New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
JEFF JACOBS
Falcons win this round and the GNAC championship
Albertus, St. Joseph rivalry just beginning
NEW HAVEN — The moment wasn’t lost. Not on Mitch Oliver and his Albertus Magnus players. Not on Jim Calhoun and his St. Joseph players.
At least 800 fans packed the Albertus Athletic Center for the GNAC Tournament championship. They call the place The Nest, and The Nest certainly wasn’t empty on a special Saturday afternoon in late February. Fans had to be turned away at the door. Fire code and all, you know.
Which obviously didn’t stop the flames from burning inside. What with Calhoun and Oliver competing for the officials’ attention at every turn? What with the place filled with at least 30 percent Blue Jays fans? The place was loud. The place was intense. State television cameras were here. ESPN cameras were here, filming a documentary on Calhoun.
The floor was packed with Connecticut players from Norwalk to Woodstock.
Will Calhoun, who brought three NCAA titles to UConn and is enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, return next year to coach a small Catholic school where he brought so much attention? Afterward, he did not commit one way or the other. This much was sure. Albertus won. Connecticut basketball won. The GNAC won.
Yes, this is the start of a terrific Division III rivalry.
The Falcons won 81-77 because Damian Grant, a 6-foot-6 junior out of Waterbury Wilby High, was a load too big to handle for St. Joe’s. He had 21 points, eight
rebounds and deserved every piece of his tournament MVP award. Albertus, a physical, aggressive team, won the rebounding battle 47-38, and in the end those numbers proved vital.
“Damian came up huge,” Oliver said.
“We gave it everything we’ve got,” Grant said. “Man, I played my heart out.”
Man, he did.
The Falcons won, too, because a leader like Ryan Pittman, a 5-10 senior guard out of Stratford Bunnell, played in this GNAC title game all four years of his college career, dished out seven assists on this day and rewarded Oliver for entrusting him with the keys to his offense.
“I have total confidence in Ryan running the team,” Oliver said. “Four championship games? Where else do you get that kind of experience?”
Pittman has been part of two GNAC titles and now that’s seven times in 10 years when Albertus and
Oliver move on to the NCAA Tournament. The Falcons are where St. Joe’s wants to be.
“I have been blessed to have 120 games starting under my belt,” Pittman said. “I’ve got to be a leader, help show kids on my team what it takes to win. Sometimes it’s not about talking. Sometimes it’s about showing.
“The kids see the cameras. Who doesn’t love cameras? I was telling them there’s no excuse not to have fun and leave it all out there on the floor.”
Behind the St. Joe’s bench sat Khalid El-Amin and Jake Voskhul, who’ll be honored Sunday as part of the 1999 UConn national championship team, rooting on the Blue Jays. On the bench was Rashamel Jones, a co-captain on that team. On the bench was their coach.
“I’m not one to get all hyped over such things, but I was kind of psyched to play Calhoun,” Grant said.
Calhoun has the national titles. He has won nearly 900 games. Yet it is Oliver who has dominated the GNAC.
“Jim Calhoun is a legend,” Oliver said. “He’s one of the best coaches of all time at any level. Let’s face it. ESPN’s not here otherwise. We’ve got more exposure because of him. We appreciate that. He brought the league to another level. And his kids got an unbelievable experience. To get to the championship game the first year of existence, with all freshmen, is an unbelievable feat.”
It’s fascinating to think only a week earlier St. Joe’s had to beat Regis at home to squeak into the tournament. Calhoun took his team on the road to Suffolk, where they’d lost five days earlier. The Blue Jays won by 11. Calhoun took his team to St. Joe’s (Maine) where they had lost by 11. The Blue Jays won by five to advance to the tournament finals. Yes, he recruited some terrific talent, but they also were 18- and 19year olds and there was no program before this season. The Great Program Builder struck again, maybe for the last time.
“The last three, four weeks have been wonderful,” Calhoun said. “You
could feel it coming together. Helluva run. I’m proud of them.”
Three tournament wins in five days — all on the road — would have crazy for St. Joe’s, and Calhoun referenced the UConn run of five wins in five days at the 2011 Big East Tournament. Driving a young team fighting .500, he also referenced an Einstein quote. Calhoun came close. The Einstein quote is “Order is for idiots. Genius can handle chaos.”
“I know one thing I can always do is cause chaos in practice and other places,” Calhoun said. “They were fighting me. They were fighting the world. They turned on me a little bit in a good way. They had a common enemy to some degree, but a common denominator in that there were expectations.”
Before he left the postgame locker room Calhoun told this team the same thing he told the 1998 UConn team a year before the Huskies won the national title: “We don’t want to feel like this again.”
Freshman Delshawn Jackson Jr., who scored 23
points, brought that feeling into the hallway.
“We’re going to remember this,” said Jackson, out of Prince Tech in Hartford.
“We’re going to remember everything. We’re going to remember how they celebrated and use it as motivation. This brought us closer, and to realize we’re all freshmen is scary.”
Chris Childs, out of the Bronx, played at Woodstock Academy last season. He had 22 points on this day, and his long 3 with 14 seconds to go cut the Albertus lead to two.
“We’ve got to remember that moment, remember that pain,” Childs said. “You see them throwing Gatorade on their coach. You remember what you lost out on.”
Down the hall, Oliver was reflecting on Ray Askew, Byron Reaves and Walden St. Juste, the guys who brought him to his initial success at Albertus. And how that success steamrolled into more success, steamrolled right to Saturday.
“What an awesome environment,” Oliver said. “It’s going to help them and us recruit. We’re a short drive from each other, too. I’m tired of driving to Vermont and New Hampshire.”
Calhoun looked ahead to next year, talked about how guard Jaecee Martin — a Hartford Weaver kid who transferred from DI Sacred Heart — will be a boost next year. No, that doesn’t mean he’ll definitely be back.
“Right now the only thing I’m thinking about is Monday when I meet with (the players),” Calhoun said. “St. Joe’s is headed in the right direction. Some of the same things that brought me back in the first place are still there. But I’m only No. 2 in the Calhoun house … I love my wife.”
If the septuagenarian doesn’t return, if it’s too much on his health, Glen Miller is there. He took Connecticut College to the DIII Final Four. Either way, a rivalry has been set. And thanks to Calhoun, state basketball is a big winner. jeff.jacobs @hearstmediact.com; @jeffjacobs123