Teams like Colgate not so easy to brush aside

Grant Williams is a 6-foot-7, 236pound power forward for Tennessee, the sixth-ranked men’s basketball team in the country and the No. 2 seed in the South Regional of the NCAA Tournament.

He is the rock of Rocky Top, a calm leader who averages 19 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists. He is the guy anyone with a whit of sense wants on his team. (He and Jordan Burns, as it turns out.)

On Friday afternoon, midway through the second half against No. 15 seed Colgate, with the score tied, Williams went straight up

for a jumper from just inside the foul line. And someone from Colgate stuffed the rock right back in his grille.

Which Colgate player rejected Williams? There were a couple of maroon jerseys in the vicinity. It couldn’t have been Burns, a guard who is listed as being 6 feet. Could it? Maybe … Burns had 32 points. What couldn’t he do?

Anyway, the shot gets blocked and someone in the Colgate fan section yells, “Welcome to the Patriot League.”

There is no heckler like a mid-major heckler.

We are all Patriots, if we are not Volunteers, on the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Maybe some of us have connections to BU or Bucknell, Lafayette or Lehigh, West Point or Annapolis, or maybe we don’t. We’re rooting for the Colgate Raiders to take down the No. 2 seed.

By golly, they nearly pulled it off, too — much to the delight of most of the crowd of 19,641 in Nationwide Arena.

Earlier, on the same floor, No. 7 seed Cincinnati was suddenly and somehow terrified by a zone defense and lost to No. 10 Iowa. Meanwhile, in another venue, No. 1 Virginia had a first half to conjure nightmares of another Maryland-baltimore County affair. And in yet another venue, the Anteaters of Uc-irvine, a No. 13 seed, polished off Kansas State, a No. 4.

Patriots seemed to be everywhere, so credit to Tennessee. The Vols didn’t freak. They ran their sets and drew away to a 77-70 victory over the Patriot League champions. It was a thrilling game. It nearly turned into the biggest

college basketball upset in Columbus since No. 1 Kentucky fell to No. 9 UAB in 2004.

“I think a game like today is what makes the NCAA Tournament the NCAA Tournament,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “You get a group of guys from a league where …”

Here, Barnes looked up to acknowledge John Feinstein among the media. In turn, Feinstein, who wrote a book called “The Last Amateurs” about the Patriot League, blurted out “they love it.”

They love the game of basketball.

“That’s what it looked like today,” Barnes said.

“They earned a right to be here. And what can you say about Jordan Burns? He was terrific.”

Barnes said, quite innocently, that he’d take Burns on his team “tomorrow.” Then Barnes was reminded that Burns was still a sophomore (so beware the tampering and remember, always, that these are amateur athletics).

“I shouldn’t say that — I might be called,” Barnes said with a smile. “I didn’t say that, scratch that.”

Provided the FBI doesn’t get involved, Tennessee moves on to play Iowa on Sunday. Presumably, the Vols will be better prepared to withstand the Hawkeyes’ combination of three-point offense and bastardized defense. Cincinnati was not.

The Bearcats raced out to an 18-5 lead before a howling sea of red. Half of the Queen City was stuffed into Nationwide Arena. Then Iowa switched to a zone, and it freaked out the Bearcats.

Tough loss, 79-72. Too bad. A TennesseeCincinnati game would have been not only cool, but good for the local economy.