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the Nation

Posted Feb. 6, 2003

Respectable in
no time at all

The run from mediocrity to respectability lasted three minutes, 24 seconds. That’s how long it took the Washington College men’s basketball team to stage one of the most remarkable comebacks in recent memory and change the course of its season last Thursday night against Wesley.

In what was a pretty humdrum game, Washington trailed Wesley, 79-60 with 3:24 remaining. This was familiar territory for a team that entered the night at 4-12 and was coming off its most disappointing loss of the season at the hands of Gallaudet.

Colin Camacho was 5-for-8 from the floor and 8-for-8 from the line against F&M.

Two weeks later against Gettysburg, Washington trimmed a 27-point deficit midway through the second half to four by the final minute, but couldn’t finish the comeback. This looked like it would be another one of those nights in which a nice comeback would make the final score look closer than it really was, but Washington wasn’t about to give up.

“We try to teach our players that you play hard from first whistle to last horn,” Nugent said. “We never give up. We don’t have the talent or size to go through the motions and win. We have to work our butts off on every single play.”

From a basketball perspective this is true. Even at this level, the Shoremen are the mighty midgets. No Washington player is bigger than 6-foot-3 and the average one is slightly more than six feet tall. They've moved to a five-guard lineup.

The Shoremen worked and worked and worked, scoring eight points in the blink of an eye, in a 31-second burst that included two Wesley turnovers and a pair of long 3-pointers by Colin Camacho. They ended up tying the game with three seconds remaining on a 3-pointer by Jonathan Webb. Washington should have won the game in the first overtime, using the momentum it had to claim a five-point lead, but this time Wesley rallied, evening the score at 109 on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Jordan Henson.

On a night where those in the crowd probably thought they had seen everything, the most memorable moment came at the close of the second overtime, when with the score tied at 122, Dustin Abbate stole a pass with two seconds remaining and fed Washington teammate David Horvath for the apparent game-winning layup. Horvath converted and was fouled in the process. Washington players stormed the court, only to learn from the officials that even through the clock read triple-zeroes, the buzzer had not sounded and a fraction of a second remained. The Shoremen were assessed a bench technical. Gary Payne made both free throws (his 13th and 14th in a row), enabling Wesley to tie the game.

“I have never seen that called before, a bench technical with zeroes on the clock,” Nugent said. “But that’s the rule.”

That sent Horvath back to the line for his foul shot. A make meant a win. A miss probably meant the game was never supposed to end.

Swish! Final score, Washington 125, Wesley 124.

Flash forward two days and it was like the Shoremen never took off their uniforms, beating then No. 15 Franklin & Marshall 96-86. It was as if Nugent was working with a totally different team — one that was six games over .500 instead of six under.

“I think having only one day to get ready for F&M was a good thing for us,” Nugent said. “The confidence definitely carried over. Thursday gave us the understanding that we could beat anybody. Saturday showed where we’re at. We’re the ultimate darkhorse.”

Camacho then would be their jockey, as he is third on the team in scoring at 13.6 ppg, a ahair behind Horvath (14.4) and John Alexander (14.1), and shoots 89 percent from the foul line. He also entered Wednesday tied for the team lead in steals with 25 on a squad that has to emphasize defense because of its size.

“Colin has been the catalyst for what we’ve done lately,” Nugent said. “We press a lot on the perimeter, front the posts, double team occasionally and really pressure the ball. We know you’re going to score inside on us. We try to minimize what you do from the outside. Our objective on offense is to push the ball all 40 minutes and wear you down.”

The Shoremen still have a ways to go, however, as a loss at Swarthmore on Wednesday momentarily cooled their momentum. The odds are against them finishing in the top two spots in the Centennial Conference East Division and making the conference tournament, but maybe there’s room for one more comeback.

“We’re plugging away.” Nugent said. “Hopefully the lightbulb went on for them last week.”

MIT=MAYBE IT'S TIME? We’ve been looking for a good, yet significant longshot selection besides Washington, and losses at Wheaton and Babson not withstanding, we’ll take our chances with the MIT men’s basketball squad.

The 12-7 Engineers (4-3 in the NEWMAC) have come a long way in Larry Anderson’s eight seasons as head coach and can serve as a good inspiration for a program like that at Caltech, which has similar admissions standards but a 1-15 record.

“We don’t look like your normal basketball team, especially from a guard’s standpoint,” said Anderson, whose backcourt of 5-7 sophomore point guard Danny Kanamori and 5-8 junior Andrew Tsai have been significant keys to MIT’s success, which includes an upset of Clark.

“Our defense (MIT has been near the top of the rankings in lowest opponents field goal percentage all season) has been our staple. We’re not going to out-athlete anyone, but we work hard, we work together and we work smart. The way we describe our defense is just to get in someone’s way. I tell the team that if each of them can remember the guy who shut them down the best, is how I want them to play defense. They’ve taken to that. I think we might be one of the best teams that no one has ever heard of.”

EAU, OSH, OUR POINT IS STOUT: The further we go through this season, the more we like the chances of a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference women’s basketball team winning the national championship.

A few weeks ago, we polled the WIAC's sports information directors, asking for statistical proof as to how good their league has been. Their responses explain why there were four WIAC teams in our top 25 for most of the season.

The WIAC went 58-18 this season in non-league games. Eau Claire, Oshkosh, Stevens Point and Stout finished a combined 33-3.

Historically speaking, the WIAC is 32-16 against teams from other conferences in NCAA Tournament play over the past 13 seasons. Eleven losses came to a team that went on to be national champ. Of the past 16 national champions since 1987, the only teams to win a national title that weren't from the WIAC or didn't beat a WIAC team along the way were Elizabethtown in 1989 and Capital in 1994

AN ELITE GROUP: Los Angeles Lakers forward Devean George will have his uniform number 40 retired in two separate ceremonies at Augsburg University this weekend.

George's No. 40 will join the No. 50 jersey of Dan Anderson '65 as the only two numbers retired by any Augsburg sports team. Anderson was the first Auggie to play professional basketball and the first ever drafted by an NBA team, when he was selected in the 12th round by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1965. He later played in the ABA with the New Jersey Americans (later the Nets) from 1967-70.

Augsburg will have three basketball alumni honored on the wall of Si Melby Hall during the weekend. In addition to George and Anderson, a banner will be placed in the gymnasium honoring alum Lute Olson '56, the successful men's basketball coach at Arizona who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last September.

BRING SPARE TIRES: The most eagerly awaited basketball game of the season- a rematch between No. 2 Hampden-Sydney and No. 3 Randolph-Macon, at Randolph-Macon on Feb. 15, is already sold out. Hampden-Sydney won the first meeting between the two archrivals, 52-45.

We’ve already written about Randolph-Macon this season. Hampden-Sydney is one of the two remaining unbeatens in Division III and has rolled up 20 consecutive wins without having a single player average more than 13 points per game (Jeff Monroe stands atop the list at 12.8).

Luckily D3hoopsnet will be airing the game live at 4 p.m.

CHANDLER UPDATE: With 25 points in a win at Alvernia on Wednesday, Willie Chandler passed Geneseo’s Scott Fitch and moved into fourth place on the Division III all-time scoring list with 2,652 points. Chandler is now just 26 points shy of third place and 57 points away from second place. Chandler’s teammate, Jason Perry, had 16 points to go over 1,500 for his career (1,509).

Chandler and Perry (4,161) remain second behind Phil White and Al Dixon of Shenandoah (4,300) for top scoring duo with six games remaining in the regular season.

Notes for Around the Nation are compiled with the help of sports information directors across the country. If you have suggestions or information for this column, please send it to mark@d3hoops.com.

2008-09 columns
Feb. 20: York (Pa.), no cliche
Feb. 13: St. Thomas writing history
Feb. 6: George Fox on hunt
Jan. 30: Brother, brother
Jan. 23: Growing a program
Jan. 16: Dudek's rare feat
Jan. 9: Ravin' about Anderson
Dec. 18: Chicago marooned at 0-9
Dec. 12: De Luca back on track
Dec. 4: Ithaca surprises
Nov. 21: Augie gets some delp
Nov. 13: Is repeat possible?

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