‘Fans Are Critical’: The Crowd at the A-10 Men’s Basketball Tournament

Commuting from across the Midwest and along the east coast, NCAA men’s basketball fans gathered at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the Atlantic 10 Championship Tournament March 12-17

For the quarterfinal round between Loyola and St. Bonaventure March 14, Abraham Garcia and Jorge Blanco — 2010 Loyola graduates — showed out in maroon and gold to support their team. 

The duo met while living in Campion Hall during their first year. Now states apart, the Loyola men’s basketball team has helped keep Garcia and Blanco connected.

Blanco, who was a manager for the men’s basketball team when he was a student, currently lives in Manhattan, but Garcia flew out from Chicago to continue their yearly tradition.

“It was always cool to follow the team, and we made a tradition to go to Arch Madness and all these tournaments to have some fun and meet up,” Garcia said.

The Ramblers would eventually fall to the Bonnies 75-74 in a double overtime thriller, but Garcia and Blanco continued to stand up and cheer for the team — even during a 10-minute scoring drought lasting through the end of regulation.

After the game, Loyola head coach Drew Valentine spoke to the Rambler fans’ reaction to his team losing the 15-point lead they held in the first half.

“When you lose the lead the way that we lost it, it almost seemed like the air was taken out of our crowd and the energy and the passion from the gym,” Valentine said.

St. Bonaventure’s redshirt fourth-year guard Daryl Banks III — who scored 22 points and went 12 for 12 at the stripe — said fans helped push them through the game.

“We needed them in a game like this — double overtime, game going down to crunch time,” Banks III said. “We needed that energy from them, and they came and brought it, and that helped us a lot.”

Nick Morabito, who’s pursuing a masters of business administration at St. Bonaventure, was watching the Loyola game during class March 14 before making the 5.5 hour drive to Brooklyn for the next game.

“Our alumni come out every weekend,” Morabito said. “I’ll travel anywhere for the Bonnies.”

Even though the Bonnies’ head coach Mark Schmidt said their team doesn’t play for the metropolitan area, Morabito said he was proud his school was the last New York team left in the A-10 tournament, as Fordham University was eliminated by Virginia Commonwealth University 69-62 in the second round March 13.

While No. 7 St. Bonaventure completed the upset against No. 2 Loyola, No. 6 Duquesne University did the same against the No. 3 University of Dayton, knocking the Flyers out during the quarterfinal 65-57. 

Madison Otto, a third-year co-captain of the Duquesne cheer team, said she was happy the Dukes were getting recognition for their hard work. 

Cheer co-captain and early education major Samantha Schnitgen said her and Otto had been to the two previous A-10 tournaments and bore witness to the wins and losses. Duquesne’s season sputtered out of the gates with a 0-5 start in conference play.

“It’s been a way to get involved with the school in a way that our education doesn’t allow us to,” Schnitgen said. “Being able to go on a trip like this with the school and represent just means a lot.”

Duquesne continued their run and defeated St. Bonaventure in commanding fashion 70-60. They advanced to face VCU on St. Patrick’s Day for the championship, with a chance to win a bid to the NCAA tournament.

VCU’s pep band — The Peppas — featured an electric guitar, a full drum set, tubas and flutes and commanded the attention of the Barclays Center during pre-game and timeouts.

Alto saxophonist and fourth-year chemistry major at VCU Luke Connolly is one of the longest standing members of the team, joining during his first year. 

“This is the most school spirit VCU has is these basketball team,” Connolly said. “Coming here, you really do feel like a Ram.”

Sean Bairstow, a graduate guard and forward for the Rams, said the fans helped him during a play in the final minutes of their 66-60 semifinal victory over Saint Joseph’s University. 

“It just gives you more energy,” he said. “There was even a guy, when I was inbounding the ball, telling me I could throw it into the backcourt — and that actually help

Joe Bowman, a 1983 VCU graduate, said he’s been to every home game this season and thinks the “fans are critical” to team success.

“The fans travel well and the team feeds off the fans, whether it’s a home game or on the road,” Bowman said before the game, hopeful his team would become back-to-back A-10 champions,

But the confetti fell on Duquesne as they dashed VCU’s hopes with a 57-51 victory in a low-scoring, scrappy championship match. 

In his post-game interview, Dukes’ head coach Kieth Dambrot reflected on his time at Duquesne and the impact his family had on his decision to coach in Pittsburgh.

“I’m just happy for my family and our players and our fans,” said Dambrot, who announced he will retire following the NCAA tournament.

Duquesne punched their ticket to March Madness for the first time in 47 years when the Dukes won the first ever A-10 men’s basketball championship in 1977.

Featured image by Austin Hojdar | The Phoenix