Basketball's a game of emotions.

The sharp pain it leaves in a player's stomach after a last-second loss can remain for days, eating at him. The highs cajoled by a coach's locker room speech at the half can bring about a victory and turn a season around. It's all part of the game. Each game. Even practice.

And over the course of a season, a team can experience every feeling on the emotional range.

Then, there's McDaniel College basketball.

The Green Terror has been through more than any member of the program bargained for.

The squad came into the 2006-07 season having won just 20 games over the previous four years.

But things were looking up. Coach Bob Flynn, entering his second season, had players believing in themselves. Upperclassmen like Brett Foelber and Jemar Daniel knew they had talent. And they had a goal.

Making the Centennial Conference playoffs was a legitimate possibility.

The team opened the season 7-6, the Green Terror's best start in 20 years.

Emotions were running high.

Then, in the span of one day, everything changed.

Flynn – the man the players trusted, began to admire and looked to as their leader – was gone.

At just 49 years old, the coach died after having a heart attack Jan. 12 at his Catonsville, Md., home.

Emotions. Well, the players can hardly describe their feelings from that day.

They're still trying to cope with the loss.

"It's been a roller coaster, basically throughout the whole season," Daniel said. "We were doing real well earlier and then we hit a rut before Christmas. Then Coach Flynn picked us up and we hit a high. And then, after the Muhlenberg game, that's when we found out Coach Flynn passed away. And that was tough."

The Terror continue to grieve a month later.

They've seen Flynn's wife Tina and the Flynn children. They've welcomed the family into the McDaniel locker room. They've hugged. They've cried.

And they've tried to move on.

They'll tell you that's what Coach would have wanted. That fifth playoff seed he was eyeing at the beginning of the year. He'd want them to continue working for it.

On Jan. 20, the Green Terror took on Gettysburg. It was the first game without Flynn.

It was emotional.

A furious rally from a 10-point, first-half deficit gave the Terror a 71-65 win.

Then the team hit the skids again, dropping five straight. But every roller coaster ride has its peaks and valleys. The Terror won two straight conference games – a 79-69 win over Washington and a 70-68 upset at nationally-ranked Johns Hopkins – before losing to St. Mary's, Md., 74-66 in a non-conference match-up Monday night. Prior to coaching at McDaniel, Flynn helmed the program at St. Mary's from 1994 to '99. So the game between the schools was declared "Bob Flynn night."

Now the Terror is tied with three teams – Muhlenberg, Franklin & Marshall and Swathmore – for the fifth and final playoff spot.

Interim coach Kevin Selby said the players are the reason the team has been able to bounce back.

"They're resilient young men, they truly are," he said. "And that's a credit to Bob. He set this team up to be resilient. He taught them how to play and they remembered the lessons. All we've done (as a coaching staff) is try to keep those lessons going."

The red towel is seeped in emotion.

Flynn used the towel during games, some harrowing losses and others that were exhilerating wins.

Now, it's like a religious relic, reverently draped over a chair on the McDaniel bench. A symbol of Flynn and his energy.

Ryan Brandenberg, the squad's leading scorer at 14.9 points per game, remembers a quote Flynn used to say.

"He always said 'Nothing is ever achieved without enthusiasm,'" Brandenburg said. "Whether it was about a layup, a 3-pointer, or a mistake. É He had energy as a coach. He genuinely loved his family. And his team, he thought of us as part of his family."

The biggest lesson he learned from Flynn is that family is the most important thing, Daniel said. Through his experiences this year he added he now understands that you stick with your family through adversity.

While Flynn barely spent two years at the helm of the Green Terror, his attitude made a permanent mark.

"Bob really was good at making people feel special," Selby said. "É He had a special gift for making people feel good about themselves, making them feel like they're the most important person in any room."

Flynn could tap peoples emotions.

And now, those people are trying to extend Flynn's legacy.

An educational foundation has been established in Flynn's name and donations can be sent to the F. Michael Grace Trustee at 300 Frederick Road, Suite 100, Catonsville, Md., 21228.

Emotions showed through, when Selby talked about the man whose shoes he's trying to fill.

He remembers a meeting the two had when Flynn was hired two year's ago. Selby had been an assistant under previous coach Jay Dull.

"I wasn't sure if he was going to take me on or not and the first thing he said was 'Kevin, you're my right hand man,'" Selby recalled. "And that made me feel good."

The more Selby knew Flynn, the more he respected him.

Now he patrols the sideline, trying to keep Flynn's vision alive.

Selby said he can never replace Flynn.

"It's impossible because everyone loved him," Selby said. "I'm not Bob. I don't have that personality that Bob had so I've got to coach the team the way I know how."

The players admit, Selby doesn't have it easy.

"Coach Selby has the toughest job," Daniel said. "Nobody would have asked for this to happen to them. É Coach Selby has handled this very well."

Selby thinks this team can reach that final playoff spot, and fulfill Flynn's hopes from early in the season.

Monday's loss won't matter in the Centennial Conference standings, but the game certainly meant something to the program. Bob Flynn Night was just another way to honor the coach's legacy.

"This game today was more than wins and losses, it was about family," Selby said.

And of course, he got emotional and his voice trembled a bit. After all, he knows what Bob Flynn has meant to McDaniel College.

"The Flynns will be a part of this family forever," he said.

Contact Patrick Abdalla at pabdalla@eveningsun.com.