Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

In other news, I'm going to be cutting back on my blogging. This is a tough decision, as I enjoy posting here and had a recent resurgence, but I have to focus some of my spare time on other things. Not sure when I'll be back to regular posting (it may be a while) but I hope to get back to it, eventually.

Thanks for reading.

Predictions - Men's Basketball

Already posted these on Crossports, but we'll post 'em again here. It'll be easier to dust them off and dig them out of the archives here when the season is over!

Game-by-Game predictions:
Sun 11/12/06 H Fairfield WIN
Wed 11/15/06 H Hampton WIN
Sat 11/18/06 H Siena LOSS
Tue 11/21/06 A Harvard WIN
Sat 11/25/06 H Wm & Mary WIN
Mon 11/27/06 A Syracuse LOSS
Wed 11/29/06 A Yale WIN
Sat 12/02/06 A Dayton LOSS
Wed 12/06/06 A Duke LOSS
Tue 12/19/06 A Providence WIN
Thu 12/21/06 H G Mason LOSS
Thu 12/28/06 A La Salle LOSS
Fri 12/29/06 N Niagara WIN
Sat 12/30/06 N Delaware WIN
Wed 01/03/07 A B U WIN
Sat 01/06/07 A Lafayette * WIN
Tue 01/09/07 H Army * WIN
Fri 01/12/07 H Bucknell * LOSS
Wed 01/17/07 H Navy * WIN
Sat 01/20/07 A American * LOSS
Tue 01/23/07 A Colgate * LOSS
Fri 01/26/07 H Lehigh * WIN
Wed 01/31/07 H American * WIN
Sat 02/03/07 H Lafayette * WIN
Tue 02/06/07 A Army * WIN
Fri 02/09/07 A Bucknell * WIN
Wed 02/14/07 A Navy * WIN
Sat 02/17/07 A ESPN BBuster WIN
Wed 02/21/07 H Colgate * WIN
Sun 02/25/07 A Lehigh * WIN
Wed 02/28/07 Patriot League Quarterfinals WIN
Sun 03/04/07 Patriot League Semifinals WIN
Fri 03/09/07 Patriot League Championship Game WIN

That's 21-9, 3-0 PLT, and I'll say 1-1 NCAA. They bring a 9-game winning streak into the PL Tourney and 12-game streak into the NCAA's. I'd like to think I'm being conservative here, especially with a couple of the OOC games and one of the league games.


Patriot League First-Team:
Keith Simmons, G, HC
Tim Clifford, C, HC
Brayden Billbe, C, AU
Jose Olivero, G, Lehigh
Chris McNaughton, C, BU

And we'll predict the POY here: Keith Simmons, HC


A few other players we think are worth keeping an eye on:
Jordan Nichols, F, AU
Rob Thomas, G, BU
Andrew Brown, G, LAF
Kaleo Kina, G, Navy
Pat Doherty, G, HC (duh!)

Also looking forward to seeing what guys like Matt Bell, Greg Sprink, and Derrick Mercer will do this year.

Men's Hoops Opener!

Beat Fairfield on Sunday! Have a great year, guys.

Football vs. Colgate

The final regular season game has arrived. T&G reporter Jennifer Toland has predicted a victory for Holy Cross today. I'm a little worried about that, as her record in picking the close-call PL games hasn't been good this season. She did correctly predict that Bucknell would lose to Holy Cross last week, but I don't think that was a tough call.

Anyway, best of luck to the Crusaders today. As many have said, these seniors have endured a lot, with the loss of Coach Allen and the subsequent transition, but they should be incredibly proud of their gains. 1-11 in 2003, 3-8 in 2004, 6-5 in 2005, and at least seven wins in 2006. We're hoping for 8 wins and maybe more!

Beat 'gate!

Women's Hoops Opener!

Continuing our tradition, we're posting the opening game starters. Good luck to the women's basketball team this season!

Posters I've met

I sorted the Crossports memberlist by posts, and here are the top 90 (as of a couple of days ago).

The posters I've met are in bold. I'm not trying by any means to say I know everyone (I counted 26 of the 90 in bold), but it's a credit to Crossports and its moderator that we have a forum to discuss HC athletics, which enables us to meet and hang out with other Crusader fans. Seriously, can you imagine if we didn't have the Crossports message board? Thank you Crossports!

hchoops
sader1970
KY Crusader 75
CHC8485
NTKHC64
HC1843
Sons of Spitler
Rick
newtimholycross
pitt65
Root
nhteamer
Ray
lou
Jon
purplehaze
JRGNYR
TheYouk
Non Alum Dave
bison137
Chu Chu
hcnj
Sader81
hcbballfan
Wheeler
dadominate
Sader03
Sader Fan
Gate Raider
Class of 83
colgate13
HCCT
breezy
bikeman
jmw
GOPURPLE97
BeatBC
PatriotFan
Another65er
HC93
HC62
Purple71
crusader1970
Matunuck
Ignatius Loyola
TS1970
JoeHC
eric...
HC13
boxman37
Jet - 99% sure
Cross19
CL Metsfan
germ75
cf rivals
MHMD05
Tom
Zipp
HC92 - I can put 2 and 2 together
HC89
BBFAN
Hoop Time
1saderfan353
WCHC Sports
Fred
HC_01
HCFAN
PROTON
MHMD
purple1
saderman
laxfan
pittman
sader08
hc69
CROSSPORTS
HChockeyalum
purplepower
RGS318
HCAlum2000
baseball fan
JDAllston
Hcbball99
HC03
JS
unwired
mattb
td128
LindenLane
Class1996

There are a handful of others on this list I've figured out (by face) but haven't officially met, or haven't met in the context of Crossports and their posting name. And there are others I've met who are not in the top 90 posters, like Jim (appreciate you reading!) and TheRevHC. Look forward to meeting many more.

And this "top 90 posters" list does raise some questions. For instance, if you add up the posts for all the iterations of MHMD, how high would he rank? And how the heck has bison137 surged into the top20? Dave, fend him off!

New Hockey Column

Telegram & Gazette correspondent Steve Kendall has a new hockey column that will appear on Mondays, bi-weekly. I have to believe HC's win over Minnesota provided some of the impetus for this column. Look for Holy Cross to be covered extensively in his column.

This week's column contains an update on former Crusader hero Tyler McGregor, whose whereabouts were last unknown by the hockey fans on Crossports. Kendall reports that McGregor is playing in the Central Hockey League, as a Memphis RiverKings teammate to former HC goalie Ben Conway. Marc Bianchi is also in the CHL, with the Lubbock Cotton Kings. Does every team have "Kings" in its name?

Must-Read HC Articles

Last weekend's Sunday Telegram contained a ton of Holy Cross content. Paul Jarvey wrote an excellent front-page feature. Also, there were the football and hockey game recaps, along with season previews for the men's and women's basketball teams.

Here are a couple of the articles, which I don't remember seeing linked by anyone over on Crossports. Read 'em before they get archived by the T&G!

First up is a heartwarming story by Sports columnist Paul Jarvey, on senior lineman Matt Lemire and his family. Matt's mom is battling lupus.















Next is the women's hoops preview, featuring an ecstatic Brittany Keil, taking a break from her basket-weaving classes.
Coach Gibbons is always good for some quotes, and this article is no exception. A nice story on Brittany.

I couldn't find the link to Jennifer Toland's men's hoops preview, but it was a very good article. Torey and Keith spoke about their bond, and how Keith does the cooking and cleaning in their student apartment. Keith also recently made his "famous beef enchiladas" for the team. Simmons also discussed the frustrations and limitations of his cramping last season. "I'd cramp up when I tried to be explosive," he said.

Torey Thomas closed the story with this gem regarding being a captain: "I relish the responsibility because not everyone's a leader, not everyone's called on to be a leader. It's prestigious, but it's not just because of a title. It's because you have more to give to other people. When you have more to give to other people, you can be successful. If you lead right, with a keen eye and good discretion, you can make something ordinary become something special."

Pearl of Wisdom #23

"He's an excellent defensive player, but he also adds a lot to our offense. He made the big play last night and had another great game today. He not only scored those goals, but he also broke the puck out well and did the things we expect from him on the ice."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game story in the November 5, 2006 edition of the Sunday Telegram, talking about senior defenseman Jon Landry's outstanding play (including a hat trick) as Holy Cross completed the weekend sweep of Canisius with a 6-3 victory at the Hart.


Does Steve Kendall know we're "24" fans? He led his story by comparing Landry to Jack Bauer. We know you were throwing us a bone, Steve. You've seen THIS, right?

Pearl of Wisdom #22

"You have to be able to kill penalties consistently to have success. It's not a glamorous job - getting hit in the gut with a 90 mile-an-hour slapshot isn't fun - but it's incredibly important."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game story in last Saturday's Telegram & Gazette, discussing his team's three big penalty kills in the third period of the 5-4 HC win over Canisius at the Hart Center.

Asleep in the street

Here's something you don't see every day. This woman was intoxicated and fell asleep during the Wednesday morning rush hour in the middle of Worcester's most notorious intersection, Kelley Square.

She was taken away by police and brought to the PIP shelter (People in Peril).