Champions Again
WORCESTER, Mass. – Holy Cross has done it again.
Holy Cross wrapped up the Patriot League regular season championship on Wednesday night with a 69-54 win over visiting Bucknell. The win is their 13th straight, with the last team to beat them being, ironically enough, Bucknell. It was also Bucknell who eliminated the Crusaders from last year’s Patriot League Tournament. As if that’s not enough, the two appear on a collision course for another meeting at the Hart Center, as they will each host part of the league tournament’s quarterfinals and semifinals next weekend. But that’s not the only irony of all of this that head coach Ralph Willard noticed.
“One of the ironic things is that we were 20-22 from the free throw line tonight,” Willard reflected. “After all of the things last year, it just shows you how hard these guys have worked, and they’re playing with a great deal of confidence.”
Confidence is certainly one thing they have clearly been playing with throughout the 13-game win streak, the longest of Willard’s tenure. In many games, they have shot the ball well, and they have even put on a clinic on the offensive end a couple of times. Through the offensive prowess that they have shown this season – they are second in the league in field goal percentage, turn the ball over less than any other team and are the only league team with more assists than turnovers – this team is still a defensive team first, as Willard has said several times. The Crusaders lead the Patriot League in scoring and field goal percentage defense as well as steals, and only Navy forces more turnovers.
The Crusaders have proven that they can win away from home, which is one more reason to think they can pull off an upset in the NCAA Tournament. They have 11 wins on the road, plus a win last month over Iona at the DCU Center across town from campus. During the current winning streak, six of the games have been on the road, including four straight at the end of January and the start of February. That period may have defined this team’s success as much as any part of the season.
“Those four road games in a row at the end of January really said something about our guys,” Willard said. “We had Nate Lufkin hurt, we had Greg Kinsey hurt, and still found ways to win – which was amazing and just shows the faith these guys have in one another.”
Indeed, the Crusaders didn’t miss a beat when any player was limited by or went out with an injury. Besides seniors Lufkin and Kinsey, sophomore point guard Torey Thomas separated his shoulder in January. He missed just one game over the next month, but was limited in most of them, and the only true point guard on the bench was freshman Pat Doherty. All Doherty did was calmly start eight games in a row and nine of ten, post a nearly 2:1 assist/turnover ratio, and the team just kept winning. Now that Thomas is back and running the show again, Willard has two very capable floor leaders at his disposal. He knew it would pay dividends down the road, and the Crusaders are already seeing that.
The veterans on the Crusaders, much like the newcomers who saw that the program was accustomed to winning under Willard, took last season’s struggles hard. It was a tough season for everyone as they lost a number of close games, finishing with a 13-15 mark and being eliminated in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament. The feeling from that, along with being picked fourth in the preseason by the league coaches, just fueled the Crusaders along with the natural desire to win.
“Last year left a real bad taste in my mouth,” said junior guard Kevin Hamilton, a strong candidate for the league’s Player of the Year award. “I really wanted to get to this point again, I’m happy that we’re here and I’m proud of everybody.”
Winning begets winning to some degree, and Willard is certainly building the program in that vein from the looks of things. This year’s team includes several veterans who were part of the winning two and three years ago, and not just players: new assistant coach Mark Jerz was part of the 2002-03 team that set a school record with 26 wins. Senior forward John Hurley noted that he took a lot from the players who were upperclassmen when he first came to the program.
“Those guys would come in every single day, a little older like I am now, they’d be banged up, but it didn’t matter – they’d come in every day and work as hard as they could,” he reflected. “That kind of trickled down to the younger guys, so now I try to come in and work hard every day and have that trickle-down effect working with our young guys now.”
If the way Hurley plays is any indication, chances are he is having that effect. One of just three Massachusetts natives on the team, he doesn’t put up big numbers regularly, but he is usually a factor in the game. He shows great basketball acumen, takes a pounding inside but keeps playing effectively, and is one of those players who isn’t a star but is a player you can’t win games without. One thing he understands is the importance of chemistry, and he doesn’t have to look far from home for good examples of it.
“Team chemistry is real underrated,” Hurley said. “I’m a Boston guy, so I look at the Red Sox and the Patriots, their team chemistry is just so great. We don’t model our team after that, but we try to have a great team chemistry on and off the court.”
That chemistry is apparent from talking to Willard and his staff, which features three new assistants, as well as some of the players. The players all speak very highly of one another and root each other on. When Doherty was starting at the point and leading the team to more wins, his biggest cheerleader was injured starter Torey Thomas. Willard has noted on several occasions the camaraderie that exists among his players.
The defense, the chemistry, and the camaraderie have all added up to the third Patriot League regular season championship in Willard’s tenure. The veterans have the feeling of winning again, and the underclassmen now have that feeling as one more motivator in the times to come.
