Another Run?
March 20, 2008 01:51 AM | General
March 20, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – What a difference a year makes for Darris Nichols and the West Virginia University basketball team. Last March the team gathered together for Selection Sunday wondering if they would see their name pop up on the big board.
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| Senior Darris Nichols, second from right, is hoping for another NCAA Tournament run to cap off an outstanding career.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
The tension was palpable and Nichols admits to being more on edge than a long-tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
“Last year we were in a situation where we really didn’t know. Coming into it I was so nervous,” Nichols said.
Those nerves quickly turned to despair as the Mountaineers’ fears became reality moments later when they were not selected for the field of 65.
However, in life, disappointment and despair can often breed opportunity and that is precisely what happened last year as WVU won six straight games to capture the NIT title last spring.
Fast forward to this year and the mood was certainly more optimistic for Nichols in the Waterfront Hotel last Sunday as the Mountaineers gathered to see where they would go and what their seed would be in the 2008 edition of the NCAA Tournament.
West Virginia’s selection was more of a formality this year. The Mountaineers appeared nowhere close to the tournament bubble and the mood was more celebratory than anxiety filled.
Still, after the first three brackets were revealed, the team had yet to see its name pop up on the screen. With each name that passed it grew more tense until it was finally revealed that West Virginia was a No. 7 seed and would play No. 10 Arizona is Washington D.C. tonight.
“We went through all the brackets and we were in the last one so I kind of had the same feeling as last year,” Nichols said. “This year I was more anxious than anything because I had a good idea that we would get in. It was still a big relief to see our name come up.”
The team is coming off a solid showing in the Big East Tournament in which they beat Providence and ousted UConn before falling to Georgetown in the semifinals. Nichols was upset with the team’s approach to the semifinal game, admitting that the squad may have been a little bit satisfied just to be playing the Hoyas.
“The things we did in the Georgetown game we didn’t do all week. We kind of came out flat and just weren’t ready to play,” Nichols said. “Maybe we were a little satisfied like the coaches said but we’ve put it behind us and were ready to go.”
Nichols believes eight tournament bids for the Big East is justified and that the grueling 18-game conference schedule is the perfect thing to prepare a team for the rigors of playing good teams on a quick turnaround in the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s such a great conference top to bottom,” Nichols explains. “Some conferences have two really great teams and the other teams are ok but that’s not the way it is in the Big East.”
Nichols continues.
“You can’t take any days off in the Big East. Whether you play UConn or St. John’s you have to give them your best game,” Nichols said. “I think that mentality gets us ready for the tournament.’
Nichols says the team will approach this tournament as a new season, breaking it down into a two-game, mini-tournaments at each venue as they hopefully move along. The Radford, Va., native is the only Mountaineer with NCAA Tournament experience and he has some great memories of past runs that fuel his fire for another long stay in the tournament this year.
“I remember the whole Elite Eight run. From my block on the big guy from Wake Forest (Eric Williams) to the final game, it was just unbelievable,” Nichols said. “People didn’t believe that we could do such a thing. That’s what made it so special.”
Nichols believes the key to sustained tournament success is to set small goals and not get caught up in the aura of March Madness.
“You can’t get caught up in all the media hype and make it bigger than what it really is. You have to try to treat it as a normal game to go on a run like we did a couple years ago,” Nichols said.
The question is whether Nichols and crew can do it again.
“We’re excited and ready to play,” Nichols said. “Last year we had to make the best out of not getting in and we did that. This year it’s the end of the line for me and I want to keep playing as long as possible.”
What a difference a year makes, indeed.
