A 'weird' end to North Central College's Sweet Sixteen season
The COVID-19 pandemic didn't just end North Central College's bid to win the Division III NCAA Tournament. It also finished Connor Raridon's time as a competitive basketball player.
Like so many seniors, Raridon, a 6-foot-6 forward from Neuqua Valley, saw his playing days come to an abrupt and unexpected end.
"It's hard to describe the mood," he said, just days after the NCAA canceled the rest of the season, including Friday's Sweet Sixteen game in Naperville against visiting Washington University. "You just get a bunch of texts from people feeling bad for you.
"But you're just kind of like, this is weird. I mean it's crazy. You hope obviously everyone is healthy, but it's a weird time, I guess. It's hard to put into words."
The easy part is describing the season the Cardinals were having. They finished 23-5, 14-2 in the CCIW, winning the conference regular-season championship for the first time since 2012.
They were sixth in the final D3hoops.com national rankings.
Raridon was named a coaches' association second-team All-America for a second time. He finished as the Cardinals' all-time assists leader and second in scoring, free throws made, free throws attempted and games played.
He also was named the CCIW Most Outstanding Player.
The end of the season was unusually difficult for his coach to accept.
"Speaking as a father it was really tough," said Cardinals coach Todd Raridon, Connor's dad. "It still is. Speaking from a coach's standpoint it was just as tough on me and tough on Connor as well. I was proud of what everybody did and I was proud of what Connor did."
The Cardinals didn't talk about it, but they had a chance to follow in the footsteps of the North Central football team, the NCAA Division III champion last fall.
"What (the football team) did was terrific. But we never talked about it. I felt like they have enough pressure on them to try to meet their goals," said Todd Raridon, North Central's coach the last 16 seasons.
The North Central players learned of the NCAA decision to end the season just after practice, from social media. Washington University was on the North Central court at the time in the middle of its practice and just stopped what it was doing.
The Cardinals met as a team shortly after finding out.
"It was really weird," Connor Raridon said. "There was obviously a lot of emotional guys and then we met as a team an hour or so later and talked about it. It was tough.
"It was really emotional. We knew everything was out of our control, which was the hardest part. We knew we had put in so much work to this season and guys sacrificed a lot to be where we are now. We were just saying how proud of everyone we are and how great a year it was kind of."
"It was a tough locker room talk, it really was," Todd Raridon added. "One of the hardest talks I've had to present, really, to a team. Everybody felt bad and there was absolutely zero that I could do to make them feel any better.
"Just how proud I was of them and a great year. They're all winners in my mind, and I felt like we overachieved. That's all you can ask of a coach is to have your team overachieve."
Connor Raridon has his bachelor's degree in finance and is working to finish a master's degree. His competitive playing days are done.
It would have been easier to accept the end had it come on the court.
"I think so," Connor Raridon said. "We've lost in the tournament before and it's definitely really sad. To not even get a chance to compete because I just know our team is so competitive and everyone just wanted to play.
"Whether it was a game in March or a game in November, everyone was just really fired up to play and not being able to even do that, guys didn't really know how to respond, to be honest."