Rams basketball

I am a huge Fordham sports fan. I've been to almost every football game since freshman year, including several in the pouring rain when we were a terrible team, and even one at Columbia when we lost by 30. (I will unabashedly say "we") This might not seem like such a big deal. You might be saying to yourself, gee, when I went to school, everyone went to all the games. But it takes a lot to be a dedicated Ram fan. There is probably a consistent 15-man student section at football games, despite Fordham winning the Patriot League last year. This year we're nearly winless in the conference but you've got to remember the good times.

Basketball season is when sports at Fordham really kicks in. Whereas the football team is Div 1-B, Rams basketball competes in Div1 in the Atlantic 10 conference, not a major one, but its up there. You'll usually have 2-4 teams in the NCAA tournament (see: Xavier) and it's competitive. Fordham is not a traditionally good basketball school, but former NC State star Derrick Whittenburg has put teams with a lot of potential on the court each of my first two years.

Basketball games are always packed, and the student section is a lot of fun. Freshman year we would toss baby dolls into the air to distract opponents from making free throws until they were banned when someone threw a doll onto the court during an ESPN game against UMass. But we sing the fight song and do the traditional "FU" chant, and have a generally ballin' time. Plus, the Rams were pretty good.

Last year was a major disappointment though. We started 5 seniors and were picked to finish 4th in the league (of 14) and compete for a tournament spot. Instead, the seniors disappointed and we finished 12th and got bounced embarrassingly in the first round of the conference tournament. Now, our star inside man Bryant Dunston is playing for a pro team in South Korea, and all the other big guns are scattered in international b-leagues. Instead of starting 5 seniors, we're starting one (who was on academic probation last year), our junior captain, a junior and a sophomore who averaged about 5 minutes a game, and a freshman point guard. Even more frightening, fan favorite but universally recognized clumsy big white dude senior Luke Devine gets significant playing time. When he made a free throw on Friday it was his first point since freshman year.

Still, despite the fact that the Rams were picked to finish last in the A10, fans expected a decent team on the floor. Jio Fontan, the point guard, was our biggest recruit ever, and captain Brenton Butler had been a clutch player in the past. Everyone hoped that Fordham would go back to surprising a lot of teams and playing well like they did two years ago when they finished 5th in the conference.

Friday's game at home against Columbia showed that was not going to happen. Columbia graduated 6 seniors, one more than Fordham, and its best player was hurt. But the Rams played absolutely terribly. Butler got into early foul trouble, Fontan went 1 for 12 from the field and 0 for 7 from the free throw line, and the team got outrebounded 2 to 1. Still, they led the entire game until the final two minutes when Columbia scored on a layup. The Rams kept battling, but in a mind-boggling move, Coach Whitt decided to have Fontan take a potentially-game-tying three pointer at the end instead of team leader Butler or freshman sensation Trey Blue, who had already put up 24 points. We lost of course, and, needless to say, no one was happy about it. It's one thing to lose to nationally ranked Villanova (by 40 points on Monday), but its another thing to lose to a crappy, rookie Ivy league team at our own game. I don't care who graduated, you cannot lose to Columbia at home.

I'm very glad to have given up the basketball beat for the newspaper this year, because I don't even WANT a front row seat to watch this mess that has become Fordham basketball, nor can I find the adjectives to describe how pathetic the team is. It's going to be a long year.