Delco Madness: Disturbed by 14 seed, Prendie coach expects tourney success

With no doubt that he would enjoy a fulfilling Selection Monday and that his 1984-85 Archbishop Prendergast team would earn one of the 16 bids to the mythical Delco Madness girls basketball tournament, Lou Alleva faced only one decision.

Read the list from the top down, or from the bottom up?

Alleva’s mood would hang in the balance. And as it would happen, it would hardly be boosted when he finally began to thumb down the list from No. 1 to No. 2 to No. 3 to No. 4 … to No. 14, which is where his team would just barely squeeze into the field.

In the spirit of the event designed to reveal the top girls team in Delaware County history, Alleva would properly admit that the bid alone would not leave him satisfied.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “You know better than that.”

Such reactions were expected by the predictably undisturbed selection committee of Daily Times sports writers. That’s because it would have taken a certain competitive spirit to qualify for the field in the first place, with Delaware County having produced 40 Catholic League champions alone.

In that, Alleva assures that the Pandas, furious over the committee’s perceived disrespect, will make a run in the tournament, which will unfold in coming days in the Daily Times. Led by future college players Helen Koskinen (Villanova), Chris Marro (Rider) and Kelly Eckhardt (Rider), the Pandas rallied from a 14-point deficit to upend Archbishop Wood, 51-38, at St. Joseph’s University for the Catholic League championship.

“Helen got knocked to the ground and lost a contact lens,” recalled Alleva, who has retired from coaching and resides in Ambler. “She put it back in backwards and went on to make 10 out of 10 free throws late in the game. She said she wanted to put it back in the right way, but didn’t, because she kept making shots.”

As the mock tournament unfolds, it either will reveal that the committee had perfect vision … or that its views were a little blurry.

The ’85 Pandas will be in deep in Round 1 against the 1976 Darby-Colwyn team that went 25-0 and defeated Union, 50-38, for the Class B state championship in Hershey behind Debbie Bechta, Judy Dougherty and others. With much of that nucleus in place in 1977, D-C would run a winning streak to 50 before an overtime postseason loss to Carbondale.

That first-round match may begin to answer an eternal question about Delco girls basketball: How would the better smaller-school, neighborhood teams fare against those from the ever-dominant Catholic League? Alleva, for one, is concerned about one particular non-conference threat: The fifth-seeded 1983 Nether Providence Bulldogs, who will encounter the 2016 26-4 District 12-champion Cardinal O’Hara team in the always-tricky 5-vs.-12 matchup.

“I think the 1983 Nether Providence team with (Lisa) Cano and (Barb) Yost could have been a No. 1 seed,” Alleva said. “I coached against them twice. That team was unreal. You would get a defensive rebound and they would go into a full-court press right from that spot. John Smith was as good a coach as I’ve ever gone up against in my life.”

The Delco Madness tournament is full of great coaches, players and matchups.

And maybe even some bruised feelings.

“I couldn’t possibly look my players in the face and tell them they were a No. 14 seed,” Alleva said with appropriate horror. “They would come after me.”