Here is your college athletic program, TV related, and nothing else–another sign that the apocalypse is upon us..
RAY RATTO IN THE SF CHRONICLE, ON ST. MARY’S BASKETBALL….
THERE REALLY IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS…..
BUT THE SCENE IS WHAT UNIVERSITY SPORT IN THE U.S. HAS NOW BECOME.
Gaels stay up late to serve ESPN, and defeat Fresno State
Ray Ratto, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Three hours before Saint Mary’s College obeyed its alien overlords in Bristol and played an 11 p.m. basketball game, the only activity around McKeon Pavilion was around the TV trucks that obscured much of the building and gave it that Highway 5 rest stop feel.
There were no lines of students champing outside the ticket office so that they could spend the next six hours of their lives high on Red Bull and Patty Mills. There were surely no lines of adults - 11 p.m. is bad enough, but 8 p.m. for an 11 p.m. start is, well, just daft.
Not even Randy Bennett was in the building, and he’s the head coach of the Fighting Insomniacs … er, Galloping Gaels.
And let’s be honest here - Bennett wouldn’t have done this on his own, and he’s had opportunities.
“Some of our kids will come here and have 11 p.m. workouts because that’s when they can get the gym,” he said before Monday’s game against perfectly matched Fresno State. “Me? Oh, I never go to those. If they need me, they can call me at home.”
Yet Bennett said he was all for the mega-late start, agreeing to the proposal right after he got a phone call: “Hello Randy? This is ESPN in Bristol, and we were wondering if …”
“If” didn’t matter. When ESPN wants a mid-major, the mid-major says, “What color dresses would you like us to wear?”
St. Mary’s won with notable ease, 99-85, Mills (27 points, 5 assists) center Omar Samhan (18 points, 13 boards) leading the box score. It wasn’t a totally useful game given what they will face in the West Coast Conference, but if you have to be up all night, you may as well have some fun doing it - especially if you don’t have to take a Breathalyzer.
This was part of a 12-game eye-bleeding extravaganza that began with Memphis whipping Massachusetts, and went on from Moraga to Idaho State at Hawaii (another 11 p.m. local start), then Penn at Drexel at 7 a.m. PDT, followed by the Iowa women at Kansas, Liberty at North Carolina-Asheville, Richmond at Syracuse, Centenary at Baylor, Loyola at Purdue, St. John’s at Boston College, Kentucky at North Carolina, Florida Gulf Coast at Kansas, Davidson at Oklahoma and Alabama Birmingham at Arizona.
Not surprisingly, the St. Mary’s student section filled in quickly once the doors opened at 10, and they were loud and (at least we hope) at least slightly beered. Indeed, the first students to arrive were 10 gentlemen who spelled out “GO GAELS!!!” in chest, an indication that least some folks had been overserved on the mean streets of the Moraga Road Strip. Maybe by one of the 13 coffee joints within four miles of downtown.
The most boisterous adults? Two middle-aged gents who circled the court several times during the night, one carrying an Irish flag and the other a green flag featuring a large boxing kangaroo, a salute to SMC’s five Australians, Mills, Carlin Hughes, Clint Steindl, Lucas Walker and Ben Allen.
Mostly, though, this show was for the students, including the 38 cheerleaders and the school mascot, which is apparently the Geico Caveman in a cape and blue shorts.
And, it needn’t be added, it was for St. Mary’s athletic director, Mark Orr, who took the gig on the hope that he might get his calls returned if he ever needed a reciprocal solid from ESPN. Not that television people do much quid pro quo without making sure they get the fat end of the wedge, but like we said, mid-majors tend to be freer with their groveling, and more grandiose in their delusions.
Once the game started, though, the nap-challenged were rewarded with up-tempo, screw-the-longer-trey-we’re-jackin’-it-up basketball that plays well at any time of day - except, of course, in the NCAA Tournament. They induced Fresno to run with them (which wasn’t that hard a sell given Fresno’s history), and rolled up 55 by halftime, led by Mills’ 19. St. Mary’s may not have an intimidating front line or a clampdown defense, but what it has is the pace of a meth freak and the boldness of a gambler down to his last five bucks, traits which will win more games for them than anything else.
Well, okay, they have those character quirks and the Australians, who are greeted on every score with the old “Aussie! Oi!” World Series of Poker chant for 2005 champion Joseph Hachem of Sydney, and the occasional tiresome Dire Straits lift. The students understand which side their bread is Vegemited, and they run with it, which shows at least a modicum of cleverness at an age where clever is often defined as a YouTube clip of a baby dressed like Sarah Palin drinking out of a toilet.
Or maybe that’s just the fifth coffee talking.
Anyway, the night was worth it to St. Mary’s, which got to show off for a national audience … well, two clips on the morning SportsCenter, if that snakes your drain.
For Steve Cleveland and Fresno, the experience lost most of its luster long before the 182-mile postgame bus ride back to campus. They got their brains beat out, and figured to get home at 5. Not even state-funded Grand Slams at the Los Banos Denny’s could make up for that.
The adults started clearing out at 1:03, with St. Mary’s ahead, 97-79. The students, presumably with less reason to go anywhere, stayed until the end, satisfied except for the fact that the boys couldn’t hit the C-note even with three minutes and three points to get. They’ll get over it.
So the only question that remained as the people filed out at 1:12 a.m. was this: Would Bennett, having done the 11 p.m. thing, have cheerfully have changed game times with Hawaii and done the 1:30 a.m. game if asked.
“No, no,” he laughed. “One-thirty’s my limit.”
We suspect he may be lying. A lot.
E-mail Ray Ratto at rratto@sfchronicle.com.