Usually, college basketball conference games don't begin until January, but sometimes you will get an outlier or two in December. I prefer conference matchups for my tour of the lower division gyms in NYC, because the home teams are usually not very good (NYU excluded) and non-conference opponents often win in blowouts. So when I saw that CCNY would be visiting Brooklyn College for some Friday night CUNYACtion, I decided to make the trip to West Quad Gymnasium, home of the Bulldogs. Naturally, it was a blowout. But more on that later.
I started my evening at the Rusty Nail, a cool bar about 10 minutes away from the college on foot. From there, Google Maps directed me to a spot on 23rd Street where entry to the campus is blocked by a gate, though you could see inside the gym itself (above). It only takes a couple of minutes to walk around to the main entrance of the building (below), which is off Bedford Avenue. As I approached, I looked up and saw some trophy cases on the second floor, so I made a point of going there first. And I'm sure glad I did.
The first thing I saw upstairs was the Athletics Hall of Fame, which adorns two walls that are separated by a long walkway. The only name I recognized was Stan Fischler, who has had a long career as a hockey reporter and broadcaster.
There are a couple of cylindrical trophy cases that highlight the school's accomplishments in basketball; the men's most recent conference championship came in 2020; they lost in the first round before the tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
In 1982, the team went to the Final Four of the Division III tournament, losing by a point to Potsdam State in the semifinal; this squad is honoured with a plaque here.
What surprised me were a couple of items from the world of baseball. A pair of seats from both old Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium are on display, each with a romantic description of those venerable old ballparks.
Most prominent, however, is a home plate purportedly from Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers before they moved to Los Angeles. At the bottom someone inscribed in red 'MAY WALTER O'MALLY (sic) ROAST IN HELL'. O'Malley was the Dodgers owner who moved the team out west and was obviously not a popular man in Brooklyn at the time. According to the label, which includes the provenance of the item, someone penciled in 'The Last Home Plate from Ebbets Field' on the reverse. Whether or not this home plate was actually used at Ebbets Field is debatable. The main home plate was presented to the mayor of Los Angeles by O'Malley, but there were six others (two in each bullpen, and two in the batting cages), so it is possible that this was one of them. Quite interesting to find this artifact here.
There is no charge to enter and no tickets are provided, but before entering the gym, you must show your ID to a security guard who writes your name on a sheet of paper. Perhaps this is how they count attendance? Whatever the case, this was another first for me; I felt like a misbehaving child.
Inside, there are ten rows of maroon benches on the one side, more than enough for the 136 hardy souls who had nothing better to do on a Friday evening. Banners are behind both baskets, while the far side sees another set of bleachers packed up against the wall. And that's it.
West Quad Gymnasium could use a name upgrade, but other than that, it is a great place for hoops, mostly because of those second floor displays in the lobby. If you are a baseball historian, maybe you can figure out the mystery of the home plate from Ebbets Field before checking out the Bulldogs on their home court.
The Game
Brooklyn was ranked 403rd of the 408 D-3 schools in efficiency, while CCNY was all the way up at 357. I don't know how this works because CCNY was 0-5 and Brooklyn 2-7, so I guess quality of opponents has something to do with it. The Beavers got out to a 12-7 lead but the Bulldogs responded with a 17-2 run capped by a triple from Thomas Hall. CCNY then scored 8 straight to get back into and the last few minutes was mostly fouls and free throws as the zebras were once again zealous. Brooklyn went to the locker room up 35-32, though the score was closer than it should have been because the Bulldogs were just 5 of 12 from the line.
The second half saw the Bulldogs notch the first 10 points as CCNY had five misses and four turnovers coming out of the break. And the Beavers just got worse from there. It didn't take long to realize that the entire team had gone ice cold. Every shot clanged out, if it was lucky enough to hit the rim. After a while, it became comical as they repeatedly missed from in close. Over 15 minutes, the Beavers scored just 5 points. Five! Certainly the worst shooting performance I've ever seen.
Brooklyn was up 74-41 with 1:55 to go and decided to be nice, allowing CCNY to score the last three points of the contest. There's the final below. CCNY went 3-28 (10.7%) including 0-9 from long range in the second half. Overall, those numbers were 13-62 and 2-26. No other stats mattered, it was just brutal to watch.
Justin Morety scored 20 of CCNY's 44 points, while Hall's 15 paced the Bulldogs. After the game, CCNY dropped to 357 in efficiency, still in front of Brooklyn at 370. A more reliable indicator might be the NPI (NCAA Power Index) where the Beavers are 397th while Brooklyn is 335th.
Notes
Out of the 14 D-III home games I have seen in the NYC area (including Sarah Lawrence), the hosts have gone 3-11. Lehman and Baruch were the only two to win before this one.
The College of Staten Island Dolphins are the last lower division school in NYC for me to visit. They are in the same conference as top-ranked Daemen, so I will wait for that game on Super Bowl Sunday to complete the quest.
Best,
Sean
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