Vann, Dunlap savor the moment with The Mount

By Dave Fawcett

Published: March 13, 2008

With around 40 seconds left and the outcome all but determined Wednesday in the Northeast Conference Tournament championship game, Chris Vann started crying. And he couldn’t stop.

When he went up for a rebound, tears fell. When he dribbled the ball, tears fell.

They were tears of joy and tears of sadness as the Mount St. Mary’s men’s basketball team put the finishing touches on a 68-55 win over Sacred Heart that put the Mountaineers in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999.

Vann, a 6-foot senior guard who is the team’s leading scorer, had overcome a lot during his four years at The Mount, including a sophomore season where he missed 18 of the final 19 games because of a hip injury. He even overcome adversity Wednesday as he was bogged down with early foul trouble and finished with four points. Vann averages just over 14 points a game.

And yet after the game, the Gar-Field High School graduate knew he had at least one more game in his college career to prepare for and it would be played on the biggest basketball stage any college player, especially those at small schools like Mount St. Mary’s, can aspire to. A win Wednesday, they are in. A loss, they are not.

But amid all the celebrating, Vann also thought of his friend Dustin Bauer, a 22-year-old senior at Mount St. Mary’s and a huge basketball fan who, according to the Associated Press, hurt his head Sunday morning following a fall in a residence hall. Bauer, who had been on life support, died Wednesday.

Vann took solace in the fact that Bauer’s lucky number was 13 and Mount St. Mary’s won by 13. He didn’t know if Bauer knew the final outcome of the game when he died, but it didn’t matter.

“Maybe he was watching the game in another place,“ Vann said. “I know he went to a better place.“

Mount St. Mary’s developed a national reputation for its men’s basketball program under the direction of Jim Phelan. Famous for wearing his bow ties, Phelan won 830 games in 49 years with the Mountaineers and holds the NCAA record for most seasons coached at the same school.

After Phelan retired in 2003, one of his assistants, Milan Brown, took over. One of Brown’s first hires was bringing Brion Dunlap on board as an assistant.

Both Brown and Dunlap had experience with the NCAA Tournament.

Brown played in it as a player at Howard and coached in it while an assistant at Old Dominion. Dunlap, a former Woodbridge High School standout who was the head boys basketball coach at Forest Park before heading to Mount St. Mary’s, played in two NCAA Tournaments as a point guard at Old Dominion.

“I would talk to them about my experiences and coach Brown would as well,“ Dunlap said. “We talked to them the night before the final about it and expressed what it meant to us. Words cannot explain what it means to be there.“

Since Brown took over, Mount St. Mary’s has had its ups and downs, but progress was being made. In the 2005-06 season, the Mountaineers finished 11-7 in the conference, their best league mark since the 1997-97 season.

This season, they believed they had the pieces to make a run at the championship, with Vann leading the way.

“When we recruited him, we told him he could be part of something special,“ Dunlap said.

The Mountaineers (18-14), who have won eight of their last nine, including a win over top-seeded Robert Morris in the tournament semifinals, relied on free throws (30 of 35) and solid defense Wednesday, especially down the stretch after Sacred Heart made a run.

After Wednesday’s victory, televised live by ESPN2, the team headed to a local restaurant in Fairfield, Connecticut. The restaurant wasn’t crowded, but onlookers clearly noticed excitement filling the place as the players and coaches continued to soak up the moment.

Dunlap said the place did not have ESPN, which left the team and the coaches explaining to the patrons why they were so happy.

“When we got there, they wanted to close, but they kept it open for us and we stayed there,“ Dunlap said.

Vann believes he got to bed maybe by 4 a.m. Dunlap by 3:30 a.m.

As the team made the five-and-a-half hour drive back to Emmitsburg Thursday, you could still hear the after effects of Wednesday’s celebration. Dunlap apologized as he tried to overcome his hoarse voice.

“I don’t have much left, but it’s all good,“ Dunlap said.

Vann, meanwhile, remained in a daze.

“It’s indescribable,“ Vann said. “When I got up this morning and got on the bus, it was like I was dreaming.“