SLU-Rhode Island recap‏

The Billikids received a tough education in postseason basketball,courtesy of the Rhode Island Rams on Friday in Atlantic City.Rhody's 63-47 victory over SLU in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10Tournament made our stay in Atlantic City very brief and quite painful.The Rams brought plenty of fire and energy to the game and we neverresponded to their intensity on both ends of the floor. Rhody grabbed 17offensive rebounds, scored 20 points off of our turnovers and playedarguably their best defensive game of the season.

They challenged everything we tried to do defensively. The blockedshots,forced our 3-point shooters to put it on the floor and crashed theoffensive boards.It was a good lesson for our kids in what postseason basketball was allabout. At the time, Rhody was still fighting for a NCAA bid and theirintensity and energy matched their talent and athleticism. We weren'tquite ready for Rhody's emotional onslaught as we couldn't match theurgency of the situation.Kwamain Mitchell was the only player to score in double figures with 18points.Now, all we can do is sit and wait to see if a bid to the NationalInvitational Tournament comes. I think we are most deserving of a bidbecause of our strong fourth-place finish in the rugged A-10 this yearand our four road wins to close the season.It's going to be a tight fit to reach the 32-team field with so manyconference champions of the lower-rated leagues getting automatic bidsafter losing in their conference tournaments. We will all find out about8 p.m. tonight.I would love to see our youngsters receive an NIT bid for two reasons:First, it will be a great reward for such a successful and surprisingseason. To gain 11 victories and finish fourth in a league as strong asthe A-10 was this season has to account for something. They performedwell beyond expectations and created quite a bit of national buzz withtheir late surge. We played far and beyond our potential as opposed tosome other "name" programs who underachieved and played well below theirexpectations.Second, I think it's important to see our youngsters get the experienceof playing in the intensity of a single-elimination tournament. Now,they know how much the game is magnified in the postseason, I would loveto see how they would respond with another opportunity.For a young team to experience the increased urgency of the postseasonenvironment would be beneficial to the future of a program that has highhopes. I look at Richmond from our league and what they haveaccomplished. The Spiders played in the CBI the past two years and gotsome great postseason experience for their emerging young kids.Now,that they have grown up, they are one of the top teams in our leagueand they are headed to the NCAA Tournament. They got some bignon-conference wins, plus they won a berth in the A-10 championshipgame.Hopefully, we will get some good news later tonight.Until then, Go Bills!