Bob Ford: Loss leaves Dragons pondering fate

RICHMOND, Va. - The three-point shot by Frantz Massenat was contested, of course, as was nearly every shot in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game Monday night, and he had to put extra arc on it so it wouldn't be blocked. He leaned back and tossed up a fadeaway, and if looks could kill, the look of this shot as it spun slowly toward the basket would have killed Virginia Commonwealth right there. It was in the air so long that the Richmond Coliseum went from deafening to quiet before the ball reached the rim.

And then it got loud again.

Massenat's shot to tie the game and force overtime was true, but it hit the back rim and bounced around long enough for the buzzer to sound. Massenat landed on the floor going backward and slid almost to the side table at midcourt. He sat there and stared at the rim while hundreds of hometown fans ran past him to surround the VCU players.

"I thought it was good, like everyone else in the gym," teammate Damion Lee said. "But it wasn't, so here we are."

That is the question of the moment now. Where exactly is Drexel? The Dragons won 19 consecutive games before Monday's 59-56 loss, but an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament fell from their grasp - another turnover on a night too full of them.

If the CAA is a two-bid league, then Drexel will be fine. That isn't assured, though. It all depends on the unfathomable calculus of how the at-large bids will be passed out by the tournament selection committee. The Dragons are 27-6, and 25-2 since Dec. 3. It is the kind of record that has gotten mid-major teams into the tournament before. It is also the kind of record that has broken their hearts before.

"What do you want me to say? I think what we did speaks for itself," coach Bruiser Flint said. "It always helps to have a good championship game, so I hope all the [NCAA selection committee] guys were watching. But we've passed the eye test a few times this year."

It very nearly wasn't a good championship game, because Drexel came out and stunk up the joint in the first half. Uncharacteristically, the Dragons weren't the tougher team, and they made mistake after mistake handling the ball, particularly against VCU backcourt pressure. Drexel committed 12 turnovers in the first half as it fell behind by 16 points, and it rushed shots and made just 26.9 percent from the floor on the offensive end.

"We tried to play too fast. The way we played we should have been down more," Flint said. "At halftime, I said, 'Yo, we should be down by 30.' We weren't playing with any toughness, and that's all I wanted. I said, 'So, are we going to play with toughness, or what?' "

The feel of the game changed quickly, and VCU got tentative and Drexel started taking care of the ball. VCU, which got 16 points off turnovers in the first half, got just two off turnovers in the second half. The Dragons clawed back slowly, getting within one point with 12.9 seconds remaining. Then VCU hit a couple of free throws and Massenat sent his prayer into the night. It was a fine prayer, but it wasn't answered.

Maybe after all the calculations are finished in the selection room, the difference for Drexel will come down to not quitting on this game. If the Dragons had played a second half like the first half against VCU, it might have been easy for some of the tournament guys to turn off the television and mentally cross Drexel from the list.

If the selection is a fair process, it is worth mentioning that Monday's game was nothing less than a home game for VCU, with its campus less than a mile from the Richmond Coliseum.

"We knew that coming down here," Flint said. "We knew if we got to the finals, there was a good chance we'd be playing VCU, and they're a good team. It's a business decision. Nobody would complain if they weren't a good team. Me, I wanted to play it at Drexel."

So, as Flint said more than a few times, it is what it is. If life and making the NCAA tournament were supposed to be easy, every team would make it.

"Won 27 games and won 19 in a row," Flint said. "If we can't get in on that, it's pretty hard."

Yes, that would be hard, and everyone who thinks they know something thinks it won't happen, that Drexel will be invited to the NCAA tournament. Flint has been here before, though. He'll believe it when he knows.