Whits get D-III bye, home game
Jim Hayford sensed something good was about to happen to his Whitworth University men’s basketball team Sunday evening when he first learned NCAA officials had contacted his school’s athletic director, Scott McQuilken, about preparing the necessary paperwork to host a game in their Division III tournament.
But the Pirates’ seventh-year head coach had no idea how good until Monday morning, when the tournament’s selection committee awarded his Northwest Conference champions (20-6) with a first-round bye and the host’s role for a second-round game this weekend.
“I was absolutely stunned,” Hayford admitted Monday afternoon, prior to officially giving his team the good news. “To find out this morning that not only would we be hosting, but we’d be hosting in the second round and have a first-round bye, just exceeded all of our expectations.”
Whitworth, after winning the regular-season NWC title, earned an automatic berth in the D-III tournament by virtue of a 96-69 romp past Puget Sound in Saturday night’s championship game of the league tournament here.
The Bucs will play at home again at 7 p.m. Saturday, when they face the winner of Thursday’s opening-round matchup between Pomona-Pitzer (15-12) and Occidental (21-5). Those two Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rivals will meet for the third time this season at Occidental’s Rush Gymnasium in Los Angeles.
Whitworth thundered Pomona-Pitzer 73-45 in the Lee Fulmer Classic in Redland, Calif., in late November behind the 23-point performance of senior forward and NWC player of the year Ryan Symes.
Symes, who scored 33 points in Saturday night’s win over UPS, said he wouldn’t mind testing the Sagehens – who finished third in the SCIAC regular-season standings but won their conference tournament – again. But he added he really doesn’t care who turns up next on the Pirates’ schedule.
“We’re just excited to still be playing,” said Symes, the only returning starter from last year’s 24-4 team that advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament before losing to Washington (Mo.) 63-61.
“One of our goals at the beginning of the season was to try to make a tournament run, because we were hungry from last year.
“It left an empty feeling in us, so we wanted to try to get back here again, ” Symes added.
Symes, who averaged 18.8 points and 6.2 rebounds during the regular season, admitted he, too, was a bit surprised by the success the Pirates have had this winter.
“It feels great,” he said. “It was something we dreamed about, but I wasn’t sure. We got off to a rocky start (a season-opening 56-53 loss to D-III independent Chapman), but as the season kept going on, we got more and more of our identity defined and I had more and more confidence in us.
“Of course, now, I can say we thought we were going to be this good. But at the beginning of the season, I wasn’t so sure.”
Symes added he feels he and fellow seniors Colin Willemsen and Jerry Beverly have become comfortable as the leaders of this year’s team.
“I feel like, so far, we’ve done a good job of preparing the guys for how the conference will be,” he explained. “And now, this week, we’re going to focus on trying to prepare them for how the tournament is going to be.”
Hayford expects Saturday’s second-round game to be something special.
“We just feel very fortunate, and we’ll do our best to host a great championship event,” he said. “I think the Fieldhouse will be an unbelievable environment, and we’ll fit as much of the city of Spokane in there as we can.”