basketball in the centennial is generally, historically gentlemanly, which is a function of the high ethics of the schools in the conference. over the years play has gotten even less physical, similar to the nba.i think that is what we all want...sportsmanship and clean play.but if a team gets physical, i see no inherent problem with it. it sounds like ithaca was physical, but whether they were dirty is another question as physical play is not necessarily dirty play. i wasn't there so i can't say. what i can say is that i watched swat many times this season and find it hard to believe that they have consistently been the # 1 team all season. they were good, play well together, had a couple of good bigs, a bunch of shooters and are disciplined. my view is that a group of athletes who were well coached would beat them consistently as swat lacks athleticism, speed, quickness and risk. they play slow, methodical and controlled basketball to a point of it bordering on boredom. they only take well selected shots which, yes, is what we want but all in all it is pretty flavorless basketball. that doesn't take away from the great job landry has done and how good the players are together. i see that and know that it is extremely difficult to achieve. but it does baffle me that there was not one team in the country in D3 that had a group of athletes that could defend, harass, intimidate and get up and down on offense to handle swat easily. on another note, relevant to the recent posts, perhaps swat and landry are starting to feel a bit of arrogance and feel like physical play is inappropriate and disrespectful when employed by their opposition? that their style is superior and resorting to physical play is crude, a low level of play? if a team, school and coach feel that they should not be met with aggressive play, how do they feel about a player being verbally harassed by homophobic student fans? what if a swat player was yelled at in that manner? was there a discussion with those students by swat deans, administrators, faculty, other students who one would assume were at the game? were they asked to leave or reprimanded at all? perhaps that is worth considering. perhaps some idea of privilege/superiority might account for the coexistence between the ideas that swat players shouldn't be exposed to aggressive play and simultaneously members of their community exhibit disrespectful, homophobic verbal abuse towards an opposing player. who yells such things in this day and age, particularly those affiliated with swarthmore college?? worth thinking about. also, awarding a championship to any team when a championship game was not actually played seems somewhat ludicrous. any true player would not find that meaningful or fulfilling.but it is an original thought! stay safe, healthy everyone.
