Now that they’re down to the Final Four in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, nobody on the St. John’s Edge is left pulling for an alma mater.
The last with a former college team alive in the bracket was forward Ryan Reid, whose Florida State Seminoles made it to the Elite Eight before bowing out to Michigan last week.
That doesn’t mean the Edge players aren’t still invested in the tourney. After all, they are basketball fans, too, and they’ve filled out the brackets, cheered or winced at the upsets, and — in the absence of their old college teams — have been pulling for friends, former teammates or maybe schools in their home states.
They also have the added interest that comes from having competed in the tourney. Of the 14 players on the St. John’s roster, all but one have been part of March Madness, the exception being Ransford Brempong, whose Catamounts never made it to the dance during his four years at Western Carolina.
If Brempong wants someone to share any feelings of being left out, he might try his head coach.
Jeff Dunlap went to UCLA, which has made 48 tournament appearances all-time, but none in the years he played for the Bruins.
But don’t think that has Dunlap feeling dismissive about the tourney. Just the opposite.
“There’s a lot of great sporting events. The World Cup. The Super Bowl. World Series. The Stanley Cup finals. But having grown up as a basketball person, the greatest three weeks in sport, to me, is the NCAA basketball tournament,” he said.
“I think it’s an unreal experience for a young person, the attention, of course, but most importantly, the gratification of knowing you’ve achieved something very special.
“And maybe even more special for teams that create the wonderful dream stories off smaller schools upsetting the big-name schools. I think that feeling that comes with those Cinderella stories is hard to explain unless you’ve actually been on a roster of one of those teams.”
During his three decades of coaching in the NCAA college ranks, Dunlap wasn’t allowed to fill out a bracket where money was on the line as per NCAA rules against gambling. But that didn’t keep him of doing brackets in his head.
“But you know, it’s amazing how bad I am. You have us so-called basketball experts, studying the game, studying video, but often when it comes to the tournament, it doesn’t mean a whole lot,” he said.
“That’s the beauty of a tournament. In the playoffs in the NHL or NBA, it’s normally best-of-seven series. Usually, in a best-of-seven series, the best team will prevail over the long haul, but in a one-game shot, anybody can beat anybody.
“And that happens a lot. That’s what makes it so special.”
Twitter: @telybrendan
