Bryant basketball cruised past Springfield on Monday. Was this the team it wanted to play?
SMITHFIELD — Bryant had a different men’s basketball opponent in mind for Monday night’s game.
Head coach Phil Martelli Jr. dropped enough hints in his press conference to solve the puzzle. A second home cruise past a program outside the Division I ranks wasn’t the initial intention.
But Springfield College filled an open date and prevented what would have been a full week off. The Bulldogs eased to a 108-74 victory against the Pride, who entered at 2-2 in Division III.
“You have certain dates you’re trying to fill, and we were trying to fill this date,” Martelli said. “There’s a team just up the road that played tonight that won a lot of games last year that we were trying to go to, and they picked a team in our league to play tonight.
“We picked up Springfield late — September, maybe. That was a high-major team. Some of it’s a compliment. I don’t know if I really buy it —‘We don’t want to play you.’ Okay.”
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There were two other America East teams in action on Monday. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) won on the road at Hampton — Martelli's description wouldn’t apply to the Pirates. New Hampshire’s visit to Gampel Pavilion and meeting with the defending national champion more likely applies.
Connecticut dealt the Wildcats an 84-64 defeat, capturing its 24th straight in nonconference play by double digits. Bryant would almost certainly have been expected to suffer the same fate, but there’s always a chance for the unexpected in college basketball. The Bulldogs winning at Florida Atlantic — the same group of Owls who were in the Final Four last season and have beaten Butler, Texas A&M and Virginia Tech early in 2023-24 — would undoubtedly qualify.
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“At the highest levels they’re breaking away to a point to play their 20 league games or even 22 league games,” Martelli said. “They have their challenges — their (multi-team events) and all those things. The number has gotten smaller and smaller and smaller.
“Unfortunately, at this level, looking at each other across the table, it’s still a little bit of, ‘Well, let’s see if we can go play those guys.’ There are a lot of things that can change. COVID, we were all bonded together. Everybody was like, ‘We’ve got to help each other.’ And then COVID went away and we went back to the same old scheduling — ‘No, we don’t want to play, we don’t want to play.’
“There’s plenty of things to be frustrated about on Nov. 27. I’ll be frustrated about that on May 27.”
The Huskies are committed to 20 games in the Big East — they play all 10 conference foes home-and-home. UConn booked a pair of games at the Empire Classic, taking care of Indiana and Texas at Madison Square Garden. The Huskies were contracted to play at Kansas as part of the Big East-Big 12 Battle, selected to play North Carolina in the Jimmy V Classic, and accepted a high-profile assignment to visit Gonzaga in December.
That left six open dates before reaching the regular-season cap of 31 games — UConn bought home games with Northern Arizona, Stonehill, Mississippi Valley State, Manhattan, New Hampshire and Arkansas Pine Bluff. All six teams are rated lower than the Bulldogs, according to KenPom.com, including four at No. 321 or worse.
“The reality is we’re going to go play three decent teams — three good teams — on the road right now in a row,” Martelli said. “Three teams at our level on the road.
“The fact of the matter for all of us is these games are important, but they’re really — it's really about January, February and March. To sit here and play the games we play with scheduling — the unanswered calls or texts, the wishy-washy calls or texts — we want to play those games. We want to play regional teams. We want to play home-and-homes regionally.
“Especially where we are, there are 20 schools within a two- or three-hour drive that we can get to.”
KenPom gives Bryant just a 5% chance to win at Cincinnati. Agreeing to that game is partly a financial decision. The Bearcats are among multiple nonconference games after which the Bulldogs will receive a check for making the trip. The modern financial structure in college athletics draws an ever-thickening line between the haves and the have-nots.
Bryant has found a willing annual dance partner in Brown. The Bulldogs will visit Pizzitola Center on Friday night to begin a stretch of five straight games away from home. Siena, Stony Brook and the Bearcats will all be true road games before Bryant matches up with Towson on a neutral floor in Long Island as part of the Holiday Hoopfest.
“It’s what college basketball is all about,” Martelli said. “I come from a city (Philadelphia) where those rivalries mean everything. They used to, anyway. I don’t know if they do anymore. And we’re in a new conference, so we don’t really have any rivals in the conference yet. So it’s a rivalry game.
“Their guys come over here and play pickup in the summer. It’s the way college basketball is supposed to be.”
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bryant basketball faced D-III Springfield to fill open date on schedule
