John Feinstein, author and columnist for The Washington Post, published an article Thursday that caught my eye as an avid basketball fan. Feinstein’s premise in that article is that D.C. area schools, and most specifically Maryland and Georgetown, should copy Philadelphia’s Big Five with localized scheduling.
La Salle, Penn, St. Joseph’s, Temple, and Villanova agreed back in 1955 to play a “City Championship” round of games, a tradition that continues with round-robin scheduling between the schools since 1999. Feinstein suggests that Maryland, Georgetown, George Mason, George Washington, and American – and Howard if you want six – should set up a similar D.C. duel.
Even setting aside potential bias from Maryland and Georgetown avoiding scheduling each other due to Feinstein’s time on the Children’s Charities Foundation board that helped organize the local BB&T Classic, he’s right when he writes “local rivalries are the best rivalries of all” and when he praises Philadelphia’s Big Five for being “among the last people standing in big-time college sports” that still understand that fact.
Virginia coach Tony Bennett is in that group of people who has embraced localized rivalries and competition during his tenure, the latest proof of that being this Saturday’s showdown at VCU. The Cavaliers have played at George Mason and at James Madison as well. Plus, they faced Old Dominion in the now dormant again Governor’s Classic, an event that should be revived and moved to early November’s rotating cast of tournaments in my opinion.
Naysayers, including the likes of former Virginia Tech coach turned ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg, don’t like that approach. The grueling conference schedules faced in leagues like the ACC already put teams in a tricky position when it comes to the NCAA Tournament bubble and adding difficult out-of-conference tests needs to be a balancing act. Plus, some argue that there is “everything to lose, nothing to gain” from the standpoint of the ACC schools like Virginia and Virginia Tech.
I don’t buy it. From the long-term view, “everything to lose” is overstated. UVa lost to George Mason, Old Dominion, and VCU. None of those defeats stunted the program’s development into a top 10 team and double ACC Champion. From the short-term view, these “nothing to gain” games are actually the opposite in my mind. Playing in charged atmospheres like JMU and VCU where those fans want to help knock off one the state’s marquee programs is a close approximation to ACC games at places like Cameron Indoor Stadium with the Crazies, Littlejohn Coliseum, and Petersen Events Center with Pitt’s Oakland Zoo. You certainly don’t get that sort of test at home against Tennessee State. Like Bennett, I see the out-of-conference phase of the schedule as an opportunity to challenge your team and prepare your players for the league battles.
Beyond all of that, however, is the matter of the fans and that’s what I believe Feinstein was getting at with his column. These localized rivalries are contests for bragging rights and fuel for message board and Twitter fodder. They’re a chance to wear your bright orange t-shirt and walk around like John Cena shouting the “Champs are here!” Don’t act like you still don’t feel like this after UVa won the ACC titles last season:
“Plus, the games are fun,” like Villanova coach Jay Wright told Feinstein. Doubt it? Look no further than TheSabre.com’s message boards where the VCU game the past two seasons has featured as much chatter as a game with Georgia Tech or Boston College generates. Fans are dissecting match-ups, gulping down KenPom stats, and talking about the long-term possibilities for both programs like Saturday’s game is for a trophy of some sort. It isn’t of course, but there is definitely excitement around the contest.
Luke Neer, one of the hosts of WINA AM 1070’s Best Seat in the House (Sabre media partner), asked me in a radio interview this week if I liked the second straight installment of the Virginia-VCU series. I think you can see that the answer for me is an easy and emphatic yes! I said then and repeat now that I would like to see this series continue for as long as Bennett and Shaka Smart are coaching the two programs.
It’s such an intriguing match-up after all. Two conference title contenders year in and year out likely bound for the NCAA Tournament with two totally different ways to get there.
There’s VCU and its helter-skelter version of discipline. The Rams press fullcourt, pressure the ball, and energetically try to swarm you into submission. In a word, they call it Havoc. It’s a controlled chaos that Smart and VCU fans have embraced.
It looks something like this:
And then there’s Virginia. The Hoos defend every possession in the halfcourt like it’s a matter of national security, hovering around the paint like a pack of wolves as they wait to corner you for the knockout blow. In a word, they call it a Cavalanche. It builds and builds and builds. Opponents can see it coming and yet they’re frozen as it overwhelms them. It’s an outlast mantra that Bennett and Virginia fans have embraced.
It looks something like this:
Last year, VCU won a 59-56 thriller at the buzzer in the John Paul Jones Arena. So who do you have in this year’s rematch at the Siegel Center in Richmond? I like the Hoos, but it will be fun to watch either way.
That’s why I think we should continue to play Maryland as well.