Whits Worthy Of Win Even If They Didn’t Get It

Danny Rock was the “I” in the human W-H-I-T-W-O-R-T-H you may have seen if you surfed channel 24 Tuesday night.

He rode 10 hours on a bus for the privilege of being televised half-naked - something they don’t advertise in the catalog as part of the Whitworth College experience, though that wouldn’t be a bad idea.

It was all made possible by a team of improbable deed, the hands-down coach of the year and Bill Robinson, the man who called off classes Tuesday on account of basketball.

At Tuesday’s NAIA Division II championship game, Robinson dog-paddled through this breaker of Piratemania looking remarkably presidential - which is to say he wasn’t stripped to the waist with a red-and-black “I” splashed across his belly and chest.

“The great thing about being at a college like Whitworth,” he said, “is that athletics are something we have fun with but, boy, we don’t live and die by it. It’s been a great run and it’ll make for great memories, but it’s very important for us to keep it in balance. Tomorrow at 11 o’clock, these kids will all be taking tests again, whether we win or lose.

“But let’s hope we win.”

Sadly enough, the Pirates didn’t win. Albertson College of Idaho - Joe College, let’s call it - did, 81-72 in overtime.

But if it was sadness, it was sadness of the best kind.

A gripping game, monster shots, bigger hearts.

In the amended memory, Nate Williams’ jostled 10-footer with 2 seconds on the clock goes in, or he gets fouled and makes the free throws, or Nate Dunham is there for the putback.

One requiting play and the game never sees overtime. One play and Whitworth wins - though it’s a mystery what the Pirates might have lost.

“But when you get that close and don’t win,” said Whitworth coach Warren Friedrichs, eyes moist and voice cracking, “it’s the hardest thing in the world.”

The second-hardest thing in the world is imagining what else it might take to ever cancel classes at Whitworth.

“Good question,” said Mr. President. “I guess if our women’s basketball team ever played for the national championship.”

Otherwise, an act of God - though, truly, this entire episode in Nampa often felt like an act of God.

The 17 3-pointers that pulverized Howard Payne. Coming from seven points down at halftime to beat Mid-America Nazarene. Overcoming the raucous sixth man of host Northwest Nazarene to make the final four. Surging ahead from 10 down to beat William Jewell in the semis. And finally the three 3-pointers in the last 2 minutes that pushed Joe College to the edge.

And the one Whitworth didn’t win may have been the most improbable of all. Joe College is NAIA with an asterisk. Four players on the roster began their careers at NCAA Division I schools, and 6-foot-8 center Jared Klassen of Coeur d’Alene should have. Tournament MVP Damon Archibald threw in 3-pointers that would make World B. Free blush.

Yet there were the Pirates with the ball, with the score tied and 8 seconds to play.

“It was almost too much just to get the chance to win,” said Friedrichs. “But this team has a spirit about it that’s truly special. People always say that, but they do. They just kept thinking that they could do it.” Well, it was a little unbelievable.

“To me, anyway - I don’t know about the other guys,” admitted Williams. “I was happy to get past the first game. Every game past that was wonderful, and making it to the championship was a dream.”

The dream was played out in bizarre maelstrom. Upwards of 1,000 of the Whitworthiest lunatics - who came by bus (six left campus at 7 a.m.), car and plane - rocked shoulder to shoulder with all the ‘Yote throats on one side of a packed Montgomery Fieldhouse. Across the way, the disenfranchised host fans of Northwest Nazarene. An oil painting.

“But in many respects, everything is the same as if we’re playing for the NCAA championship,” insisted Robinson. “It’s just a smaller scale. You can’t tell me these kids want it any less than UCLA. The intensity is the same.”

The will is greater. The NAIAs play out their March madness in a hurry - five games in six days. By comparison, the NCAA tournament is for wimps. But in both, only one gets the big trophy.

“I know they’re going to feel like champions in a couple of weeks,” Friedrichs said of his players.

Those they touched already do.

“People stayed up all night making signs,” said Danny Rock, the “I” in the storm. “It’s something everybody can get behind - the enthusiasm and excitement it creates.

“Not many other things can pull a school together.”

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review