Little Green and Pioneers see Blue
By John Doyle, Sportswriter to Be.
It was supposed to be "Prelude to a Championship." It was supposed to be a warm-up for the big one on Saturday. It was supposed to be Central and Trinity. It will not be.
Last night
two of the biggest upsets of the year in New Hampshire High School basketball took place at Lundholm Gymnasium, as Central and previously undefeated Trinity went down to Merrimack and Salem.
Merrimack beat Central 49-47 in overtime, and Trinity fell to Salem 61-49 in a game that wasn't even that close.
The Central game was a matter of Merrimack, defending state champions, being able to hold on to a slim lead for a long time. Central, who had overcome similar situations in their previous two playoff games, simply ran out of time. In the final seconds of the game, with Central down by two and in possession of the ball at their own baseline, got tangled up in a swarm of Merrimack defenders and was not able to get off a shot. It became a jump-ball situation, and the possession arrow was pointing in Merrimack's direction--with only one-point-one seconds left.
It did not hurt Merrimack that Central's top shooter, Tyler Roche, only contributed ten points in the loss. He only had fourteen
in the overtime win over Dover the night before, and only 10 in the
opening round against Pinkerton--a very disappointing shooting performance in the playoffs for a young man who was averaging over 20 a night down the stretch.
This game took place less than twenty-four hours after the matchup was set, due to a snowstorm which postponed Tuesday night's quarterfinal action to Wednesday night. Fatigue might have been a factor in the low score, but m opinion is that the lack of a rest day had no effect on the outcome. Both teams were in the same situation, and even had the games been played on schedule, both teams certainly would have spent Wednesday practicing and diligently preparing. I do believe the lack of a night off on Wednesday could affect Merrimack come Saturday, for they will be playing in their third game in four nights, while Salem will be playing their third in six.
As for Trinity, I would like to tell you that they lost in heroic fashion, fitting of the fine young men we were led to believe made up the fabric of this team. They handled the loss terribly. Seven-foot West Virginia-bound Luke Bonner was a non-factor in this one, his considerable talent and ability to take over and dominate a game almost nonexistent in the second half. He fouled out of the game with about a minute and a half left, with his team hopelessly out of the game, on a play that should have been called flagrant--not a fitting end to a distinguished high school career. He walked off the court bewildered, knowing his next game of organized basketball will be in the Big East.
Chris Lutz, another Trinity standout, finished with sixteen points and took the loss very, very hard. He was inconsolable, audibly wailing with tears streaming down his face. He spent the last minute of the game isolated on the bench, pounding the empty seat next to him. He seemed to be saying, "what went wrong?" It was tough to watch. Even tougher to watch was an extremely emotional Trinity cheerleader standing near the jubilant Salem crowd, engaging in a verbal spar with one of them. It became so heated the police took notice.
Saturday it will be Salem and Merrimack at the Whittemore Center. I have long been a critic of holding the state championship finals in the cavernous Whitt. The seats at Lundholm were filled to the rafters last night, adding an element of excitement and urgency to these fantastic basketball events. On Saturday, it just will not be the same, with the fans further from the court and the empty endzone seats. Plus, the basketball floor at the Whitt still has UNH's old color scheme and lame Wildcat logo. I wish this game would be at the Lundholm Gym. But I guess the NHIAA needs the revenue and does not want to have to turn away a paying customer, which they might have to do if they play the game in the small Lundholm gym.
All winter long I had been counting on a Central-Trinity showdown on March 20. It is now March 19 and it is hard to believe it will not happen. But Merrimack and Salem will provide an excellent basketball game. Merrimack will be going for their second straight basketball championship and Salem, as a school, will be going for their second winter sports championship in the Whittemore Center in seven days. The
Salem hockey team beat Memorial, 3-2, in overtime for the Division I hockey title. The basketball team already has two major upsets under their belt,
beating West 53-52 Monday night, plus last night's upset over Trinity. That is three big wins, do the Blue Devils and their fans have energy for a fourth? Methinks they might.
Listen to my championship preview on the "Saturday Sports Page," Saturday morning from 10 to noon on WKBR, WKXL and WTPL (107.7 FM).
*****Heading down to Boston today for an annual rite of spring: the Hockey East tournament semifinals! It's
UNH vs. UMass in game one and BU vs. Maine in game two. Click here to read an excellent article about
UNH Hobey Baker finalist Steve Saviano, written by Jackie MacMullan in today's
Boston Globe. Ms. MacMullan does not write a lot about college hockey, and she does a good job here.
*****Day one of the NCAA men's basketball tournament is over and my bracket is all !@#%-ed up. I went seven for sixteen in day one action, and now I am in LAST PLACE in the
ECSN on-line pool. Yikes. Hey, I thought Air Force had a shot against North Carolina in the thin air of Denver.
CBS's coverage has once again been excellent, but what is the deal with their team name abbreviations at the top of the screen? Vermont is VERM? How about UVM or just VT? Air Force Academy is AIR F? How about AFA? And since when is Seton Hall HALL? Just keep it at SH, thank you very much. What would New Mexico be if they were in? NEW M? N MEX? XICO? NECO? It almost makes me glad the UNM program has been in the toilet for the last three years.
Speaking of teams in the toilet, of the upsets yesterday, I was happiest to see Manhattan over Florida. I did not pick the Jaspers in my bracket, nor did I pick Florida to go all the way as I did last year. But I am happy because it proves that programs with Fran Fraschilla's fingerprints are not doomed for life. St John's and New Mexico are still a long way from being anywhere close to respectable, but seeing the Jaspers in the round of 32 gives hope to any Red Storm or Lobo fan.
John Doyle has the day off from his day job.
March Madness rages on, despite snow postponing until tomorrow high school quarterfinal action at UNH. But do not despair, those of you who are just biding time until Thursday's UVM-UConn game--tonight is the "play-in" between Florida A & M and Lehigh, live from Dayton, Ohio! With more analysis, here's Brennan Palmer . . .
Enjoy it While It Lasts, Play-in Game Dude
By Brennan Palmer, Marquette Grad and contributor, Sportswriter to Be
I found this from ESPN. COM via the AP --
At 14-16, Florida A&M is the only team in the tourney with a losing record, but some of those losses came against powers Florida, North Carolina State and Marquette.
"We belong here. I don't care what our record is," coach Mike Gillespie said. "We did play extremely well this year at Marquette, at Georgia. I thought we played very well against Florida."
___________________________________________
Ok, so this guy thinks they played well against Marquette? They lost by 20! Played well against the Bulldogs? They squeaked by Georgia, only losing by 18. He also seems to think that losing to Florida by 24 is playing well. He was right not to mention the 30 point thumping by NC State.
Good luck Mr. Gillespie. You poor delusional bastard.
Brennan Palmer is, once again, a Marquette graduate. He will be following the Golden Eagles in the N-I-T and the Women's NCAA tournament.
Don't forget about our Bracket Contest! Scroll down for more information.
The Round of Sixty-Four is upon us and I couldn't be happier. Don't forget about our bracket contest. For details, scroll down. A few thoughts on this year's bracket:
*****Seven New England teams are in (BC, UConn, PC and UVM in the men's bracket, BC, UConn and Maine in the Women's). I am absolutely obsessed with Thursday's Vermont-UConn game in Buffalo. Jim Litke of the Associated Press wrote a great column on
Tom Brennan and the Catamounts this morning. To read it will make you a fan. I am not sure to take Brennan at face value when he says that Emeka Okafore is the only player in the nation that can contain top Vermont scorer Taylor Coppenranth, but it is interesting to think that he might be. Coppenranth, with a broken wrist, poured in forty-three against Maine last Saturday. While the Black Bears are no Okafore and the Huskies, given the amount of attention Coppenranth has already received from the national media (including the pundits on CBS's selection show), any UConn fan in his right mind would be crazy not to be a little worried about the player who might be the best ever out of the Green Mountain State.
*****The Air Force Academy is in, as I thought they would be. Although a good case could be made for their exclusion, the committee did the right thing by including the Falcons into the fold. A first-round upset over North Carolina is not an outrageous pick, and I would love to see it happen.
******No East Coast bias my rear end! Three teams from the Mountain West get in, but none higher than an eleven seed? They're the sixth-highest rated conference in the country, according to the Sagarin Ratings. And I know this has been one of the most wide-open seasons in recent memory, and no team on the outside looking in this morning has a legitimate beef. That said, the UtAgs got cheesed.
*****If you're looking for a 12-5 upset, my logic says it will be BYU over Syracuse. I don't see Murray State, Pacific or Manhattan beating Illinois, Providence or Florida respectively.
*****Glad to see the NCAA finally got rid of the geographically absurd and utterly meaningless East, West, Midwest and South "regions" and are now just calling them generic names which correspond to the sites of the region's final. But it is time to do away with regions altogether and just rank the teams 1-64. To ensure that teams get to play close to home in the early rounds, let the top seeds choose where they play from among the eight available venues. The committee already has taken the step of naming an "overall" number one--now just rank them all and let the chips fall where they may.
*****Lehigh vs. Florida A & M tomorrow night in Dayton! If you live in Dayton, are you going to this game? How much would you pay to see it? If I did, I would, but for no more than ten bucks.
*****My final four picks: Gonzaga, Oklahoma State, Duke and NC State. Cutting down the nets in San Antonio on April 5: Oklahoma State.
Announcing the first-ever Sportswriter2b BRACKET CONTEST . . .
The rules are simple. Send in a filled-in PAPER bracket to the following address (we're doing this the old-fashioned way, folks):
John Doyle
40 Chester Street
Chester, NH 03036
All entries must be postmarked by WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17 to be eligible. The winner is the player with the most correct entries, straight-up (no extra points for later rounds, etc.) Should their be a tie, winner will be determined by largest number of Final Four teams correctly predicted, Elite Eight, Sweet Sixteen and so on and so forth.
Winner gets a PRIZE. Pick all sixty-three games correctly and win
TEN MILLION DOLLARS!
