A March Madness Alternative to Help You Keep Your Sanity

In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

                        —Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”

Perhaps it’s just because I’m a native Hoosier, but if I were Poet Laureate as old Lord Tennyson was, I would have said, “In the Spring a young man’s fancy quickly turns to thoughts of hoops.”

Though I’ve not been an active sports fan for many years, I’ve returned to the athletic religion of my youth this spring. Given how much of our lives is wrongly politicized, the normality of NCAA Division III basketball has been a tonic for a writer who often deals with politics and culture wars.  

Today marks the end of spring break for me and my kids. Several of us have spent a good bit of that time in the Jerabeck Activity and Athletic Center (usually called “the JAAC”) at the University of St. Thomas (UST) in Houston, where I teach. The reason? Our men’s basketball team has been competing in the NCAA’s Division III tournament, and we have been hosting the early round games in which our team has played.

The Friday spring break started for us, I took two of my kids to see the UST Celts (pronounced “Kelts”) play Trinity College in San Antonio. I hadn’t been able to get to the first game against Belhaven University due to scheduling problems, but, thankfully, the Celts, who finished their season with a 26-1 record and a championship in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), won 69-63 in overtime.

Given that Belhaven had only finished a so-so 16-12 on the season, it might have been a bit worrying that they came so close to UST on their own home court. Then again, perhaps it was a good wake-up call to the Celts to remember that when you begin the tournament, your record is only as good as your next game. As the NBA legend Walt Frazier, who helped his Division II Southern Illinois University team become the only non-Division I team ever to win the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), put it, “The regular season is where you make your name, but the postseason is where you make your fame.”

If it was a wake-up call (and I’m guessing coach Anthony Medina told them it was) the Celts woke up. The second-round game was against Trinity in San Antonio. Their season was better than Belhaven’s. They finished the regular season 21-6 and were ranked 26th in the country. Yet UST jumped out to an 11-3 lead and never looked back.

What I like about the team is that it does function as a team. There are a number of very talented players, but none of them dominates the whole time and none needs to. At one moment, Nathan Kongolo, Nick Buffalo, or Reyce Allen will be grabbing the rebounds and the scoring glory. At another, guards Angel Johnson or Corey Thompson will. Other times, rail-thin big-man Charles Dutonga will be doing his thing swatting away opposing team shots or silkily lofting his own into the basket. As it happened, Thompson led the team with 18 points and Kongolo was close with 16. 

By the end of the game, UST was regularly finding fast-break opportunities, two of which led to spectacular dunks. The final score was 75-58. The result: a first-time ever trip to the Sweet 16!

The game this Friday was not only a sweet one but an opportunity for sweet revenge. Washington University in St. Louis beat UST in the 41st Annual Lopata Classic in St. Louis back in November. Washington U. overcame a double-digit deficit in that first encounter and won in classic buzzer-beater fashion. What would happen this time?

My daughter and I arrived a bit early for the game, not just because there was bound to be a bigger crowd this time, but because they were giving out free t-shirts to the first 200 Celts fans to arrive. My daughter got one—and so did my son and a colleague’s son, who arrived a couple minutes later. Since UST charged faculty for admission for this round of the tournament, I was mollified.

While UST jumped out to a quick 8-4 lead and stayed ahead for most of the game, Washington U. didn’t give up at all. Their slashing guards frustratingly found an empty lane to drive through too many times, while Connor May drained three-pointers twice to stop the Celt momentum.

The Celts looked unbeatable with two minutes on the clock and a 64-52 lead, but shades of that earlier game seemed to cover the gym. By the final buzzer, UST was ahead—but only 65-63.

It was again a balanced performance, with Gitonga scoring 16, Kongolo and Thompson 11 each, and 6’1” freshman Brennan Webb scoring 10 on a perfect shooting night. I was particularly pleased since Webb was in my fall one-credit course freshman symposium class (“Pickleball and the Joy of Sport”).

When my teaching assistant did a name game to help us get to know each other on day one, he said “I’m Brennan and I like basketball.” When I congratulated him on the court afterward, I said, “Brennan likes basketball and Brennan is very good at basketball.” Then, I left the grinning young man to his fans.

Division III sports don’t have sports scholarships. These aren’t athletes likely to go pro. They play in small gyms for pride and the love of the game. They are unlikely to try to hijack their games for politics. It’s that love of the game that gets me going.  

My kids and I won’t drive back to my home state to watch the team play Christopher Newport for a chance at the Final Four. You can bet I’ll be following the game if I can, though. I’m crazy for basketball right now. And I’ve not felt so sane in years.

David P. Deavel teaches at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. A past Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute, he is a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative. Follow him on X (Twitter) @davidpdeavel.