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SPOKANE, Wash. — You might think there are a couple of bad memories DeAndre' Bembry would like to erase when Saint Joseph's finally takes the court late Friday night at the Spokane Arena for the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
But that wouldn't take into account the growth that Bembry has made from wide-eyed freshman to the recently crowned Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and the lessons learned on the journey.
Still, that Bembry — and some of his teammates who endured the same nightmares — can exorcise two demons at once is one of those strange circumstances that seem to happen most often in sports.
The last time the Hawks were in the NCAA Tournament, they let a late lead get away before losing to UConn, 89-81, in overtime.
That was in March of 2014.
Eight months later, Saint Joseph's was in Spokane for the third game of the 2014-15 season. The result was a whole different kind of pain. Gonzaga, with whom the Hawks had a spirited rivarly for four seasons in the early 2000s, put a 94-42 humiliation on them, the worst loss in school history.
So, if the eighth-seeded Hawks (27-7) can beat ninth-seeded Cincinnati (22-10) — tipoff is 9:57 p.m. on CBS — then those memories, if not forgotten, certainly wouldn't sting quite as much.
But to tell the truth, Bembry has never dwelled on those two games.
“We can take some positive things,” he said of the loss to UConn. “We played well, those guys did win the national championship, so being able to see our team can battle with those type of teams is definitely a confidence boost.
“It was two years ago, too,” he added.
Then came last year's 13-18 season, not the kind of record anyone has come to expect from a Phil Martelli-coached team.
“That's just how our season was last year. We got beat a lot of times,” Bembry said. “That game we just got beat really, really bad. It's a completely new year. You can't compare our team last year to this year.”
Returning to Spokane was never a thought.
“Of course we didn't want to come back — last year,” Bembry said. “This year is a different story. ... That was another good team and we were a bad team. This is a completely different team. Our confidence is completely different.”