This One Hurts For Northeastern

RICHMOND, Va. – This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.  It wasn’t what anyone had in mind, from the seniors to the coaches to the busloads of fans that made a long trip.  Yet it was also seemingly fitting, the opponent and the end result all too familiar – and the latter part of it the toughest part to take.

“Without question, we just left a very, very emotional locker room,” said a subdued Northeastern head coach Bill Coen.  “Kids are disappointed.  They had high expectations of themselves and really wanted to finish this year playing on Monday night.”

March is a month with emotions at both ends of the spectrum.  In this month, we truly see both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, especially when the game is as close as William & Mary’s 47-45 semifinal win over Northeastern, the second heart-breaking loss for the Huskies against the Tribe in the state of Virginia in less than a month.  Behind all the emotions are young men, playing for the one big goal of playing in the NCAA Tournament, excited if they get there and downright saddened if they never make it during their careers.

This looked like it might be the year Northeastern would break through.  Since joining the Colonial Athletic Association, they have finished at least .500 in the conference every year.  They had a senior core that has led this program’s slow and steady rise since they came to campus along with Coen, who has been the head coach since that time, and a couple of all-conference players and more capable of one day reaching that level.  They had a rough finish to last year, but they could learn from that with the core of the team returning.

And learn they did.  After struggling through some of non-conference play with a lot of tough losses, the Huskies began to win games.  They did that last year, too, but this time they kept up the level at which they played after their 11-game winning streak was broken.  They finished the season better than last year, with a better month of February, and then won their first tournament game, a game that looked a lot like one they lost less than two weeks ago, but this time they got the result they wanted.

But when David Schneider’s deep three-pointer from right in front of his bench went through the net, and seemingly a hundred shots in the final seconds (it was actually seven) all failed to catch the bottom of the net, the response of a couple of seniors said it all.  They were at a loss, for understandable reasons.  At a time like that, there’s no solace to be had in all the accomplishments on and off the court – there’s only sadness.  None of it matters at that moment.

At that moment, it doesn’t matter that Baptiste Bataille is finishing a nice career at the school.  The last remaining connection to the prior coaching staff, Bataille signed with the Huskies and came to the school after the coaching change largely because he liked the school and its marine biology program.  Though he played just 113 minutes as a freshman, transferring wasn’t much of a consideration, and he emerged as a key player by the end of his sophomore year and was indispensable to the team the last two years.  During that time, he’s been a CAA All-Academic first team selection both years, adding to his second team selection as a sophomore.

At that moment, it doesn’t matter that Nkem Ojougboh is well on his way to success off the court.  The native of Benin-City, Nigeria is the only member of his family in the U.S., and the Huskies basically took a flyer on him after he left Texas-San Antonio.  Not only has he quietly had a stellar season inside this year, but off the court he’s almost halfway to an MBA and turned his first co-op job into work as a realtor, a job he still has to this day while playing basketball and doing good work in the classroom.

At that moment, it doesn’t matter that Manny Adako is the epitome of the gentle giant.  He stands 6’8″ and weighs about 250, which is an imposing figure, but the Georgia native is a gentleman who has grown by leaps and bounds on the court in his time on Huntington Ave.  You don’t have to meet him to know about his character, although that would help; all you need to know is that over his young life, he’s done a great deal of community work in his hometown and is continuing on that path as a Human Services major.

At that moment, it doesn’t matter that the one walk-on among the seniors, Brian McDonald, was a CAA All-Academic selection and might be the most well-liked and respected kid on the team.  It’s a cliché, but like so many walk-ons his contributions to the team aren’t measured in numbers and it’s not lost on anyone in or close to the program.

And at that moment, it doesn’t matter that Matt Janning will be remembered as one of the best Huskies ever on the court.  He joins Ben Harlee as the program’s only three-time captains and has been the face of the program pretty much since he arrived as a lanky shooter from Watertown, Minnesota, a little west of Minneapolis.  To make this season what it was, he spent time in Chicago late last summer working out with the likes of Dwyane Wade, Tracy McGrady, Andre Iguodala, Julian Wright and Raymond Felton.  He’s grown into a combo guard and is much more mature physically than when he first got to Huntington Ave, and it doesn’t take much time interacting with him to understand that he gets it whether the context is basketball or life.  Like Bataille, he is a three-time CAA All-Academic team selection.  He has received admiration from many players and coaches across the CAA, getting more the night before when Hofstra head coach Tom Pecora said, “Matt Janning is an easy kid to root for, he’s a wonderful young guy.”

At that moment, none of it all matters.  None of it is any consolation.

It’s the stuff you take solace in later, when you’re not so close to it.  You reflect on it later, when you’ve stepped back enough that you can appreciate the positives that happened during the journey.  By then, you can appreciate winning 20 games, a 14-4 conference mark, the in-season title at the Cable Car Classic, the two first team all-conference performers.  By then, you can appreciate the fan support, something that hasn’t been there for a long time but was there in droves this year, from the lively students that line up to send the team off to the locker room after home games to the busloads that made the long trip to Richmond.  You can appreciate how the fan support is a sign of how far the program has come.

By that time, perspective comes in and you can realize that in the grand scheme of things, it’s just a game.  You realize that, yes, the fans rallied behind you because of the wins, but also because it’s a group of fine young men that are easy to root for – young men you would want your own sons to be like.  They know you appreciate their support, and the camaraderie that exists between players and fans makes it a mutual admiration society all its own.  You understand that you’re a winner in the game of life, the game that matters the most.

“No one can tell me these kids aren’t winners,” said Coen.

But when the buzzer first sounds, none of that matters.  It wasn’t what anyone had in mind for the ending, so it’s only natural that it stings at first, and will for a while.