For the first time in the history of Notre Dame College men's basketball the Falcons will be going to the NCAA tournament. They will be the six seed in the Atlantic region hosted by Indiana (Pa.) NDC will play at noon on Saturday against third seeded Virginia State inside the Kovalchick Sports Complex. NDC has had basketball since 2001.
They were in the NAIA at the time. The Falcons joined the NCAA Division 2 ranks as an independent program in 2012-13 before joining the Mountain East Conference in 2013-14 season.
senior Will Vorhees talked about making it to the tournament:
" We took it out of the committee's hands. I am at a loss for words.We play with a refuse to lose attitude." Vorhees said.
Coach Tim Koenig talked about it as well:
" It was a dream. It was a goal. It is just an unbelievable feeling." Koenig mentioned.
Vorhees is the guy who gets all the accolades for NDC but as coach Koenig said it is a whole team effort:
We have trust in our whole team.
"We have a great group of guys. The whole group." Koenig said.
It has been a roller coaster of a season in South Euclid. From the last second win in the Conference Challenge over Slippery Rock that began the year to Sunday's Conference Championship clinching win over West Liberty in Wheeling. The Falcons have had plenty of bumps along the road. Their was the home opening loss to Roberts Wesleyan, and the crushing 108-106 loss to West Virginia State when they blew a 27 point lead just to name a couple. The lineup has changed. When you take a gander at the box score from the home opener against Roberts Wesleyan back in November Hodges played only seven minutes. Coming from a different program it took a little while to fit in with this group.
Hodges talked about the journey thus far:
" Coming in from junior college I knew the task would be a lot harder to get to the national tournament. I struggled last year (at Dodge City Community College in Kansas-) and at times I questioned myself. I even questioned at some points if I even wanted to play basketball anymore. Then to have this sudden change and win the conference tournament was the icing on the cake for everything I went thru last season. This team is family and we will remember the second that horn went off for the rest of our lives." Hodges stated.
The lineup has changed dramatically. Hodges being a walk on worked his way into the starting lineup. Jacob Sala who played 17 minutes in that game and started ended up red-shirting this season after suffering a knee injury. Jack Kelsheimer and Levi Frankland would also go down with injuries early in the season and become red-shirts. Vorhees and Sanders are the two who have been in the starting lineup all season long. Larenz Thurman was injured in the exhibition game against Wright State and missed the first three games of the regular season. Another guy who has had his up's and downs this season is senior forward Angelo Cugini:
" Coming from a different school my sophomore year (Alderson-Broadus-) I had no idea what to expect. When I would play against last year it was a great learning experience for everyone despite how difficult a year it was. That's what makes this journey that much sweeter. I get to do it with my family. The guys that are on the court I have nothing but love for them, and will remember every moment." Cugini said.
Vorhees talked about this group:
"This is the most talented team that I have been a part of since I have been here. We have a great mix of young legs to go along with the experienced guys that we have." Vorhees mentioned.
Cugini agreed:
" In all the years that I have been playing basketball in my life I have never been a part of a team that has better chemistry than this group does."
Vorhees expanded on his thoughts:
" This has been a goal of mine since I came to NDC- to win a conference championship. Something felt different about this group than all my other years. I don't know if it is how close we got so quickly or what, but for whatever reason this group felt special. We knew we could achieve this and we did"!
All the players on this team would agree on one thing. It is a twitter hashtag that has become part of the Falcons tournament run since the weekend began at the Mountain East Conference Tournament in Wheeling last weekend:
#We Not Done Yet
All the fun begins again on Saturday.
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