Sports

Nice to have pride for college teams again

Jason Isaacs: Star of “Awake” (Lewis Jacobs/NBS)

PORT ST. LUCIE — This one’s personal. If you’ve visited this space regularly over the past 10 years, you know I never have been shy to make mention of the things I care deepest about in life. My wife. My friends and family. My trusted Airedale terrier, Rigby. Springsteen. “Diner.” “The Odd Couple.”

And my alma mater, St. Bonaventure.

I have bragged about it more than I should, ragged on it more than I would have liked a few years ago, when it briefly and badly lost its way. A friend of mine says the world is divided into two camps: Those whose deepest affinities lie with their high school, and those whose reside with their college.

“You’re the most college guy I know,” he says. “You’re a Bonnies guy. Annoyingly so.”

It has been a good winter to walk around in brown and white sweatshirts, to doff “SBU” baseball caps. The women’s basketball team is 27-2 (14-0 in Atlantic 10), ranked 19th, and is certain to play in its first NCAA tournament soon. The men’s team is 16-10 (9-5 in A-10) and is led by its best player since Bob Lanier in 6-foot-10 Andrew Nicholson. For better or worse, basketball has long been a bridge for those of us who went to school there.

Not long ago, it was for the worse. I’ve written before about the way a few rogue elements nearly lit the place on fire nine years ago, nearly destroyed the men’s program. Google it if you want.

The women? In its first 33 years, the program had a winning record 11 times. You don’t want to attach so much importance to something as trivial as basketball when thinking of your school. You want to think the business school is important. Or the journalism school. Or residence life. And they are.

“But here’s the truth about schools,” Mark Schmidt, the men’s coach, said recently, “I went to Boston College. You know the biggest marketing tool that great school ever had? Doug Flutie. A football player. Here [at St. Bonaventure], enrollment went down when the scandal hit. And it’s gone up since we’ve recovered. However people get to know you, it’s a good thing.”

It’s not just the new kids though, it’s old-timers like me. We talk a lot, as alums do. And in truth, in the darkest days of the academic scandal not long ago, we wondered if we ever could feel the way we did before about the school. We wondered if those original sentiments were even ever as real as we had believed. The last few months, reading the pride in emails, hearing the wonder in voices, it’s clear that something real has been restored.

“We’re usually too involved in trying to practice and be prepared every day to get too caught up in stuff like that,” women’s coach Jim Crowley said. “But we all talk to people. We hear what they say. We see their pride. It’s nice to know you’re a part of something like that.”

We aren’t the only ones. I can sense a similar renaissance among our cousins at St. John’s, who had their own gross miseries not too long ago. Last year’s NCAA run by the men’s team finally brought closure to the renegade era of Mike Jarvis, a tribute both to Steve Lavin and to Norm Roberts, who not only recruited the bulk of last year’s team but served as a steward and a shepherd after the program crashed and burned. And when Kim Barnes Arrico inherited the women’s team 10 years ago, she took over a 3-24 mess. That erstwhile mess just ended UConn’s 99-game home-court winning streak.

So you may ask: Why not keep it close to home, write about the Johnnies?

Well, as I said: This one’s personal.

And, not for nothing: The last time the Bonnies played the Johnnies, at Alumni Hall last year, the good guys won. And the last time the women’s teams played, three months ago? The good girls won. I’m a Bonnies guy, after all. Annoyingly so.

Whack Back at Vac

Guy Miller: Perhaps I’ve become too old and cynical, but I can’t help but think that if Ryan Braun played for almost any team other than the “Bud Selig Doesn’t Still Own Us” Milwaukee Brewers, he’s still looking at extended couch time this spring.

Vac: The problem with a result like the one in the Braun case is that it absolutely invites every skeptic and cynic to fire away. And with cause.

@ChiefofVFamily: How can anyone say LeBron James is MVP of the league when he isn’t even MVP of Dwayne Wade’s team?

@MikeVacc: There are times I absolutely agree. Although LeBron’s 20 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and five steals against the Knicks probably wasn’t one of those times.

Josh Dollinger: The Giants were 7-7, Jeremy Lin was sleeping on his brother’s couch two weeks ago, the Cardinals almost didn’t make the playoffs last year — if you’re a Mets fan, why can’t you ask yourself: Why not us?

Vac: That is the best part about sports, isn’t it? No matter how many people tell you that you shouldn’t believe, it’s your prerogative to believe anyway …

Richard Siegelman: Terry Collins says “We’re better than people think we are” but, gee whiz, could the Mets be any worse?

Vac: … or, you know, not.

Vac’s Whacks

You know what I want to see? I want to see how long it takes Rex Ryan to maintain his quiet, humble veneer if the Jets open the season 4-0 next year.

* I have a pretty good idea that I’m going to really like that new show “Awake” when it starts up on NBC.

* Do you think even one member of the Mets’ contingent that helicoptered from Port St. Lucie to Miami for a basketball game the other night paused for even a second to ponder: Gee, I wonder what the folks back home are going to think?

* I could listen to Jim Spanarkel talk about basketball all day.