New London — They arrived back on campus at 2 a.m. last Friday, equal parts pooped and pumped about Matt Finke's buzzer beater in the woods of New Hampshire that sent Mitchell College to the conference tournament championship game. Funny thing, though, about tomorrows: They have this habit of showing up.

"We're playing Newbury Saturday for the championship. We get to practice Friday and they're dead," Mitchell coach Todd Peretz was saying from his office Monday, the place where he'd learn the Mariners' dance partner (Swarthmore) in the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament. "I'm thinking, 'how do I get these guys going?'"

Ah, but it is a college campus, after all, so if we can't generate some ingenuity here ...

"I told all the kids to close their eyes," Peretz said. "I run back to my (adjacent) office and get the net we cut down after the 2014 (NECC) championship game."

Peretz came running back into the gym with the net around his neck, yelling and screaming like a hyena. His players looked at him quizzically, as if perhaps Peretz was, you know, missing a few buttons on his remote.

"I told them that if we didn't practice (celebrating) today, we wouldn't know what to do tomorrow," he said. "They loved that. From that moment, it was like 'bang.'"

From that moment, Peretz's energy ran like a current through his players, who outlasted Newbury in overtime, earning Mitchell its second New England Collegiate Conference title in the past five years. So much for the lesson that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The Mariners ran in figure eights all year, but still managed to find their way to the celebratory party Saturday night at (former Day Player of the Year and Mitchell sophomore) Landon Peabody's house.

"We didn't take the easiest path here. I don't think we've done anything easy all year," Peretz said. "But the last few days have been great. Amazing how many friends and former players have reached out. 'Coach, congrats on winning the championship, now can you send me a shirt?'

"I got text messages from former players at like 6 in the morning. When they were playing here, I'd get them at 6 a.m. and they were just rolling in from the night before. Now it's 6 a.m. and they're going to work."

Speaking of going to work: Saturday's final stat line from senior Domenico (Dom) Santiago — who made his way to Montauk Ave. via Port St. Lucie Fla. — 16 points and 25 rebounds in all 45 minutes. Now you know why the big fella got to take the cup-shaped conference tournament trophy with him Saturday night and perhaps pour some lemonade in it.

"We brought him here on his visit in the spring," Peretz said, alluding to how Santiago originally decided to stay in Florida at a junior college. "Dom hung out and watched some softball games. From Day 1, he was a magnet. Athletes, non-athletes, faculty, staff ... he has this ability to reach out to everybody."

Santiago's 45 minutes didn't come at the tortoise's pace, either. Peretz quickly adopted predecessor Rich Conover's enduring theory of basketball: shoot it before you turn it over. The Mariners run, run and run a little more, as if they're all double parked.

"My first year here (1998) we were 4-8 at the break and (athletic director) Doug Yarnall would pop in to practice on occasion," Peretz said. "I was coming from Old Lyme (High) where we had to devise things that would create opportunities for the players. When I came here, we had kids with different skill sets and better athleticism.

"Doug said to me, 'I think you're trying to coach too much. You've got to back off a little bit.' At the time, he's the guy who hired me, he's the guy who could ask me to leave as well. So I listened. We let them go in the second semester and went 13-1. I give Doug the credit. Now from a recruiting standpoint, the kids love to play this style. We're no Princeton."

Mitchell adds to the example that Div. III basketball, in and out of New London, plays at a far higher level than many of us fathom. (Especially parents who think their kid is the next Kobe.)

"Locally, I think people need to get out and see these teams play. More so even at Conn and Coast Guard, whose conferences are ranked a little higher than ours. There are outstanding teams that come through this city every year. They'd be eye openers to a lot of people. Anyone who thinks high school is here and Div. III is only one more rung up on the ladder? They couldn't be any further from the truth."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro