Flint knew more than that. He knew that without Elegar, it would be difficult for the Dragons to score enough points to win the game, and it would be difficult to contain the athletic VCU players at the other end of the floor.

He didn't say it out loud, won't even say it now, but in the recesses of a coach's mind where those calculations are made, he knew that the absence of Elegar probably destined the Dragons to lose their most important game of the year to date.

That is precisely what happened yesterday in the raucous, sold-out Daskalakis Athletic Center. Drexel hung together for quite a while, led the game by four points early in the second half, but eventually was worn down by VCU, surrendering some wide-open shots on defense and losing, 75-68.

"We didn't have Frank, and for us, that's huge," Flint said. "He's the difference for us, to be honest with you."

Elegar watched the game impassively from the bench in street clothes. He was suspended for one contest by the CAA because of an elbowing violation on Jan. 20 at Delaware.

Tom Yeager, commissioner of the CAA, conceded that the process of determining Elegar's punishment took a while, which seems like an understatement. You watch the film, you make the decision, and, if you have a feel for what is fair, you make the punishment fit the crime. Taking away one school's star player in a matchup between perhaps the two best teams in the league - with all the possible NCAA tournament baggage that carries - that doesn't seem fitting, but it is what the CAA did.

"I'm not going to get into that," Flint said. "You've got to call the league office and talk to them about all the things that went down."

Life is like this sometimes for Drexel, which has to claw for every grain of respect from outside the CAA, and apparently has to do so within the conference as well. Without belaboring the point, it can simply be said that if the CAA wants to be considered something more than a mid-major conference, it has to stop making bush-league decisions like this one.

In any case, Elegar sat, the Dragons lost, and the window of opportunity for Drexel is narrowing to the conference tournament March 2 to 5 in Richmond, Va. The NCAA doesn't like to hand out at-large bids to its championship tournament to conferences such as the Colonial. If it does, those go to teams that are nearly perfect in the regular season and then go deep into the league playoffs before suffering an unexpected end.

That isn't going to be the story this season for Drexel. The Dragons are 7-3 in the league, and getting a cold slap of water after an unbelievable start that included 10 consecutive wins and victories over St. Joseph's, Villanova, Syracuse and Temple.

Is it fair? Of course not, because there isn't a team in the country, regardless of conference, that would come into Drexel's building if it didn't have to. Schools want no part of the Dragons in the DAC, and that's nothing new. The last city school to play at Drexel was St. Joseph's in 1992 and, aside from the Hawks, you have to go back 20 seasons to find one of the local big brothers willing to take that risk.

But the NCAA is organized neither for fairness nor for the very good teams from less-renowned leagues who struggle for their props. If the Dragons are to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since the Malik Rose era under Bill Herrion, they likely will have to run the table in Richmond to do so.

"You listen to all this tournament talk," Flint said yesterday after the game, his voice rising as he spoke. "We're 15-5. We lost to three of the best teams in our league. We played most of our games on the road and we beat some good teams in good conferences. Now, if we continue to win, what more do you want us to do? If we win and we don't get in on Selection Sunday, you've got to ask what the real criteria are."

Then Flint did what coaches have to do. He returned to the real world.

"We're not worried about that," he said. "We've got 10 more games before we worry about that."

In those games, Flint will put Elegar and defensive force Chaz Crawford (six more blocks yesterday) around the basket and he will array his talented guards on the perimeter and try to push them through the window before it closes entirely.

Reserve forward Randy Oveneke scored 11 points yesterday and showed the potential for demanding more than the 17 minutes he has averaged so far. At the end of the first half, Oveneke descended from the rafters to collect a missed shot well above the rim and slam the ball through one-handed.

"You've got to understand," Flint said with a laugh. "He doesn't even dunk like that in practice."

The college season is all about taking advantage of the unexpected, and maybe Drexel is due for some of that. The unexpected sure took advantage of the Dragons as Frank Elegar sat on the bench yesterday.

"You play the hand that's dealt," Flint said simply, and already he was preparing for the next game and the work that still has to be done.

Bob Ford |

Notre Dame 66, Villanova 63

College Basketball Report: D8-10.