Trinity to host, Saint Joseph to take to the road as Division III men’s basketball bracket revealed
HARTFORD — The Trinity men’s basketball team has had the kind of season that couldn’t end without hardware for the trophy case, or to be left in the hands of a committee.
So when the Bantams were trailing by eight at the half in the New England Small College Athletic Conference championship game, they dug down deep.
“Our perseverance,” coach James Cosgrove said. “These guys weren’t going to be denied the championship. We made plays to get it done. The guys have really found ways to get things done.”
Trinity came back to beat Williams 59-52 to take home the conference title, and with the added luster to their record, they were chosen to host a first-round NCAA Division III tournament pod. The Bantams (26-1) will play Utica in the Ferris Athletic Center on Friday at 6:30 p.m. If the Bantams advance, they would play the winner of Virginia Wesleyan vs. Swarthmore on Saturday at 6:30.
Now Trinity is after more, and so is Saint Joseph, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference winner. The Blue Jays got their assignment in the bracket selection on Monday and will go to Ashland, Va. to play Geneva on Friday. The winner plays either the host, Randolph-Macon, a perennial Division III power, or Baruch.
“I love it, I think a lot of teams in this bracket don’t know about Saint Joe’s C-T,” said senior Jalen Samuels, averaging 16.5 points per game. “I think we’re going to put this school on the map, make a deep run, do things this school has never done before.”
Saint Joseph (24-4) beat Saint Joseph’s of Maine 78-59 for the championship on Sunday to punch their tournament ticket for the fourth year in a row. The school went co-ed in 2017, when Hall-of-Fame coach Jim Calhoun came in to start up the program, eventually turning it over to his long-time assistant at UConn and USJ, Glen Miller, who led the Blue Jays to the No.1 ranking in the country for a time last season. The Blue Jays reached the Round of 16 last season.
“We wanted to quickly build a program that could compete on the national level,” Miller said, “and it has been very rewarding.”
With Calhoun, Miller has established a “keep it simple” philosophy, with physical toughness at the center of it.
“You’ve got to defend,” Miller said. “Got to rebound, you want to run, but when you’re in the half-court, move the ball around, get spacing and a good 50-percent shot every time down the floor. But you have to defend and rebound.”
Trinity is ranked third in the Division III poll, their only loss by one point at Williams midway through the season. The Bantams reached the Elite Eight in 2015 and now are positioned for another deep run. Ben Callahan-Gold, a 6 foot 8 transfer from Tulane, averaged 16.6 points and 6.1 rebounds to lead a well-rounded group.
“Ben’s been terrific and he’s had a great starting group with him,” Cosgrove said. “Dana Smith, our other senior, has been a leader by example and should be the defensive player or the year in the league. Henry Vetter has been terrific for us also, scoring the ball, facilitating. (In the NESCAC semifinal) Jarrel Okorougo, when Tufts kind of took Ben out of the game, stepped up and scored 26, really propelled us to victory. And Will Dorion has kind of been the heart and soul of us, great leader at point guard, making the other guys around him better.”
Cosgrove, in his 14th season, has led the Bantams to a 165-71 mark over the last 10 seasons.
“We’ve really established ourselves as one of the top teams, not only in the Northeast, but in the country,” Cosgrove said. “We’ve been right there, right there, we went to the Elite Eight and we’ve had a lot of teams since then that were close to being NCAA Tournament teams. To have a season like this is only going to help us, we’re kind of on the map for people to go who want a great education and also great basketball.”
Saint Joseph has a roster full of players from Connecticut and Massachusetts high schools and prep schools. Tyree Mitchell, from East Hartford and Prince Tech, has been with the program since 2018, Year One, and leads the Blue Jays with 16.9 points per game.
“The whole journey,” Mitchell said. “From like day one, everything was so new. We just came together. They let us know from day one, they just want to win championships, that’s the type of culture we’re going to bring here. They just laid out the blueprint and we just followed it, and we’re back here again.”
Forward Friedrich Feldrappe, from Berlin, Germany, by way of The Winchendon School in Massachusetts, scored 22 in the GNAC championship game, typical of a Saint Joseph team in which any player can star on any given night.
Trinity defeated Saint Joe’s, 70-58, in a nonconference game at a tournament in Dartmouth, Mass., on Nov. 18. Vetter scored 23 points and Callahan-Gold 20 for the Bantams in that game, Mitchell scored 20 for the Jays. For the Connecticut schools, roughly 3 1/2 miles apart, to meet again, they’d both have to reach the Round of Eight.
“It wasn’t our best performance,” Miller said. “No doubt about that, but give a lot of credit to Trinity. They’re a terrific team, not only good offensively but very good defensively. I don’t think we were ready, we certainly weren’t playing as well as we’re playing right now. We have our identity now, we’re confidence in our identity and we’re confident in each other.”
