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La Salle keeping cool under Sweet 16 pressure

03/28/2013, 1:30pm EDT

By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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When they take the court at the Staples Center, the La Salle Explorers are both out of place and right where they belong.

The home court of the historic Lakers and high-flying Clippers is a long way from the cozy confines of Tom Gola Arena, literally (2,700 miles as the car drives) and figuratively. And when the Sweet 16 game between La Salle and Wichita State tips off on Thursday night the streets of Philadelphia will seem quite a ways away indeed.

But this isn’t a team that’s in awe of the moment, though “surreal” would certainly describe the circumstances. Like they have been all year, the Explorers continue to stay loose and enjoy the moment, even as the media attention and hype surround the team grows expotentially.

“We’ve had this same goal since the summer,” junior guard Sam Mills said after the team practiced on Wednesday. “Overall we just worked hard for this goal, so there’s no surprise for us.”

Even though they were picked seventh in the Atlantic 10’s preseason poll, even though they hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 1990 and hadn’t won multiple games since 1955, this is where the Explorers really thought their season could take them.

Crazy? Maybe a little bit. But the pieces were there.

Ramon Galloway, the 6-foot-4 senior guard with NBA-level ups and a killer 3-point shot. Tyreek Duren, the vastly underrated junior who controls the pace of the game as well as any point guard in the country. Mills and D.J. Peterson are both more-than-capable shooters and defenders who demand respect from opposing defenses.

Then you throw in Ty Garland, the Philadelphia high school and playground legend who scored 2000 points at Bartram High before spending two years at Virginia Tech, as a mid-season transfer, and there was clearly some serious talent at 20th and Olney.

With those guards, plus the way sophomore forwards Jerrell Wright and Steve Zack had advanced since their freshmen seasons, La Salle started playing the best basketball the school had seen in quite some time.

Down went No. 9 Butler, 54-53. Down went No. 19 Virginia Commonwealth, on the road, 69-61.

And then, right as it looked like La Salle had set themselves up for sure inclusion in the NCAA Tournament, Zack went down with a foot injury three games from the end of the regular season. The shorthanded Explorers lost their season finale to Saint Louis and their A-10 quarterfinal with Butler by a combined 35 points, and Selection Sunday made them wait until the very end to find they were the second-to-last team included, as a 13-seed with a play-in game just to reach the Round of 64.

You know the rest now, as does whole country by this point.

Down went Boise State, 80-71. Down went Kansas State, 63-61. And then came the “Southwest Philly Floater,” and down went Mississippi 76-74.

"We want to be praised for what we're doing, but we also don't want to get caught up into that," Galloway said. "We just want to keep playing, and keep winning, and keep getting these wins.

"We can't focus on being on TV all the time. If we do what we have to do, we'll get our credit where it's due."

Displaying the type of Philadelphia toughness and grit that every ballplayer from the city claims to have but only some can truly show, Garland, Galloway and Duren have gotten 10th-year head coach John Giannini to a place he hasn’t been since he was coached the Division III National Champions at Rowan College back in the mid-90s.

This time it’s the Sweet 16 of the Division I championship, however. March Madness. The Staples Center. Kobe Bryant’s home court, and the team from Philly that’s playing on it. The team that both should be there and shouldn’t be there. But here they are.

They’re not letting the moment get to them, like they didn’t in Dayton and Kansas City. Even though LA is no KC, the Explorers continue to just be themselves, joking up on the press conference podium even as writers from every major national publication poked and prodded at their personalities, trying to find out what exactly this team is.

“We’ve got another game to take care of and win,” Galloway said, “so even though we’re glad that we’re making history and we’re bringing La Salle back to making sure everybody knows who La Salle is, we still have a task at hand, and that’s beating Wichita State.”

If they do, a matchup with either Arizona or Ohio State--two national powerhouses--awaits. Historically, La Salle wouldn’t usually belong in the Elite 8 with either of them. This year, they do.

It’s right where they belong.