Had March Madness been played, East Tennessee, Richmond, and Yale would have made noise.
Every spring, March Madness is at the center of the sports world. The beauty of the tournament is that any team can win, and there are always upsets galore. Just in the last decade, we’ve seen a 16-seed upset a 1-seed, a 15-seed make the Sweet 16, and a bevy of double-digit seeds advance.
But this year, that mercurial virus known as COVID-19 shut down the NCAA tournament altogether, robbing us of the euphony of the final buzzer and the playing of ‘One Shining Moment.”
While we may never again see a team that can match the panache of FGCU’s 2013 ‘Dunk City,’ in 2020, teams were vying to wear Cinderella’s crown. Which ones were best? Here are my top three picks.
East Tennessee State Buccaneers (30-4)
Teams never want to lose their head coach at the end of a season, but it’s typically a sign of past success. That’s what happened this year in Johnson City when Steve Forbes left the Buccaneers for Wake Forest after leading his team to 30 wins for the first time in program history.
Bo Hodges was a force for East Tennessee (photo, Twitter)
Bracketologists saw ETSU as anywhere from a 9-11 seed, and the Bucs would have been a popular upset pick based on their performance during meaningful non-conference games. They beat LSU in Baton Rouge and lost to Kansas by 12 in Lawrence.
Similar to Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy from last year’s Virginia team, ETSU was led by veteran guards Tray Boyd III and Bo Hodges. Patrick Good provided a spark off the bench, and senior Isaiah Tisdale was best when it mattered most– averaging 16.3 points per game in the SoCon tournament.
ETSU was destined for at least a trip to the second weekend. But this senior-laden team was robbed of a chance to write their story.
Richmond Spiders (24-7)
Coach Mooney (photo, Richmond Family Magazine)
A-10 Richmond proved their worth by competing with major conference teams early on and, then, playing their best as the season progressed. Joe Lunardi picked the Spiders as one of the last four teams in.
Richmond put themselves on the map at the Legends Classic when they knocked off Wisconsin and lost to Auburn in a game they were leading at halftime. The Spiders then went 14-4 in the A-10 conference and played powerhouse Dayton as close as anyone in losing at home.
Coach Chris Mooney built an in-state roster with three of five starters from Virginia. Leading scorer Blake Francis (18 ppg) and big man Grant Golden positioned the team for a run to the A10 finals, and potentially more, in Madness.
Luckily for Richmond fans, the starting five players are juniors. Richmond will be an early favorite to win the A10 and compete for a high seed in the tournament.
Yale Bulldogs (23-7)
Yale basketball has been at the top of the Ivy League for quite some time–a 2016 upset of Baylor stands out–proving the Eli can produce competitive teams as well as erudite students. In 2020, Yale would have been gunning to upset a 4- or 5-seed. But you might not have predicted that possibility based on early-season losses.
Yale’s Jalen Gabbidon (photo, CT Insider)
The Bulldogs were derailed early by San Francisco and Oklahoma State and then took a tough loss at Penn State after they were leading at the half. The season began turning around with a win at Clemson, and an Ivy run ended at 11-3 and a conference championship.
6’10” junior Paul Atkinson led the way, averaging 17 points, seven rebounds per game, and sharing Ivy League POY honors. Jalen Gabbidon was named the Ivy League’s co-defensive POY and will be the team captain for the 2020-21 campaign.
Yale was not a team that any Power 5 school would want to face in the first round of the tournament. Sadly, this year, none had to.
