This Cinderella shouldn't shock you

Mar 15, 2023

Angelina Nardolillo is one of a balanced group of scorers for Rhode Island College.
Rhode Island College athletics photo

By Ryan Scott
D3hoops.com

Rhode Island College is in the Division III women’s basketball Final Four. That may be a shock to some fans across the country, but, believe it or not, this is precisely how it’s supposed to work.

“[This success] is not an accident,” says head coach Jenna Cosgrove, “we just haven’t had the chance to prove it.”

Cosgrove has built the program over six years with a solid foundation and gradual improvement. She brings in talented, competitive players and develops them, helping the team come together and perform better than the sum of their parts.

You know, what every coach is trying to do.

Sophomore point guard Madison Medbury explains: “Some might call it a Cinderella run, but when we’re in the game we’re just doing what we’re doing. We’re not shocked that we’re winning.”

Others might be a little shocked. This same Babson squad, whom the Anchorwomen dispatched 60-47 in the round of eight, had beaten RIC in Providence by 28 in November. That came just days after a 35-point drubbing at Smith, the only two games against ranked opponents in RIC’s regular season schedule.

The team stormed through the Little East Conference, though, dropping just one game, on the road, to second-place Eastern Connecticut, while battling illness, but still there were few believers outside of Rhode Island.

Cosgrove’s squad won nine games in her first season, which doubled to 18 in the second. That year, the current group of seniors signed on and set the stage for future success.

“When they started, the program did not look like it does today,” says sophomore big, Angelina Nardolillo. “For them to leave knowing what they did for this program is so important, so continuing this success for them is really important to me.”

Adds Medbury: “They all bring something different to the table that we need to be successful.”

This is an understatement. You’ll be hard-pressed to find any team in the country as balanced as Rhode Island College. Senior Izabelle Booth leads the teams in scoring, rebounds, and 3-point shooting, but just barely on every count. Six players average between seven and 12 points per game, four average six or seven rebounds, five average two assists per game. The ball really moves on offense, which makes this squad tough to stop.

“I’m not one who likes to live and die by the three,” says Cosgrove. A look at the box scores from earlier in the season compared to more recent games shows a real balancing of the inside and outside game — but the key to this run is rebounding.

“We knew we could not beat Scranton without being plus-10 or plus-15 on the boards,” says Cosgrove. But they did knock off the undefeated Royals, in Scranton, with a 46-31 rebound advantage.

The Scranton win made everyone sit up and take notice, but big upsets in the first weekend aren’t unheard of. Beating Chicago and Babson, not just barely, but leading through most of both contests, is what will get them ranked for the first time ever, if not a national championship to boot.

Again, it might feel fast, but Cosgrove’s crew made the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time and despite the goal of just winning one March game this year, winning four is what solid, experienced programs should do.

The difference is that we don’t always expect it from the Little East Conference. NCAA Division III women’s basketball has often been a playground for the blueblood programs, with the occasional interloper sneaking in now and then.

That’s changing.

Rhode Island College plans to stick around; they’re built for it.

Cosgrove explains, “I played D-III and coached D-I, the challenge is how to get an extraordinary kid who’s going to fall short of that scholarship and help them succeed at this level. Rhode Island College is an affordable school in a good location, surrounded by New England talent. We offer reduced tuition to every student from the region. If you can build something and sell it, you can get those kids and have them be a part of something special, with a hometown feel.”

The hometown is sure embracing this run. Rhode Island College had a crowd at Babson to rival the hosts and they may well have the largest contingent at Trinity this weekend. Players and coaches are getting recognized and congratulated around town and, with local players, friends and family will easily be able to make the trip.

The matchup won’t be easy, though. The Anchorwomen already beat one undefeated squad this tournament and now get matched up with the chaos that is 30-0 Christopher Newport, a team with length, depth, talent, and experience, who often runs over opponents (winning by an average of more than 30 points this season).

“I don’t know if Maddy knows what’s coming,” says Cosgrove, of the vaunted CNU full-court press. “What they do is try to create complete chaos and fluster teams. We have to be prepared for that. We have a lot of good ball handlers and we’ve been playing our most composed basketball and our most confident.”

CNU is not bad at anything, but they’re not exceptionally strong on the boards and they’re missing their best rebounder, Anaya Simmons, who has been sidelined with injury. This national semifinal may come down to whether Rhode Island College can figure out the right balance between crashing the glass and getting back to prevent CNU’s transition offense.

Cosgrove isn’t underestimating the top seed, but also isn’t backing down. “They have a lot of weapons. They have size and extreme speed. The story of us has been how we show up. With our energy, our teamwork, our confidence and composure, we’ve shown up better than anyone else. They’re going to try and speed up our game on both ends and we have to try and slow them down.”

It sounds a little bit like coach-speak — play our game, don’t let them play theirs, teamwork, intensity, don’t make mistakes — that’s how any team approaches a big game. That’s precisely the point. Rhode Island College is here because they’ve put in the work and they’ve executed the plan. It’s a special experience, but there’s no special sauce.

Says Nardolillo: “We’re playing our game and we’re having fun. That’s all that matters.”