If you blinked, you missed it. We speak of the stay in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament of the St. Francis men.
Playing in the first game, of the first night, of the so-called First Four, St. Francis fell by a 70-68 score to Alabama State Tuesday. And the overwhelming sentiment is opportunity lost.
St. Francis led by as many as nine points in this game. I was texting with a former sports editor of mine from when we both worked at the Woke Gazette and noted to him at halftime that St. Francis had a lot going for it.
While Alabama State’s first-half offense seemed to be the initial player to cross mid-court with the ball firing up (mostly unsuccessful) 3-point field goal attempts, St. Francis ran a halfcourt offense and repeatedly got open looks off two-man, pick-and-roll action.
Unfortunately, in the second half Alabama State rediscovered the joys of playing in the paint, and also upped the tempo defensively to force St. Francis errors.
Even with that, this was a game St. Francis easily could have won, if players had hit uncontested layups; if they had been able to handle the ball, including two horrendous gaffes just before Alabama State hit the winner.
Speaking of that winning basket, it was a layup following a length-of-the-court pass that saw the ball slapped around like a pinata before landing in the hands of Amarr Knox, who didn’t miss his layup attempt with a second remaining.
And so, St. Francis was denied its first NCAA Tournament win. I’d argue this is a bit of semantics, though.
Back in 1991, the previous St. Francis appearance in this tournament, the Red Flash won the Northeast Conference title, but also had to win what was referred to as a “play-in” game with Fordham to make the NCAA field.
The NCAA Tournament changed in 2010 to including four of these play-in games as official parts of the bracket.
In my mind, that 1991 team won a First Four game, they just didn’t call it such. But, technically, this contest with Alabama State was a tournament game, while that 1991 contest was not.
And so St. Francis kept another NCAA statistic perfect. The Red Flash were the 19th team to make the field despite a losing record, and those teams are a collective 0-19.
It’s not that I would have expected St. Francis to give Auburn much of a battle in the next round, just as I anticipate Alabama State will go quietly. It would have been nice, however, had St. Francis gotten an official NCAA Tournament win over Alabama State when it was there for the taking.
As for the rest of the NCAA Tournament, the best team I saw in the conference tournaments was Florida, so the Gators are my pick to win it all.
The odds are an SEC team will prevail. Doesn’t that conference make up half or so of the field?
I’m not fond of the Big Ten contingent and the ACC, beyond Duke, is suspect, no matter that North Carolina pounded San Diego State in another First Four game. I’m similarly not sold on Big East or Big 12 teams.
Here’s hoping it won’t take St. Francis another three decades-plus to get back for another crack at the elusive first NCAA Tournament win.
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