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| Mary Washington didn't shy away from anyone this season, including Randolph-Macon. Photo by Mike Atherton, d3photography.com |
By Ryan Scott
D3hoops.com
Zack Blue’s final year of basketball could’ve been a disaster. Blue and Cameron McCravy are fifth-year players on the Mary Washington men’s basketball team. There are no fourth-year players. There aren’t even any third-year players, and they played a monster schedule.
UMW played nine games against NCAA Tournament teams and an additional five against teams who fell just one game short of making it in. They won only three of those 14 games, but the final one was the big one.
“We hadn’t beaten CNU at all in my whole time here,” says Blue. The Eagles had played the perennial power Christopher Newport Captains on three consecutive Saturdays. The first two with near identical 71-55 and 72-58 losses. The third, the C2C conference championship game, proved to be the payoff for all the lumps they took throughout the season and all the hard work of a young team learning to win, a 71-66 victory and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
“They just beat us,” said CNU head coach John Krikorian. “Marcus and his guys deserved that win. He did a great job with that team this year.”
Mary Washington coach Marcus Kahn notes the progression of those three weeks. “The first they led start to finish. The second was back and forth, we went down, maybe ten in the second half and came back. It wasn’t enough, but we knew what we needed to do against them.”
It was the culmination of a difficult process, a loaded schedule with a ton of travel, and a very young team. It could have gone wrong in so many ways. One of the big reasons it didn’t was those two veterans.
Blue’s contributions are a lot more noticeable. He’s a starter and handles point guard duties most of the time. He keeps the team calm on the court and makes sure his teammates get the ball in the right spots. McCravy plays big minutes off the bench and remains a rock as his teammates have learned how to play college basketball against the stiffest of competition.
“As coaches we understand the process,” says Kahn. “We knew we had a young team and we were waiting for it to start clicking. The problem was the strength of schedule; every mistake we made, teams took advantage of it. We were getting exposed in all 25 games, but we were learning from it.”
Adds Blue, “At one point it felt like we couldn’t get a win. I knew it was my job, in the locker room, to keep everybody positive and working hard every day in practice. You just have to get to the tournament, then everyone is 0-0 again.”
Kahn heard what we’re all prone to say when seeing a roster like his — a bunch of young, tall, athletic, super-skilled players with two or three more years of eligibility left — “wait ’til next year, coach.”
“I heard it from everywhere,” says Kahn. “Fans, parents, fellow coaches, everyone, but we want to win now. We’re not going to buy into the narrative of ‘the future is bright.’ That’s nice of people to say, but we have a team to win now, and we have to do right by Zack and Cam.”
The reality is, though, a shot or two different here or there, it would’ve been a rough way to send those guys out. A 12-15 record doesn’t look so great; few people are going to check how good the schedule was. And it was good.
Even with their current 13-14 record, Mary Washington is still 88th in NPI, ahead of 320 other programs. They’re 48th overall in the D3 datacast efficiency rankings and their schedule strength is second only to Rowan for teams outside the NESCAC, WIAC, and UAA. This is the kind of murderer’s row that fans want rewarded. They had to earn the reward on the court, but they will get to enjoy it this weekend.
Kahn and crew head to Ramapo where they’ll face 24-3 Drew, one of the top scoring teams in the country. Kahn, who took Cabrini all the way to the national title game in 2012, understands how difficult it is to win in March — and particularly against this opponent.
“They are very efficient offensively. They score a lot of points and play a lot of guys. They push the pace. They shoot a lot of threes. We’ve been working the last few weeks in practice at keeping the ball out of the paint; we’re going to have to change up our preparation this week. We’ll have to learn to handle their pressure.”
Kahn knows this tournament experience will be invaluable in the development of his young squad, but he’s trusting on the tournament experience of Blue and McCravy to get them through the week.
“Zack leads us in everything. How hard he practices. In the weight room. Watching film. He played as a younger player, in really important games, including two in the NCAA Tournament. He’s a quiet guy, but he leads with effort.”
Continues Kahn: “One thing we’re banking on helping us right now is the amount of travel we’ve had. We only played nine home games this year. We know what it’s like to make a long drive to an unfamiliar gym. It’s one of the reasons we went to the Marietta tournament this year, to play in that environment against good teams. We’ve seen this before.”
Those young players have all the experience they need at this point. The future may indeed be bright, but Mary Washington is focused on the present. If you can beat Christopher Newport, you can beat anyone on the right night.
Blue noted the focus and determination of his teammates on Saturday, never taking plays off or allowing mistakes to snowball. They’re bound and determined to bring everything they’ve learned the hard way this season into the gym at Ramapo Friday night.
Whenever the season ends for Mary Washington, Kahn will be leading the way in gratitude for the two players who’ve given the most. “It’s unbelievable to see the guys celebrating, dancing around with the trophy in the middle of the floor, but there’s a greater appreciation on the faces of Zack Blue and Cameron McCravy.”
It could have gone very wrong. But it didn’t. Now the sky’s the limit for Mary Washington.