Men's Basketball Source of Pride

Funny thing about sports – we debate, we argue, we are all experts and we all know exactly how it’s going to turn out. With the internet and 24-hour sports networks, the average fan sees enough footage of a team and hears enough from the talking heads that we have all become experts in our own minds. But every once in a while it doesn’t turn out how we expected, we aren’t the experts we thought we were and we are left stunned by a result nobody saw coming.

That is exactly what happened last weekend as Hudson Valley, the undefeated and number one team in the NJCAA Division III, lost in the semifinals of the Region III tournament.

The first comparison that comes to mind is the recent defeat of the previously undefeated New England Patriots by the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. Both teams dominated the regular season (the Vikings were 29-0, the Pats were 16-0), both featured dominating offenses (the Vikings were third in the nation in scoring at 98.8 ppg and the Pats set the NFL record with 36.8 ppg), an array of weapons (all five starters averaged double-digits in scoring for HVCC and Tom Brady and crew for New England), solid defenses (the Vikings were 40th in the nation at 76.6 ppg and the Pats were fourth in the NFL, allowing 17.6 ppg) and consistently strong histories (the Vikings entered the Region III tournament for a record 18 consecutive seasons and the Pats were in their fourth Super Bowl in seven years).

Like the Pats, this tournament seemed like it should be more of a coronation than a competition for HVCC. The Vikings received all first place votes in the most recent national poll and have held the spot for 11 consecutive weeks. For the Pats, talk of an undefeated season began in week two. The hype continued to grow for both, as Hudson Valley arranged a bus to take students to Herkimer to cheer the team on and the TV and radio personalities prematurely declared the Pats the greatest team of all time.
They also closed out their undefeated regular season in surprisingly close fashion (HVCC 110-104 in overtime and New England 38-35) and were upset by the same team to finish their post-season (Cobleskill and the New York Giants).

But this is where all comparisons should end. While the Pats are left feeling like the season was a disappointment, our Vikings should feel proud of becoming the first team in school history to go undefeated in regular season play. While the Pats used hired guns like Randy Moss to take them to the next level, the basketball team was comprised of all young men from the Capital District. While Belichick reacted to his team’s wins like most people react to doing their taxes, Coach Andre Cook lauded his teams work ethic and pride in representing the community and themselves as true student-athletes.

So where does this leave us? We all knew how it was supposed to happen, but as Chris Berman always says: “That’s why they play the games!” How do you quantify a season with such domination and such sudden defeat? It’s too soon to know how history will judge the Patriots, but this much can be said for the Vikings right now – they will go down as one of the greatest in school history in a season filled with excitement and inspiration and they are a team we at Hudson Valley can be proud to call our own.