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.)

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.

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."

Will Venable Update

Since the now-archived Will Venable thread on Crossports received more interest than I expected, we're posting an update here. A former Princeton hoops player, Will is a San Diego Padres prospect and is currently playing in the revived Hawaii Winter Baseball League, for the West Oahu CaneFires. Venable is an outfielder and has played in ten games. He's compiled a 286/348/405/753 stat line (AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS), which isn't anything special by MLB comparison, but is much better than his team's total of 233/325/347/672.

He is among the league leaders in Batting and Doubles. We'll try to keep tabs on his progress.

Hamilton adjusting

Nice job by Jen Toland, who snagged a quote, albeit short and sweet, from Kevin Hamilton. In her "Colleges" column in today's Telegram & Gazette, Toland reported that Kevin "checked in this week from Poland, where he is playing for the Polpak Swiecie team. Hamilton said things are going well and that he is playing point guard. 'It's a little different from school,' Hamilton said, 'but I am adjusting'".


So Poland's "a little different" than Mount St. James? SHOCKING! Seriously, we were big fans of KHam from day one, and wish him the best.

Also of HC note in her column, Jen writes that "former Holy Cross sports information director Gregg Burke has been appointed interim director of athletics at Rhode Island. He had served as acting AD since May, after Tom McElroy resigned."

More Fordham pics

Special thanks to a friend of ours from the Holy Cross Class of 1970, who sent these Homecoming day photos to us the old-fashioned way - via postal mail!

First up is a picture featuring a few of our hoops players. Left to right, it's sophomore Pat Doherty and frosh Zach Paterick and Adam May going up for a bomb on the baseball field, prior to the game. IIRC, the pass was tossed by Greg McCarthy. Or maybe it was Lawrence Dixon. On crutches. Or not. Honestly, I don't remember who threw that particular pass, but several of the younger guys were having fun throwing the ball around. Pat looked fine, I think! I'd say it was a good thing Coach Willard wasn't around to see these guys horsing around, except he was standing nearby watching them!




Another one of Dave and yours truly, tailgating prior to the game:



Finally, a couple shots of the actual game, taken from the Fordham side of the bleachers. HC on offense, then on defense. Expand to your heart's delight - you might be able to pick yourself out on the other side of the stands.

Delaware Football Pics, 2005

I could've sworn I posted my photos from the Holy Cross game at Delaware held September 24, 2005, but as I'm in catchup mode here, I went through the archives and couldn't find any pics from that game. Delaware won that game 35-23, but Holy Cross made them work for it. It was 7-7 at the half.

I had fun at that game. It was also "Band Day," so after the game we were treated to a show by area high school bands and the UD band. Good times at Tubby Raymond Field.

There's nothing overwhelming here, but it's interesting to see the excitement of the player intros for the Delaware team, along with the stat progression in the last quarter of the game (seen on the scoreboard with a breakdown in passing, rushing, and total yards). Specifically, UD ran for 94 yards in the 4th quarter, Holy Cross only 18.

The first four pics were taken during pre-game. And how can I forget, the fifth photo features Holy Cross basketball center Tim Clifford on the very right, wearing his homemade hat with the Steve Silva cutout. Gotta give Tim credit, he stuck it out and wore his hat long after his buddies discarded theirs.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Five Years

Among the thousands killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001 was my Holy Cross classmate Todd Isaac. Todd was working for Cantor Fitzgerald in the North Tower of the WTC. I wasn't really friends with Todd, mainly because he was a Wheeler kid and I was a Mulledy kid, and those paths didn't cross very often. But I was introduced to him at one point freshman year, and he was as nice as they come. After that, whenever we saw each other on campus, he always had that smile and a friendly "Hi Jon!" He was a genuine, good guy.

Todd played basketball at HC during our sophomore year. I'm almost positive he was a walk-on that year. Maybe someone could confirm this. John Young and Reece Horton were the other players from my class, and they lettered all four years they were at HC.

I don't want to dwell on 9/11, as the whole event conjures up all kinds of memories and emotions for people. But every so often I think of Todd, and I can't even imagine what he must've endured up in that tower. Rest in peace, bud.

Random Sader Spottings

If I randomly bump into a current or former Holy Cross athlete around town (I'm not counting sightings on campus), should I post it here? I thought it would be kind of funny, but then I started to think I'd become the "Crusaderazzi" and I don't think that's an objective of this blog. I'm not snapping photos or anything, and I guess I thought it might be interesting to mention seeing these folks as they go about their lives, but you could certainly argue it's an invasion of their privacy.

For instance, a few years ago I was grocery shopping at my local Stop&Shop in Worcester, and the next thing I know, I spot Neil Fingleton (he was on HC's roster at the time) in the deoderant aisle. I know, it's personal and all that. But it was funny just the same. It was strange seeing this 7'6" guy by himself at Stop&Shop trying to find some toiletry item. The store employees and other customers were in awe of him. When I checked out, the cashier said "I wonder if he plays basketball," and of course I provided her the details.

And no, I didn't talk to Neil that day. It just didn't seem right. "Hey Neil, what's up? I'm Jon, and I'm a season-ticket holder at Holy Cross. Say, are you going to go with the Right Guard or the Old Spice High Endurance?"

No, thank you.

I bring this up because today I was at the gas station, and I looked up and a few cars over was a former HC women's basketball player. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to say hello. She didn't see me (I don't think), plus I was almost finished filling up, and there was a line.

Are these sightings worth posting? What if she had a blog? How would I feel about her posting that she saw "Jon" at the gas station? I'm probably blowing it out of proportion by doing this big writeup as opposed to a short-and-sweet post saying "Random Sader Spotting #2: 9/10/06, 'Player X' spotted at gas station on Grafton Street".

And feel free to guess the player. The prize for the correct guess is four straight trips to the NCAA tournament.

Colin Comp #6

I might as well start counting these, sort of like the Pearls of Wisdom, right? This is our 6th suggestion for a lookalike for now-sophomore Crusader hoopster Colin Cunningham. A classmate of mine suggested this one to me months ago, but I didn't get around to posting it back then.


Vietnam-era John Kerry. Not too bad, 'eh?

In case you need a refresher, you can find the Ricky Nelson comp here, the Robbie Benson and Andy Kaufman comps here, and the Vinnie Barbarino and Dan Abrams comps here. And let's keep them coming!

As an aside, Colin strikes me as the men's basketball team "social director." Maybe Torey's occupied that role to some degree the last few years, but Colin is next in line. He's going to end up being the guy that figures out what the team's going to do after practice when they're on break, what movie they're going to watch while they're on the road, etc. Yesterday, Colin was sporting the aviator glasses and working the tunes during the basketball team's tailgate on the baseball field. You can tell he likes his music - Motown, Prince ("Kiss"), you name it. He seems to have a great personality and he'll be fun to watch, both on and off the court, while he's at Holy Cross.

Begging for a Caption

Props to Non Alum Dave, who easily identified everyone (save the managers) in the 1993-94 men's basketball team photo. Dave, I forgot to tell you there was a prize. You win a trip to Texas to go fly-fishing with Nate Lufkin! Get your waders ready! Click on the b**bies for more details (haha).

Okay, time for something a little different. I'm not going to call this an official "Caption Contest," but you have to wonder what was going through Ralph's head at this moment. I believe this photo is from the HC-Kansas NCAA tournament game from 2002. It's Classic Ralph Willard.

Friday Trivia?

Is my hiatus over? Technically, yes, but I have no idea how frequently I'll be updating the blog this summer. That was a two-and-a-half month break! I hate to say it, but I was probably spending more time on the blog than I should've been, and frankly I haven't missed it that much.

That said, I'll try to post updates more than once every three months! So here's a little something for the Crusader fans out there who are still reading "We Are Crusaders." (And thanks for sticking with me!)

Since "Friday Trivia" has been popular over at Crossports, here's some trivia of my own: Name the year of this photo, along with the coaches and players. I don't think I can identify everyone, so your assistance is needed! (The photo contains a dead giveaway on the year.)

Click on the photo to expand it. Then you may be able to expand it further by putting your mouse over the photo and clicking on the "expand" arrow that shows up on the bottom right corner of the photo.

Introducing Adam May

Here's Holy Cross incoming recruit Adam May:

Oh wait, that's not Adam, that's Chris Potter. I got confused. Here's the real Ohio All-Star, Adam May:


I have to admit, based on everything I've heard and read, I wish I saw Potter play. Some of his numbers are astounding:

• Tied with NBA Hall-of-Famer Tommy Heinsohn for 5th in career scoring
• Third in career rebounds (1019) behind Heinsohn and Togo Palazzi
• Fourth in career assists (470), slotting in between Roger Breslin (475) and Dwight Pernell (430)
• Most assists in a Hart Center game (16 vs. Iona, 12/7/1977). Wow, that's amazing. HC was ranked at the time, 15th in the country, and stomped Iona 105-83.
• Third in single-season FG%, .591 in 1978-1979

HC to play Duke next year

The "We Are Crusaders" news bureau has learned that the Holy Cross men's basketball team will play Duke University in the 2006-2007 season. The game will be played at Duke. In case anyone's wondering, we didn't hear this from anyone directly affiliated with the HC Athletic Department, but we trust our sources, and were told we can "take it to the bank." Woohoo!

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!

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?