PHILADELPHIA
Saint Peter’s played 13 home games this basketball season. Total attendance for those dates: 6,838.
North Carolina’s Smith Center seats 21,750, nearly seven times larger than the Peacocks’ 3,200-seat Run Baby Run Arena, the unique and awesome moniker a nod to the slogan adopted by the 1967-68 Saint Peter’s team that scored 100-plus points in victories over Marshall and Duke en route to the National Invitation Tournament semifinals.
But the irony of Sunday’s NCAA East Regional final between the Tar Heels and Peacocks here at the Wells Fargo Center is that the tiny Jesuit school from 90 miles up the Turnpike in Jersey City figures to have a decided home-court edge against the college basketball standard-bearer from Tobacco Road.
What’s that you say? Carolina’s superior talent and size will overwhelm Saint Peter’s no matter how many Peacocks faithful, loyal followers or recent converts, shoehorn into the building?
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Kentucky and Murray State probably thought the same in Indianapolis for the tournament’s first two rounds. Ditto Purdue here Friday night in the East semifinals, which drew a delirious, pro-Peacocks crowd of 20,136.
Saint Peter’s slayed them all, and Friday’s victory was especially sweet.
“Some of us had never played in front of that many people,” said Peacocks forward Clarence Rupert, a graduate of The Miller School near Charlottesville. “The feeling was amazing.”
Saint Peter’s is the first No. 15 seed to reach the Elite Eight, and Sunday it faces eighth-seeded North Carolina. The total of the two seeds, 23, shatters the previous tournament record of 20, established in 2018 when 11th-seeded Loyola of Chicago defeated No. 9 Kansas State to reach the Final Four and stamp the irresistible Sister Jean as a national celebrity.
But at this stage of the tournament, seeds are irrelevant. Indeed, two of the Peacocks’ victims, Kentucky and Purdue, defeated North Carolina during the regular season. So 8-point gambling line aside, dismiss any notion that Saint Peter’s will be intimidated by the sight of Carolina blue.
“They’re here for a reason,” said Tar Heels guard Caleb Love, who scored a career-high 30 points in Friday’s late East semifinal win over UCLA. “We don’t really pay attention to Cinderella or the seeding or whatever. We’re going to treat them as such. They’re another team that’s in our way.”
Saint Peter’s (22-11) has won 10 consecutive games, the nation’s longest winning streak, and defends fiercely, whether in full-court, man-to-man or half-court zone. Rupert and fellow starters KC Ndefo and Hassan Drame were dwarfed by Purdue’s frontcourt yet still kept the Boilermakers’ bigs in check.
Still, there’s no escaping the contrasts between the programs.
Sunday marks the Tar Heels’ 178th NCAA tournament game and 30th Elite Eight contest — they’ve reached a record 20 Final Fours. The Peacocks are playing in their seventh NCAA tournament game, and in three previous appearances had not advanced in the bracket.
Research maven Rob Daniels, a former Charlottesville Daily Progress and Greensboro News & Record scribe, discovered that Saint Peter’s, with an undergraduate enrollment of about 2,400, is the fifth-smallest school to reach a regional final. The smaller schools are VMI, St. Bonaventure, Canisius and, most recently, Davidson in 2008 with Steph Curry.
Advance to the Final Four in New Orleans, and the Peacocks’ legendary stature will grow, much like George Mason’s, VCU’s, Butler’s and Loyola of Chicago’s before them. And even as his players basked in defeating Purdue, Saint Peter’s coach Shaheen Holloway had a message.
“Yo!” he said, according to Rupert. “We’re not done. We’re supposed to be here.”
North Carolina (27-9) has won nine of its past 10 and always expects to compete on this stage. Moreover, thanks to Virginia and Virginia Tech, the Tar Heels are familiar with opponents that are deliberate on offense and bruising on defense.
“It may have been naive or delusional of us,” UNC forward Armando Bacot (Trinity Episcopal) said, “but at every point of the season we always thought and knew we were going to make it this far. I could show you how even in our group text, we could get blown out and we’re still thinking like we’re going to turn it around. ... So just to really get to that point and have a kind of I-told-you-so moment would be special.”
Twitter: @ByDavidTeel
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