From Duke-Carolina to Ohio State-Michigan to Harvard-Yale, there's nothing in college sports more fun than a good old-fashioned rivalry game.
In Div. III men's basketball, this weekend brings one of the NCAA's lesser-known rivalries into the limelight. Just three of the 16 teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament are from New England. One is the region's top teams, the Amherst Lord Jeffs, and the other two are a pair of familiar foes from the nearby Little East Conference: Keene State and Rhode Island College.
Keene and RIC have gotten to know each other all too well over the last two years. In fact, in the past two seasons alone, the two teams have faced each other six times, with each squad winning three of the six contests.
"There's definitely a rivalry," said Rob Colbert, who has coached the Keene State Owls to 162 wins in eight years. "Anytime you have two teams going head-to-head like this, that's going to happen."
While the two teams are 3-3 against each other over the last two years, RIC has won when it's counted most. Last season, the Anchormen knocked the Owls out of the postseason ECAC Tournament in the semifinal round, demolishing them in Keene, N.H. on March 3, 2006 by a lopsided 86-48 margin.
After losing their two regular-season contests with Keene, the Anchormen responded with authority this year, winning 87-75 on Feb. 24 to seal the LEC title.
The seventh, and perhaps most important, game in the two-year LEC saga will come Friday night. While top-seeded Amherst will host Stevens this weekend, the winner of that game will play the victor of the next installment of Keene-RIC, also to be played at Amherst's LeFrak Gym. In this weekend's rivalry game, both teams are in position to come away with an Elite Eight berth.
"I don't think there's an underdog or a favorite," said RIC coach Bob Walsh, the reigning LEC Coach of the Year. "We've played them six times in the past 15 months, and this will be game seven. We've won three and they've won three. It's two great teams - we've won 51 games between us. This will be a great game."
The Owls enter the weekend 25-5 on the season, fresh off a thrilling 76-75 upset win over second-round host Salem State. In that game, junior forward Nick Drouin sank a lay-up with four seconds to play, and Salem responded with one final drive. Two Vikings - junior guard Nick Tokarski and sophomore center Dylan Holmes - attempted to reclaim the lead with last-second shots, but came up just short.
"The horn went off as Holmes got a rebound," Colbert said. "He tipped it in, and chaos broke out. But his attempt, albeit a good one, was after the horn."
As has been the case all season, sophomore forward Tyler Kathan carried the team over Salem. Despite having just two years of college experience, Kathan ranked first in the LEC in rebounding and second in scoring this season, winning the league's Player of the Year award.
Kathan, who racked up 12 points and 12 rebounds in the Salem game, is accompanied at forward by classmate Nate Anderson, an All-LEC second-teamer himself. Anderson's 12.3 points per game rank him second on the team, making for an explosive scoring duo at the forward positions. While the two have been dangerous for the Owls this season, no one has more experience against them than Walsh's Anchormen.
"I think we have to be physically tough," Walsh said. "They're both really strong and really tough, and the thing they do is, they muscle down on you when they score. So we have to be tough to stop them."
The Anchormen earned their spot in the Sweet Sixteen with a 70-67 win over Brandeis, one of the top teams in one of the nation's top conferences, the University Athletic Association (UAA).
"They're a great team," Walsh said of Brandeis. "They're extremely tough and they're extremely well-coached. I was really impressed with them. We had them by 18 with 10 minutes left, and they could have folded up shop then, but they didn't."
The Anchormen overcame the Judges, improving to 26-3 on the season, thanks to a trio of guards - senior tri-captain Kinsey Durgin and sophomores Tirrell Hill and Bobby Bailey - who all scored in double figures. While the Owls rely on their forwards to spark the offense, RIC has depth in its backcourt. Walsh opts to start all three of his star guards, which means that Colbert and the Owls will have to adjust to the fast pace of the RIC offense.
"We have to stay in front of them," Colbert said. "To stop three penetrative scorers like that is really difficult. To stop just one is hard, but to stop three is extremely difficult. We'll have to work really hard, we'll have to have guys who can come in and help, and we'll need to figure out match-ups that make sense."
The play of the three RIC guards has not gone unrecognized. Last week, Durgin was named to the All-LEC First-Team, while Bailey was named to the Second Team and the All-Defensive squad as well. On top of that, they've earned the respect of Colbert and the Owls, who know they'll have their hands full this weekend.
"I think we're the underdog," Colbert said. "We're the lower seed, and obviously they beat us for the championship, so they beat us when it really mattered. We have to find a way to beat them now."
