They've Tied It All Together

CATONSVILLE, Md.

There were less than 52 seconds left Saturday afternoon when UMBC point guard Jay Greene finally realized he and his teammates had accomplished their goal. The Retrievers had an 82-62 lead on Hartford in the America East championship game and Greene saw his coach, Randy Monroe, sending a substitute into the game for him.

"When I saw that I was coming out," he said, "I knew that was a good sign."

A few seconds later, there was another pretty good sign: The UMBC students storming the court after the Retrievers had clinched their first NCAA tournament berth ever with an 82-65 victory.

Greene was right about one thing: If the outcome were still in doubt, the only way Monroe would take him out of the game is if he were in foul trouble or had broken a bone. Players such as Darryl Proctor, Brian Hodges, Matt Spadafora and Cavell Johnson might be the finishers for UMBC, but everything the team does begins with its 5-foot-8 point guard.

"A basketball team without a good point guard is like a car without an engine," Monroe said. "Jason [Greene is Jay to everyone but his coach] is our engine."

On Saturday, Greene, voted the tournament MVP, had a fairly typical game: 12 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 1 turnover. That's why he doesn't come out of games. UMBC can't afford to let him rest even for a minute.

The other positive indication Greene noticed? Monroe still had his tie on. Frequently, when his team is in a tight game or not playing well, Monroe will lose his jacket, his tie and finish the game with his sweat-soaked shirt hanging almost to his knees.

Not Saturday. Almost from tip to buzzer, Monroe's team played a near-perfect game, leading Hartford 34-11 after 15 minutes, then putting away the game with a 10-0 burst after the Hawks had climbed to within 59-48 with nine minutes left.

"I thought we imposed our will on them at the start," Monroe said. "I told our guys all week this was a dangerous team, not to be taken for granted. I thought they came in here really ready to play."

There is no way to predict what might happen in a championship game with an NCAA bid at stake, especially when it involves two schools that have never been to the NCAA tournament or, for that matter, the NIT. Hartford has played 24 seasons of Division I basketball; UMBC has played 22. This was the first time either school had been in this position.

That's why the student section at the Retriever Athletic Center was filled more than an hour before tip-off as a record crowd of 3,810 packed the place while the fire marshals looked in another direction. That's why Frankie Allen, who joined Monroe's staff last year after head coaching stints at Virginia Tech and Howard, couldn't help but be a little bit nervous as he watched the teams warm up.

"Situations like this, kids can get tight," he said. "It might be 4-2 at the first [TV] timeout. We just have to get through that and get into a rhythm."

As it turned out, the Retrievers needed two possessions to find their rhythm trailing 2-0 after 90 seconds.

Over the next seven minutes, UMBC hit 9 of 11 shots and outscored Hartford 22-4. By the time the first TV timeout came with 11 minutes 39 seconds left, it was 22-6, and Allen didn't have to worry anymore. The lead built from there, and even though the Hawks gamely tried to climb back in to the game in the second half, the lead never dipped below double digits.

"They were more ready than we were to take this step," said Hartford Coach Dan Leibovitz, who had to be shellshocked, especially considering that the teams had split one-point games during the regular season. "We're a little bit young, and maybe we weren't quite ready for this."

Hartford starts no seniors. UMBC has two senior reserves who were voted to the all-America East team. Greene, a junior, has had the ball in his hands since he first got here. Two years ago, Monroe took a calculated risk, taking three transfers: Proctor from Coppin State along with Johnson and Ray Barbosa, who came from James Madison with only one year of eligibility.

Transfers can work out one of two ways: They can bring baggage to a team that upsets chemistry or they can bring maturity to a team. Proctor, Johnson and Barbosa all brought maturity and talent and, after sitting out last season, their presence made the Retrievers a veteran team even though each was in his first year in a UMBC uniform.

The heart and soul of the team, however, are the two players who came here straight from high school: Greene, overlooked by a lot of bigger schools because of his size, and Hodges, who chose UMBC over several Ivy League schools coming from Bishop McNamara. After graduating in three years, Hodges has spent this year pursuing a master's degree in economic policy analysis and dreaming of a day like Saturday.

"I remember when I first got here there wasn't anyone at the games," he said with a wide grin after his best game (13 points, six assists) since an ankle injury in February forced him to miss five games. "Now people have jumped on the bandwagon. It's nice to see."

The whole day was nice to see unless you were from Hartford. UMBC is a school that has spent years wandering in the wilderness of Division I searching for a home, going from being an independent for four years to spending two years in the East Coast Conference followed by six in the Big South and five in the Northeast Conference before joining the America East five years ago.

Until this season unfolded, about the only national attention the school had received came two years ago when Monroe threw his team out of its locker room in order to send a message to his players that their effort wasn't satisfactory. Although other coaches had done the same thing in the past -- Bob Knight and Mike Krzyzewski among them -- Monroe's move generated national news.

"People seem to think I'm a wacko," he said then. "I was just trying to find a way to motivate my team. I figure if it's good enough for Knight and Krzyzewski it might be worth trying." He smiled. "I always dreamed of getting national attention for my program as a coach. But not like this."

Saturday was what Monroe had dreamed about: his team winning a school-record 24th game with a dominating performance on national TV. Someone asked Monroe when he would start preparing for the NCAA tournament.

"We'll do it after we know the pairings on Sunday night," he said. "When the time comes, we'll go for a ride -- a very nice ride. Right now though, we aren't going to think about that at all. We're just going to enjoy this precious moment."

He was still wearing his tie and a wide smile when he said that.

"It's a nice tie," Greene said. "Pretty impressive that we played well enough for him to keep it on."

For UMBC, the day was more than impressive. It was historic.