Nice To Be Here (Recap of UDC vs Hofstra)

Pack all the good wins safe on the shelf
Stuck in an orbit around yourself
Hand over hand and keeping the score
It's just not music anymore 

Shane Nicholson - "Nice to Be Here"

As my marines, aka the few, the proud, the readers of my site know, my life is in a state of flux.  My new home base is Columbia, South Carolina, where I work for the University of South Carolina.  It's down in Columbia, listening to 92.1, "The Palm" that I first heard Shane Nicholson's "Nice to Be Here".  I have adopted that song title as my theme for my life now in Columbia.

Meanwhile, the rest of my immediate family is still up in North Bellmore, New York till the house closes.  It makes for interesting travel plans and as well as basketball trips. Such was the case for this past weekend.

Several weeks ago, after I came back up to Long Island in late October to see my family, I had only been planning to just come home for Thanksgiving.   Then as you know, Hurricane Sandy hit and I had come up in advance for that and stayed that entire week.  But I had also decided to come up this past weekend as well, because it's my younger son Jonathan's fifth birthday this past Saturday.  Turning five is an important milestone for a five year old boy and I wanted to be with him for that milestone.

So, strangely how things work out, instead of either being at the Charleston Classic or at VCU-Winthrop this past Saturday, it ended up being a perfect opportunity to come back to what was my long time home in Hempstead, New York. Hofstra and the Mack Center were hosting DC, Marshall and South Dakota State in the 2K Classic Subregional.  

The Pride were not hospitable to the Jackrabbits on Friday night as Shaquille Stokes buried a three pointer with three seconds left to give Hofstra their first win, 66-63.  It was even more impressive as a friend noted all the scouts that were at the game watching South Dakota State's Nate Wolters, who had led his team to a NCAA berth last season.

Thus I was looking forward in anticipation to the all the new Pride players/transfer such as Jimmy Hall, Taran Buie, Stokes and the development of returning players such as David Imes, Moussa Kone and Steve Mejia. I wanted to see how they all meshed together and how they would respond after an emotional win the night before over the Jackrabbits.

Before the game, we took Jonathan to Laser Bounce in Levittown, where we met up with my sister in law and her son, Michael, along with my in-laws.  There was an open play time in the bounce area from 1:00 - 2:00 PM and it was packed, as we immediately found out from the parking lot, where my sister in law told me a near fist fight broke out over a parking space.  I know that Jonathan and my older son, aka my color analyst, Matthew had a lot of fun.  But as a parent, I personally think that hour of screaming kids throwing themselves onto inflatables was a form of torture to me. When one of the staff people said we had ten minutes left, I said aloud "Thank God!"  And I meant it.

After Laser Bounce, we went back to my in-laws, where Jonathan opened his presents from his grandparents and his Aunt (he had already opened up our presents earlier in the morning).  My younger son was very happy with his gifts, as most five year olds.  Then we set down and had pizza, which is the preferred of choice for most five year olds.  After pizza, Matthew and I left for the Hofstra game.

After I had left for South Carolina in August, I renewed only two of what was four Hofstra season tickets which are in Section 111, Row D, Seats 9-10.  My friends Tieff and Mal sit in those seats now. So I had to purchase two tickets for the game. Fortunately for Matthew and I, the row behind my season tickets, 111 Row E was completely open.

We had actually got to the Mack Center for the start of the second half between Marshall and South Dakota State. As we walked into the arena and made our way down the Lions Den Student Section, I could see Tieff was sitting in his seat already taking in the action.  Before I went to my seats, I ran into my old friend Mary Fair, who works for Hofstra Law School, but also works the basketball games on the weekends.  She gave me a hug and asked how I was and how is South Carolina.  Mary is one of the more engaging people I know and it was great to see her.

I said hi to Tieff and since no one else was in the row, he was kind enough to move over and let Matthew and I sit in our old familiar seats.  Mal and his girlfriend Emily would join us shortly thereafter.  There were no worries about sitting in anyone else's seats.  The entire row was basically free as was the row in front of us.  Non conference games at Hofstra in November have historically not been well attended.  This was no exception.

In front of an attendance of maybe one hundred people, the Thundering Herd and the Jackrabbits put on an exciting last twenty minutes of basketball.  Marshall's size gave them a dominant advantage on the boards.  But South Dakota State, led by guard Nate Wolters, one of the best players in the country, moved the ball around on offense so well.  It was your classic contrast of styles.

The teams went back and forth with several lead changes and ties.  Finally D.D. Scarver buried a three to put the Thundering Herd up five, 77-72 with twenty seconds left.  It looked like Marshall was going to win the game.  But Brayden Carlson responded with a three of his own to cut the lead down to two, 77-75.

The Jackrabbits quickly fouled the Herd's Chris Martin.  Martin missed the front end of an one and one and South Dakota State got the rebound.   Wolters got the ball and Marshall focused on Wolters, perhaps too much.  As Wolters drove the lane, the Herd left Jackrabbits' guard Chad White open at the top of the key.  Wolters fed White, who calmly buried another three pointer to put the Jackrabbits up one.   A desperation half court shot at the buzzer by the Herd's DeAndre Kane went off the back rim and South Dakota State escaped with a 78-77 win.

Between games, I met up with more old friends, like Mike Neely, Director of Ticket Sales at Hofstra and Executive Associate AD Danny McCabe.  Finally I met up with my good friends Greg Sorensen, Defiantly Dutch, Jerry Beach, his much better half Michelle and their absolutely precious baby daughter Molly.   It was good to see all of them, but especially Molly, who it was my first time meeting.   Molly managed the impossible.  She slept through the entire game, which allowed Jerry to tweet at normal pace.

One of the nice things Hofstra basketball does is that several minutes before a game, season ticket holders can meet in the Pride Lounge with an assistant coach who gives a scouting report of the game.  Coach Pat Sellers gave the talk before the game discussing the Pride's opponent, UDC.  The District of Columbia is a Division II school but they have several Division I transfers.  They are also coached by Jeff Ruland, former NBA player and former coach of Iona.   They gave Marshall a lot of trouble in the first half of their game yesterday before losing.  Sellers clued in the audience that they could expect a lot of end to end action with the Firebirds.

After talking with a lot of familiar, friendly faces, we made our way back to our seats for the start of the game.  The Pride came out strong from the gate scoring the first eleven points of the game.  The freshman Hall quickly impressed me with his aggressive play and quickness.  I had seen a few games of Hall's when he was a senior at St. Anthony's High School on ESPN and he seems to have improved by leaps and bounds. Stokes made an equally good impression with his confident play.   Quickly I could see Hofstra has much more talent this season than last season.

UDC broke Hofstra's run and actually scored the next five points to cut the lead to six.  But the Pride responded as another of the newcomers for Hofstra, Buie made his presence felt by burying a three pointer to put Hofstra back up nine.  From there the Pride would stretch the lead out.  The lead was as many as twenty after another Buie three pointer put Hofstra up 39-19.

It was during this time that Hofstra ran a promotion.  If someone tweeted the hashtag #WeAreHofstra from their Twitter account with their current seat location, a winner would be chosen at random for a seat upgrade to a courtside seat.  I figured what the hell and did exactly that.  A few minutes later in what was a huge surprise for me, a couple of Hofstra Dance Team members came up to me and it was announced over the PA system that @gmoore21566 (my twitter account, which you should be following by the way) won the contest.  They escorted Matthew and I to our court-side seat.  Needless to say I got a lot of flack from my friends Mal and Defiantly Dutch.

I have to admit winning the contest was pretty funny.  My season ticket seats have been for the last several years only four rows from the court.  I always felt pretty fortunate to see Division I basketball games so close up on a regular basis without having to be on press row. But sitting court-side is a completely different experience and it kind of made Matthew feel uncomfortable.  As there were already several plays right in front of us in the first minute, Matthew turned to me and said "This is too close".

 Matthew was not the only one uncomfortable.  Apparently Hofstra was uncomfortable with a twenty point lead. The Pride became sloppy on both of ends of the court.  UDC started hitting some shots and the Hofstra lead at the half was only twelve, 43-31.

At the half, my first boss at Hofstra and long time friend Howard Graves came up to say hi and we talked for a while. He asked about the family and the move to South Carolina. I told him that everything was great in Columbia so far and that I couldn't wait for the family to be down there with me.  I asked him about Hofstra and other things.  It was good to see Howard.  I learned a lot of things from him from a managerial standpoint that I still use today on a daily basis.

The second half picked up right where the first half left off.  Hofstra struggled from the field and UDC continued to cut the lead and got it to down to seven points several times, the last being 60-53 with a little less than eight minutes left.  But the Pride lead by Stephen Nwaukoni, who had a strong second half on his birthday, would not let them get any closer.   Hofstra would eventually win 74-59. The Pride shot forty nine percent from the field on the game (fifty four percent in the first half) and dominated the glass, outrebounding the Firebirds 50-32.

After saying goodbye to Emily and Mal, Tieff, Matthew and I made our way to see Greg, Jerry, Michelle and a still sleeping Molly.  We talked about how impressive the newcomers Hall, Stokes and Buie played for the Pride. We saw improvement in Kone, Nwaukoni and Mejia.  The team basically gelled pretty well, though there were the expected scoring ruts and missed assignments a young team will have during a game.

There is a lot more talent and depth on this Hofstra team now than compared to last season's team.  There is also much more scoring balance now, as six players scored in double figures in the win over the Firebirds. The Pride accomplished this despite Jamal McCombs-Daniel out due to injury and Daquan Brown not being eligible until after finals.  The resiliency, talent and depth that Hofstra has showed up again on Sunday when the Pride outlasted Marshall in double overtime 103-100 to complete a three game sweep of the 2K Classic.

Eventually the UDC players came out from the locker room dressed along with Coach Ruland.  A fan yelled "Hi, Coach Ruland, good to see you!"   Ruland turned and waved with a look of grumpy disdain.  All that was missing was Ruland saying "Get off my lawn!"  Guess he didn't take the loss too well.

After letting Matthew run on the court for a few minutes, we said our goodbyes to Michelle and Greg.  Jerry had already gone down to the locker room.  Tieff and I said goodbye in the parking lot, but it would be a short goodbye with him.  He would be picking me up at my house as we would both fly back to Charlotte, which would then take us to Durham to see an old friend at Cameron Indoor Stadium. That's for my next article. As I started my familiar drive out of the parking lot, I wondered how many times I would be back at the Mack Center in the future. I realized quickly that it won't be often.

Matthew and I went back to my in-laws house where we had birthday cake for Jonathan.  I knew in the back of my mind that this was one of the last times we would be celebrating Jonathan's birthday at my wife's parents house. As I noted, hopefully in a few weeks, my immediate family would be down with me in Columbia.

The things I have taken for granted all these years; the countless number of games at Hofstra, seeing friends on a regular weekly basis for two hours in the winter months at the Mack Center and the time my boys have spent with their grandparents, all that has changed or will change being now seven hundred and fifty or so miles away from all that I have known.

But for one Saturday in November, it was all still the same.  The packed Long Island kids' place, my wife's parents house, the Mack Center and all the familiar faces and friends, even if it was perhaps the last time for a long time.  It was a familiar theme to me.

It was nice to be here.

Guest Blogging on A Daly Dose of Hoops

If you want a scouting report of Charleston as they take on St John's tonight for the Charleston Classic (game time 5:00 PM Eastern on ESPNU), take a look at my friend Jaden Daly's excellent blog "A Daly Dose of Hoops".  Jaden was kind enough to let me do an article reviewing the College of Charleston and their win over Towson.  Enjoy.

New Beginning for Martin and South Carolina (Recap of Wisconsin Milwaukee vs. South Carolina)

Three months I left my job at Hofstra for a position at the University of South Carolina.  I left a place where I was happy and successful for a unique opportunity in a location of the country that I had been wanting move to for a while.  So far, it's worked out really well for me.  I enjoy working at my new position and seventy plus degree weather on November 11 is certainly welcome to me.

I guess I have something in common with South Carolina Head Coach Frank Martin.  He left a successful position at Kansas State for South Carolina and is starting anew as well, albeit with a lot of work cut out for him.  Martin inherits a team that won two games in the SEC all last season.

In his five years at Kansas State, he took his teams to four NCAA Tournaments and one NIT. His new fan base is desperate for a NCAA Tournament berth, having not had one since the 2003-04 season (in fairness, the Gamecocks did win the NIT two years in a row in 2005 and 2006).  So Martin comes to Columbia with a lot of expectations.

South Carolina hosted Wisconsin Milwaukee in a first round Hoops for Hope Tournament game.  It's one of those "tournaments" where four teams are guaranteed to play in the semifinals and finals (in this case, Puerto Vallarta).   Meanwhile the other teams in the tournament play in a consolation bracket on campus.

I come from a school, Hofstra, that has a 5,000 seat arena.  The first year of the Mack Center, the Pride/Flying Dutchmen won the America East championship in front of a sold out crowd.  In 2005-06 and 2006-07, when the Pride was very successful, Hofstra played in front of many large crowds. Two years ago, when Charles Jenkins, now playing for Golden State, was one of the most dominant players in college basketball, the Mack Center was full to capacity several times.
 
But over the ten years I was a season ticket holder (and I still am a season ticket holder) there were many times where the Mack Center was maybe half to two thirds full, even when the team was good.  It always was a sore point for me and probably always will be.  The Hofstra Men's Basketball team deserves better community support and hopefully that will grow over the next few years.

But now I am here at South Carolina where the Gamecocks play in an 18,000 seat Colonial Life Arena.  Yes, there were a lot of empty seats for today's game with a crowd of 7.335 as I sat in my new season ticket seats.  But that's more fans than Hofstra has had for any game.  And Hofstra has had more winning seasons in the past four years than South Carolina.  Once again, everything is relative.

South Carolina got out to a an early 12-11 lead.  But it was evident that the Gamecocks were struggling from the field.  Outside of freshman Michael Carrera, they couldn't score any baskets.  Meanwhile, Milwaukee was burying three pointers and pulled ahead 19-14 with less than seven minutes left in the first half.

It was during this time that Martin was not happy with the play of junior Brenton Williams.  After taking Williams out, Martin followed Williams down the bench to his seat, lecturing him all the time.  He continued to lecture Williams at his seat for several seconds.  Whatever Martin said to him must have registered with Williams, for he was a major factor at the end of the game.

Milwaukee continued their three point barrage behind guard Jordan Aaron.  Aaron would bury two three pointers to end the first half.  The Panthers had a sizable 38-23 halftime lead.  What made matters worse was that the Gamecocks best player in the first twenty minutes, Carrera, had three fouls to go with his nine points.

One of the things I like about my new seats in Colonial Life Arena is that I am near the South Carolina Pep Band.  They are a very solid band and the band has some unique songs in the play selection like Blondie's "Call Me" and Billy Squier's "Everybody Wants You".  Kudos for the song selections, guys.

Wisconsin Milwaukee scored the first basket to go up seventeen, 40-23.  But South Carolina would go on a 13-0 run, largely behind LaShay Page and Carrera, who impressed me with his aggressive play.  The Gamecocks were now down only four, 40-36 with fourteen minutes left.

But thanks to Aaron, the Panthers responded with a 10-0 run of their own.  Aaron, a native of the Bronx, scored five of those ten points.  I openly wondered on Twitter how many New York local schools missed out on the junior guard.   After Austin Arians' three pointer, the Panthers were up 50-36 with 11:53 left.

But South Carolina stayed within range, thanks to some empty Wisconsin Milwaukee possessions and some key plays from Page, Carrera and wouldn't you know it, Williams.  The Gamecocks whittled the Panthers fourteen point lead down to two points late in the game.

After a failed Panthers' possession, the Gamecocks were down 66-64 with the ball with 36.5 seconds left.  Off a timeout, South Carolina worked the ball to Mindaugas Kacinas, another freshman.  Kacinas was fouled on a three point attempt.  Kacinas hit the first two free throws but missed the third one.  The game would go to overtime.

In the overtime period, the Gamecocks would pull ahead on free throws.  Then with a two point lead, Williams would hit two baskets in a row to put South Carolina up six, 74-68 with 1:49 left in overtime.  From there, it came down to free throws and Williams, an eighty two percent free throw shooter last season, was perfect from the charity stripe.  Williams would hit the final eight free throws for the Gamecocks.   South Carolina would win 82-75 over a game Wisconsin Milwaukee team.

From doghouse to penthouse, Williams had fourteen points in only thirteen minutes of play. Carrera had a double double with seventeen points and fifteen rebounds.  Page led the Gamecocks with nineteen points and Lakeem Jackson added twelve points.

Wisconsin Milwaukee was fourteen of thirty two from beyond the arc.  Aaron was seven of fourteen from three and led all scorers with twenty eight points.  James Haarsma was the other Panther in double figures scoring with fourteen points.

Martin got a hard earned first victory over a team that had won twenty games last season, double the number that South Carolina had.  He has a long road ahead of him in a brutally tough SEC conference.  But Martin's determination, his defensive minded nature (his Kansas State teams statistically have been one of the best defensive teams in the country) and knack for finding and recruiting talent should suit him well.

I have a feeling that within a couple of years, there won't be that many empty seats in Colonial Life Arena.  Better get in on season tickets while you can, Gamecocks' fans.

What Could Be in The CAA (Recap of Towson vs. Charleston)

For seven years, I had been covering games from New York and Hofstra as my base of operations for this blog.  When I moved down to South Carolina in August, I wondered what my first game would be covering in this region.  A few weeks ago, I finally scanned several of the local teams within a two hour area and I came across an intriguing match-up that would start my college basketball season.   

College of Charleston's Board of Trustees had recently voted to open negotiations with the CAA.  Basically, the Cougars are putting one foot in the door to moving from the Southern Conference to the Colonial.  It was a move that both Davidson and Appalachian State had refused to do, likely for budgetary travel reasons. 

So why not truly get your foot in the door and see what the CAA has to offer by playing Towson in your first game of the season.  Now yes, I know the conference schedules are made up in advance, but how about giving me some artistic license for this story.

Four years ago, I was there for the christening of the John Kresse Court at the TD arena.   The arena, which was at that time named the Carolina First Arena, had just opened and my friend Tony Terentieff and I were there to see the inaugural Charleston Classic, which started on November 14, 2008.   We were there for the first few days of the preseason tournament since Hofstra was playing in the Classic.  I remember fondly that during the second day of the tournament, there was a rain storm and the roof leaked in certain parts, including the area right above we were sitting.  Water trickled down on to Tieff.  Good times.

Some things haven't changed from four years ago.  In November of 2008, Barack Obama had just been elected President.  This week, Barack Obama was re-elected President.  However, four years ago, I was here on vacation.  Four years later, I am here since I now live less than two hours away in Columbia.  Some things have changed.

The Cougars have also undergone a big change at the coaching helm.  Doug Wojcik, who had been previously the coach of Tulsa, is now the new head coach of Charleston.  After averaging twenty wins a season at Tulsa, Wojcik, the former point guard on the David Robinson led Navy NCAA Tournament teams, is now responsible for trying to get the Cougars back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 1998-99 season.

Wojcik has inherited an experienced Cougars team.  Four of the five starters and six of the top seven players from last year's 19-12 team return for Charleston.  Andrew Lawrence, Trent Wiedeman, Anthony Stitt and Adjehl Baru, Matt Sundberg and Nori Johnson combined to average nearly fifty five points per game last season.  Lawrence averaged five and half assists and nearly two steals per game. Wiedeman averaged 8.7 rebounds per game and had nine-nine double doubles on the season. Stitt had a career high twenty three points in an early non conference win last season vs. eventual NIT runner-up Massachusetts.

Wojcik's opponent has only had one season under his belt as a head coach. Towson's Pat Skerry, hopes to put that 1-31 season way behind him as he enters his second season.  Unlike Wojcik, Skerry has a very unproven team.  The Tigers have nine new players on the team - five freshman, one JUCO transfer, and three Big East transfers.  And that doesn't include Four McGlynn, the America East Rookie of the Year, who transferred to Towson, but must sit out the year due to NCAA transfer rules 

Skerry is hoping that his Big East transfer trifecta of Bilal Dixon (Providence), Mike Burwell (South Florida) and Jerrelle Benimon (Georgetown) will lead them to a far better season.  Skerry does have two returning players of significance.  Marcus Damas, the Tigers' second leading scorer from last season returns. Damas averaged twelve and a half points per game and had a career high twenty six points vs. CAA regular season champion Drexel.   Guard Kris Walden started all thirty two games last season and led all freshmen in the Colonial in assists with 103.

I made the straight shot drive from Columbia to Charleston via I-26 and got to the TD arena about a half hour before the start of the game.  The TD arena seats 5,100.  The home team was welcomed with a good sized crowd of 4,215.  But strangely the concession area above the filled student section near the Towson bench was closed. Perhaps they knew that a lot of fans would go to the Five Guys nearby for burgers. Wojcik would note later in his post game conference that he was very impressed with how the fans and the sound system filled the arena.  Wojcik seems very pleased with the facilities and he should be. It's a very nice arena.

The crowd quickly got into the game as Charleston worked it inside to Wiedeman and Baru.  Meanwhile, in a similar fashion to a game from last season vs. Hofstra, Towson shot itself in the foot in the beginning.  In their first three possessions, the Tigers had a shot clock violation, a traveling call and an offensive foul.  After Wiedeman emphatically blocked a Benimon shot which resulted in the crowd roaring into the under 16 minute media timeout, Charleston was up 9-2.

Things did not get better for the Tigers.  Wojcik's influence on the Cougars is already evident.  Charleston was very strong on the defensive end, with active hands in the passing lane.  The Cougars forced twelve first half turnovers on the Tigers, which resulted in eighteen points.  Towson struggled to get shots off, especially from the outside, shooting one of six from beyond the arc in the first half.

On the offensive end, Charleston repeatedly worked the ball inside to Wiedeman and Baru, scoring sixteen first half points in the paint, while only attempting three shots from beyond the arc in the first twenty minutes.  The Cougars finished their final possession of the first half with a beautiful passing display, resulting in a Wiedeman dunk that put Charleston up 40-14 at the half.

As I reviewed the stats for the first twenty minutes, the halftime show was a tricycle race, which I thought was very cool.  Good thing my color analyst, aka my seven year old son Matthew, was not here.  Otherwise, he would have volunteered to take on the winner.

Charleston picked up right where they left off in the first half.  As much as I was impressed with Lawrence and Wiedeman during the game, my favorite Cougars' player is Baru.  Baru works so hard on both ends of the court.  His effort keeping a loose ball in the Cougars' possession resulted in a Stitt three pointer that put Charleston up 46-16. A Wiedeman dunk extended the Cougars' lead to 49-16 four minutes into the second half.

Right after the Wiedeman dunk, Skerry called a timeout. The game for all intensive purposes was over.  But if Towson wanted to show their fans that there is hope for the future, they needed to play better over the final sixteen minutes of the game.

Whatever Skerry said to his team, it worked.  The Tigers started to get the ball into Benimon.  His three point play cut the lead to thirty.  He followed with another layup and a strong blockout on an entry pass that forced a Cougars' turnover.  Benimon's strong play resulted in Wojcik calling a timeout with his team up twenty six points.

The lead would stay in that twenty five point range for the next several minutes. But Towson was now holding their own, especially on the offensive glass where the Tigers had seventeen offensive rebounds, eight of which came from Dixon.  Wiedeman gave Dixon credit after the game and noted that they had to a much better job defensive rebounding for their next game against St John's.

Over the last five minutes, Wojcik started emptying his bench.  Towson continued to play with concerted effort and actually cut the lead down to fifteen before Harrison Bowne hit a stat stuffer layup at the buzzer to make the final score 75-58.

The Cougars shot 56 percent from the field.  Charleston also showed its balance scoring as four of their players scored in double figures.  Wiedeman had seventeen points. Lawrence had sixteen points, seven rebounds and five assists. Stitt had twelve points, shooting three of four beyond the arc and Anthony Thomas had twelve points.  Baru just missed a double double with nine points and nine rebounds.

After shooting just six of twenty six from the field in the first half, Towson rebounded nicely shooting forty eight percent from the field in the second half.  Benimon led all scorers for Towson with twenty three points. Dixon had his first double double as a Tiger with fifteen points and ten rebounds.  Walden added ten points off the bench, his first non starting game for Towson.  Damas was held scoreless in twenty four minutes of action.

After the post game news conference, on the advice of Luke Reasoner, I headed to the Five Guys on King Street to grab a burger before I hit the road for the long drive back to my new home.  Unfortunately, it had just stopped making burgers at 10 PM.  I left for my car and later stopped at a McDonald's on the way back to Columbia.

I know that next time I attend a Charleston game, it will be a weekend game. Having enjoyed Charleston so much four years ago, I will make sure I have plenty time to take in the sites and have time for a real meal.  If the house up in New York closes soon, with a little luck, maybe it will be with my color analyst.

Note - Special thanks to Dustin Semanovick and Marlene Navor for all their kindness and help.  I know that's their job as Sports Information Directors, but they do it well and it's appreciated.

Surviving Sandy

If  you read my previous article, "Everything is Relative", you know I came back up to New York from South Carolina to help my immediate family with Hurricane Sandy.  Sandy has also been called "Superstorm Sandy".  Well, considering all the destruction caused by Sandy, there is nothing "super" about it.   Sandy caused massive devastation along the Jersey shore, the New York City area, especially Staten Island and Far Rockaway, as well as Long Island.  I know several people who lost their homes in Long Island.  It's crushing.

As for us, we were one of the 964,000 plus homes on Long Island without power after the storm's aftermath.  We lost power Monday evening at around 5:30 PM and we were without power until last evening.  My family was fortunate that Chelle's parents in Levittown managed to keep power and we stayed with them.  How we got there, well that's the main story for this blog.

As I noted to you, my two sons and I were at the house Monday.  My wife had to work extended hours at her assisted living home for the storm starting at 8:00 AM that day.  I dropped her off and drove back to our house.  That's when the wind first started picking up, on the drive back to our house.  Once we got there, our hope was to ride out the storm on what turned to be a very long day.

At 5:30 PM, the power went out at the house.  We were lucky that it lasted that long.  But that was something I expected, especially having gone through Tropical Storm Irene the year before.  We lost power pretty quickly in that storm and we were prepared with a cooler of ice, flashlights and several games of Uno.  What I didn't expect, and I started to closely monitor, was our huge maple tree in the back started swaying.  And I am not talking about the upper branches.  I am talking about the base of the tree.

As you can tell from the photo, that's a pretty significant sized tree. I believe it's sixty years old,as old as the house, which was built in 1950. Also, you can see from the photo that it leans towards the house. When you see a sixty year old tree sway at the base and you have two young children at the house, your mind starts playing the decision game- "Do you risk riding it out or do you risk going out to your in-laws in the full brunt of the storm".  Many people didn't even have that choice during the storm and had to ride it out, some with harsh consequences.  Still, you are not supposed to drive out in a storm.  But unfortunately, this wouldn't be the first time I made that choice.

A year ago, our neighbor behind us had his tree fall down during Irene.  The tree uprooted part of the fence but also ended up leaning on the power lines.  Concerned about a power line fire, I took my two sons, went out in the storm and drove to my in-laws house (amazingly they got through Irene as well without losing power).  But the storm was at its lesser point at that time.

In the case of Sandy, it was 9:45 PM, the height of the storm, which had made landfall at about 8:00 PM in Atlantic City.  Sandy was a much larger, stronger storm than Irene and I could tell that by the wind gusts and the swaying of the maple tree, which never happened during Irene.   It was decision time again.  Once again, I called my in-laws, told them the situation and they said come on over.  I called my neighbor Dan, who I had spoken to earlier in the day, who had been also monitoring my tree in the back as well.  He said he would let me know what happened with the tree. I would find out later in the evening that a tree went through a house in Westchester, killing two young boys playing in a room.  That reinforced my decision.

So I grabbed everything I could, carefully got my two sons and our dog (which is the difference with Irene, we had no dog at that time) and got in the car.  We were lucky.  There have been a couple of stories during this storm of families having to abandon their house and heading to their car, only for the parents to be hit and killed by a falling tree. Thankfully my tree in the front curb cooperated and never lost any major branches.  I started up the car with the boys and our pug Walter in the back and headed out down a pitch black side street.

Fortunately, there were no trees or large branches down on Coolidge Street where I live.  Nor were there any on Haff, where I make the turn to head to Newbridge Road.  Chelle's parents live basically off of  Newbridge in Levittown, so it was basically a straight shot there, so we had that in our favor.   But as I started on Newbridge, I could tell the power was off in the entire block.  Up ahead at the intersection of Jerusalem, the traffic light was out.  

But before then, we had to pass the large Nassau County precinct that was at my house.  The National Guard had been called in ahead of time that morning to prepare for Sandy.  I saw all the national guard Humvees and transport trucks.  It was something out of a disaster movie and actually reminded me of the ending scene of "The Mist" (rent it, it's an underrated Stephen King novel based movie).

Well, at 9:45 PM, there were National Guard humvees right in the middle of the street.  I was concerned that they wouldn't let me pass.  But there was a SUV in front of me also driving up Newbridge.  They let us both pass towards the intersection at Jerusalem.  Turns out we were lucky.  When I got to my in-laws house later, there was an announcement by County Executive Ed Mangano (a fellow Bethpage High School Alum) that all county roads were closed.   We should have never been allowed to drive.

When I got to Jerusalem Road, we stopped, since the light was out. I made sure nothing was coming in the other directions and headed across. Then I crossed over the Southern State Parkway.  I didn't bother to see if anyone was on the Southern State.  My focus was what directly ahead in the darkness.   As I made my way north on Newbridge, I didn't bother to check if trees were down to the side.  All I cared about was if there were any major branches or trees down ahead of me.

As I made my way up Newbridge, what concerned me was what if the light at Newbridge and Hempstead Turnpike, one of the main roads on Long Island, was out.  If so, that was going to be a dangerous crossing since Hempstead Turnpike has three lanes in each direction.   Somehow, as I made my way to the intersection, the traffic light was still up.  Whew.  I waited for the green, made sure no emergency vehicles were coming east or west and I crossed.  Just a little more to go. I made it past Walmart,which was a ghost town and headed toward my in-laws.

Now Levittown is known for a lot of trees.  I knew when I made the right turn onto Flamingo Lane, I might have an issue where a tree would be down.  Fortunately, no trees blocked our path on Flamingo.  When I got to the right turn onto Blackbird Lane, where Chelle's parents live, I don't remember if I had to avoid the tree n the corner or not.  I do know the next morning, that tree on the corner of Flamingo and Blackbird was down and had blocked most of the road  It also crushed a Chevy Blazer's front windshield.  

We made it to her parents house.  But we were immediately forewarned that their neighbors had warned us that the tree next door might come down on the house.  We had nowhere else to go, so we all hunkered down together (a Chris Christie reference) and rode out the rest of the storm.  All along, I worried about our house back in North Bellmore.  It was a pretty rough next few hours.

When we woke up early the next morning, we awoke to find each of their neighbors next to our in-laws' house had their tree come down.  The house to the right of theirs, which we had been forewarned about, did come down, but not on my wife's parents' house.  Instead, half the tree went down on the neighbor's fence next to it.   The neighbor to the left had his tree narrowly miss his house.  

At around 9:00 AM Tuesday morning, I decided to make the drive back to my house in North Bellmore.  I had not heard from my neighbor Dan, so I had hopes that the house was in one piece.  By this time, Nassau County roads had re-opened.  But there were issues already. One of the few gas stations that had power and was open at the time, the Gulf on the corner of Newbridge and the side street by the firehouse, was swamped with cars.  In fact, people were blocking the intersection to get to the gas station.

As I waited at the light, I saw opposite from me a minivan that had the green light for the left turn but was waiting.  I could tell she wanted to get on that line for the gas station but didn't want to block the intersection even further.  I shook my head, which was my way of saying "Don't do it".

But the cars behind were honking.  Thus, she went out and blocked more of the intersection.   I was able to get around her.  But the geniuses behind her decided to run the light and two turned in front of me.  I can't repeat what I yelled out next, but somehow I avoided two SUVs who ran the light and a third who u-turned in front of me.   I knew immediately this is what I was going to face near any gas stations.    Sure enough, a similar issue at the gas station on Newbridge and Hempstead Turnpike.  Unreal.

After a long arduous drive which again included passing the massive National Guard presence by our police station, I made it home.  I parked the car in the driveway and hurriedly exited the car.  The front of the house seemed fine, as did the garage.  I went to the back and breathed a sigh of relief.  The tree had stayed up, despite the obvious signs that the ground around the tree had been raised slightly, with more roots showing now.  There were several large branches down, but nothing of major significance.  No branches came down on the house or the garage.  I reviewed all the windows to the house and the garage.  They were fine too. The fence, unlike from Irene, was all fine and no issues.

You are probably wondering why I am so concerned with the house.  Well, we are in contract to sell the house.  The last thing I needed was damage to the house which would delay or possibly cancel the contract. Thankfully, the house had no damage.  I relayed that information the next day to my lawyer friend and my realtor, who is another friend's dad.  

I spent the next hour cleaning up branches and leaves. Three bags worth. Eventually I would have another six bags of branches and leaves over the next couple of days.  I grabbed the cooler with the milk, juice, cheese etc, which I had left behind the night before and eventually brought that back to my wife's parents house.

Later on, I drove around a little bit and noticed a huge tree down on the corner of Haff and Harding which is right near us.  I walk around that corner every time I took Walter for a walk.  The tree fortunately missed the house by a hair, but it took down part of their PVC fence.  Other than that, there weren't many trees taken down in my neighborhood.

That wasn't the case for most of Nassau County, especially by one street by my wife's parents.  Wednesday morning, I drove Chelle to work and we drove down Carnation Road, a side street that leads to a traffic light on Newbridge Road.  In that short block of Carnation Road, there were ten trees down on both sides of the street.  Many had pulled up curbs, sidewalks and sod.   It was like a tornado came through the street.

As of the time I write this, there are still 520,000 homes on Long Island without power (LIPA customers). For those, it's at least four days without power, possibly longer. Very few gas stations are open and those that are, have absolutely crazy lines.  The North Bellmore North Merrick school district, along with my alma mater Hofstra have been closed since Monday.  North Bellmore will still be closed this upcoming Monday.

Still, that pales in comparison to the absolute devastation in the aforementioned areas of New Jersey, Far Rockaway, Staten Island and southern parts of Long Island, including Long Beach.  I have several friends in Long Beach and I spent a good part of my youth visiting friends in Long Beach.  To see the destruction on the news of that area is truly saddening.

I can also tell you from a personal standpoint that Sandy damaged several other areas that I have fond memories of over the years. Spring Lake, New Jersey, where my wife and I stayed for our anniversary a few years ago was devastated by Hurricane Irene.  The boardwalk we walked on is completely gone and the town suffered massive damage.

The Jones Beach Boardwalk, which I have walked on countless times with Chelle and the kids is severely damaged.  Ocean Parkway on Long Island, which links up Jones Beach and Robert Moses State Park has been basically totaled.  I spent many times driving my 67 Barracuda Convertible that I co-own with my brother down Ocean Parkway.  The dunes that were on the right side of the road are completely gone. The New York Aquarium in Coney Island, where I have taken the family so many times, at one time in the storm was under fourteen feet of water.  Last I heard, they suffered "critical damage".

Having written about college basketball for seven years, I often hear about teams that are undergoing "rebuilding" or they talk about "a rebuilding program" after one coach takes over for another.  That's nothing compared to the rebuilding program that's needed for the areas so affected by Hurricane Sandy.  Many people lost all their belongings and loved ones.  It will take a long time for those affected to "rebuild".

It puts the term "rebuilding" into perspective.  Maybe college basketball coaches and those affiliated with college basketball and other sports as well will think twice about using that term.  I know that I will no longer use that term in my writing.  Rebuilding means so much more now.

As I was putting the finishing touches of this article, my younger son Jonathan drew a picture of our family.   It reminded me that my family was fortunate, truly fortunate to get out of this storm unscathed and that we were together. This was the smartest decision of my life, to come back to New York to ride out the storm with my family. I count my blessings that no one I love got hurt or lost their belongings.

As I have noted, many others were not so fortunate, including several people I know well.  I urge those of you who can, to donate to Hurricane Sandy charities or the Red Cross (which I have).  A lot of people here in the Northeast are hurting.  They can use your support.

Everything is Relative

There are several things I have learned since I moved to Columbia, South Carolina in mid-August. First, things are slower paced. Much slower paced. Excluding highways, I have yet to see someone greatly exceed the speed limit on roads in Columbia.  Also, the only trains you see in Columbia are freight trains and you hear freight train whistles all day and all night.  That's something new for this Long Island boy.

The third thing is that there is this transportation freedom in South Carolina. There is no helmet law as pertains to motorcycles, mopeds etc. In fact, the first person I saw wear a helmet was a bicyclist. Also, there is no motor vehicle safety inspection in South Carolina (at least for passenger cars/trucks). That explains the old Fleetwood Cadillac with no working brake lights, no turn signal and burning fuel like anything that I was behind as I went to the state DMV to register my car. They say New Hampshire is the "Live Free or Die" state. In that regard, New Hampshire has nothing on South Carolina.

Finally, unlike metro New York, the Division One basketball universities and colleges are spread out much further. The closest D1 schools to me in Columbia are of course the University of South Carolina, Winthrop, College of Charleston, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, Furman, Wofford, South Carolina State and the Citadel. Winthrop is probably the closest school to USC, about a hour away in Rock Hill. So my road trips this season will need to be planned with travel considerations in mind.

But that's not the only thing going on. I still have my wife and kids up in Long Island until the house closes. Until recently, I hadn't seen them in a month and a half, outside of Skype calls. As much as I love Skype, it's not the same. Long Island is where I am at the moment due to Hurricane Sandy.  With thanks to an understanding boss, I am here to make sure everything is OK, to watch my kids while my wife has to work extended hours at her job and hope there is no damage to the house. So to say that there are things pressing in my life, well I guess that's an understatement.

Recently, two of my mid major friends/writers asked me if I was going to be a part of the new Mid Majority season, which is based on writer teams. I told both of them that I was going to pass on this season because there is just too much going on otherwise in my life to commit to another site, let alone keep up with my own site this season. I will certainly follow their work and I wish them the best (plus I have already bought a season package as my way of supporting the site).

Don't get me wrong, as you can see already from this piece of paper, I am planning out the coverage to my season. It's around this time of year that I plan out what games I am going to for the upcoming season. In the past, it centered around the Hofstra season. The home games were a given, then I could see which Hofstra road games I could attend. Then, having ties to Iona and Stony Brook, I would review their schedules and plan accordingly. Also, having ties to the Iona women's basketball program, part of my schedule revolved around the Lady Gaels. Finally, I made sure my first weekend in March was free so I could attend the CAA Tournament. Then if local teams made the NIT, CBI or CIT, that was gravy.

Last season, due to my work with Mid Majority, I expanded my coverage. As much as I could, a lot of my coverage was based on NEC and MAAC schedules, as well as other CAA teams. I watched an amazing CAA Tournament and got to see Drexel and UMass in the NIT. It was the closest thing to being a true college basketball beat reporter I had done in my seven years of writing for my site. Covering fifty nine Division I men's games, fifteen Division I women's games and a couple of St Joseph's Division III games, while having a full time job, was amazing and at times exhausting.

Now, I have a whole new environment to work with down here. USC will be the main focal point, which I am sure disappoints my mid major followers. However, thanks to relative proximity, I have the ability to give some southern mid majors like College of Charleston, Winthrop and even Wofford more coverage than they might currently have on the blogosphere. And having UNC Wilmington only three and a half hours away is going to come in handy come February 2013.

Rob Russell of GheorgeTheBlog wrote a terrific article today about how much the CAAHoops community will miss Mike Litos, who is now going to be the analyst for VCU radio broadcasts. CAAHoops will still be fine, because Litos wisely enlisted the aid of JMU SID Jeff Warner and his Sports Communications Class' students.  But it won't be the same not seeing Litos' tidbits on a daily basis after so many years.

But you can't blame Michael for passing up an incredible job opportunity.   I sort of did the same thing moving down to South Carolina.  Having covered mostly CAA basketball for the past seven seasons, I have so appreciated the friends I have made covering the Colonial League and New York City Metro basketball. There's a lot of us that use the hashtag #CAAHoops. And to not be at just about all Hofstra games after having been a season ticket holder since the early 2000s, well it's definitely very sad to be away from the many friends I have at the Mack Center.

However, I will still follow and write about the CAA from afar and in some cases, from up close. My first CAA game is actually Towson at College of Charleston, which hopefully will be a CAA member soon. Also, since my younger son's November 17 birthday falls on a Saturday, it just so happens to coincide with a Hofstra 2K Classic Tournament home game. So I will be back in my old Hempstead stomping grounds that day.

However, how many games I cover this season overall is not my pressing concern. As I noted, there is so much else going on right now, especially having been at my new job for only two months. As a result of this opportunity at USC, my life has changed radically. Writing about college basketball, as much as I love it, is a hobby. It doesn't put food on the table, nor does it give my family a roof over their heads. I moved down to Columbia for a terrific job opportunity, quality of life, cheaper housing, and less stress. I figure in a year from now, things will be settled and this move will have been worth it. Time will tell.

I wrote much of this article at 5:00 AM this past Saturday morning at Charlotte International Airport. It was the second weekend in a row that I was at Charlotte Airport. The previous weekend was a planned visit. This weekend again was due to Hurricane Sandy's impending impact on the Long Island area. I couldn't sit down in Columbia being worried sick about them. I had to be in North Bellmore with them. And again, as I noted, my wife has to work extended hours for her job, just like she did last year for Hurricane Irene. So I had to be here for my two sons.

So right now, as much as I love college basketball, it takes a seat to the real priorities in life. I don't know how many games I will cover this season and frankly, it's not a major concern to me. Once Sandy passes and hopefully is more Al Franken than Frankenstorm, then I will spend more time planning out my college basketball schedule. I know a lot of it will involve the University of South Carolina basketball team, so again, my mid major friends/fans will have to understand. However, until Chelle and the boys are down in Columbia, it's not my major focus.

As much as I love college basketball and as much as I love writing about it, it takes a back seat to the family, the new job and my future. It's the final thing I have learned in my two months in Columbia.

Everything is relative.

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.

Looking Back at 2011-12 - What a Season It Was!

It took me some time to write this article.  In fact, I wrote most of this the day after Kentucky defeated Kansas for the national championship. However, I didn't finish it until today.  I decided I needed some down time, needing to decompress from a very busy and fun 2011-12 college basketball season.  Time away allows you to reflect on something special.    But I didn't realize it was going to be basically three months before I posted this article.

Back in the summer of last year, I made a commitment to write for the Mid Majority's 800 Games Project, as well as write for my site. This past season, I took it upon myself to go to as many mid major Division I games as I possibly could and of course, write about them.  The season was at times exciting, exhausting, frustrating and even disappointing.  But it was never, ever dull.

It started fittingly at Carnesecca Arena, where the trio of my friends Mal, Tieff and I went to see William and Mary take on St John's.  In a microcosm of their season, the Tribe led for a good part of the game only to see the Red Storm come back for the win.  Wins were few and far between for the Tribe this past season.

Then it was onto the Mack Center in Hempstead, where I saw Hofstra use a strong second half surge to defeat LIU.  I wrote two separate recaps for that game, one for my site and one for Mid Majority, the only time I did that this season.  Little did I know, it was only one of ten times that the Pride would win a game on the season.

A couple of weeks later, I made one of my only two overnight road trips on the season, a jaunt up to Rhode Island to see the Legends' Classic subregional in Kingston.   It was really a fun trip.  After watching two entertaining games on Friday, I spent Saturday morning walking through Newport on an uncharacteristically warm November day.  Then I watched Hofstra defeat another eventual postseason bound team in Cleveland State.  I was also one of the few people on the planet to see  Bryant Crowder actually play in a regular season game for the Pride before he left the team.

As my marines, aka the few, the proud, the loyal readers of my site know, my home base is Hofstra.  However, one of the things that was so great about this past season was that I got to see a lot of other mid major teams in the New York City area.  I was at several Fordham games and I made road trips to Manhattan's Draddy Gym and the Spiro Athletic Center for the nationally televised LIU-Wagner game.

New York City metro area basketball has undergone a resurgence the past couple of seasons. LIU, Wagner and Manhattan all stepped up this season.  St John's and Hofstra were very good in the 2010-11 season and should be again in 2012-13.   Stony Brook was on the precipice of making the NCAA Tournament each of the last three seassons and made the NCAA Tournament twice.  And, of course, there was Iona this season.

I saw a lot of Stony Brook this season.  In fact, the Seawolves were undefeated at home when I attended their games. Alas, I was not there for their America East Championship game loss to Vermont due to a work commitment.  Stony Brook was very enjoyable to watch due to their defensive style of play and hustle.

The Seawolves also have one of the best mascots in the country in Wolfie Seawolf and they have done their best to make their games very family oriented.   The Cotton Eyed Joe Kids' dance in the second half is a really nice touch.  I know my son Matthew had a lot of fun going to the Stony Brook games in 2011-12.

I went to eleven Iona games this past season.  One thing is for certain, the Gaels were exciting to watch.  Of those eleven times I saw Iona play, five of those times they scored over ninety points.  They are certainly disciples of the Paul Westhead system and it was great to see the Gaels make the NCAA Tournament.  

One of the unique things about this season was making sure to find time for good food on road trips.  Since Hofstra did not play Delaware on a Saturday this season, I made sure to make a special road trip to Newark for the Blue Hens Barbecue concession stand.   Before the Loyola Md - Fairfield game, we made sure to allow time for a trip to Frank Pepe's pizza in Fairfield.  My older son, Matthew, aka "my color analyst", will tell you the best soft pretzels are at Iona. 

But three things will stand out this season in particular.  Two things, will fondly stand out to me forever.  The third reminds me why I started this blog.

As my readers know, for as long as I have written this blog, I have always sat in the stands.  It's the perspective of a fan (hopefully a knowledgeable one), sitting with his son, his friends, sometimes even his entire family watching a game on Valentine's Day.  There are a lot of advantages to that.  You can get the fans' perspective on the game, full of fun comments.   I went to the Fordham-Xavier game at Rose Hill Gym and I ended up sitting in the Xavier section.  One fan called out Musketeer Center Kenny Frease for his lack of a vertical leap on one play, noting "How can you miss that?! You're seven-foot-twelve!"

For eight years, I had watched the CAA Tournament from the stands in the Richmond Coliseum. But this March, I was able to fulfill a lifelong dream for my ninth CAA Tournament.  The good folks at CAA Sports, Rob Washburn in particular, have followed my site for years and also follow me on Twitter.  I guess they figure I am semi coherent when it comes to covering CAA Basketball.  In late January, I decided to take the plunge and sent an email requesting media credentials to cover the CAA Tournament.  Within a few hours, Rob had granted my request.

After a road trip with Defiantly Dutch that would have made Steve Martin and John Candy proud, there I was on a Friday afternoon on March 2, sitting two rows from the court in my press row seat.  Rob had the good sense of  putting "The Statler and Waldorf of the CAA" next to each other, which made it more fun having the Dutchman next to me.

It was so much fun reading up on the media guides before the games.  It was also a lot of fun meeting new friends such as Rob Canady, Tom Block and Rob Russell to name a few.  It was good to see Brian Mull again, one of the best beat writers around.  Also, I got to see my good friend, Joe Suhoski, aka @VABeachrep, who was there covering the tournament for CAAZone.  Finally, I got to meet in person Mr. CAAHoops himself, Mike Litos.  You couldn't meet a nicer, more knowledgable guy.

The post game press conferences were for the most part wonderful.  Ron Hunter is one of the most honest, intense individuals you will ever meet.  But he couldn't have been more congenial with Dutch and me after his postgame press conference after his team's heartbreaking loss to George Mason.  Blaine Taylor was his usual blunt, funny self.  Shaka Smart had a hilarious comment about Drexel's Darryl McCoy during his press conference.



The two most difficult press conferences were Hofstra's after their resounding loss to Georgia State and Ron Hunter's after Georgia State's heartbreaking loss to George Mason in the Quarterfinals.  During the Hofstra press conference, I asked my only question of any of the three days' worth of press conferences I attended.  I asked Mike Moore and Nathaniel Lester of what they will fondly look back on their careers at Hofstra.  Both gave very thoughtful answers under a difficult circumstance.  Hunter's passionate talk at the beginning of his press conference showed how much he loved his team.

Also, you really don't get an appreciation of how loud a sold out Richmond Coliseum is until you sit on press row.  The evening quarterfinals session and the semifinals of the CAA Tournament were downright raucous, especially when VCU played.   It certainly was not a neutral site with VCU literally right down the road, but it was also certainly a great atmosphere.  With VCU now gone for the A-10, the CAA Tournament will be a completely different experience and likely in a different arena next season.

And there was a lot of excitement in the 2012 CAA Tournament.  There was Byron Allen's game winning shot in George Mason's quarterfinal win over Georgia State (which I recorded above).  ODU, behind Kent Bazemore living up to his giant cardboard cutout,  shot the lights out in their quarterfinal win over Delaware.  And there was the amazing George Mason-VCU semifinal.  The Rams went out to an unreal 32-4 lead only to see George Mason valiantly rally in the second half before ultimately losing.

But once again, I couldn't stay for the CAA Tournament championship game.  This time I was at 30,000 feet watching the championship game on a wireless feed.   More on that later in this article.

I didn't just see men's Division I games this season.  I was able to catch two of Division III St Joseph's, a team that finished with just four losses on the season and only two in conference.  They got their second ever NCAA Divison III Tournament berth with a well deserved at large bid.

There were a lot of women's Division I basketball games this season.  By my count, it was about fifteen games that I saw; four Hofstra games and eleven Iona games.  I even got to see the great Elene Della Donne of Delaware play against the Pride in what was an entertaining game.  Overall, I saw about seventy six Division I and Division III games.

I got to see several good NCAA Tournament teams this season;  Xavier, VCU, Iona and LIU.   It should have been five teams, but the NCAA Selection Committee and their infinite wisdom didn't think a twenty seven win Drexel team, a team that won nineteen games in a row, deserved an at large bid.  Having seen them in person four times, I couldn't have disagreed more.

Good teams also have good players.  To think that I got to see Iona's Scott Machado and Michael Glover on a regular basis was truly a treat.  I found a new appreciation for Drexel's Samme Givens and I was wowed by the athleticism of VCU's Juvonte Reddic, whose explosive drive to the basket against Delaware at the Bob I will remember forever.  But my favorite player, and my son Matthew's favorite player next to Mike Moore, was Stony Brook's Tommy Brenton.  I just love his hard work and his fundamentally sound game.

There were several last second game winning shots that I witnessed this season.  Several, unfortunately, were against Hofstra.  But the two most memorable were Emmy Andjuar's three point buzzer beater to cap a Manhattan 27-7 comeback to defeat Iona and Allen's last second shot against Georgia State.

In fact, here is a list of my top ten favorite games that I covered in person from this season from top to bottom;

• George Mason vs. VCU - CAA Tournament Semifinal.
• Manhattan vs. Iona - The Jaspers 27-7 game ending run capped by a buzzer beater.
• Georgia State vs. George Mason - CAA Tournament Quarterfinal. 
• UMass vs. Drexel - NIT Tournament Quarterfinal.
• LIU vs. Wagner - Nationally Televised NEC First Place Game.
• Iona vs. Manhattan - The Rematch at Draddy.
• St Josephs vs. Iona - Overtime at Hynes on Thanksgiving Eve.
• Siena vs. Iona - Sean Armand's Virtuoso Performance.
• Iona vs. Hofstra - The Pride Surprise the Gaels.
• Loyola Md vs. Fairfield - In the MAAC, It's Never Over Till It's Over.

But as I said, there are three things I will remember most about this season.  First, there was a reason I was 30,000 feet in the air the night of the CAA Championship game.  I was on my way out west for a finalist interview at a school that is a part of a major university.  Especially after how I felt from the interview, there was a good chance that my life was about to radically change.

Exactly two weeks later after that interview, I was sitting in the stands, along with my son Matthew and my best friend Tieff, about to watch UMass take on Drexel in the NIT Quarterfinals.  I just happened to check my email during a break in the game.  I found out, despite apparently giving a really good interview, I did not get the job I so dearly wanted.

I showed the email to my friend Tieff and he could see the disappointment in my face.  He did his best to cheer me up.  But in a little while, I was OK.  My long time friend/mistress, college basketball, was there to console me.  I got wrapped up in the great atmosphere of the DAC and what turned out to be a very exciting game.

UMass would rally to win that game.  Though it was disappointing to have seen Drexel lose for their first time on their home court this season, the fact that I was able to see a great live college basketball game eased the pain I had felt.  Once again, when I needed it, college basketball was there for me.

The other thing I remember the most this season is the countless number of games I went to with "my color analyst", aka my soon to be seven year old son Matthew.  His love of college basketball started on my birthday last year, the memorable Charles Jenkins buzzerfest vs. William and Mary.  Matthew was so eager to start this season, he started asking me about Hofstra basketball in July.

He picked up right where he left off from last season.  Matthew went to all the Hofstra home games and a significant number of Iona games.  He even went on road trips to Fairfield to witness the crazy, but fun Jimmy Patsos of Loyola Md  face the evil, black curtain that adorns Webster Bank Arena.   He was there for the first road trip to Drexel, where he got to see the Bucks County Bungee Jumpers at halftime of the Hofstra-Drexel game.  And he was there to watch one of his favorite players, Givens, play his heart out in the loss to UMass.

I can't tell you how wonderful it was having "my color analyst" there with me for so many games.  By my count, Matthew went to thirty three games this season with me. His view of a basketball game was the subject of one of my articles.  Matthew's powers of observation in basketball are truly amazing and he remembers everything.  His love of basketball perhaps even surpasses mine and I loved the energy he brought with him to every game.

And that leads to the third and most important reason, the reason why I started writing this blog in December 2005.  It was about writing on one of my favorite subjects, a game that I have loved since my early teens, college basketball.   Thanks to college basketball, I got to spend countless hours of quality time with my older son.

My focus this past season was truly a mid major focus.  Based on the Mid Majority's criteria, I saw live fifty eight straight mid major games (though don't get me started about the Atlantic-10, which is to me a wannabee conference).  In the end though, the last live game was a Power Six conference NIT semifinal.  It was an ironic, yet cruel twist of fate for my end of the basketball season.  And in a fitting bit of irony, I left that game at haltime, the only game this season I didn't see to its conclusion.

But yet, in the end, it was a triumph.  Including me, there were one hundred and twenty two writers who wrote for the Mid Majority site.   Though it got a little close at the end, we surpassed eight hundred games with recaps (several writers wrote recaps for the same games).  There were so many good articles by so many writers and it was great to have been a part of that project.

I will say this though - Spending my non work free time covering fifty eight Division I men's games, two Divison III games and fifteen women's games was exhausting.  After I got back from my interview trip, I simply crashed that weekend.  As much as I love college basketball, it requires a lot of time to write for two sites (and yes, there is added time editing/writing for another site, even if it's the same recap).   I spent a lot of late nights and very early mornings writing over sixty plus game recaps for both sites (including the Division III games and some women's games).  And I have a full time job, folks.  I'm not complaining, just telling you the facts.

After my final interview at that major university's school, I really thought I had got the job.  The next day, as I took the shuttle to the airport for my flight home, I listened to my music on my IPhone, reflecting on this season.  I had mapped out the number of Division I colleges within what might have been my new location.  There were only three schools and only one was a mid major.   Part of me wondered how much college basketball I could watch and whether I would be okay scaling down my writing.

You see, it's kind of funny, but until this past season I didn't realize how many local teams were within a four hour drive here in Long Island. There are teams whose home games I wanted to see, like LIU and Marist, to name two, that I didn't have a chance to do because of scheduling.    Heck, I was able to see three college games in one day; Fordham vs. Xavier, Georgia State vs. Hofstra and Manhattan vs. Iona, all with a Hofstra theme.  New York is still the mecca of college basketball, no matter what the standings are.

And perhaps, it was the college basketball gods that decided I should stay in New York and not have that job so far west, where football is definitely the king sport at that university.  Perhaps the basketball gods want me to be at the Palestra (hopefully it's the Palestra) next March to see Drexel finally get their well deserved NCAA berth that was denied to them this season.  Perhaps, fate wants me to bring my son Matthew to see Hofstra play in the CAA Tournament.

When it all comes down to it, it was my mistress, college basketball, who refused to let me leave her.  I think she is saying "Right now, where you are is your home.  It's the home of me, college basketball, the one besides your family, that you love so much.  I need you here to write about me."

Yes, that sounds a little crazy, but you see, I have never played with a full deck.

So once again, for the eighth season, I will be writing for this site.  I will say this though;  The College Hardwood will have a different feel this next season.  I can't get into all the details now, but let's just say there will be more coverage.  When the details are more concrete, I will let you know.

However, this past season was special.  I saw more live games than I ever did.  My appreciation of New York City metro basketball has never been greater.  Thanks to that, I have made new friends like John Templon of Big Apple Buckets and Jaden Daly of Daly Dose of Hoops.  And I have the best basketball buddy a father could ever want.

So thank you Jen Ahearn, Kyle Whelliston and all the folks who inspired me to cover fifty eight mid major games (I didn't get the Drexel-UMass game in on their site, but it's on mine). I wouldn't have done it without your inspiration.  It was really cool to be a part of a successful, fun project.

If you are interested, here's my page on Mid Majority's site with the fifty seven game recaps.

Special thanks to Tony Bozzella, Nick Guerriero, Mo Cassara, John Mateyko, Jim Fiore and Rob Washburn (and all the folks at CAA Sports) for all their kindness and generosity this past season.

Most importantly, for all of you who follow my site, my most heart felt thanks. Thank you for making this past season the best ever as far as page views for this site.  I truly hope you enjoyed the articles from the 2011-12 season.




What the 2012-13 season brings, who knows.  It's another challenge, another year of fun.  Won't you join me in November for all of that?  I know "my color analyst" will.

Till then, keep "Running Against the Wind".  It's all we can do.


Best Always,


Gary Moore
Author/Founder of the College Hardwood