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Monday, March 15th 2010 - Sports Commentary
Some old traditions were honored last night when the men's NCAA basketball tournament was seeded. One loss wasn't held against Syracuse, a quarterfinal loser at the Big East Tournament. The committee rewarded the season long body of work and the Orange got their first number one seed in three decades. Perhaps more significantly, also not held against the Orange was the status of fifth year senior center Arinze Onuaku, who was injured in the Big East Tournament loss to Georgetown. He was helped off the floor and the Orange tried to paint an optimistic picture of his NCAA availability, though it surprised no one when, after the seedings were announced, coach Jim Boeheim announced Onuaku's not likely to be ready for at least the early games. Syracuse went to the Big East as a likely number one seed. The fact that nothing that's happened since, particularly the loss of Onuaku, changed that should be of particular interest to a local coach awaiting tonight's selections for the women's tournament. The University of Hartford is in a similar situation to Syracuse, facing the loss of a key player, senior forward Erica Beverly, and coming off one loss in the conference tournament, to Vermont in the America East championship game. Going into that game the Hawks had compiled a 27-3 record that included a clean sweep of the conference slate, two of those wins over Vermont, while riding a twenty game winning streak. The Hawks went into Saturday's game poised for a six or seven seed. Now it's time to see if the NCAA is as good as it's word. That should not change. Last summer the NCAA called sixteen powerful, high profile coaches, including UConn's Geno Auriemma, Sherry Coale of Oklahoma and Hartford's Jen Rizzotti, to Indianapolis for a mock selection and to pick their brains on how various situations should be factored. The coaches were solid in their feelings about injuries. "There was a very strong concensus from all the coaches that you don't punish a team for an injury or a suspension", said Rizzotti, who then cited a situation from last season, "Baylor lost (leading scorer and rebounder) Danielle Wilson before the Big Twelve Tournament but went on to win it. How do you really predict that a team's not going to be able to play? The coaches were very adamant about not punishing a team for injuries." Rizzotti is quick to point out that she now has a horse in this race, but the opinions were expressed to the NCAA long before Beverly went down. What really separates her situation from that at Syracuse is that Boeheim has gone primarily with a seven player rotation. Rizzotti has played ten players deep all season. "The difference between a seven, eight, nine, ten seed is pretty significant", she says, "So don't punish us for an injury, because we're a very deep team that has a lot of weapons. It's not in my control, we'll worry about our seeding when it comes out", she says, "But I hope they reward our program for what we've accomplished." That should be the final word when the selection committee comes out of its room in Indianapolis tonight. This tournament is supposed to be a reward and nobody can predict outcomes. Every year twelve and thirteen seeds, even some lower, advance in round one. Taking it off the paper and playing the games is what makes it interesting. It's about the body of work, what you've done, not what the future may or may not bring. With a comment from the sports world, I'm Scott Gray.
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 - Sports Commentary
It's that time of year when college basketball garners most of the attention in the sports world, with both NCAA tournaments now seeded and both men's post season suarees tipping off tonight. But this year has been a bit different. While the NCAA tournaments appear to have dodged a major bullet, they have been living in fear, as much of the attention normally reserved for the conference tournaments that lead up to the ensuing NCAA selections and the "big dance" has been deflected in another direction. For weeks rumors have been swirling about Tiger Woods' return to competitive golf, when and where, each new report deflecting attention from the usual harbingers of the season, the NCAA tournaments and spring training baseball. Last week Tiger was reported to have committed personally to Arnold Palmer that he would play in his Bay Hill Invitational the first weekend in April. The NCAA held its breath. The final two rounds at Bay Hill would have coincided with the semi final games of the men's tournament on Saturday and the women's tournament on Sunday. If, heaven forbid, Tiger won the Palmer the headlines, photos, analysis and commentary would have relegated the usual men's championship game hype to page two of the sports sections. But now a source close to Tiger, speaking on the condition he remain anonymous, because, as we've been told many times, only Tiger can talk publicly about Tiger, says the world's number one golfer is holding off his return until the Masters, the week after Bay Hill. It's a logical choice. The Masters rides herd on the media, making it a nearly sequestered situation for Woods, who is also reportedly considering doing one interview prior to his re-entry. The bidding war is underway. ESPN, CBS and the Golf Channel, which is willing to let Tiger pick his interviewer, are all in there pitching, along with Oprah Winfrey. Tiger's efforts to rebuild his public image took a major step forward yesterday when he appeared publicly with his wife Elin for the first time since the disclosure of his marital indiscretions. Body language experts, fresh from their red carpet analysis of the Oscars, are likely to have a field day with photos of Elin walking ten feet behind Tiger. Tiger has hired image consultant Ari Fleisher to help him restablish himself with the masses. That's the same Ari Fleisher who assisted George Bush in creating, perhaps, the worst image ever for an outgoing president before guiding Mark McGwire's return to baseball, which went over with the public about as well as his appearance before congress five years earlier. But, to the NCAA, how well the return goes for Tiger isn't nearly as important as when. The Masters tees off April 8th. Tiger's return would then be two days after the UConn women have won their second straight national championship, a day after their triumphant return home to a heroes welcome in celebration of a second straight 39-0 season and a national record seventy eight game winning streak. At the Masters Tiger Woods won't be raining on the NCAA's parade. Speaking of parades, we'd better push ours back a week. We don't want to go up against Tiger in pursuit of his fifteenth major. Even Ari Fleisher could probably tell you that wouldn't be good for our own public image. With a comment from the sports world, I'm Scott Gray.
Wednesday, March 17th 2010 Sports Commentary
Gampel Pavilion was just over half filled last night for round one of the men's NIT. Anyone among the fifty five hundred who didn't see the turning point of last night's game heard it. That crashing sound with just under six minutes left was UConn coach Jim Calhoun smashing his clipboard against the floor before he turned away from his players, turning the team huddle over to assistant coach Andre LaFleur. "I was called placid last game", Calhoun joked when it was pointed out to him that he was rather demonstrative during that media timeout. Okay, so he wasn't "demonstrative", he was "not placid". It was time for emotion. The season, such as the remnants that remain might be, hung in the balance. The Huskies trailed Northeastern by five points with the "other" Huskies set to go to the line after the timeout, where the UConn disadvantage would stretch to six. Just as the timeout was ending and the UConn players headed back to the floor Calhoun broke his silence, calling them back for a final word. UConn finished the game on an 11-3 run, led by Jerome Dyson, who scored nine of those eleven points, and capped by Jerome Dyson, who hit two free throws with fifty three seconds left to snap a fifty seven all tie and give uconn a 59-57 win. "Are you gonna end up here at Gampel Pavilion with a team you have some size over and experience with and end up going out like this", Calhoun said when asked about his charge to the players at the end of the timeout, "Are you gonna leave it like that? Are you just gonna leave it like that?" The smashed clipboard got Dyson's attention, the words made an impression. "He told us we had to come alive", said Dyson, who'd come under fire from Husky Nation after a series of down efforts, particularly to St. John's in the Big East Tournament, that cost UConn an NCAA tournament bid, "He told us we were doing a lot of walking through offense. We had to just run the things we run, trust what (the coaches) were saying and run full speed offense and play defense at the other end. And we needed stops. We were able to get stops and push it back at them." Calhoun admitted there were aspects of the critisism of his senior guard that were warranted, but he never questioned Dyson's desire and ability to rise to the challenge. "I would never question his heart", said Calhoun, "I've questioned his focus and I've questioned the ability he has to do some kinds of things but in the St. John's game I think he was just over trying. I don't think he panicked but he was close to saying, 'What do I do now?'" Jerome Dyson's approach to basketball took a sudden U-turn with six minutes to go last night at Gampel Pavilion. The focus was back. Jim Calhoun's approach to coaching made a sudden return to those thrilling days of yesteryear. He became "not placid". All it took to get everyone's attention and get them all on the same page was one smashed clipboard. Heck, legendary UConn soccer coach Joe Morrone could have told Jim about that a long time ago. He used that trick for years and it usually worked. And in the overall scheme of today's average division one athletic department budget, what's a broken clipboard or two? With a comment from the sports world, I'm Scott Gray.
Thursday, March 18th 2010 - Sports Commentary
If ever one game served as a microcosm of a season it was the game the Hartford Wolf Pack played in last night's XL Center loss to the Providence Bruins. As with the season, they started slow in the game, giving up two unanswered goals in the first period. The Pack battled back through the middle portion of the schedule and two months ago they were in position to make an assault on first place in the American Hockey League's Atlantic Division. Last night they took the momentum into the third period with a goal midway through the second to get within one, then capitalized with an early third period goal to even it up. As with the season itself, the game hit the stretch run and the Pack faded, the Bruins scoring twice in the final ten minutes to deny the promise the Pack once demonstrated. It's fitting that this game should be the microcosm, it's probably the game that wrote the -30- on the playoff chances of a team that never really found a rhythm this season, a team that moved into position but never established itself as a true contender. This loss removed the simple black and white statistics from the Wolf Pack's chances of earning a playoff berth by bringing too many variables into the equation. In black and white they have twelve games to play and are just six points out of the last spot in the east. Even a grammar school kid struggling with math can add up the figures and come up on the plus side of the playoff ledger. But this one, like the season itself, goes beyond simple math. This one allowed Providence to move ahead of the Wolf Pack while Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was turning up a winner to move into a tie with Bridgeport for the final berth while the Pack erased a very valuable game in hand over Bridgeport with nothing to show for it. Crunching the numbers now will only give Wolf Pack fans a headache. For the first time since their arrival in Hartford thirteen years ago the Wolf Pack will miss the playoffs. The weather's been nice, they'll enjoy an early departure to the golf course. As the game started to slip away last night the Pack looked lethargic at times. Looks can be decieving. "It wasn't lethargic", said softspoken, disgusted coach Ken Gernander, "We gave up a poor goal (in the third period) to fall behind and they're just going to play defense the rest of the way. You put yourself behind the eight ball that way." Couldn't have said it better myself. It seemed to be a season behind the eight ball. With the race still on P.A. Parenteau and Corey Potter, two key elements, were forced to the sidelines with concussions. With little explanation Mathieu Dandenault was released from a professional tryout agreement, nothing said about him not fitting into the parent Rangers future plans and a long term in the AHL not fitting his plans. Put a fuse on that situation. Donald Brashear is an imposing presence on the ice but he has not been a good fit, making it clear from the outset he's not here to do interviews or to be part of the community, an attitude that separates him from the organization and the program. The season long up and down ride for impressive young goaltender Chad Johnson, one day with the Rangers, the next day back with the Pack, had to hurt the fluidity of his relationship with his teammates. One step forward, two steps back. This entire season has had that kind of feel to it for the Wolf Pack. Last night's game had exactly the same feel. In April they'll pay the price. With a comment from the sports world, I'm Scott Gray.
Friday, March 12th 2010 - Sports Commentary
Before fans of the UConn men's basketball team start lining up on the Bulkley Bridge for a cold header into the Connecticut they should take a deep breath and reassess the situation, now that the big piece of the puzzle that this season's edition of the Huskies became is in place. Yesterday coach Jim Calhoun, the architect of the rise to national prominence, issued a statement saying he will be back next season, an announcement confirmed by athletic director Jeff Hathaway. No fans in America should be more aware of the emotional roller coaster ride college basketball, with it's ever changing rosters, is than UConn fans. Last season the Huskies advanced to the final four, this year they'll wait until the NCAA tournament brackets are filled to see if they get an NIT bid. The balance from season to season can be fragile. At UConn it comes down to Calhoun. He has the final say on which recruits are offered scholarships and his success rate with those decisions has been remarkable, as thirteen current NBA players attests. In most cases when a player comes up short of expectations it has more to do with mental toughness than physical ability. UConn fans judged this year's team too harshly in the wake of a disappointing finish that caused the NCAA bubble to abruptly burst. Scratch the surface of this season's underachievers and you may find some diamonds in the rough, for whom the NIT could be the perfect finishing school. The end of this season could become a case of addition by subtraction for the Huskies, with a mixed bag of exiting seniors. Gavin Edwards developed into a nice role player, but he was never an impact player in the Big East. Jerome Dyson was just named the Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year, but his late season meltdown might indicate he was one of those players not mentally strong enough to respond to Calhoun's coaching style. Nor was Stanley Robinson, who spent his junior season, after a year in Purgatory, looking like a smaller version of Rip Hamilton and building some NBA draft cred before spending the second half of his senior season giving all that equity back. Watching him down the stretch one can only wonder at what's actually going on there. The returnees are that thin line of dawn's light on the horizon. Sophomore guard Kemba Walker tried to be the galvanizing force on a team with three seniors, an uncomfortable position to be in, but one in which he showed himself to be a true Calhoun player. Anyone who saw the kids from Tilton Academy play at the prep level knows there's a lot more to Alex Oriachi and Jamaal Coombs-McDaniel than we got to see this season. They're very talented players who appear to just be looking for a comfort level at this talent level. Ater Majok is still a project, but one who demonstrated he's capable of moving forward by giant steps, earning a starting role, and of yet living up to Calhoun's hype. Coming in are three quality recruits, two of whom, guard Jeremy Lamb and swingman Roscoe Smith, have already signed letters while center Michael Bradley has committed but has yet to sign. Getting another recruit may be problematic. Calhoun has one more scholarship but the NCAA has yet to rule on the Nate Miles matter. That scholarship may be in jeopardy. But the core four awaiting the incoming class give them a much stiffer backbone to be propped up by than this year's newcomers had. Don't jump off that bridge yet. The solid nucleus is there for next year. More importantly, the key component announced yesterday that he will also be back. With a comment from the sports world, I'm Scott Gray.
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