Rolling with the punches

Northmen have new coach, new starting five

NORTH SMITHFIELD — There was a comforting sense of familiarity every time you went to see the North Smithfield girls basketball team play over the last four seasons.

From point guard Meg Masi, to affable shooting guard Calla Puccetti, to steadying center Laura Matchett, to energy wing Sadie Crozier, the Northmen proved to be consistently formidable for the last four seasons.

But kids move on to college and a new dawn breaks at Lovett Gymnasium.

Not just on the court, but also on the sideline.

Along with those four talented seniors, the team also lost its head coach for the last eight seasons, Ariana DiPaola, who stepped down to start a family with her husband and NS boys basketball coach, Brandon DiPaola.

A familiar face is succeeding DiPaola. Gary Harnois is excited to grow with a talented core of young kids who are short on experience, but are eager to show off all the work they put in during the offseason.

“We’re traveling a new road with all of the kids,” said Harnois, who spent the last seven seasons as DiPaola’s volunteer assistant coach. “They’re ready for the challenge. Fortunately, Coach Ari and I are similarly minded people, so what she was doing I supported and I believed in. The program is not going to deviate too far from where it was at.

“There are going to be some differences I apply to the team from last year. Everyone has to be accountable from one through nine on the varsity team. Everyone is going to get their opportunity and they knew that in some league.”

There was a general unhappiness with the fact that somebody was always third on the outside looking in,” former Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said.

Former Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany was a playoff opponent — or at least skeptic — for years, but even he grew weary of defending the BCS.

“Everybody threw confetti when (the BCS) happened, but within three years it was getting killed,” Delany said.

Delany and the late former Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive, a playoff advocate, were instrumental in creating the current four-team format. The CFP debuted in 2014 with a 12-year contract, but less than halfway through it became apparent that fear of missing out had grown exponentially from the BCS days.

Bowlsby recalled Delany lamenting about how much more difficult it was to stomach being fifth in the selection committee’s CFP rankings than it was being third in the BCS standings.

“It’s hard being the one left out and you’re drawing conclusions based on very thin evidence a lot of the time,” Bowlsby said.

Delany compared the latest expansion of the playoff to NCAA men’s basketball tournament expansion from 1975-85, when the field doubled from 32 to 64 teams. Much like the CFP now, that expansion wasn’t so much about making sure a potential champion wasn’t left out.

It was about increasing participation.

“It made it a truly national event,” Delany said.

The latest plan to expand the playoff was unveiled in June 2021, but conference commissioners could not come to the unanimous consensus needed to push it forward. Expansion for the 2024 season was pronounced dead back in February.

“Getting from four to 12 didn’t have to be this difficult,” said Bowlsby, who was part of the four-person working group that spent more than two years developing the 12-team plan.

University presidents and chancellors who oversee the CFP stepped in and revived the process over the summer. They approved the original plan for use by 2026, and directed the commissioners to try to expand by 2024.

No longer haggling over the format, the commissioners needed to work through when and where the games will be played and whether bowl partners and championship game host cities could accommodate a change in schedule for 2024 and 2025.

The Rose Bowl issue was the last to be settled, as organizers for the 120-year-old bowl game were hoping to get some assurances from the CFP that they would keep their valuable New Year’s Day time when new contracts go into effect in 2026.

CFP officials balked. Facing the possibility of being painted as an obstructionist and potentially being shut out of the expanded playoff in the long term, the Rose Bowl agreed to move forward in good faith.

“It’s our intent to keep the Rose Bowl game on Jan. 1,» said Laura Farber, chairwoman of the Rose Bowl Management Committee. «But we’ll remain flexible in scheduling as needed.”

That’s important with how quickly things are moving in college football.

Delany speculated it was unlikely the next CFP contract would be as long as the last. He also noted that when the playoff becomes it a four-week event, it would be fairly easy to add four more teams.

Asked when to expect expansion to 16 teams, Hancock laughed.