March Madness: 68 teams punch ticket; the hard part awaits
The 68 teams whose names popped up in the March Madness bracket only thought it was time to celebrate: The next four or five days figure to be the most nerve-wracking part of their seasons.
Welcome to Bubble Ball — the NCAA Tournament is being played in a pandemic, where no player can show up for the games in Indianapolis without seven negative COVID tests, and no team is really “in” the tournament until the ball is tipped off.
“Which potential seasonending test was more stressful than the other?” Drexel coach Zach Spiker said, meaning the challenges that still await. “Testing, practice, getting on the bus in Philadelphia, waiting for that reply, that response time to say, ‘We’re all negative here. OK, let’s get out of here. Let’s get to Indianapolis.’”
Because of COVID—19 issues, Drexel played a grand total of 19 games — about 11 fewer than usual — en route to the Colonial Athletic Conference title. That earned the Dragons an automatic bid into the tournament. The reward? in addition to a battery of nasal swabs, they get a No. 16 seed and an opening-round meeting with top-seeded Illinois.
The other top seeds were Michigan, Baylor and Gonzaga, which is the overall No. 1, and a 2-1 favorite to win it all and complete the first undefeated season since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.
In the biggest adjustment to a normal March Madness, all the games will be played in and around Indianapolis over 19 days. No more worrying about who got shipped to Spokane or mired in Memphis. The NCAA did, however, keep the region names — West, East, South and Midwest — to at least make the bracket look normal.
More about that bracket: A few bubble teams are coming from unexpected places, namely UCLA and Michigan State. Both were widely projected to make the field with ease, but they ended up as 11 seeds, paired in a First Four matchup on Thursday. The other 11-11 game pits Wichita State against Drake.
Teams like Louisville, Saint Louis, Colorado State and Mississippi would gladly trade places with them. And still might. In one of many first-ofits-kind moves made to accommodate a one-of-a-kind tournament, the NCAA put team Nos. 69-72 on standby in case a program in the 68-team draw has to withdraw because of a COVID-19 outbreak.
They have until Tuesday night to notify the NCAA they can’t make it. After that, a team that withdraws will simply go home, and its opponent will get a walkover into the next round.
“If the teams continue to
do the great work that they’ve done just to get to the tournament, we will have a very safe, very healthy 67-game tournament and we’ll crown a champion,” selection committee chairman Mitch Barnhart said.
But to underscore what a different, and difficult, season this has been, the committee spent a lot of time stressing over two shoo-ins, Kansas and Virginia, each of which pulled out of their conference tournaments last week because of
outbreaks.
Barnhart said both are following proper protocols to make it to Indianapolis for their games on Saturday. Kansas is the No. 3 seed in the West and Virginia, the defending champion (from 2019), is the fourth seed in the same region.
“The one thing I’ve found out through this, probably as much as anybody, is expect the unexpected,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.
That is, after all, what March Madness is about —
three weeks filled with busted brackets, out-of-nowhere surprises, teams that take care of unfinished business and an occasional visit from an old friend.
Remember Sister Jean? She’s 101 now, and her team, Loyola Chicago, is back in the dance, hoping for a reboot of the, shall we say, “miracle” run to the Final Four in 2018.
Remember Patrick Ewing? He lifted Georgetown to national prominence back in the 1980s, and now he’s back as the
coach, guiding the underdog — yes, underdog — Hoyas to a Big East Tournament title and a surprise trip to the tourney.
And Rick Pitino? His career was left for dead after his ouster from Louisville following that school’s unseemly recruiting scandal a few years back. He’s back, too, as coach of Iona, which played only 13 regular-season games, but won its conference tourney and made it to Indy. The Gaels are a 15th seed — not what Pitino is used to this time of year.
Given that he was born during Chris Raba’s second year of coaching, it seems like destiny that Brandon Raba would grow up to one day play for his father.
What most people don’t know, though, is that one of the best careers in Nottingham boys basketball history nearly happened at a rival neighbor.
“We didn’t want him to come here at first because we thought it was going to be too difficult for him because of me,” Chris Raba said. “Originally he was going to go to Hamilton, and then I had a couple coaches from the outside saying, ‘You must be crazy if you don’t want your son.’ That’s when I kind of turned my head and said, ‘You know what, maybe I should look at him as a player — not as a son.’”
The decision was made just months before Brandon Raba’s freshman year that he would indeed don the Northstars’ navy and gold, and the rest is history.
Brandon Raba is The Trentonian’s Colonial Valley Conference and Area Player of the Year for his outstanding efforts in leading Nottingham (13-2) to a CVC title as a senior during a challenging season shortened by COVID-19.
The 6-foot-2 guard led the CVC with 17.9 points per game while being the floor general for the conference’s deepest team with six assists per game. He also averaged 4.5 rebounds and played tough defense to cap off a stellar career.
He’s the first player in Chris Raba’s 19 years of coaching — 10 at Hamilton and the last nine at Nottingham
— to lead a team in scoring and assists for three straight seasons.
He also finished top three in assists all-time at Nottingham, and this winter he posted an extremely rare 6-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, which was especially impressive given his heavy ball-handling responsibilities.
“I knew pretty much coming in here as an eighth grader, looking around at my teammates that I was going to have to be our point guard,” Brandon Raba said. “I cherished that. I used to watch videos of old point guards like Pete Maravich and John Stockton on YouTube, their full games and see how they would play. I would study it all the time, see how they would pass the ball, shoot, get people in their positions, lead on the court.”
After regularly sitting on his father’s bench at games starting in third grade, he was determined to uphold a basketball tradition.
Chris Raba coached state title teams at Hamilton in 2006 and Nottingham in 2018. Brandon Raba was a freshman on that historic 30-win Northstars squad, occasionally getting playing time at the end of games while learning from 1,000-point scorers Darell Johnson, Cliff Joseph and Richie Jones.
Brandon Raba became the ninth member of Nottingham’s 1,000-point club in February and finished with 1,036 points in virtually two and a half seasons since this winter was only 15 games.
“I looked up to those three guys so much,” said Brandon Raba, who bulked up from 155 pounds as a freshman to 180 as a senior. “Before the season, I
was watching their games to see what I could work on, try to be like them in any type of way: the way they led their team, the way they passed the ball, shot the ball, defended. I just pretty much wanted to look up to them with my game.”
He and his fellow eight seniors forged a powerful legacy of their own.
After experiencing a state title and Mercer County Tournament title in 2018, Brandon Raba helped the Northstars reached the MCT final and NJSIAA Central Jersey
Group III quarterfinals last year while posting the third-most wins (23) in school history. They were poised to go even deeper in states this year but had to settle for winning the CVC’s four-team Pod A Tournament.
“He’s accomplished a lot. I never thought that he would have the career that he did,” Chris Raba said. “He constantly got better. He was always in the weight room, always jumping rope. He put a lot of time in. The people who do well put time in. It’s not like he was blessed with ultraathleticism, because he’s not athletic. Everything that he did, he had to put time in. The one thing that separates him is that his basketball IQ is very, very high. He doesn’t mind if he doesn’t score. He always gets kids involved.”
The hard work traces back to when Brandon Raba was a young boy in his backyard, just trying to learn how to shoot a basketball under the guidance of his father.
By fifth grade he was playing organized CYO and AAU basketball. The family training continued, and Brandon Raba was molded into an intelligent high school player because of countless conversations and scouting with his dad regarding teams throughout the state.
“His sophomore year I probably overcoached him, and then I probably eased up like halfway through his junior year,” Chris Raba said. “I kind of gave him freedom to do some different things on the court with some independence, not holding him back, because I thought that he was ready. He didn’t need my guidance anymore. He could go out and play.”
Both are quick to admit, though, that teaming up as father and son in high school wasn’t easy.
“He had to realize that there was always going to be somebody saying, ‘Why’s he out there? He shouldn’t be out there,’” Chris Raba said. “That was going to happen no matter what because he’s my son. For any other coach that has a son out there, somebody’s always going to say something.”
Brandon Raba never let those critics throw him off his game, but being coached by someone with his own blood posed its own challenging dynamic. Sometimes he shouldered the blame for a teammate’s mistake in practice or a game, but he stayed mentally strong with the understanding that his father’s tough love was simply meant to bring out his maximum potential.
In the end, it was all worth it.
“It was fun but it was really hard,” said Brandon
Raba, who will play college ball at Mercer. “There were times when me and him wouldn’t talk for weeks, there were times me and him wouldn’t talk for days, and then there were some times we were best friends. I really liked it, I enjoyed it. It helped me more as a man. I learned from him and he learned from me, and I think at the end of the day it was a great thing for me because we ended up as champions.”
It truly all came full circle this winter.
In Nottingham’s 14th game, Chris Raba secured his 300th coaching victory. Jason Malloy, an assistant coach, played on the 200102 Hamilton team when Chris Raba earned his first win. Brandon Raba was born during Malloy’s senior year, and his 1,000th point came less than a week before No. 300.
Yet for Chris Raba, all of that pales in comparison to the memories of when a bond between father and son was fortified through backyard lessons, road trips to AAU games, scouting sessions, weightroom outings and extra hours in the gym.
“Those are my fondest memories. It was never about the wins,” Chris Raba said. “The precious moments were when it was just me and him in the gym, in the car, talking about basketball. All Brandon ever wanted to do was make me proud. He always wanted to show me that he belonged. He wanted to earn the respect of me and his teammates. And now reflecting back on his career, I’ve learned so much about him as a person. These last four years were the happiest I have ever been coaching basketball. I will always be his number one fan.”
Although there was no hardware this winter, the overwhelming feeling around boys basketball teams in the Trenton area was an appreciation for simply being able to return to the court during the COVID-19 pandemic.
All 12 schools from the Colonial Valley Conference who opted in were able to play at least nine games.
Nottingham (13-2), which won the CVC’s first-ever Pod A Tournament, played all 15 games allowed by the NJSIAA. Senior guard Brandon Raba is The Trentonian’s CVC and Area Player of the Year and will take his talents to Mercer County Community College next winter. Chris Raba is The Trentonian’s CVC Coach of the Year after notching his 300th career victory.
Brandon Raba was the area’s top scorer (17.9 points per game) while also leading Nottingham in assists and playing strong defense. Senior Donavin Crawford, a Trenton Catholic Academy transfer, averaged 15.9 points and gave the Northstars some muchneeded length at 6-foot-4. Senior Nasir Collins played the role of Swiss Army knife and was arguably the CVC’s best defender.
Despite running into COVID-19 issues in the final week, Robbinsville (10-3) and Trenton (10-2) were also in the top tier of CVC teams and flashed promising young talent for the future.
Senior Ryan Smith led Robbinsville in scoring (17.3) and rebounding
(7.2), and junior Brian Herbert continued emerging as one of the county’s top guards (16.8 points, 6.6 rebounds). Meanwhile, sophomore Davontay Hutson averaged a double-double (17.6, 11.2 rebounds) for Trenton and senior Davvonne Wells was the veteran leader (14.8 points, seven rebounds).
Allentown (7-5), Hightstown (7-6) and Hamilton (7-8) won seven games apiece and are represented on The Trentonian’s All-CVC Team by junior Dante Weise and senior Brandon Pfeifer
(Allentown), senior Ali Ahmed and senior Spencer Kenny (Hightstown), and senior Jack Boufford and junior Maurice Williams (Hamilton).
Across the landscape, the area’s best team was TCA (7-7). The Iron Mikes played one of the state’s toughest schedules and ended the season ranked No. 12 by NJ.com after knocking off four ranked teams: Roselle Catholic, Camden Catholic, Lenape and Don Bosco Prep.
TCA was a deep team. Senior Freddie Young led in points, assists and steals. Juniors Jameel
and Jamaal Morris transferred in from Burlington City and were two of the best all-around players. Junior Braxton Jones led in 3-pointers. Freshman Michael Jones was the second-leading scorer and flashed immense talent.
For guiding the school to memorable victories in possibly the final season, as TCA is scheduled to close in June, Eric Elliott is The Trentonian’s Area Coach of the Year.
Among the Prep schools, Hun (8-2) shined the brightest with a 6-0 mark against Pennington, Princeton Day School
and Peddie. One of Hun’s two losses was by only two points to national powerhouse Patrick School.
Junior Daniel Vessey is The Trentonian’s Prep Player of the Year after averaging 16.5 points and four rebounds. Jonathan Stone is The Trentonian’s Prep Coach of the Year.
PDS (7-3) had a strong first season under new coach Eugene Burroughs, who previously coached in the NBA and G League. Sophomore Hampton Sanders emerged as one of the area’s best young talents with 15.4 points and 3.7 assists per game.