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The Unexpected Villain
February 29, 2012 10:38 am ET by Bob Canedo

Game #8-646: Army Black Knights at Holy Cross Crusaders

February 22, 2012 7:00 pm
Hart Recreation Center
BBState Stats/Recap
Every story needs a villain. It's good to have someone to root against.

As a fan below the red line, one of the great things about conference play is getting to know - and dislike - the opposing players. In the 24 smaller conferences - where there are no "one and done" players and few early departures - getting to know your opponents is a process that occurs over four years.

Sometimes guys are villains because they're "whiners" or "thugs" or "show-offs." Sometimes the villain is the guy who beats you every time you play. Sometimes a guy becomes a villain just because of the way he looks.

But one truth generally holds for the guys-you-love-to-hate, they are usually pretty good players. Nobody hates the walk-on. Villains are not always starters or best players, but they are solidly in the rotation and almost always for a couple of years. And it seems more often than not, if they were on your team, you'd love 'em!

Over the last 10 years attending Patriot League games with some regularity, I've found villains from American, Bucknell, Colgate, Lehigh and Lafayette. This year the list, to varying degrees includes CJ McCollum of Lehigh, Charles Hinkle of American, and Bryson Johnson of Bucknell.

But no matter who I love-to-hate in the Patriot League, it will be always be very difficult for any player from Army or Navy to make my list. Maybe it's because over the last 10 seasons neither Army nor Navy have been very good as both have generally finished in the bottom half of the league. But they have had their share of all-league players, good players and odd-looking players and I still can't bring myself to cheer against individual players from either team.

Printed at the top of every Patriot League press release is the slogan. "Today's Scholar Athletes ~ Tomorrow's Leaders." For new alumni at most Patriot League schools, sure you can be a leader upon entering graduate school or as an entry-level employee working your way up the career ladder, but for most, being a leader "tomorrow" at least has a feeling of being a few years away.

For the Cadets and Midshipmen however, "tomorrow's leaders" may literally mean as soon as you graduate. The guys playing for Army and Navy will be serving their country, leading a group of young soldiers and sailors, sometimes under the most trying of circumstances. They have to be leaders.

Add in that Army and Navy generally play hard, never give up, and generally don't complain - even when the officiating leaves something to be desired - and I personally cannot bring myself to love-to-hate any of the Army or Navy student-athletes.

Against that backdrop, I entered the Hart Center gym for the final regular season home game of the season between Holy Cross and Army.

With two games left in the regular season, there wasn't a lot on the line in this game - Holy Cross would clinch the fourth seed and a first round home game in the Patriot League tournament with a win and had a chance to move up to the third seed with two wins to close out the season and some help. Looking at the schedule, Holy Cross would almost certainly be the fourth seed and there would be at least one more men's game at the Hart Center this year.

The Crusaders entered the game on a roll having won four in a row, so I was confident I'd have a relaxed night cheering for Holy Cross and not against anyone in particular.

When Holy Cross was up by ten (15 - 5) at the first media time-out and 15 (25 - 10) at the under-eight minute time out, I was cheering as expected.

That started to change with about two minutes left in the first half.

No, the Army players and their coaches did nothing to change my respect and perspective on them, but I had a perfect seat for a referee to get me fired-up.

With about 2 minutes left, a borderline technical was called on Holy Cross' Dee Goens for taunting. Army's Jalen Harris' layup attempt was blocked by Goens on a drive to the hoop. At the conclusion of the play, Harris lay crumpled on the floor and Goens was standing at Harris' feet. Dee paused for a split-second with his chest puffed out, didn't say a word, then moved a couple of steps away from Harris to celebrate with his teammates. That split second pause however was long enough for the official and the technical was assessed.

The few students not in the band sitting in the east end zone seats under the Army basket gave a hearty coordinated ...

"Boo that ref ... BOO! ... Again ... BOO! ... Again ... BOO!"

It was a marginal call, but if you're trying to keep a lopsided game on the scoreboard from getting out of hand, I suppose I can see why you'd call it, but I didn't like it.

Holy Cross entered halftime up 40 - 21 and the Crusaders were cruising.

In the second half, with about 13 minutes left in the game a rapid series of possession changes started with a steal by Holy Cross' RJ Evans who threw a long outlet pass to Dave Dudzinski that was just a bit too long and was heading out of bounds under the Holy Cross hoop. An Army player tracked it down with one foot clearly out of bounds. The ref trailing the play missed it.

It was the same ref who called the technical on Goens.

"Boo that ref ... BOO! ... Again ... BOO! ... Again ... BOO!"

A trip or two up and down the floor later, that ref had rotated to take the sideline position in from of the scorer's table and team benches. I don't know for sure, but as he approached the Holy Cross bench, I imagine he was still getting an earful from Holy Cross head coach Milan Brown for missing the out of bounds call. The ref apparently lost his concentration as he jawed back at Brown and continued all the way to take his position on the baseline.

One problem, there was already another official on the baseline under the basket.

Coach Brown animatedly pointed to the spot where the official was supposed to be and said, "You're supposed to be over there!" The ref started back and Coach Brown said it again, "You're supposed to be over there!"

The whistle blew. Out came the T.

"Boo that ref ... BOO! ... Again ... BOO! ... Again ... BOO!"

And the boos continued to rain down from the rest of 'Sader Nation.

During the subsequent Army free throws I yelled, "The truth hurts!" but the truth is, telling an official how to do his job, twice, when many of those in attendance can hear you, will result in a technical no matter how much truth you have on your side!

The good news was the fans had a villain for the rest of the night.

Foul on the Crusaders?

"Boo that ref ... BOO! ... Again ... BOO! ... Again ... BOO!"

Foul on the Black Knights?

Sarcastic "Yeahs!" greeted him for getting the call "right."

Maybe it's the way this particular official looks, but in general, this guy didn't look comfortable for the rest of the night, especially when it was his turn to approach the Holy Cross huddle following the first horn during a time out.

Holy Cross extended the lead and won the game handily, as they have many times over the history of this series, but at least for the final 12 minutes of this game, anyway, the fans had someone to taunt.

In general, you put on the stripes and you're going to be the target for the ire of many - coaches, fans, players, announcers. That goes with the territory. And as fans, even though blaming officials for the outcome of a game is essentially birthright, in almost all circumstances that blame is misdirected. And certainly in this game, the bad calls had no bearing on the outcome.

Every story needs a villain. And for once, in a game against Army, it was good to have some one to root against.
at HOLY CROSS 82, ARMY 51
02/22/2012

ARMY 12-16 (5-8) -- J. Herbeck 7-18 3-4 20; M. Lenox 4-6 8-11 16; M. Williams 1-8 0-0 2; J. Springer 1-2 0-0 2; E. Ellis 0-8 2-2 2; W. Thornton 0-1 0-0 0; A. Stire 3-4 0-1 6; C. Kincade 1-1 1-2 3; J. Simmons 0-2 0-0 0; C. Gramling 0-2 0-0 0; J. Harris 0-2 0-0 0; M. Washington 0-2 0-0 0; J. Johnson 0-0 0-0 0; P. Harris 0-0 0-0 0; B. Hornstein 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-56 14-20 51.
HOLY CROSS 14-13 (8-5) -- D. Brown 8-12 6-7 24; M. Cavataio 2-5 0-0 4; J. Burrell 0-4 4-4 4; D. Dudzinski 4-9 0-0 9; E. Obeysekere 3-5 0-0 6; R. Evans 6-9 1-2 13; J. Stevens 3-6 0-0 8; P. Beans 1-4 4-4 7; D. Goens 1-1 0-0 3; T. Abt 2-3 0-0 4; P. Kerrigan 0-0 0-0 0; C. Mills 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-58 15-17 82.

Three-point goals: ARMY 3-27 (J. Simmons 0-2; E. Ellis 0-7; J. Herbeck 3-11; M. Williams 0-4; C. Gramling 0-2; J. Harris 0-1), HC 7-18 (M. Cavataio 0-1; D. Brown 2-5; D. Goens 1-1; J. Stevens 2-3; P. Beans 1-3; D. Dudzinski 1-1; J. Burrell 0-3; T. Abt 0-1); Rebounds: ARMY 28 (J. Springer 6), HC 38 (E. Obeysekere 7); Assists: ARMY 9 (M. Lenox 5), HC 16 (J. Burrell 5); Total Fouls -- ARMY 20, HC 20; Fouled Out: ARMY-None; HC-None.


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