The last time a Rhode Island team made the NCAA Tournament was 2004, and it didn't work out well for Rob Sanders, Dwight Brewington and the PC Friars.

Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach

There will be good news – great news, in fact – this March when the NCAA Tournament makes its annual ascension to the top of the nation’s sporting consciousness.

For the first time in years, local college basketball fans will experience March Madness on an intimate level. We’ll hear the pep bands, watch some great players and own a reason to cut out of work early with a freshly filled-out bracket in hand.

Yet if the preseason coaches polls are any indication, none of the state’s Division I hoop teams will hear their names called on Selection Sunday. Again.

Providence College last sent one of its teams to the NCAAs in 2004. The Friars haven’t won a game in the tournament since 1997. The University of Rhode Island last played in the event in 1999. Brown’s only modern-day trip came in 1986.

If the three schools do indeed miss out again in the 2009-10 season, there is a consolation prize in store for their fans. For the first time since 1996, the Dunkin’ Donuts Center is hosting NCAA Tournament first- and second-round games. But while that weekend promises to feature exciting, sold-out affairs, it’ll really be like crashing someone else’s party.

“One of the worst feelings in the world for a coach is watching the NCAA Tournament when you’re not in it,” second-year PC coach Keno Davis said. “That’s everyone’s goal from the start of practice.”

If anyone knows the importance of playing in the NCAA Tournament, it’s Davis. He’s the first to admit that if his 2008 Drake University team didn’t win the Missouri Valley crown and advance to the tourney, he wouldn’t be coaching in the Big East at Providence today.

“That gave me the opportunity to hear from other schools, no question,” he says. “The tournament can legitimize your season, whether that’s fair or not. The buildup to the tournament, who’s getting in and who isn’t, helps make the sport exciting. Fans don’t seem to remember winning regular-season championships as much as how you did in the tournament. People remember the Sweet Sixteens and the Final Four teams.”

Former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has witnessed the importance of enjoying the NCAA’s party rise exponentially in the last 20 years. Once the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, Tranghese says, the stakes were raised. The tournament became truly national and the importance of being on the invite list, and doing well, rose with each passing year.

“It’s now attainable for more people,” said Tranghese, who spent five years on the NCAA men’s tournament committee. “Schools in small and mid-major leagues now feel they can be like Gonzaga or Siena and get into the field. What people miss is that unless you’re a marquee program, getting to the tournament is still very difficult.”

That difficulty is very real. Schools that take winning at basketball very seriously –– many of which spend much more money than PC or URI trying to do so –– are also in the midst of NCAA droughts. Included in that mix is everyone from Virginia (last invite in 2005), South Carolina (2004), St. John’s (2002), Houston (1992), Oregon State (1990) and Northwestern (never).

The collateral damage of too many misses is, quite simply, a pink slip for the head coach and even some athletic directors. “That’s how schools judge coaches. That’s the standard now. It’s put a whole new wave of pressure on coaches,” Tranghese said.

The damage done by these extended absences is palpable. Too many losing seasons or too many near-misses alienate fans, TV networks and, most importantly, recruits. Davis says that players he’s chasing now may not voice the question, but he knows they need to be assured that the Friars will compete for a spot in the NCAA Tournament once they join the program.

“You know it’s in their minds,” he says. “I’m selling what we’re going to be. To average (78.1 points) last year, 23rd in the country, showed a glimpse of how we want to play. They’ll see more of that fast-paced style this year, and that’s what recruits want to see.”

Since the Austin Croshere-God Shammgod-Ruben Garces crew played to within a whisker of the Final Four back in ’97, the Friars haven’t been able to sustain much of an existence on the national radar. The lone exception came in ’04, when Ryan Gomes carried the Friars on his back to as high as 12th in the polls. But a late-season swoon and first-round NCAA loss to Pacific badly stained that season. When coach Tim Welsh failed to return the Friars to the NCAAs over the next four seasons, he was let go.

URI has won 63 games over the last three seasons, the most victories in Rams history over that time span. Rhody entered the national polls in 2008 and challenged for the Atlantic 10 title in both 2007 and ’09. But really all that ardent Rams fans recall about each of the last three seasons is that their team ended the season playing in the NIT and not the NCAAs.

Coaches may not like the NCAA obsession, but they understand it. Rhody coach Jim Baron has lost valued stars such as Will Daniels, Kahiem Seawright and his son, Jimmy Baron, over the last two seasons, but he’s hopeful that a new veteran cast that includes Keith Cothran, Delroy James and Lamonte Ulmer can lead another Rams charge.

Davis led Welsh’s players to 19 wins and an upper-division Big East finish in his first season at PC. This season expectations are low as he welcomes seven newcomers, some of whom will stick around and form a foundation for what he hopes is a charge at what’s proven to be an elusive 16th berth in the NCAA Tournament for the Friars.

“I realize that (making the NCAAs) is a measuring stick, but it doesn’t do you any good to worry about it,” Davis said. “If you start thinking about your security or employment, it’s not good for what you’re really trying to do in building a program and getting your team better. No matter what is always swirling around you as a coach, those have to be the things you stay focused on.”

kmcnamar@projo.com