NightTrainLayne
03-19-2008, 09:28 AM
My Junior College alma mater is continuing their Cinderella season at the NJCAA National Tournament.
The UNRANKED Saints have won 17 of their last 18, and last night's win was their second in a row versus a top 10 ranked team.
The Saints went to overtime against Chipola College from Florida who was ranked #2 in the nation at the end of the regular season before the regional tournaments, and was the #1 seed.
There's not a lot of press covering this, so it was difficult to find a "story" on the game, but here's a link to a "blog" from SCCC that will probably be the story in the school's newspaper. http://blog.sccc.edu/index.php?itemid=996#more
Before you completely ignore this because it's Junior college, keep in mind that these guys are tremendous athletes. Playing in this game were a Kansas recruit, a Texas Tech recruit, Florida State and several other D1 commits. By and large the starters for the teams at this level are D1 athletes that couldn't make the grades/test scores and/or were in trouble and needed to prove that they could succeed at the college level before at D1 program took a chance on them.
The most amazing stat to me coming out of this game is the obvious fact that SCCC won this very physical game (I listened on the radio, so I am relying on the radio guys here) at the free-throw line. The Saints made 40 of 49 FT attempts. Yes, that's right 49 FT attempts. The vast majority of those in the second half and O.T.
The game included 19 lead changes. . .all after halftime. The Saints trailed by 10 two different times in the first half, but were able to get into the half with only a four point deficit. They quickly took the lead in the second half with two quick 3-pointers and the game was on.
All-in-all this is what March Madness is all about. I just wish that the rest of the country could have seen this game. A team not even ranked in the season-ending polls, takes down the #2 team who had only lost one game all season.
Did I mention that this is Brian Zollinger, the Saints HC's first season as HC there?
I'm afraid that the Saints might run out of gas after the last two performances, but they have already overacheived and out-performed any expectations that a fan could have. Anything else is just icing on the cake.
The UNRANKED Saints have won 17 of their last 18, and last night's win was their second in a row versus a top 10 ranked team.
The Saints went to overtime against Chipola College from Florida who was ranked #2 in the nation at the end of the regular season before the regional tournaments, and was the #1 seed.
There's not a lot of press covering this, so it was difficult to find a "story" on the game, but here's a link to a "blog" from SCCC that will probably be the story in the school's newspaper. http://blog.sccc.edu/index.php?itemid=996#more
Before you completely ignore this because it's Junior college, keep in mind that these guys are tremendous athletes. Playing in this game were a Kansas recruit, a Texas Tech recruit, Florida State and several other D1 commits. By and large the starters for the teams at this level are D1 athletes that couldn't make the grades/test scores and/or were in trouble and needed to prove that they could succeed at the college level before at D1 program took a chance on them.
The most amazing stat to me coming out of this game is the obvious fact that SCCC won this very physical game (I listened on the radio, so I am relying on the radio guys here) at the free-throw line. The Saints made 40 of 49 FT attempts. Yes, that's right 49 FT attempts. The vast majority of those in the second half and O.T.
The game included 19 lead changes. . .all after halftime. The Saints trailed by 10 two different times in the first half, but were able to get into the half with only a four point deficit. They quickly took the lead in the second half with two quick 3-pointers and the game was on.
All-in-all this is what March Madness is all about. I just wish that the rest of the country could have seen this game. A team not even ranked in the season-ending polls, takes down the #2 team who had only lost one game all season.
Did I mention that this is Brian Zollinger, the Saints HC's first season as HC there?
I'm afraid that the Saints might run out of gas after the last two performances, but they have already overacheived and out-performed any expectations that a fan could have. Anything else is just icing on the cake.