For Kent State, Drake, trip short
First-round losing teams saw positives
ALBANY — One suffered a slow, agonizing demise. The other met the finish rather quickly.
How it happened didn’t matter. The pain of a 4½month basketball season ending with the suddenness of a lightning bolt doesn’t go away easily.
In its first foray into March Madness in two decades, Albany welcomed two midwestern schools, Drake and Kent State, to the NCAA Tournament at MVP Arena. Two Friday night games — which didn’t finish until 12:43 a.m. Saturday morning — sent them home. Miami (Fla.) rallied to eliminate Drake. Indiana summarily dispatched Kent State.
“It takes a lot to survive,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said, “and we fortunately survived.”
The less fortunate will leave with crushed dreams and canceled hotel reservations.
Drake, which brought a raucous contingent of fans from Des Moines, Iowa, endured a lot. The Bulldogs of the Missouri Valley Conference were in full control of Miami, leading the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season champion for more than 281⁄2 minutes.
The fifth-seeded Hurricanes abruptly gained strength, closing the game on a 16-1 run to avoid joining Purdue, Arizona and Virginia among high seeds that got planted.
“I’m disappointed for our group that we weren’t able to pull that out,” Drake coach Darian DeVries said after a 63-56 loss, “but I thought overall we played a really good 35, 37 minutes.”
The Bulldogs held ACC Player of the Year Isaiah Wong to five points on 1-for-10 shooting. They limited the Hurricanes to a season-low 30.4 percent from the field. Miami, seizing an advantage with a full-court press, forced Drake into four turnovers in the final four minutes.
“We had done a lot of things right up to that point,” DeVries said. “Give Miami credit for making some plays.”
The loss marked the end for one-time Siena guard Roman Penn, who ended his career in the same venue he began, and a handful of other seniors and graduate students who will leave.
“I’m just disappointed how it ended,” said Penn, who had 11 points, seven assists, six rebounds and four turnovers in his final game, “but grateful to be in this position and thankful.”
Kent State coach Rob Senderoff, a University at Albany graduate and former assistant to Doc Sauers, wanted to extend his stay in the Capital Region. Indiana had other ideas.
The Hoosiers (23-11) trailed for only 15 seconds in the entire game. They led 35-27 at halftime, grew the lead to 15 early in the second half and led by double digits most of the way after that.
“It was a bad night for us to have a bad night,” said Senderoff, whose team shot 31.9 percent.
Like most of the ones in the one-and-done tournament, Kent State was left to ponder what could have been while looking to what next season might offer.
The Golden Flashes (28-7) lose three starters from a group that captured the school’s first MidAmerican Conference tournament title since 2017.