This could be Stony Brook's bridge over the troubled waters of a hard-knocks 13-16 season. Three wins in the America East Tournament in West Hartford, beginning with tomorrow's noon game against Albany, and this battered team would be transported onto the NCAA Tournament's golden shores.
Because the America East is one of 31 conferences whose tournament champion is granted an automatic berth in The Big Dance, Stony Brook coach Steve Pikiell's preseason observation - that everything comes down to "having a good weekend" - offers hope to all. Even a team that lost 53 player-games to injury and labored through persistent offensive woes.
It won't be easy. Fifth-seeded Stony Brook lost both regular-season games to fourth-seeded Albany (16-15) and needed four wins in its last five conference games just to finish 8-8 in America East play. Plus, the health issues hardly have been resolved.
Pikiell doubts he will able to use freshman guard Dave Coley, the team's third-leading scorer and Pikiell's "lockdown defender," for significant minutes Saturday because Coley recently returned from a knee injury.
Tommy Brenton, the junior forward with more career point-rebound double-doubles than anyone on the roster, was lost for the season before it began because of knee surgery. Stony Brook's only senior, Chris Martin, lost 13 games to knee surgery. Sophomore guard Marcus Rouse, the second-leading scorer (7.6) behind junior guard Bryan Dougher (13.2), missed five games rehabilitating a surgically repaired knee. Junior Dallis Joyner, the team's leading rebounder (6.7), was slowed early in the season by a bad ankle.
"There have been a lot of ups and downs, with Tommy going down and Marcus getting hurt," Dougher said. "But we fought through it all, had some good games and bad games. We haven't had the record we expected, but I know it only takes one good weekend in the tournament to achieve our goals."
A year ago, regular-season champion Stony Brook learned the bitter lesson about the tournament weekend, losing in the semifinals to fourth-seeded Boston University and settling for its first NIT appearance.
"We know if we win three games, it'll make it a lot sweeter," Joyner said. "Last year we had a great record but we didn't get the job done [in the tournament]. There's definitely a sense of urgency; we've just got to turn that urgency into production."
