for 2/1/01
The Mens Hockey team came off a very dissapointing weekend. We outplayed SLU, yet still took the loss, a shutout nonetheless. A home shutout had not occured since the 97-98 season. The following night we fell to Clarkson. I can honestly say I have never seen the team that pissed off as I did after that game. Hopefully things will turn around, but thats tough to do at this point. We're currently in a tie for 10th place in the league. We will be on the road against the other 10th place team, Brown, this weekend. But not before facing first place Harvard. The make or break weekends are over, now it's time to fight for those last playoff spots. Harvard is still amazing on the penalty kill, but Brown has been struggling in that department. Our team has been struggling on the powerplay, but we are actually above our two opponents in PP percentage. Let's hope for some teamwork out there on the ice this weekend.
The Womens Hockey team is unfortunatly struggling. They tied Middlebury on the road, which has to be considered a good tie on the road. But then we lost to Sacred Heart. I have no idea whats going on, but we are now 10th in the league, and playing the number 9 and 11 teams this weekend at home. We are currently at a generous 9th in the national poll. For the first time, goaltending has been exposed as our weakness. And the overpowering offense, hasn't been.
The Mens Basketball team had the best January, and have been running at full speed the past 4 games, including the last week, with an impressive win over Lafayette, a last second thriller with Bucknell, and a road loss to Navy, with Howard Blue out with injury. This Saturday is a key game, with Holy Cross coming to town for a 3:15 game. This could be the game of the year. Colgate has just been solid lately. With a good player at every position, we are hard to stop! Very impressive blue collar effort out of everyone lately.
The Womens Basketball team has resummed thier slide. We had a nice win at Navy, then got absolutly creamed by Binghamton at home, utilizing our bench heavily. Then we gave a repeat performance with Lafayette, in what looked to be one of our worst games of the year. Mark Murphy was seen having a long talk with Coach Rohn after the game. Would have liked to been a fly on the wall during that one! Holy Cross is here on Saturday. I'm not sure if our scoreboard can show triple digits, and I'm sure I don't want to find out. That game is at 1 pm, and the Crusaders are arguablly the best in the league, but you should still come out to support the team, I know I'll be there.
John Feinstein was on campus wednesday, signing copies of his book, The Last Amatuers. He's a remarkable story teller, and he spoke about his book in front of a full crowd, which was great to see. He only talked for about 20 minutes, then took questions for another 50, some relavant highlights include...
- "It's nice to write a book about a place and then be invited back" about his most sucessful book, A season on the brink, when after following Bobby Knight for a season, Knight critisized him for quoting him too much...
-He talked about how many league fans have thanked him for writting this book, and about how it's done so much for the league. But he said the pleasure was all his, and that he enjoyed the project immesly. And that Patriot League players were a breath of fresh air after some of the people he has to deal with. He considered himself fortunate enough to have an alredy established reputation, otherwise his publisher would have never allowed him to write about the league. But he hopes after this book made the best seller list, maybe people will begin to follow the league more, and even consider some of his points.
- He still thinks athletic scholarships are important. He buys into the Lehigh model, where the players they have recruited under scholarship have been better both athletically and academically. He said there's nothing wrong with giving a basketball scholarship, as long as it's made clear that they are expected to be students first. He doesn't think the league will be healthy as long as this uneven playing field exists within the league.
- He shared his experiences with Coach Davis, DeVoe and former Colgate coach Bruen, and what a pleasure it was to know him. These coaches gave him the inspiration to write about the league.
- He mentioned the womens game, and said it hasn't gotten to be as bad as the mens, but the potential is there. He hopes as the sport grows, they learn from the mistakes the men have made.
- Someone asked about his experiences with the PGA. Not too much came of that, but Tiger Wood's caddy is the 56th money winner in the PGA just because of the bonus you get when your golfer does well.
- Talked about religion in sports, said he hates it when athletes tell him they won because God was with them. But he does believe in religion, he just doesn't want to hear about other peoples religious beliefs. He talked about how Navy has 8 team prayers on a football day. Football by nature requires more religion, just due to the increase in fear, and the fact that every game, players get hurt. You don't see it as much in basketball, and he said Patriot League players were almost too smart to simply say they won because of religion.
- He told the story about Devin Tuohey in his first game of his college career against Syracuse. Tuohey was put in at the end of the first half, only to turn the ball over one his first touch, and get dunked on. He got the ball back, had it stolen again, but instead of letting the player dunk, he chased him down to foul him, but tripped and ended up tackling him, causing the all american player to start screaming at the now embarrassed Tuohey as well as the whole crowd Tuohey never returned to the game after that, and said in his first game he had "1 minute played, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, and 8 death threats." Feinsein said he was one of his favorite league players.
- Another quick story or two, at one game, a coach started calling the ref pretty loudly, the ref goes over to him and the coach asks if he can be given a technical for something he thinks. The ref said no, of course not, why did you ask me that? And the coach simply replied that he thinks the reffing this game sucks.
- The other interesting story came from an intense southern rivalry. A new coach lost his first two games to the new arch rival when a fan started berating the coach for losing to thier intense rivals, and that he doesn't understand the rivalry becuase he's new to the school, but it will not be tolerated. The coach tried to write him off with the "Nobody is more upset than I am" line, but the southerner repeated that the coach did not understand, and if they lost the game next year, his dog would be killed. At this point the coach just got annoyed and stated that he didn't even have a dog, and left. The next morning, when the coach went to get his morning paper, he found a basket on his front doorstep with a adorable puppy inside of it for him. The note that came with it said "Don't get too attached" He won his next game against the rivals.
Time to look at our most recent recruits... Rick Kilpatrick reports that Cory Kilpatrick has signed on for next season as a nose tackle for football. Cory comes from a small upstate NY private school, where he graduates as the team career leader in tackles. He's 6'1", 250 lbs and accolates include twice being the top defensive player in Metro Elmira, and being a two time all state selection. Two new hockey recruits to report, bringing us to a total of 9. Justin Spencer is a 6 foot tall defensemen from Ottawa in the COJHL, a "A" league. Seems like a solid recruit, a little high on the penalty minutes, but defense is where we need the recruits right now, and this kid has potential. Jaymon Hill is our other new recruit. 6'2" 187 pounds, a left winger from the SJHL. 37 games, with 21 goals, 22 assists, and a whole lotta penalty minutes. This kid seems good, according to these stats he plays hard, gets a lot of goals, but is more than willing to share the puck. Another good recruit.
Thats going to do it for tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to report again on Sunday with things calming down here a bit. See you at the games this weekend, and keep those recruiting tidbits coming, till then, this has been the Red Raider sports report.
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