Navy coach Billy Lange said earlier this week a loss at Colgate on Saturday would not mean the end of his team?s season.
Now, the Midshipmen get to prove him right.
Navy?s bid for its first Patriot League regular season title since 2000 came to a screeching halt when Colgate rallied from a five-point halftime deficit to pull out a 73-62 win in Hamilton, N.Y.
American (18-11, 10-4), which lost to Navy twice this season, wrapped up the top seed in the Patriot League Tournament with an 84-72 win against visiting Lafayette (15-14, 6-8).
The tournament begins Wednesday and culminates with the final on March 14, with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament ? a place Navy hasn?t been in a decade.
Navy is the second seed and will host seventh-seeded Bucknell (11-18, 6-8) in a quarterfinal game at Alumni Hall on Wedensday night at 7. The Midshipmen and Bison split the regular season series, with Navy losing at Bucknell, 85-77, on Jan. 11 before beating the Bison, 78-72, in Annapolis on Feb. 9.
Lange said the key to Navy (16-13, 9-5), which ended a six-game winning streak, making the NCAA Tournament is forgetting each game after it?s over and concentrating solely on the next one.
“We don?t handle this game or that game like it?s a big game,” Lange said. “If we would have done that, then our season would have been done in the middle of December after finals.”
No matter what happens the rest of the season, Lange said he is proud of his team?s progress in his fourth season at the helm. The Midshipmen are guaranteed their first winning season in seven years.
“Bottom line, it?s not magic. It?s just an evolutionary process,” Lange said. “We happen to have great leadership on this basketball team and the guys have bought in to playing as one. That?s whatit is. We?re not a goal-setting program. The only goal we have is to play as one and be the best team we can be at the end of the year.”
Navy senior guard Greg Sprink, who scored a team-high 19 points at Colgate, said he?s proud how the young Midshipmen rebounded after starting the season 3-8.
“Coach Lange and myself just try to impart on the guys that they don?t have to wait until their senior year to win,” Sprink said. “I?m impressed with the freshmen the way they?re handling the academy and the life they have to live with the academics and this goes all the way up to the juniors and my classmate [senior center] Ben Biles. I?m just proud of them.”
