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?

Toland Football Picks

Telegram & Gazette reporter Jennifer Toland predicts the area college football results each week. She correctly predicted Holy Cross wins over Georgetown, Marist, Fordham and Dartmouth, and the losses to Northeastern and Harvard. But more recently, she incorrectly predicted losses to Brown and Lafayette, skeptical over the strength of Holy Cross.

This week, our Crusaders had apparently won her over, as she thought HC would beat Lehigh, 17-13. Oops! Well, it was a tough call. I wasn't convinced HC would win the game, especially as the rainy weather forecast became evident.

We like Jen, and she's been more right than wrong this year in general, but she's missed on the three "toss-up" games (Brown, Lafayette, Lehigh). "We Are Crusaders" predicts Jen Toland predicts a win over Bucknell this week. And hopefully she'll predict a loss in the season finale at Colgate, giving her an o-fer on the "tough call" games!

Pearl of Wisdom #18

"Good players have puck luck."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Rich Garven's game story in today's Telegram & Gazette, referring to Tyler McGregor and the winning goal in overtime, as Holy Cross defeated Minnesota 4-3 in the first round of the NCAA Hockey Tournament.

By the way, kudos to the T&G for sending Garven to North Dakota for coverage of the tournament. I would've been surprised if the newspaper hadn't sent a reporter, but nevertheless, it's been fun reading the daily features and notes columns the past several days.

Sweetness

Holy Cross Wins!

Wow, what a game. Holy Cross just pulled off what many hockey analysts are calling the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history! And others are removing the "tournament" qualifier, suggesting it's the biggest upset in the history of college hockey. Holy Cow? Holy Cross!

I'm thrilled for Coach Paul Pearl and his excellent squad of skaters. They're great guys, they work hard, and they deserve this win! Tyler, Bubba, Sean, Tony, Marty, Jon, Blair, Pierre, Dale, Cal, Tanner, Marc, Ben and everyone else - thanks for a terrific season - and it's not over yet! You've made Crusader Nation proud!

Goal of the night: The sweet, sweet goal by Holy Cross senior Tyler McGregor in the second period, off the slick cross-ice assist from Bubba Sixsmith, putting HC up 2-1 while on a two-man advantage. That goal was a thing of beauty! Of course, the game-winner was thrilling and dramatic, but that second goal was pure execution. It was outstanding, and set the tone that Holy Cross was outplaying those Gophers.

Save of the night: Tony Q's awesome glove save late in the third period, preserving a 3-3 tie. Wow.

Key to the game: Holy Cross's penalty kill. This was all the announcers could talk about, and it was a big topic on the local Fox Sports Network affiliate's lengthy post-game coverage. Even the Gophers players pointed to the HC penalty kill as a critical factor in their team's loss.

By the way, FSN-North was set up at UND with a remote set, an anchor with two analysts, plus an "outside the locker room" reporter, all in coverage of their Golden Gophers. Needless to say, it was quite enjoyable watching them as they analyzed the game and interviewed Gopher coaches and players after the game. They also threw in some post-game press conference clips of Tyler McGregor and Tony Quesada. Good stuff! Their coverage was excellent, though, considering it's college hockey. It makes you realize the enormity of Minnesota hockey as a sports presence in that market. The post-game production was similar to what you'd see from Fox Sports New England for a Patriots playoff game.

This win was tremendous. At least one of our fans seems to have had a premonition that this was in the cards. See the comment left for this "We Are Crusaders" post from February. "This year's team is on the cusp of greatness." Well, cusp no more. Greatness achieved!

So it's on to the final eight. Good luck Saturday night!

HOLY CROSS 4, MINNESOTA 3: Biggest Holy Cross Victory in Over Fifty Years!

Line of the Day

T&G sports columnist Paul Jarvey has the best line of the day, in his column in today's Sunday Telegram. Jarvey's column focused on the fine play of point guard Laura Aloisi in Saturday's PL semifinal win over the Bucknell Bison. Jarvey wrote:

Gibbons said the way she soared for the ball in traffic reminded him of the over-the-rim rebounding of Keith Simmons of the HC men's team. Did we mention that the coach sometimes gets carried away?

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?

Joe Knight Apologist?

Has Holy Cross play-by-play man Bob Fouracre emerged as an unlikely apologist for Lehigh University senior Joe Knight? Twice during last night's WTAG broadcast of HC's tough loss to Lehigh, Fouracre ranted on about how "poor Joe Knight" was a victim of a "screw up" by the Lehigh athletic administration.

Knight, of course, missed the first half of his senior season because of eligibility questions surrounding his transfer from High Point to Lehigh, with a questionable stop at a Texas CC along the way. And I'll admit that the incompetence in Lehigh's AD in this case is glaring and unacceptable.

Maybe Fouracre read Tom Housenick's story blasting the officials at Lehigh. It's a worthy read, and a contrast to the Lehigh U. defenders out there.

But Bob, "poor Joe Knight?" Call me a PL elitist. I don't care. I'm not willing to absolve Knight of guilt in this matter. He had to know what he was getting into when he began his journey after High Point. If he wasn't a hoops player, there's no chance he'd be matriculating at Lehigh. None. So can we please stop with the Joe Knight pity parties? Thank you.

And for the record, Bob, there's no "Fisher" or "Gilliam" on the Lehigh men's hoops roster. I'm guessing you meant Fischman and Gilfillan. And Joe Knight didn't play at Delaware prior to arriving at Lehigh, even thought you stated that about three times. It's okay, everyone has an off day now and again.

WoMag found this blog!

We made the newspaper! No, not the T&G. It's the local alternative weekly, Worcester Magazine. Veteran Crossports readers will recall that WoMag published a cover story on Holy Cross football, entitled "Goodbye, Glory Days" in its November 13-19, 2003 issue. WoMag, meet Tom Gilmore.

Anyway, I discovered during a phone call this evening that there was some "big news" relating to yours truly. How big could it be if I didn't know it myself? Well, we're excited to report that WoMag has listed us in this week's edition of its Blog Log. They picked up our "Ice Storm" post which detailed my harrowing journey home from Bucknell to Worcester.

Maybe this news isn't at the same level as knowing Kevin Bettencourt is reading your blog (or more accurately, Boxman's Blog), but it's still pretty cool. I haven't seen the print edition yet, but hope to pick up a copy tomorrow. To any readers who've surfed over here after reading about us in WoMag, welcome aboard!

Pearl of Wisdom #5

"No question - that was a turning point for us. Then he comes back a couple minutes later and scores, which was only fitting."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Telegram & Gazette of Friday, Jan. 20, discussing the outstanding play of senior forward Blair Bartlett in Thursday's 5-2 victory over the UConn Huskies at the Hart Center.

According to Bill Ballou's game story, the Crusaders held a 3-0 lead late in the second period when the Huskies gained a two-man advantage:

Bartlett controlled the puck along the right boards and took off in the direction of the UConn net. Normally, the plan on a two-man disadvantage is just to clear the puck and get ready for the next assault, but Bartlett kept going, checked only by a tired Connecticut defender. He finally got off a couple of shots on Huskies’ goalie Brad Smith, who stopped them both, but was able to draw a charging penalty in the process.

That took the life out of the Connecticut power play and less than two minutes later, Bartlett made it 4-0 with a goal from a bad angle on the right side.

Good hustle, Blair. And congrats to Coach Pearl on his 167th career win at Holy Cross, tying current women's coach Peter Van Buskirk for first on the school's all-time men's hockey win list.

Like Crossports poster "Ignatius Loyola," I also heard the HC score announced on WEEI's "Sports Flash" updates last night. I'll admit, I haven't listened much to Boston's top-rated sports radio station recently, as my iPod has greatly altered my radio listening habits. But I used to listen almost every night (yeah, I put up with Ted Sarandis), and I never heard a Holy Cross hockey score reported. So what if it was the only Division One hockey game played last night in the nation. WEEI didn't have to report the score. They did, though, and that has to be considered progress.

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!

From the Newspaper Archives

This afternoon, I happened upon my small collection of newspapers and clippings, mostly kept for watershed world events or important sports milestones. It's pretty subjective, but there are some HC stories in the pile. I scanned in some of the winning Holy Cross headlines.

From the March 13, 2003 Telegram & Gazette. Maggie Fontana pours in 23 points as the HC women's team defeats Army 78-65 to win the PL championship. They advanced to face Penn State, getting crushed on Penn State's home floor (a beautiful arena, by the way.)


From the March 15, 2003 T&G. Big Pat scores 21 points and pulls down 8 boards as the Crusaders beat a steady club from American U., 72-64. American started Draughn, Cresnik, Stokes, Miles and Rodriguez, all very good PL players.


From the March 10, 2005 T&G. Seniors Caitlin Agostinacchio, Lisa Andrews and Maggie Fontana lead Holy Cross to a 79-70 victory over Colgate, capturing the Crusaders' tenth PL title and netting a 16th 20-win season for Coach Bill Gibbons.


Thanks to Non Alum Dave for providing me with this March 16, 2005 copy of the South Bend Tribune, featuring Holy Cross's most recent postseason victory, a 78-73 win over Notre Dame in the first round of the 2005 NIT. Great headline, too.

I loved the Holy Cross coverage in the South Bend Tribune that day, but there's something else that caught my attention. You know those mini-headlines, the one listed in smaller print above the name of the newspaper at the very top of the front page? Usually it says something like, "Weather: Storm Brewing Offshore /Back Page" or "Towns cry foul over budget process: B1." Well the one on the front page of this edition says, "Local: Beach Boys Surf Into Town on May 22 / B2."

Don't get me wrong. I love the Beach Boys. One of my all-time favorite groups. But things must be awfully quiet in South Bend if a Wilson-less Beach Boys tour date, two months away, gets that mini-headline on the front page!

Keeping Score

Bob Fouracre. He's an institution at HC. He is Mr. Entertainment. And for sure, his continuous name mixups are part of that "entertainment."

Let's tally some of his recent misnomers:

• Shannon Brush (a personal favorite)
• Keith Dixon
• Carl Cruze
• "The freshman" (said multiple times during a broadcast of the men's basketball game at Dartmouth during the 2003-04 season. Kramer? Simmons? Thomas? Young?)
• Alex Vander Bomb (destined to be a classic)
• Keith Hamilton

And as of Saturday, according to Crossports poster "Root," we can add two more to the list:

• Colin Cummings
• Victor Valva (reminds me of a famous Seinfeld episode...Mulva?)

I'm missing some, I know. Please drop a comment if you can think of others.

From the Saturday T&G

The Big Purple Dog swats away a rebound! This is the photo Boxman was referring to in this thread on Crossports. The print edition of the Telegram & Gazette gave photo credit to the Boston Globe.

And speaking of that thread, prolific poster hchoops asked for the T&G game story of the Northeastern game. The story was written by Jen Toland, whose "permission to post" was one of the subjects of an enlightening and worthy discussion of copyright laws in this thread on the message board. Some posters wanted to "kill" that thread, but I thought it was a valid topic.

Poster "Tom" wrote: "A few other posters and myself had this conversation with Jennifer Toland (a T&G sportwriter) some time ago, and she graciously explained the copyright issue and also gave us verbal permisison to copy her articles to this forum. As an agent of the T&G, her permission was good enough for me."

I'm the guy who first spoke with Jen Toland about this. We talked at the NCAA basketball tournament at the DCU Center last March. Tom was nearby and I quickly filled him in on that part of my conversation with Jen. She did give us verbal permission to copy her articles, but as far as I recall, we didn't get into any substantive discussion of copyright laws.

I'm confident she doesn't have any problem with us posting her stories on Crossports, but I'm not going to post her articles in full for now. I will try to speak with her again soon, perhaps tomorrow at the BU game (the "other" BU) at Hart.

CROSSPORTS himself had this to say: "I ask that all posters to CROSSPORTS respect the copyright laws. It is fine to link to an article and to post excerpts under the "fair use" doctrine but wholesale copying of articles should not be done. Thanks for your cooperation and GO CROSS!"

Have we seen the last of fully-copied stories on the message board?

Basketball Media Guides, 2005-2006

A week ago Friday, I finally received my Holy Cross men's and women's basketball media guides for the 2005-06 season. I devour these things when they arrive each year.

The women's media guide is much more entertaining and creative than the men's guide. I enjoy reading both, but the women's guide gives you a taste of the players' personalities, with the "Off the Court With..." features. The women's guide also contains a couple of interesting posed team photos, shown above. Can you imagine the guys taking a team picture like either of those? I can't.

Here are some highlights from the "Off the Court" player profiles:

• Jess Conte's favorite song is "The Best of What's Around" by Dave Matthews Band. This is a great song from one of the best 90's rock albums, in my opinion. Good choice, Jess! And her craziest ambition is to go skydiving, something I'd like to do, too.
• Kaitlin Foley's favorite Coach Gibbonsism is "Simonize your watches!" That's priceless, Foles! And her favorite team tradition is "Helping out at the Mercy Centre."
• Brittany "Spider" Keil says she chose #33 "because Anna Kinne is my idol."
• Laura Aloisi's favorite professional sports team is the Boston Red Sox. A fine choice.
• Shannon Bush had never heard of "bubblas" before coming to Holy Cross. Really? She can drink from the bubbler after eating a grinder then a dessert of ice cream topped with jimmies. Don't you love these local expressions? So don't I.
• A handful of the girls like to have team singalongs on the team bus trips, although Brittany likes to "listen to my teammates sing." Shy? Can't hold a tune?
• Asked why they chose HC, almost all the players answered, unsurprisingly, that HC offers an excellent combination of academics and athletics. Several also mentioned something about a "family atmosphere." I think I've heard that mentioned once or twice before.

Football Awards Catchup

This clipping is from the Scoreboard page of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette's Sports section, from Wednesday, November 30. Holy Cross football players earned several spots on the "Worcester Area Football Association 15th Annual All-Star Team".

If anyone knows who comprises that association, please comment. The "All-Stars" are mostly from HC, WPI, Assumption, Fitchburg State and Worcester State. Personally, I don't really understand this type of system. It's nice to have the regional recognition, but how can you compare Division One athletes with those from Nichols or Assumption?

Same question goes for the T&G's "College Cup," or whatever it is they call it. Once a week during each athletic season, they publish a list of "college standings" with the combined records of the various athletic teams for the area colleges. Holy Cross is usually in the middle of the pack. I'm curious who attaches real value to those standings.

Nevertheless, getting back to this clipping, congrats to Steve Silva and Dan Adams for sweeping the Offensive and Defensive POY awards, and to O'Neil, Silva, Dugan, Gruber, LaGrenade, Schoepfer, Cannon, Pinard, Adams and Gough for netting spots on their respective First Teams.

(If you want to read the clipping, click the picture, then on that page put your mouse over the picture, and if necessary you should be able to expand again by clicking on the button that shows up at the bottom right. At least that's how it works with my browser.)

Fordham Radio leftovers

A few notes left on the Hart Center media table by the Fordham University radio crew, after today's 71-63 double-overtime victory by the Crusaders over the Rams:

A good piece of information for the listeners.

Exquisite color analysis. Let's not let the facts get in the way of the truth, though.

When all else fails, interview the guy sitting on your left.

Alex Vander Bomb

If HC play-by-play man Bob Fouracre travels to Germany, will he drive on the AutoBomb?

And They Rage On

Just in case anyone's wondering, the nightclub Rage isn't advertising only on HC football broadcasts. I also heard their ad during this weekend's WTAG broadcasts of Holy Cross men's and women's basketball games, right in the mix with Al's Oil, JJ's Sports Bar, Sullivan Group and many other businesses.

Gay Club Advertising on HC Football 'casts?

I haven't listened to many HC football broadcasts on WTAG 580AM this year, because I've attended all the home games, plus the Delaware game, and watched the Lehigh game on TV. I've had conflicts for a couple of the other road games.

But one WTAG advertiser surprised me today. It's not the usual Hair Doctor, optician, or Sullivan Group that we're used to hearing from. It's Worcester's gay nightclub, Rage. Have they been advertising all season?

Rage has been expanding their advertising presence in the mainstream media recently. I've seen them on various Charter cable channels, and heard their ad during a Pats radio broadcast on affiliate station 100.1 FM The Pike. But somehow I didn't expect they'd advertise during HC football games.

Of course they have as much a right as any business to advertise and expand their customer base. You'd have to be living under a rock to think their target audience consists only of hairdressers and interior decorators. So the folks at Rage are advertising to the local gay fans of college and pro football, an audience that does exist.