The Alternate Ending – Part I

It’s been over two months since I last wrote for my site.  There is a really good reason for that.  A life changing reason.

Remember my article from two months ago, “Looking Back at2011-12, What A Season It Was”?  Remember how I said I was a finalist for a position at a school that was part of a major university out west and I really thought I got the job, but I ended up didn’t getting it?  I thought it was my mistress, college basketball, telling me that I belonged in New York covering basketball on a part time basis while I had my full time job at Hofstra.

Well, a funny thing happened.  After I didn’t get that job out west, I had applied for a position at another school that was part of a major university down south.   At the time of the above article’s publication, I had already become a finalist for that position and already had my finalist interview.   I was waiting to hear word and I hadn’t heard anything for a while at that time, so I assumed it was just like that position out west.   A no go.

Well, I was wrong.   I was offered that position at the major university down south a week after I published the article.  And I accepted the position a few days after my wife, my two boys and I visited that school down south.   The school is the University of South Carolina School of Law.  My mistress had all along told me to find my inner John Hiatt.  Drive South.

It’s an opportunity of a lifetime and I have wanted to move south for a while (cost of living, quality of life, less stress etc.).   I have left Hofstra, my wonderful home for the past twenty eight years.  But Hofstra will never leave my heart (nor will it lose coverage on this site, even if I have to analyze games from afar).  Yes, I have gone from the mid major CAA to big time SEC country.  

I have been here a month now.  It has gone very well so far during this time.  As my Marines, aka the few, the proud, the loyal readers of my site, will tell you, I rarely ever talk about my full time work on this site.   But  I can say the people at South Carolina have been great and I think I have accomplished a good amount so far in this one month.  I still have a lot to do, hopefully for many years to come.

Why I have been so hush hush on this site and Twitter about my move?  There was a really good, private reason for that, which is kind out of the bag now.  My wife and kids are not moving down until the house is sold.   So they are up there in New York and I am down here in Columbia, South Carolina.   I saw them last on Labor Day weekend.  I miss them terribly and being in an otherwise empty rented house in the evenings is not easy for someone used to two boys playing around the house along with a perky pug following me wherever I go. 

Yes, it's very lonely at times here. But there appears to be good news on the house selling front and if all goes well, they will be down here with me around the Christmas break.

What does this mean for the College Hardwood?    Fear not my marines.  I will still be writing and I also have help, so the site will continue on.   It will probably not have the coverage it had last season, when I saw seventy five games (fifty eight D1, fifteen D1 women’s games and two D3 games).  And that was going to be hard to top anyway.  But I have some things up my sleeve, which you will see in the next couple of months.   Also, once things are settled, I will get back into the swing of things.

Does this mean that I will be covering the University of South Carolina’s basketball team, a Power Six conference school?   Yes and my mid major friends will have to accept that.  But there are also several mid majors within a relatively short driving distance (and Brian Mull, I am making a Saturday road trip to see UNC Wilmington and you, my friend), so there will be still be coverage of mid majors here.  I am mapping out my potential schedule this weekend.

Fear not my Hofstra brethren.  I will be following the Flying Dutchmen, er Pride games from afar.  I am still a mid major guy at heart.  And I always root for the underdog.

Plus for you Iona Gaels women’s basketball fans, the Gaels are going to Durham for a road game at Duke on November 18.  I have every intention of being there and covering the game, along with seeing my good friend, Head Coach Tony Bozzella.

This is only part one of the alternate ending.  Once a few things are settled, I will write about this move more in detail in Part Two.  When will part two be?  

That, my marines, is still to be determined.  Stay tuned.