"If we were worth a ----, we wouldn't be playing at The Citadel."
-- My Losing Season
A teammate of Pat Conroy's made that observation during their senior year at The Citadel, back in 1966-67, when the seeds of The Great Santini and The Lords of Discipline were germinating in the Bulldogs' point guard.
Pat Dennis, the coach who is in his 13th season tilting at windmills at the military academy in Charleston, S.C., has a signed copy of My Losing Season, an autobiographical work about Conroy's final go-round in the game.
"Pat comes to three, four games a year here," Dennis said. "At one point last season, he asked me if I had read the book yet. I said, `No, I'm living through it.'"
Nearly 100 colleges and universities have upgraded their athletics to Division I in the past three decades, swelling its membership to 330. Scores of the relative newcomers, including Morgan State, UMBC and UMES, have never converted their Division II or NAIA success into a berth in the Division I basketball tournament, but among the established core, only a handful have yet to experience the giddiness of getting to the NCAAs.
Whether it's the company they keep, their leadership role or the attention they received from a best-selling author, three are conspicuous.
Alumni at The Citadel, Northwestern and West Point have no firsthand experience of the cliches that abound this month. They have no accounts of a surprise run through a conference tournament, no memories of Cinderella at the dance, no tales of a 16th-seeded David scaring Goliath in Boise or Nashville or Winston-Salem.
Northwestern hasn't reconciled its lofty academics with the strength of the Big Ten. The commonality at Army and The Citadel is the uncommon demands that confront their players. Their mission is producing soldiers, not wins. Elite prospects who can get through the admissions office want to march to the NBA, not in formation.
"The academy has academic standards, it has moral standards, it has ethical standards," Army coach Jim Crews said. "That's what I like about West Point. We want to win, but we're not going to sell our soul and lower our standards. When you go to the NCAA tournament, Selection Sunday is great, but you might be out by 2 p.m. Thursday. You better not sell your soul to get there."
Big names abound
Crews, Dennis and Northwestern's Bill Carmody are well-acquainted with the NCAAs, and all find comfort in the men who couldn't get their institutions to the tournament.
