Croskey takes the reins

Each day last spring, Justin Short asked him Calvin Croskey the same question: "Are you ready to run the team next year?"

Croskey always responded in the affirmative, but deep down the Osbourn Park High School graduate knew the challenges before him would test his resolve.

For one, Croskey was replacing Short as the point guard for Randolph-Macon College's men's basketball team and that in itself was a tall order. Short led the team in scoring and was a Division III All-American last season.

The other challenge facing Croskey was that he was still in some ways a novice at the point guard position. In high school, he played shooting guard and still had a scorer's mentality.

But now he was being asked to step in for one of the program's all-time best players at a spot he was still inexperienced in.

So the question remained: Are you ready to run the team?

Based on this year's results, the answer is clearly yes.

For the first time in the school's history as a Division III program, the Yellow Jackets are headed to the Final Four and Croskey's development into a floor leader has played a big part in that.

Only once before has a Randolph-Macon team made it that far and that was in the 1976-77 season when it reached the Division II final.

"He worked hard in practice to take control of the offense," Yellow Jackets head coach Nathan Davis said. "But he didn't play in a lot of games last year so he had to learn on the fly."

Croskey, the Cedar Run District co-MVP his senior season at Osbourn Park after leading the Yellow Jackets to an 18-9 record, came to Randolph-Macon because it was close enough to home and because he liked the school's academic background.

But as far as basketball was concerned, Croskey chose the Yellow Jackets over Virginia Wesleyan and Franklin & Marshall was because he knew he would get a chance to play right away once Short graduated. The only catch was that he would do so as a point guard.

Serving as an understudy to Short, Croskey didn't play a lot his freshman year, but he got the opportunity to educate himself on the ins and outs of playing the point.

During practice or in games or just off the court, Short was constantly teaching Croskey to step into that role. Sometimes it was displayed through his play, other times Short got in Croskey's face and in a constructive way hammered his point home.

"It really opened my eyes," Croskey said.

Croskey focused on making sure his teammates were all on the same page, especially on offense. He also worked hard at trying to figure out the best time to shoot and the best time to pass.

"I don't have all the answers, but I think I've done a good job of recognizing when to score myself," Croskey said.

Croskey credits game experience to that and he got more confident as the season went on.

In Randolph-Macon's four NCAA Tournament games, Croskey has averaged 12 points, while converting nine 3-pointers. For the season, he is second on the team with 44 3-pointers and is averaging 8.5 points per game.

On Saturday in the Yellow Jackets game against Franklin & Marshall, one of Croskey's two 3-pointers sparked an 11-2 run with 10:32 left in the second half that helped his team pull away for an eventual 73-65 victory in the regional final.

Afterward, Croskey celebrated by joining his teammates under the basket. It was a moment he'll never forget.

"It's the greatest feeling in the world to go to the Final Four, to cut down the nets, being the first team here in D-3 history to make the Final Four," Croskey said. "I wanted to share this moment with my teammates."

Spoken like a true point guard.

Sports editor David Fawcett can be reached at 703-878-8052.