SYRACUSE, NY (NCC News) — The Patriot League Championship matchup was one filled with history. The defending champions, the Bucknell Bison, were looking for their third consecutive league championship. On the other side, the Colgate Raiders were looking to win their first Patriot League championship since 1996. Most importantly, both teams were looking to secure their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
When the night concluded, it was the Raiders who made history, securing the Patriot League title and a national tournament bid, ending a 23-year drought which kept Colgate fans in Hamilton without a team to root for in March. The success of the men’s basketball team has lead a surge of community members rallying around the program.
The Colgate Bookstore was packed on Monday, with fans of the team looking for the latest merchandise and talking about the big news. Craig Wilson, the general merchandise manager of the Colgate Bookstore, saw fans bringing passion to the games down the stretch.
“The basketball court was packed, tremendous energy,” said Wilson. “I really feel like the community has come together in support of Colgate basketball, and they should. It’s been a great season, and we couldn’t be any prouder of the team.”
Central New York is often solely represented by the Syracuse Orange. This year, Colgate joins the field through their strong play, channeled from an underdog mentality.
“Colgate is a smaller school [than Syracuse] , it’s a little bit of a David and Goliath thing, which I think people appreciate that angle,” Wilson said. “They’ve worked hard, they have great coaching, and they deserve to be [in the tournament] .”
With the Patriot League Championship game falling on the week of spring break, some may have feared the fan support would have been lackluster. However, that wasn’t the case at the biggest game Cotterell Court has hosted in two decades.
“The energy level in the community has just been amazing,” Wilson said. “With the students being on spring break, with the Patriot League championship last week, the community really came together.”
The Raiders will begin their hopeful tournament run with a matchup against the second-seeded Tennessee Volunteers on Friday afternoon.
