Jake Rhode was so overtowered by Pomona Pitzer's 6-6 guard Joe Cookson that the photographer couldn't even get Cookson's head in the frame. (Rhode scored 23 points anyway.) Photo by Steve Woltmann for Elmhurst athletics

By Riley Zayas
Managing Editor, True to the Cru

Two weeks ago, the outlook on Elmhurst’s 2022 NCAA Tournament run appeared grim. 

Despite playing this second-round matchup on their home court, the Bluejays trailed a very good Pomona-Pitzer team by 14 points at the half. Outscore the opposition by at least 14 over the next 20 minutes, or the season would end. No alternative. 

Elmhurst outscored the Sagehens by 20. 

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Pomona-Pitzer learned of Elmhurst’s late-game scoring ability the hard way. And even Calvin and Mary Hardin-Baylor, both somewhat prepared for the fact that the Bluejays would make a second-half run after trailing at halftime, struggled to keep coach John Baines’ experienced squad at bay. 

Three second-half comebacks later, Elmhurst is headed to Fort Wayne, as the program’s first Final Four team. 

“After what happened two years ago, I think it has been years in the making,” sixth-year senior Jake Rhode said, “of just having an opportunity to get back to the tournament and make the most of it.” 

Two years ago, before Covid wiped out the remainder of the 2020 tournament, Elmhurst was flying high. Led by Rhode, the Bluejays trounced Lycoming, 97-73, then Grove City by a similar margin, 84-66. Their next opponent was Pomona-Pitzer, in a Sweet 16 game that never occurred. 

“We felt like we really had a chance at it,” Rhode said. “We have a couple sixth-year guys and also some fifth-year guys that didn’t need to come back. We all made that decision where we wanted to get back to where we were and see how it played out.” 

Which made Baines’ job on the recruiting trail somewhat different from what it had been in past years.

“For me, part of this past year has been recruiting,” Baines said, “People say, ‘How’s recruiting going?’ I’m like ‘Really, it’s recruiting your own players’. There’s no freshman or transfer that’s going to be better than the guy we already have here.” 

Baines was fairly successful, too, because Elmhurst’s roster is littered with fifth and sixth-year seniors, players Baines refers to as the “Last Dancers,” who make up a team whose experience might be its best strength. In addition to Rhode, who leads the team with 17.6 points per game, 6-4 forward Jay Militello has started 31 games in his sixth collegiate season, and Lavon Thomas is in the midst of his fifth season in the program, serving a key role as an inside presence for a team that shoots 35 percent from three-point range. 

“They all made that choice to do it,” Baines said. “I’m so happy that we’re at this spot for them, because when you take that leap of faith and put your life on hold for another year, you hope it pays off for them. I think they’re seeing the fruits of their labor.” 

It is hard to measure the impact that level of experience has on a team. But there is no doubt it has had importance. Each of the four teams in Fort Wayne has been especially reliant on a particular senior, whether it be Jack Davidson at Wabash, Buzz Anthony manning the point at Randolph-Macon or Jason Ellis at Marietta. Where Elmhurst differs is that it has multiple players that can be relied upon, who all carry four-plus years of collegiate playing experience into the final week of the season. 

“Two years ago, we had a really good team, a very good team,” Baines said. “[Jake] was averaging about 20 a game. Now he’s averaging less points, but the depth of our roster is much better. Wes Hooker and Jonathan Zapinski played for us two years ago, but they were freshmen. Now, those guys are juniors and completely different level players.

“You look at how we score, we score in the low-80s, but we have Jake at 17 and Lavon at 12, and ... Jake has deferred some shooting because we have a lot of good players. It has really opened everything up for us.”

That depth was evident in Elmhurst’s Elite Eight 87-84 overtime win over Mary Hardin-Baylor, in which the bench accounted for 35 points. The increased depth has lightened the load placed on Rhode, who still plays a crucial role for the Bluejays at point guard, but is able to do what he does best, letting the game come to him. 

“I really always have tried to let the game come to me,” Rhode said. “I don’t like to force anything, and I don’t like taking bad shots, even though at times they may be warranted. When I get in the paint, and there’s bodies there, I really try to find the open guy.” 

That was the mentality it seems the entire team has taken as the Bluejays climbed back from halftime deficits on the road to Fort Wayne. Find the open guy and make the open shot. Baines joked that he needs to work on his pregame speeches to avoid Elmhurst digging itself into another first-half hole on Friday against Wabash, but all kidding aside, this is a team that prides itself on poise. And that poise, combined with the comeback ability, is something that Baines believes is fostered in the CCIW. 

“Our league is one of the best in the nation, and when we play our schedule and then a conference tourney [we grow a lot,” Baines said. “The last two times we’ve made the NCAA Tournament, we’ve played our way all the way to the CCIW championship game. Those are really high-level games. That’s the kind of stuff that has really prepared us for the NCAA Tournament.

“You get in the tournament and it’s not like the eyes are wide-open, like, ‘Wow, how are we going to beat these guys?’,” Baines said. “It’s more like, ‘What do we need to do to win this game?’ That’s not to say that other teams can’t beat you. They definitely can. It just means you know you’re going to have a close game, and you’re not intimidated by the moment.”