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.

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Sunday.

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

Maggie Dixon: 1977-2006

A little over a week ago, and about a month shy of her 29th birthday, we lost Maggie Dixon. The sudden passing of Coach Dixon, who led the Army women's basketball team to their first Patriot League title, has been well-documented. But we haven't been able to do much blogging lately, and wanted to post a little something in her honor.

We'll remember watching her enthusiasm at the Hart Center, as she guided her visiting team to a regular-season victory over the Crusaders. We'll remember commenting about her bright future as a head coach. We'll remember watching her on CSTV, as her team captured the PL title and she was taken off the court on the shoulders of cadets. We'll miss her.

Victory

A few player quotes from Rich Garven's game story and sidebar stories in today's T&G:

Tony Quesada:
"This is the best day of my life."

"I feel like I didn’t have my best game or that I was challenged as much as I expected coming into tonight. Going against a team with all that offensive firepower, I expected I would have to make a ton of stops. I just felt like I made normal saves. They weren’t desperate ones where you’re diving around."

"We’re definitely enjoying the moment right now. But we’ll wake up in the morning and be focused on the next game. That’s what we’re here for, to win hockey games."

Tyler McGregor:
"We came in confident. It was confidence in our system and confidence in what we do."

"I just shot it on instinct. I saw it go pretty much right in the middle of the net. When you get a chance like that you don’t want to screw it up."

"I saw everyone coming over, and I was just hoping I didn't get killed." - This quote is not from the T&G, but is taken from the post-game press conference, where McGregor was asked about his team's reaction after he scored the winning goal.


Updates since last night:
We posted last evening, soon after the game, and offered our thoughts on the "Save of the night" and "Goal of the night." Today's paper has this to say about that critical Quesada save:

With 4:52 to go, a screened Quesada made a tremendous glove save on a blistering shot by Andy Sertich, who cut loose from the left circle. Quesada then stopped four shots in the final two minutes as the Golden Gophers swarmed the Holy Cross zone.

Not only was Tony screened by Gophers, but there was a lot of traffic from both teams in front of him at the time. How he spotted that puck is beyond me.

As for the McGregor goal in the second period, it came in the midst of a scoring flurry in the middle of the period, but only half-a-minute after Minnesota scored a short-handed goal to tie the game at 1. The McGregor one-timer was a quick response, putting Holy Cross ahead, and showed this fan that Holy Cross was in this one for real.

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.

Pearl of Wisdom #17

"I think the thing I like the most is the relationship with the kids, that and the challenge of getting good players. I like working here - and I know this may sound corny - because I went here and I really believe in Holy Cross as a school. The Jesuits do a great job and I like the whole spiritual aspect of the place. I just think this is the right spot for someone to go to college. That makes it easy to be here. I like the work environment. There are a lot of good coaches and people to learn from here. I like being a college hockey coach, but no, I did not envision this at all. It's been really neat."

-Coach Paul Pearl, in another quote from Jen Toland's feature story in Wednesday's Telegram & Gazette. And it may be the quote of the year.

I think we've said it before, but we're lucky to have Coach Pearl leading the team here at Holy Cross. He understands the limitations and the advantages that Holy Cross may offer a recruit. There's a special story at Holy Cross, and Pearl gets it. We sincerely hope that Coach enjoys it here enough to stay on for many years to come!

Pearl of Wisdom #16

"We're not North Dakota and we're not Minnesota, but we want our guys to act like it is and to buy into the program, and I know they do. There's no evading the academic rigors here, but the second thing in their lives is hockey and training for hockey. They've bought into our picture of 'We want Holy Cross hockey to be this,' and they know it's not going to happen just by saying it. It's going to happen with hard work and they've done all the work."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's excellent feature story on the coach, which ran in the Telegram & Gazette of this Wednesday, March 22.

Pearl of Wisdom #15

"We're very excited to play Minnesota. They obviously have a great program and it will be a great challenge for our program to go match up against theirs. They're really fast and they have excellent special teams. It will be a formidable opponent. We're going to have to play really good defense against them and be opportunistic on our chances that we get. We'll go in there and play them hard and see that we can do."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's "selection show" story in Monday's Telegram & Gazette.

Play hard they did. We fell behind on our "Pearls of Wisdom" after Holy Cross clinched the number one seed for the AHA tournament, so in recognition of the team's unbelievable victory last night, we're trying to catch up on a couple of Coach Pearl's comments from the past week.

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!

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?

Pearl of Wisdom #14

"At the beginning of the year we set some goals, and we can check three off now. Now we need to start working toward goal four, which is to win the playoffs. It won't be easy - there are no easy games in this conference."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game story in today's Sunday Telegram, after Pierre Napert-Frenette scored the winning goal with a minute left in Saturday night's 3-2 win over Bentley, clinching first-place in Atlantic Hockey. The #1 seed Crusaders kick off their playoffs with a home game against AIC on Saturday at 7pm. Go Cross!

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.