Drexel head coach Chris Bates will not talk to his team about it. The players rarely, if ever, speak of it. But everyone in the program knows that if the season ended today, Drexel would have a strong case to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time in the team’s 60-year history.

‘It would validate the work that has been done and the foundation that has been built,’ Bates said. ‘This does not happen overnight.’

Barring a Colonial Athletic Association tournament championship and subsequent automatic bid, the Dragons are a bubble team. During the year, Drexel has built a strong tournament resume: a 10-4 record, a No. 18 ranking in the latest Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll, an RPI of 22 and a key win over then-No. 1 Virginia. Last week, Inside Lacrosse projected Drexel to receive an at-large bid to the 16-team tournament. But after a loss to Towson on Saturday, Drexel currently looks just short of qualifying.

No one can truly predict what the selection committee will do, and numbers alone will not get a team in. Just ask the Drexel teams of 1998 (12-2), 1978 (10-2) and 1972 (11-3). The difference this year was the season-opening upset over Virginia, a game that became more than just a rsum line for Drexel.

‘When you beat a powerhouse like Virginia, you just gain a lot of confidence and you know that you can play with anyone in the country,’ junior defenseman Steve Grossi said.

While beating the defending NCAA champion to open your season is always a positive, Bates said the following game – a loss to Lehigh – had just as large of a positive impact on the rest of the season. Bates said that the loss gave his team perspective and helped team work ethic, and a sound 16-5 loss to Notre Dame three weeks later did the same thing.

‘We may not be in the same position if we beat Lehigh,’ Bates said. ‘Notre Dame handled us pretty well. So we’ve had some opportunities to do some soul searching and be pretty humbled and it’s a group that doesn’t take anything for granted, and we have a work ethic that dictates that we want to get better every day.’

Just like in basketball, a committee selects who will play in the NCAA tournament, taking into account record, RPI and strength of schedule. The field will be announced on selection Sunday, May 6. But while Drexel may be huddled around a TV set, just like numerous other teams around the country, none of them are in a position quite like the Dragons.

The Dragons are sticking to the mantra of ‘one game at a time’ as their season winds down and the postseason approaches. The team has one regular-season game remaining before the CAA playoffs next week.

But talk of the big picture is not heard in the locker room. Grossi and senior defenseman Adam Crystal kept repeating the phrase, ‘the biggest game of the year is the next one you’re playing.’ Both are keeping the team’s thoughts away from recent defeats or from looking past future opponents. But even if Bates won’t discuss his team’s NCAA tournament expectations with his players, he knows what a berth would mean for the program.

‘One thing that our coach harps on a lot is the history of the program and the legacy, so we’re well aware of our history and the guys that played here before,’ Crystal said. ‘We have a lot of alumni that are around the games and e-mail us, so it’s not just us that are playing for this spot but everyone who has ever put a jersey on.’

Bubble WatchNobody is in yet, but when conference tournaments start next week the field of 16 will begin to take form. After the seven automatic qualifiers are handed out to conference champions, nine at-large bids will remain. Of those bids, the Atlantic Coast Conference will likely send three or four teams, and the Ivy League will likely add at least one more. Independent teams could fill two slots if Syracuse wins out, leaving two highly contested spots. Let the bubble breakdown begin.

LoyolaDespite a 6-4 record, Loyola has a strong chance of making the tournament with an even mix of good numbers and quality wins. With the fifth-best strength of schedule and an RPI of 13, a win over Syracuse may put the Greyhounds over the top – barring a late-season collapse.

PennsylvaniaPennsylvania is only 6-6, but that shows how strong Ivy League has been this year with Cornell and Princeton both in the top 10. And a SOS of seven helps the Quakers. But what holds them back is the lack of a defining win – none against the top 20.

University of Maryland-Baltimore CountyUMBC has a fairly balanced tournament rsum: good numbers (8-4 record, 15 RPI, 38 SOS) and good wins (Towson, Pennsylvania). It will be a tough decision for the committee: Penn has good numbers, Drexel has a good record and a defining win, and UMBC has a little of both.

Published on April 24, 2007 at 12:00 pm