Women's Basketball Playoffs On Tap

The HC women's basketball team backed into the number two spot in the Patriot League standings, and will host one-half of the PL tournament which begins Thursday. Bucknell and Lehigh face off in the first quarterfinal game at 5:30pm, with the Crusaders and the AU Eagles matching up at 8pm.

A few folks over on Crossports are wondering why the HC women's team doesn't get more attention from the board's registered posters. That question gets kicked around every so often. My answer, for this year, at least, is pretty simple: This season's version of the Crusaders isn't much fun to watch.

Maybe I just miss those breathtaking Maggie Fontana passes, or the all-around post play of Lisa Andrews. But it's more than that. Seniors Shannon Bush, Jess Conte, and Sarah Placek are shooting a combined 36.1% from the field, and an even worse 31.5% on three-pointers. I love Conte, but her shooting this year has been disappointing.

Shannon Bush has the worst percentages of the senior tri-captains. She's at 34.9% from the field, and a terrible 28.5% from three. Shooting that poorly from three-land is one thing, but taking almost half your shots (actually 46.3%) from behind-the-arc, while shooting that poorly, simply isn't smart. Neither is the fact that she's taken the second-most shots on the team, only 21 behind the 54% shooting and breakout junior center Kaitlin Foley who's taken 302 shots on the season.

The much-maligned Sarah Placek, not a fan favorite, actually has the best percentages of the three seniors. The headline for the game story in today's Sunday Telegram was "Unlikely milestone," in reference to Placek's reaching 1000 career points. Congratulations to her on that achievement! Her pull-up 12-foot jumper is deadly. Yet according to the article in today's paper, she has the lowest career scoring average (8.8) of the 22 members of the HC women's 1000-point club. Longevity doesn't preclude mediocrity.

It probably seems like I'm trashing this year's seniors. That's not my intention. They play hard, and I've heard excellent things about them off-the-court. I'm absolutely sure they represent Holy Cross as well as any students. However, poor decision-making and less-than-stellar shooting have added up to a mediocre season for this season's Crusaders. Add in Keil's lack of development (her junior year is almost over - let's face it, she hasn't met expectations), and Ashley McLaughlin's awful sophomore season, and what are the positives to continuously rave about?

Aloisi and Foley salvaged the year, in this fan's opinion. I've been a season-ticket holder for a few years, and I haven't seen a player make offseason progress like Foley did this year. She made astounding improvements, and she's capable of having a dominant senior year. Aloisi has been very good through the PL schedule, and seems to be back to 100% after her injury-filled freshman campaign. She's still improving.

Prospects for the PL tournament? I'm not sure. I've said all along that Bucknell would be trouble in the tournament. If they beat Lehigh, and HC beats AU, then we'll have another tough HC-BU women's game on hand for Saturday afternoon. Obviously I hope HC wins their games this weekend, but following this season's pattern, nothing will be easy. Good luck, ladies.

Pearl of Wisdom #13

"You don't go through a long season like this without a few ups-and-downs. This was a tough loss, no question, but we have shown the ability to bounce back from tough games like this very well."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game report in Saturday's Telegram & Gazette, after his team's excruciating 4-3 loss to Sacred Heart, as the Crusaders lost with less than 4 seconds left in overtime after rallying back from a 3-0 first period deficit.

After HC's eight-game winning streak was snapped by Canisius two weeks ago, I had an inkling that our guys might've peaked too early. But they bounced back with a win and tie against Mercyhurst, and things were looking good. This weekend's sweep by Sacred Heart was surprising, and has resulted in a logjam at the top of the AHA standings, with HC and SH tied for first, with the 'hurst a point back. A critical weekend awaits!

A New Lookalike

We'll put aside the Colin Cunningham lookalike quest, for the moment at least. (We're not finished with that, as we did receive another possibility for him via email.)

But here's a new one for y'all. One of these guys coaches the Holy Cross men's hockey team. The other is a television and movie actor, starring in such flicks as Toy Soldiers, Rudy, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and now appearing as the somewhat annoying and conveniently-quick-to-recover-from-a-mugging Lynn McGill on "24".


Paul Pearl and Sean Astin.

Pearl of Wisdom #12

"Hopefully, lesson learned tonight. We bury it and now have our season in front of us. The three goals were just inexcusable. We don't clear the puck while a man was down on the first, two guys collide on a line change on the second goal and on the third we try to be cute instead of getting the puck into their zone."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Rich Garven's game story in the February 12 Sunday Telegram, after a disappointing 3-1 loss to Canisius by his hockey team. The Crusaders were 0-4 on the power play, and the loss broke an eight-game winning streak.

"It must be the stick"

In his story of the Crusaders' victory over Canisius, Rich Garven of the T&G follows his Paul Pearl quote with this nugget regarding senior Tyler McGregor:

McGregor, though, has made it look easy as he has piled up points over the last month. It’s not the shoes, so it must be the stick.

The 5-foot-10, 200-pound Canadian is the only Crusader using a wooden stick. The rest of his teammates have opted for the uber-popular one-piece composite models.

“A one-piece is good for your shot,” Pearl admitted, “but you don’t feel the puck.”

It's working for Ty. For the season, he has 21 goals (matches career high) and 38 points (new high). Keep it going!

Pearl of Wisdom #11

"I think we've got enough older guys that they know how it works. There isn't an easy point to be had in this league."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Rich Garven's game story in the Telegram & Gazette of Saturday, February 11, after his team's 8th straight victory, a 5-2 win over Canisius at the Hart Center.

Garven writes that the club is "confident," but Coach Pearl thinks the team has the leadership to avoid becoming cocky. A commenter to a previous "Pearl of Wisdom" seems to agree. I agree, too.

The Many Poses of Kyle Cruze

The top photo is from this year's Men's Basketball media guide. The second photo is scanned in from Thursday's T&G. They look like they could've been taken in quick sequence, don't you think?

Pearl of Wisdom #10

"If we start enjoying what we've done now, we won't enjoy the rest of the season. We've put ourselves in great position, but we can't kick back now. We have to take advantage of what we've done."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's "Colleges" column in Wednesday's Telegram & Gazette. Toland also reported that the lineup change that triggered the team's recent hot streak was suggested by assistant coach Kyle Wallack.

As Toland writes, the team has been very consistent this season:

HC’s penalty-kill percentage (90.6, second in the country) and power-play conversion percentage (21.8, fourth) are also good, and consistency has probably been the biggest key to the Crusaders’ success. They have not lost back-to-back games this year.

Whatever Happened To...

"We Are Crusaders" wonders about these former regular or occasional Crossports posters:

• chiefbeef (where are our Big Pat updates?)
• Jimbo (and did he ever fight MHMD outside the entrance to Hart?)
• Brian F. (I think I know where he is, geographically, but wonder why such a devout HC basketball fan completely abandoned the message board)
• Hart Neighbor
• oldtimer
• Merritt Traveler
• Spitler Fan (perhaps now posting under another name?)
• That interloper who claimed he attended Harvard, and caused a stir whenever he posted. I don't recall the posting name, but I know some of my readers will remember it.

And why hasn't MHMD05 morphed into MHMD06?

Look-alike Catchup

It's been almost two months since we've posted an update on the Colin Cunningham lookalike topic. Colin's production on the court has tailed off, but that's not going to stop us from continuing to search for that certain famous person whom Colin resembles the most.

Per reader request, we're posting the side-by-side of Colin and 50's television and radio star Ricky Nelson. This is another one of which I had my doubts, but I must agree with sader1970 that there is a resemblance between Nelson and our favorite bushy-haired frosh from Memphis.

Pearl of Wisdom #9

"We've been playing solid hockey, and I think this weekend what we did better than last weekend is to play better team defense. We're doing a good job of keeping teams wide and clearing the rebounds. Obviously, Tony is doing a really good job on that first shot."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Rich Garven's story in the February 5 edition of the Sunday Telegram, on his red-hot team's 4-1 victory over Bentley at the Hart Center on Saturday.

The win completed a weekend sweep for the Crusaders. The men's hockey team has surged to first place, and holds a record of 19-6-1, and 15-4-1 in league play. They've won seven games in a row, and nine out of ten. Do you think Coach Pearl's comment about "playing solid hockey" is a bit of an understatement?

Good Day, Bad Day

The Holy Cross basketball teams split their doubleheader with the Leopards of Lafayette College on Saturday afternoon, but the real story of the day was the bus accident involving the men's basketball team as they made their way home to Worcester. No passengers on the HC charter were injured, but tragically, two teenagers in another car were killed. We send our thoughts and prayers to everyone involved.

As for the games, the men had a nice comeback as they overcame a halftime deficit, and came away from Easton with a 77-61 win, improving to 6-2 in PL play.

The Crusader women suffered a devastating 54-49 defeat. Once again, the ladies shot poorly, going for 31.3% from the field, 20% from three-land, and 37.5% from the stripe. Holy Cross will need a near-miracle to achieve a 17th 20-win season for head coach Bill Gibbons: They'll have to win the rest of their league games, win the PL tourney, and win their first-round game in the NCAA tournament.

So we're looking at a win total short of twenty, but that aside, the team can still make the NCAAs. The next two games are critical tests. In this opinion, this Saturday's matchup against the talented, young squad from Bucknell will be the game of the week for the women's team. It should make for an outstanding doubleheader at Hart!

Pearl of Wisdom #8

"They're physical, and we're probably smaller and quicker, and I'm happy with how gritty we played. You have to be ready to play all challenges. You can't always play your game. It's nice to play someone else's game and still be able to win."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's game story in Saturday's Telegram & Gazette, after his team's 2-1 win at Bentley. The win moved the Holy Cross men's hockey team into sole possession of first place in Atlantic Hockey. The win was the seventh in a row for senior goalie Tony Quesada.

Pearl of Wisdom #7

"We were getting a little stale five-on-five, and it reinvigorated our power play, too. These guys have been playing together for two years, so we tried a different grouping, just shifting people around. It's worked. It's worked really well."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's game story in the Telegram & Gazette of Saturday, February 4, discussing his lineup change of five games ago. Pearl moved talented sophomore Dale Reinhardt to the second line, joining Tyler McGregor and Blair Bartlett. Pierre Napert-Frenette was swapped to the first line, joining Bubba Sixsmith and Sean Nappo. So far, Coach Pearl is looking like a genious with that change!