our league."
Bielen said this is the year in which Richmond will rely on the will of the computer to put Richmond's computer ranking high. So far, Richmond is ranked 30th in the RPI, good enough for an at-large bid, but it will probably drop once the Spiders start playing in the CAA.
"Five or six years ago we would have had no chance to get in like that." Bielen said. "But because of the Valparaisos, Miami of Ohios and Pepperdines, we do have a chance.
"The committee has been open-minded lately and we do have quality wins at Mississippi State and GW. We had a chance to beat Wake at our place."
The Spiders are in this position because of Reggie Brown, an off-guard who Bielen has put back at the point. He's still getting used to the position but his unselfish play has helped the Spiders stay in games. But his 18.7 points, second behind Greg Stevenson's 19 inside, make Richmond the team to beat in the CAA.
"We wish we had this team in the A-10 next year," Bielen said. "But we're losing two great forwards in Stevenson (7.7 rpg) and Kinte Smith (11.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg). But we'll have Tim Faulconer back and he'll help us a lot defensively."
Faulconer already is with 23 blocks.
The Colonial Athletic Association solved its problems by adding Delaware, Hofstra, Drexel and Towson for the 2003-04 season. But the four schools didn't leave the America East earlier because they didn't want to pay the $250,000 penalty for leaving before giving a mandatory two-year notice.
The CAA -- which will be down to six members next year when Richmond goes to the A-10, American bolts to the Patriot League and East Carolina leaves for Conference USA -- is facing a scheduling nightmare the next two seasons.
CAA teams will only have 10 league games. But the CAA will try to get the four new teams to schedule non-conference games, albeit single and not home-and-home series in the same season, with CAA teams. Commissioner Tom Yeager feared the CAA was going to be dissolved or merged with the America East before the four teams were added.
The CAA will keep its automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament because it has six schools which have been together for at least five seasons. The same applies in the America East, which is facing two lame-duck seasons with 10 members before it goes down to six.
The America East was expected to meet Thursday to discuss adding Albany and Stony Brook. The league is open to tending offers from schools in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the Northeast or the Patriot League. But naturals like Quinnipiac, Central Connecticut State, Sacred Heart, Holy Cross and Wagner might stay put.
The other option is to bring in independent Binghamton, which is in the same category as Albany and Stony Brook, but doesn't have the same facilities or name recognition.
The word from at least one powerful commissioner is that the exempted tournament issue won't, in the end, get enough votes to be passed into legislation.
The conference commissioners voted last spring to get rid of exempted events and the management council passed it through for discussion at the convention and ultimately for vote. The rule would allow a maximum of 29 regular-season games, including the conference tournament. Only one exhibition would be allowed against a non-Division I school or a scrimmage against a Division I school.
Legal action could come from the exempted tournaments in advance of the vote as they try to save their tournaments. Power brokers in the major conferences want to control the matchups in non-conference games and take all of the revenue.
One way to solve the issue is to push the starting date to the Friday before Thanksgiving, which would eliminate a number of exempted events. The Preseason NIT could still exist with games on Friday and Sunday for the first two rounds and then Wednesday and Friday during Thanksgiving week.
The Coaches vs. Cancer could be held Friday and Saturday at Madison Square Garden (if it get the dates) prior to Thanksgiving before the Preseason NIT takes over MSG later in the week. The Maui Invitational wouldn't have to change its dates and neither would the Great Alaska Shootout.
Expect St. John's to start going to a bigger lineup with freshman Mohamed Diakite anchoring the middle, Kyle Cuffe and Anthony Glover inside and Omar Cook and Willie Shaw in the backcourt. That would mean Reggie Jessie would come off the bench.
"That would give us a presence defensively," St. John's coach Mike Jarvis said before Wednesday's loss to Ohio State in which Diakite went scoreless in 12 minutes and had three fouls and two rebounds. "Cuffe is such a good offensive post player that he would cause some interesting matchups for the opposition. If we do that, then Glover doesn't have to defend the other team's four-man (power forward) and he can be more effective as a rebounder."
The Red Storm will have to get bigger in the Big East, especially if they zone.
Fordham's rise to a 6-1 start can be credited to coach Bob Hill, guard Bevon Robin, Jason Harris, Teremun Johnson, Duke Freeman-McKarney and freshman Jeff McMillan. While the Rams had the guards in place last year, they weren't sure what they would get out of McMillan.
The 6-foot-8, 250-pound freshman forward has been a force since he was eligible three games into the season.
"He gives our team a presence inside," Hill said of McMillan, who is averaging 8.4 points and 5.6 rebounds. "He's got long arms, and takes up space. He gives our team toughness that we didn't have."
Hill's Rams beat South Florida and St. John's in two home games at Madison Square Garden.
"It's been our goal to get in there because I can't get teams to come to Rose Hill," Hill said of the bandbox on-campus arena. "It's good for basketball in the city and for us recruiting to get in there."
Fordham should be a factor in the Atlantic 10 but could get a rude awakening when it plays against Stanford in Santa Clara Dec. 29.
Hofstra's "road trip" across the street to the Nassau Coliseum to play St. John's Saturday looked like the shortest of the season until a response to ESPN.com came from Philadelphia. Apparently, the shortest road trip might be when Penn plays at St. Joseph's at the Palestra. The road game is actually in Penn's own campus arena on Jan. 27.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com. His Weekly Word on college basketball is updated Thursdays/Fridays throughout the year.
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