Flannery ejection

If you read this blog, you probably also read Crossports, and saw the poll regarding the greatest moment in Hart Center history. Naturally, this comes after a previous thread, maybe this summer, on the "most memorable" moments in Hart Center history. Crossports is nothing if not for recycled topics.

In case you're wondering, I voted for the March 14, 2003 PL Championship game vs. American. Without a doubt, the most electric I've ever seen the Hart. I loved the Navy game in 2001, and the mid-year win against AU in 2003 (Cresnik missed three at buzzer), but walking into the gym for the 2003 PL Final was simply amazing.

Nice of Holty to include in the poll Bucknell coach Pat Flannery's ejection on January 18, 2008. I wish I was there, but could only watch from afar on ESPU. Here are a few TV pics to remind you of that day. BTW, that's a bloodied and bruised Andrew Keister asking, "What's going on?" as the crowd roared watching Flannery's meltdown.

CHAMPIONS!

It doesn't get much sweeter than this week at the Hart!

The camaraderie, the respect, the excitement, the passion, the caring, the drama.

The downs and the ups. The big things and the little things.

Three days, two teams, two league championships!

Bucknell coming from 19 points down to tie the game, and Holy Cross going 16-16 from the free throw line late to withstand the challenge.

The Holy Cross women storming back from a halftime deficit, controlling play in the second half, making big shots, and rebounding, in multiple senses of the word.

Big Tim talking with his pal Chris McNaughton after Chris's last collegiate game.

Shaking Torey Thomas's hand. Torey, you are the man.

Women's team manager A.J. Noto getting pulled into the "Team Captain" trophy photo, with Ashley Brennan-McBride, Brittany Keil, Kaitlin Foley, and Coach Gibbons.

John Griffin hitting two ridiculous late threes.

Pat Flannery melting down and yelling at Bill Gibbons, Sr. at the scorers table on his way to the locker room at the end of the first half.

Pat Doherty knocking down a sweet, smooth trey in the first half.



The men's team painting their chests and faces, spelling out "CRUSADERS!", starting the wave, and doing the Tone Dance during the women's game.

The buzzer sounding on the women's game, signaling victory, a league championship from the depths, overcoming injuries to Laura Aloisi, Jessica Pearson and Brittany Keil, and and a 1-4 start to the league season. The definition of resilience.



Talking with Kyle Cruze's parents again, after meeting them at Bucknell last season.

Bethany O'Dell. Fearless, tough as nails, and those deadly threes.

Brianna McFadden. Patient execution, quiet confidence and leadership.

Christy Cushnie. Aggressive, confident, energetic team player.

Dot Willard, ninety minutes after the men's game, enjoying time with her grandchildren.

Chatting with HoopTime.

Meeting Eric Meister's sister, who said Eric is greatly enjoying his Holy Cross experience.

Coach Bill Gibbons dressing as the Crusader, and during an early TV timeout of the men's game, climbing a stepladder situated near the HC band, taking off the Crusader helmet revealing himself wearing his team's cut basketball net around his neck, and leading the crowd in a chant of "Beat Bucknell!"

Ralph Willard, his turn arriving to cut down the net, not doing so until Keith and Torey joined him on the ladder.

This is Holy Cross. This is Holy Cross Basketball. I love these teams. The coaches, players and their families, and of course, my fellow fans, make it a special experience. We are blessed to have Bill Gibbons and Ralph Willard leading the hoops players on campus, establishing the atmospheres and winning traditions they have, and attracting quality players and people. No, things aren't always perfect. But for three days, they have been. And for that, I'm exceedingly grateful and proud to be an alumnus of the College of the Holy Cross.

(First two photos courtesy the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.)

Hope Doesn't Float

Ok, so maybe hope isn't enough. Execution, luck, and other factors are at play. I'm back home from my second Bucknell road trip in the last two months, and once again, the good guys lost to the Bison. Fun trip, though. I'm glad I went. Holy Cross played tough, as they have all year, and KHam had a phenomenal game. He gets praised (and occasionally attacked) on Crossports, but the praise isn't enough. He's awesome, and came to play yesterday. Thanks, Kevin, for showing your teammates what it means to play Holy Cross basketball. You'll be missed.

We arrived at BU around 2:30pm. As I've told a few people, the Bucknell campus smells like money, but yesterday, it smelled like cows. Seriously. We picked up our tickets at Will Call and made our way into Sojka. I was expecting a pumped-and-jacked crowd, something reminiscent of the Hart Center for the PL championship game against American in 2003, but that's not what we found. Less than two hours before the game, Hart was packed and LOUD that year. Yesterday at Sojka, less than two hours before the game, the place was empty and quiet. Disappointing (although I thought it was a good sign for Holy Cross). Fans gradually trickled in, and by 4pm, there was a decent contingent of orange shirts. By 4:15, it was finally beginning to feel like a championship game - a whole 15 minutes before the previously announced start time! (I found out around 4 or 4:15 that the start time had been pushed back to 4:45.)

Oh, here's something for you: You want contrived? The Sojka PA guy had a countdown to the live national telecast, starting at 10 seconds out. So when ESPN2 cut into Sojka, those of you watching at home heard a crowd that was about 5 times louder than it was only 10 seconds before. Hart has never needed that kind of ridiculous countdown for a PL championship telecast. What would be next, rally monkeys on the main scoreboard? We wouldn't have heard the PA anyway at Hart, with the crowds as loud as they were! (Or maybe that's an indictment of Hart's PA system. But that's not what I'm getting at.)

We had dinner in Scranton after the game. We ate at Stirna's, which has in recent years become a shrine to Syracuse guard Gerry McNamara. As luck would have it, we arrived at Stirna's with less than a minute left in the Syracuse-Georgetown Big East Semifinal game. The place was going crazy, although it wasn't as jam-packed as you might expect. Next year, we're lobbying for that restaurant to convert over to Pat Doherty. It's not as if the Doherty family doesn't have a presence in Scranton: Pat's uncle is the mayor!

Hope wasn't enough for the men's hoops team, and it wasn't enough for the ladies either. I watched that game on CSTV and it looked like a tremendous atmosphere. Our team had an excellent shot at stealing a PL title from the top-seeded squad from Army, but instead, a last-minute steal turned the game for the Black Knights. Jess Conte, I'll miss watching you. Thanks for everything you've brought to the program. And thanks to the rest of the graduating seniors on both the women's and men's side: Shannon Bush, Sarah Placek and Kevin Hyland. Enjoy the rest of your senior year at the Cross!

Hope

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

-Andy Dufresne, in his letter to Red, from The Shawshank Redemption.

HC Hoops Teams Advance!

Is there any time of year more fun than this? The Holy Cross men's and women's hoops teams won their quarterfinal and semifinal conference playoff games, and are advancing to their respective championship games!

The ladies play Wednesday night at Army. The men take on the Bison of Bucknell on Friday afternoon down in Lewisburg. I'll be headed to Lewisburg for the men's game, but can't attend the ladies' game Wednesday. Let's knock off those number one seeds!

Trains in Scranton

If you're reading this blog, chances are you also read Annie's "Sader Hoops" column on Crossports. Annie, her father, and I went to Bucknell two weeks ago for the HC basketball doubleheader. The men lost, and the ride home was awful, so it turned out that a highlight of the trip was a visit to downtown Scranton on the morning of the basketball games.

Annie said this in her column:

On Saturday morning, I woke up around 8:30 ish, early for a Saturday…too early, so I could go into downtown Scranton to see a train. We met up with my Dad’s classmate, Dominic Keating, who is an avid train lover. After we took pictures in front of the train and received a mini lecture, we went up onto this bridge and watched the train pass underneath us. Well, this was something because the noise was unbelievably loud. The train station is right near a mall, so the noise from the train just bounced off the surrounding walls. So loud, it was awesome.

I have to concur with Annie. It was an amazing show, a real treat, and one of those unique travel experiences you'll never forget.

Some background: It was a gray, dreary morning, and this old-time steam engine was making its once-a-year round trip from the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, southeast to Tobyhanna, PA (where they have a traditional Ice Harvest festival).

Here's Annie's outstanding photo of the train departing Steamtown. This photo captures the gray weather along with the working-class feel of Scranton, PA. The photo is included along with her game photos, linked off her column, but I wanted to post the picture here because my pictures of this are still in my camera. (No, I haven't gone digital yet.)

Sojka Pavilion

I already posted a few of my thoughts on the men's loss to Bucknell in this thread on Crossports, and the women's win in this thread, so I'm not going to duplicate that here.

Instead I'll talk a little about Bucknell University's gorgeous new Langone Athletics and Recreation Center, which includes Sojka Pavilion. The Langone Center has in its center the Kinney Natatorium (featuring an Olympic-size swimming pool), abutted on one side by a fitness center, and on the other side by the basketball court. Floor-to-ceiling windows are prominent throughout Langone. Sojka's concourse overlooks the swimming pool. Across the pool, the two-story fitness center has a wall of windows, also overlooking the pool.

After the men's basketball game, the BU players held an autograph session for the fans. The players' tables were situated in the aisle atop the bleachers in the natatorium, just through the glass in Sojka's concourse. I briefly considered making my way thought the autograph line, while killing time before the women's game, but thought better of it. Maybe that was a mistake. I probably missed out on some prime autograph opportunities:

• "To Boxman, thanks for the continued support, your friend John Griffin"
• "To Kevin Hamilton, HC made the right decision, Kevin Bettencourt"
• "To Bob, it's McNAWton, not McNORton, from Chris"

Overall, it was a fun road trip. The men's game was disappointing, and the ride home was difficult to say the least, but it was fun being there. I also had a chance to talk to Hoop Time for ten or fifteen minutes before the game. I told him that if I'd known further in advance, I would have brought him a HC hat from the bookstore, but he said he purchased one, albeit navy blue, from the link someone provided on Crossports. He may have been fibbing, but I don't think so. He also seemed unaware of this blog - maybe I need to order some free "We Are Crusaders" business cards to hand out to people?

Ice Storm

The things we do for Holy Cross Athletics.

We drove down to Scranton, PA on Friday evening, through patches of dense fog. Little did I know that those foggy conditions would pale in comparison to the conditions I'd face on my return home Saturday night.

In hindsight, the smart play would've been to stay in PA another night. But I wanted to be home on Sunday. We figured I could "get ahead" of the slick road conditions. So after picking up my car in Scranton, I headed east on I-84 through blustery, snowy conditions. The conditions were dreadful, just terrible. The cold front generated a blast of heavy wintry precipitation, and lots of wind. I-84 through PA and into New York was snow-covered with white-out visibility.

Across the Hudson, pulling ahead of the cold front, the snow became sleet, and roads were no better. East of Waterbury, CT, the heavy sleet was still pounding down, but the roads had yet to deteriorate too badly. Finally, in Southington, the sleet changed to rain, and the roads were safer. Ahead of the ice and out of the woods, right? Wrong. Climbing the hills east of Hartford, the pouring rain once again turned to sleet, and the interstate slickened up. Reaching the Mass Pike in Sturbridge, it was back to rain, and the roads were fine for the remaining 20 miles or so.

Accidents? Oh, I passed plenty of them. One-car accidents. Multi-car accidents. Accidents in every state in which we drove. Around Danbury, on the westbound side, I saw a multi-car wreck that caused another multi-car wreck. Those poor drivers were speeding from rainy conditions into ice, and I wish I could've told 'em about the pileups they were heading into a half-mile ahead.

So I'm thankful to have arrived home in Worcester, safe and sound. I sincerely hope that our players, fans, and families all got home safely.

Bucknell Road Trip!

I'm leaving for Lewisburg Friday afternoon! I've heard from people who've been there that Sojka is a beautiful arena, and that Bucknell has a nice campus. So it's a road trip to Bison country. I didn't make it to the PL final at Davis in 1993, and have never been to Bucknell, so this will be fun. I can't wait for the game on Saturday!

Go Crusaders! Beat the Bison! Sweep this doubleheader!

It's probably too late to ask for sign suggestions, or is it? I doubt we'll even have a sign, but it's fun to think of ideas anyway. CSTV...

Can't
Stop
Torey!
Victory awaits!

Or how about this one:

Cru-
Saders
To
Victory!

Thursday Thoughts

It seems like it's been ages since I last posted. Between holiday visits and work, there hasn't been much time for either of my blogs, or much else for that matter. You know it's the peak of "year-end" at work when you leave the office at 9:56pm and there are still several cars in the parking lot.

So what's going on, anyway? The men's basketball team is struggling. But I'm not giving up on them. I'm even thinking of heading to Bucknell for the game on the 14th, but I'm not sure yet. I wonder when HC has to return their ticket allotment to Bucknell?

If this turns into one of those lost seasons, I'll be disappointed, but I love the team and enjoy going to the games no matter what. Holy Cross has tremendous kids in its program, and I will continue to root for them, on and off the court. Plus there's always Crossports. The message board and the posters I've met from it have really added to my enjoyment of attending games.

The women's hoops team is sitting on a 4-7 record after a trouncing this evening at the hands of the Virginia Cavaliers. Did Holy Cross really have a 8-33 assist to turnover ratio in this game? Ouch! The team heads up to Portland, Maine, for a game on Monday afternoon. One of my readers was contemplating the women's/men's double on Monday, but I think the Portland-Worcester drive will be too much to ask given the game times. As for the team, I believe Laura Aloisi's health is the critical piece of their potential success this season. Twenty wins? Last year, we thought it was impossible, but the team got there. This year? If they go 13-3 over the rest of the regular season, they'll have to win the PL tournament to reach 20 wins and obtain that coveted NCAA berth.

Holy Cross fans may have to hang their "winter sports" hats on the men's hockey team, and they deserve the attention. They also lost this evening, but I like the makeup of that club. I like their chances of winning the league this year.

Happy New Year, everyone, and Go Cross!