That Couldn’t Happen, but It Did

We are well into the 2013-14 season of college Men’s Basketball. This is one of my favorite sports. Games don’t drag on, the outcome is often decided near the end of the game, and the players’ ability and heart is often amazing.  As a bonus, you sometimes get overtime.

There are about 350 division 1 schools that play men’s basketball. Those are the bigger, better known schools like Michigan, UCLA, and Coppin State (?). Typically, those teams play 30 games, excluding post-season tournaments.

There are 2 other divisions of colleges and universities; cryptically, division 2 and 3. There is also the NAIA, for smaller schools. All told, it’s a good guess there are more than 15,000 college men’s basketball games a season. That is a lot of chances for strange things to happen. This season had some incredible outcomes, here are two.

David –vs- Goliath

On December 14, 2013 tiny Champion Baptist Seminary (founded in 2005) travelled to Baton Rouge to face the Southern Jaguars. Champion was winless to that point, allowing over 100 points per game, but scoring 40-55. Southern’s program is not that strong: they are ranked 256^th of the 351 D1 schools. However, things were different that night, as seen by the 210 in attendance. Southern got off to a good start, a very good start. The score was 44-0, before Champion’s first point, a free throw, 15 minutes into the first 20-minute half. Champion’s head coach, Eric Capaci, is also the President of the Seminary, and Pastor of the affiliated Gospel Light Baptist Church. He should have figured things might be bad. Before the game Southern’s head coach inquired if he would agree to drop the four media time outs per half. Capaci knew this would be a bad deal for his team. “They need that time to catch their breath”. Media time outs were “in”, for the assumed hundreds of listeners.

When the forty minutes of regulation time ended the scoreboard showed Southern 116 - Champion 12. A loss by over 100 points. Most think this is an NCAA record. Champion’s high scorer had 4 points, while the coach’s son connected for three. Look at it this way, Southern scored almost three points per minute, Champion scored one point each three minutes. Regrettably, Southern’s coach had their superior team “press” the Tigers the whole game. That is bad form in my opinion. One female Southern fan tweeted “I felt so bad for those guys, I felt like I needed to make them some gumbo.” I hope she did. Never one to miss the obvious, Coach C commented in the post game wrap up “I thought we missed some shots we should have made.” (They shot under 10%.) Heading back to Hot Springs, Arkansas, Coach C may have wondered if it was worth the $4,000 guarantee fee they earned. My bet is they did well, if they have logo apparel for sale in the bookstore. The $4,000 seems like chump change to me. My guess is that doesn’t even pay for the teams shoes, although most big schools have deals with shoe manufacturers. Another data point. Last year, each of the teams that made the NCAA’s Final Four in basketball’s March Madness earned $10 million for their leagues. That is serious money.

I would love to report Champion’s season has turned around for their undaunted ten brave souls. Regrettably, the school’s web site is under development, so getting information is tough.  I wonder if the men learned about Daniel in the Lion’s Den when they returned to school?

WSJ Reports A Rare Tie 

Wednesday’s Winston Salem Journal (what did you think WSJ meant, anyway?) reported a strange story. Locals know whenever Winston Salem State University and Johnson C. Smith tangle, “anything can happen”. It did on Wednesday.

The Rams of WSSU drove to Charlotte and JCS’s 50+ year-old Brayboy gym. Both teams were about 15-10, and were trying to “go deep” in the play-offs. Bragging rights were also at stake. With three seconds left, WSS’s Marquez Jones took a 3-point shot to win the game. You have seen that happen before: Gym is going crazy as seconds tick down, a player takes a towering jump shot from way out, horn goes off as ball sails through the air, ball swishes through the basket, “all net”,  fans go crazy, “winner winner, chicken diner”. It didn’t this time. However, WSSU’s Javan Wells got the offensive rebound, and made a quick two pointer to tie with .3 seconds remaining.

JCS’s Golden Rams were ready with a play; after all “they got game”. Joshua Linson, their best player, attempted a full court toss of the ball towards their basket 94 feet away. (Try throwing a basketball 90 feet and you will appreciate the difficulty.) Unfortunately the errant toss hit two of the overhead lights, causing one to drop precariously hanging by its wiring. (Cleverly, Tiffani tweeted “It’s a new meaning to shooting lights out”.) Officials huddled and concluded it would be unsafe to continue the game. Thus, it was concluded the game would end a tie. Frustrated WSSU coach Bobbie Collins, emulating another coach Bobby, tossed a plastic chair in protest, but no one seemed to care. I guess he figured they wouldn’t call a technical.

CIAA league officials huddled early the next morning, and decided the teams would meet in two days (Friday the 21^st) to play a five-minute overtime to determine the winner. Admission will be free, but it is not clear if the concession stands will be open. All this assumes one team would score more than the other in the overtime period. Both teams have games Saturday.

That got me thinking. What is the longest men’s college basketball game? It turns out that happened in December 1981. Cincinnati beat Bradley 75-73 after regulation and seven overtime periods, nearly two full-length games. That is a very long , but low scoring game. For division 3, the record was set in 2010, when Skidmore beat South Vermont 128-123, again in seven overtimes. (Too bad it wasn’t Southern, as mentioned above, that lost.) One player from Southern Vermont played the entire contest.

Full disclosure, I have more than a passing interest in Winston Salem, the WSJ, and WSSU. When my mom was a kid, her parents moved the family from New York City to Winston Salem. Guess what was made in Winston Salem for decades?

One of my dear aunts, Mary, loved sports. She always knew she wanted to be a sports writer, even though that “wasn’t done”. After graduating from college, her first assignment was in the society page. Talk about a fish out of water. The Second World War decimated the sports department (100% men) at many papers as men volunteered to go to war. Knowing southern men needed their sports, just like their grits every morning, management took a chance. They assigned Mary to cover sports. Talk about being thrown in the briar patch. For the next 50 years she worked all levels of sports. She made history doing what she loved. And she gave the best gift ever given, but that’s a story for another day. 

Early on she and Clarence Edward “Big House” Gaines met and became fast friends. Big House, as everyone affectionately called him, excelled in football (4 years All League, 2 years All American) and played basketball at Morgan State. He graduated with a degree in Chemistry. Soon after he joined WSSU, and became the football & basketball coach, athletic director, and ticket manager, all at once. Fortunately, he soon focused on basketball. What a run it was! Eighteen seasons with over 20 wins. Among many others, he coached NY Knicks star Earl ‘the Pearl’ Monroe (pictured below in the 1967 game against, JCS), and the always modest ESPN analyst, Stephen A. Smith. When he retired after 47 seasons, he was the second winningest college men’s basketball coach. He was huge, about a foot taller than Mary, and easily 175 pounds heavier. It was my pleasure to meet Big House on a couple of occasions. Even in his final years he was “big as a house”. 

In his honor WSSU established the Clarence E. “Big House” Gaines Hall of Fame in 2002. It recognizes those who excelled for the Rams, as athletes, coaches, or those “who devote countless hours of tireless work” for the good of the Athletic department. Mary Garber was honored to be added to that shrine, for her part in covering their stories. It was a friendship for the books.

Note: The Fresno Bee (via the AP) picked up that Joshua Linson drained a 3 pointer with 24 seconds to go, sealing a win of 89-86 for JCS. Thus, ending the game that started more than 40 hours previously.