A couple of years ago, I started going to lower division basketball games in NYC as a way to add new venues and see parts of the city I wouldn't otherwise. There are 16 such schools scattered throughout the five boroughs and I had visited all but one, leaving the College of Staten Island to the end.
The school is located in the northern part of the island and there is a bus that goes directly there from Central Park, taking about an hour with several stops in Manhattan. From the bus stop, you walk ten minutes on campus, passing a smokestack with CSI on it; the college predates the crime show series by 44 years.
The team plays out of the Sports and Recreation Center, a large building that includes a pool, squash courts, a practice gym, and the main gym. It is nicknamed The Tank because CSI's teams are the Dolphins, the same moniker as Mount St. Vincent on the other side of NYC in the Bronx. Tickets are $10 and must be bought online, either in advance or using a QR code at the venue. To reach the gym, go up the stairs next to the ticket table.
There are several features here that show that the athletic directors here really care about the school. The Hall of Fame has very detailed descriptions of each inductee, reading then all would take an hour or more.
Those who have scored 1,000 points for the school are honoured with separate boards for the men and women.
Every year, the school presents the Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award to the varsity team member having the highest GPA; this is something more schools should do in a prominent way.
Three former members of the basketball team died in the September 11 attacks and they are honoured as well; two were firefighters while the third had started working at the WTC the week before.
The school has several trophies from their days in Division III when they were members of CUNYAC; they made the jump to D-II in 2019 and became full members since 2022. They play in the East Coast Conference along with Queens College and seven other members.
There is also an incredible work of art here known as 'Marathon' by Red Grooms. The annual NYC Marathon starts on Staten Island just next to the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and this panoramic sculpture depicts about 300 faces beginning the race. Grooms is best known in the sporting world for the Miami Marlins home run sculpture that now resides outside the stadium, though I found this work much more appealing.
All of these features are on the second floor, and you can look down into the gym from here as the walkway goes directly above one basket. Capacity is 1,200 with bleachers on both sides that have CSI showing on them using light blue seats to contrast with the dark blue ones. There is a small snack stand here as well, with hot dogs and pretzels among other simple fare.
The school regularly won the CUNYAC title when it was a member, with coach Tony Petosa in charge for the majority of those championships. He is honoured with a banner as well.
In 2012, they beat Ithaca and Rhode Island to reach the Sectional semifinals, more commonly known as the Sweet Sixteen, where they lost to MIT.
Overall, The Tank is a great spot for lower level hoops because of all these features, especially the Grooms sculpture. Staten Island is home to Wagner College as well, and the two campuses are just 15 minutes away, so a doubleheader might be possible at some point. I would certainly recommend that option for sports travelers who want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and see some decent basketball as well.
The Game
I chose this game because the visitors were the 4th-ranked Daemen Wildcats (23-1, 11-0 ECC) while Staten Island (17-6, 8-3) had yet to lose at home. The Dolphins won the tip but Daemen's Justin Glover intercepted the ball in the backcourt and had an uncontested layup just two seconds in. And amazingly, the Wildcats never trailed or were tied after that.
Late in the half, JJ Chestnut sank a three for Staten Island to get within a pair, but Nakyhi Harris responded with a trey of his own as part of a 9-4 stretch for Daemen that ended the half with them up 35-28, a good football score on Super Bowl Sunday.
What chance Staten Island had disappeared almost immediately in the second half as they were stone cold early, allowing the Wildcats to go on a 10-0 run to start the period. The score would have been even more lopsided if Daemen could shoot free throws; they clanked 6 of their first 8 in the half and finished 9 of 19.
Not that mattered as CSI could not put together any sort of run. The lead never got back to single digits as Daemen cruised to an 89-75 win in a game that took just 1:39.
Daemen shot 36-62 (58.1%) to CSI's 27-63 (42.9%) and that was pretty much the difference. Glover and Zah Philipkoski led the victors with 17, while Chestnut had 18 in the loss.
By scoring just two seconds in and never trailing or being tied after that, the Wildcats led for 99.8% of the game, which has to be a record of some sort. Is it possible to score just 1 second into a game?
Notes
I arrived quite early and there was a women's game taking place (against Daemen as well) and of course, it went to overtime, forcing the men's game to start at 3:45 instead of 3:00. This was quite annoying as I was 90 minutes away from home and the Super Bowl kickoff was at 6:40. Still, I was able to watch the first quarter on my phone while taking the subway and got home in the second quarter, having missed very little as the first half was a bit of a dud.
Daemen's coach is Mike MacDonald, the same name as the Seahawks coach who won the Super Bowl.
Best,
Sean
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