Belmont-Abbey lives another day

They're about to start. This makes no sense. This should be made a 1 p.m. Friday start and if they win, play the second game at 7. The other bracket is finished.

 

Game was played tonight because more rain is expected tomorrow. This was the best time window to get it played.

 

They just went down 7-5. Can't take anything away from these boys though. Hate I wasn't able to see it (live) because of the time/weather.

 

Congrats to Belmont Abbey players and coaches on a nice season......

 

As an alumni and former player at the Abbey it makes me very proud to see this team do so well. I can't say how proud I am to have played with Patrick Atwell, and Michael Raymond. Those two guys were just a couple of wet behind the ears freshman when I was there. The bar has been raised because players like them and the dedication of Coach Smith and his staff. Congrats on a fine season.

 

sorry wasn't paying attention..............

what happened to Mt. Olive?

 

The Abbey beat them in the regional.....and in the conf. tourney i think.

 

Mt Olive didn't make the NCAA playoffs this year. but as Coach Norwood noted, Abbey knocked them out of the conference tournament (where our NCAA bid is earned).

 

Coach Norwood, you nailed it. Atty and Big Game Mike are 2 of the toughest, hard-nosed players around. Both are 5th year seniors after dealing with injuries (Michael's ACL and Atty's hamstring). The injuries at the time seemed devastating, but without them we would never have made the playoffs or advanced. Funny how bad things can turn out good, huh?

 

One editorial vent: The NCAA embarassed themselves last night in how they handled things. Remember this is the Final Four...national semi-finals. This is The Dream...the World Series...Kids have worked a lifetime to get to this point. But the NCAA approached last night like a weekend Church League softball tournament.

We had Friday as an open date to play the one semi-final game left (2 if Abbey won Game 1). But the National Championship game will be on CBS Sports TV Saturday noon. And the fear of losing revenue if rain delayed the semi-finals today (Friday) drove the decision making process.

So both teams were sent to eat about 9:15 totally in the dark, not knowing if the games would be played. The word was: sometime Friday. But 40 minutes later, they were called back with the panic message: Gametime is 11pm...Get back here pronto. Some players never got served at the restaurant that was overwhelmed. Warm-ups were cut short. And everyone struggled to generate the energy that is automatic in such a gigantic game. Oh yea, fog continued to build, making vision difficult and everything soggy. Game finally ended at 2:30.

Both teams...I repeat, BOTH TEAMS had to endure the same conditions, and the most talented team won fair and square. No sour grapes here at all. But the NCAA showed their priorities last night: It wasn't about the Student Athletes, it's all about the Benjamins.

By the way, as of 2:37pm Friday, no rain is within 125 miles of Raleigh.