Seahawks could be a higher-seeded team's nightmare
By Pat FordeRICHMOND, Va. -- The working title to this basketball season for North Carolina Wilmington: "Hoosiers" meets the beach.
The campus is five minutes from the Atlantic Ocean in Michael Jordan's hometown. But the Seahawks -- and it's been quite a year for Seahawks, hasn't it? -- play like they graduated from Hickory High.
They've got the fundamentals down cold. The roster brims with players highly skilled in the often-overlooked arts of passing, dribbling and shooting. They have no idea how to beat themselves. They'll go floor-burn-for-floor-burn with anybody. They share the ball admirably, with nobody averaging more than 13 points per game.
"Where's the ego with this team?" asked Frank Goldsberry, father of point guard John Goldsberry. "Where's the ego?"
All things considered, they're probably a better fit for Indiana's famed candy-stripe warm-up pants than the current Indiana team. Not coincidentally, UNC Wilmington coach Brad Brownell is a native Hoosier.
His dad was a high school coach in Evansville, Ind., and Brownell said he grew up riding the team bus and dribbling a ball on the sideline during practices and games. He and Calbert Cheaney were teammates at Evansville Harrison High School, and Brownell played in college for a Bob Knight disciple, Royce Waltman, at DePauw. His first coaching job was with another Knight guy, Jim Crews, at Evansville.
Check the roster and you'll see more imports: 10 of 11 players are from outside the state of North Carolina -- and the native, center Todd Hendley, is a transfer from Wake Forest. This school from the Colonial Athletic Association recruits as nationally as Duke or Connecticut or North Carolina -- just not the same guys. The imported Seahawks hail from Alabama, Illinois, Maryland, Ohio, Oklahoma, Virginia, Texas and Canada.
And now, after withstanding a breathtaking comeback by Hofstra to win the CAA championship 78-67, the Seahawks are going to be a higher-seeded team's worst first-round nightmare in the NCAA Tournament.
Consider this, future opponent from a big-name conference: In three days here, Wilmington never trailed for a single second, and it won all three games by double digits. That's against what has been acclaimed universally as the toughest CAA ever.
"We're playing at a high level," Brownell said. "We've played at a high level all year long."
Nevertheless, the Seahawks needed to win this game to be absolutely sure of a happy Selection Sunday. A loss would have put them where CAA brethren Hofstra and George Mason now sit: hopeful, but anxious.
It looked for a long time last night as though Hofstra was damaging its at-large hopes. It fell behind by 20 in the first half and rallied, then fell behind by 20 again and roared back to within three with less than three minutes to play. The Pride lived up to their nickname.
CAA commissioner Tom Yeager said he was sure the selection committee members were tuned in Monday night to ESPN.
"I just hope they watched all of it," Yeager said.
They should think highly of Wilmington, although seeding is anybody's guess. Old Dominion, the champ in 2005 with a 28-5 record, could do no better than a No. 12 last year.
That could also be UNCW's fate. But if so, the No. 5 seed that draws the Seahawks better lace 'em up tight and come to play.
"We're difficult to play against because we don't give up points easily or give the basketball away," Brownell said.
Case in point: Monday night, the Seahawks had five turnovers and 20 assists. Chief protector and distributor of the basketball for UNCW is senior guard Goldsberry, who had 20 assists and three turnovers in the CAA semifinals and final combined. The tough guy also took home some stitches on his chin from the semifinal and a gash above his upper lip Monday night.
"The longer we play, the less good-looking you get," Brownell said, teasing Goldsberry after the game.
Goldsberry would gladly take a shiner and a broken nose next week if it meant a win in the NCAAs. A Midwestern coach's son from just outside of Dayton, Ohio, Goldsberry met a kindred spirit in Brownell when he visited UNCW.
"They want to win just as bad as I do, Dad," Frank Goldsberry recalled his son saying.
So, Goldsberry joined what has become a solid-gold senior class for Wilmington. Fellow starters Mitch Laue and Beckham Wyrick and solid sub Taylor Lay are the foundation of this tough and cerebral team.
Like Goldsberry, Wyrick is an Ohioan, hailing from Cincinnati. The 6-foot-6, 220-pound Wyrick was recruited by several Division I-A schools to play football, but he loved basketball more. Still, if he cannot play professional basketball overseas, then he'll consider trying an Antonio Gates-style football move.
"I would love to [play professionally]," he said.
Wyrick's parents, Dave and Jill, were in heaven Monday night. They've seen 31 of his 32 games in his senior year, despite the 660-mile distance one way from Cincy to Wilmington.
Jill Wyrick took a leave of absence this year from her job and rented an apartment in Wilmington, where the couple's daughter is a walk-on basketball player. Dave Wyrick has been the guy making the monster commutes.
"Well worth it," he said.
He bought a GMC conversion van after Wyrick's freshman year with 23,000 miles on it. It now has 103,000.
"They ran the stinkin' tires off that thing," Wyrick said with a smile.
Dave Wyrick had one piece of advice for his son before the CAA final: "Get 'em started." Beckham responded by bending Hofstra in half from the opening tip.
He made his first four shots and scored 10 points in less than eight minutes, boosting the Seahawks to a quick 17-3 lead.
"[Wyrick] played like Larry Bird the first 10 or 15 minutes," Brownell said.
Then junior T.J. Carter, the tournament MVP, played like Michael Jordan in the final three minutes to ice the game.
After Hofstra cut the lead to three, 62-59, Wyrick missed a shot and the Pride stunningly had a possession to potentially tie. They made a fatal mistake at that point, abandoning their off-the-dribble freelancing by wings Loren Stokes and Carlos Rivera and tried to run some offense. A turnover quickly ensued, and then Carter went off.
He scored 12 straight points to single-handedly put the game away. A contested banker. A tough jumper off the drive, and one. A 3 from the wing. Four free throws.
"He showed he's a high-level player," Brownell said of Carter.
And Wilmington showed it's a high-level team, even if its "Hoosiers" style doesn't mesh with its beach address.
Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com.
