Bitter Sweet Symphony

That was ugly, unexpected – and awesome.

Courtney Robinson (Courtesy CAAsports.com)

UMass finally played some defense, and its offense virtually disappeared. Well, I guess putting up more than 400 yards isn’t terrible, but the turnovers we’re unacceptable.

Either way, it’s a win against Delaware, and I’ll take it ugly or not.

In all the articles written about this game, one quote seems to get lost. Coach Brown saying he essentially wants another shot at Texas Tech is just awesome coach-speak.

We responded well to the Texas Tech loss and I’d like another shot at them.

Coach, just between me and you, but I’d be just fine if UMass never played the Red Raiders again. I’m pretty sure Kansas State feels the same way after last weekend.

Speaking of excellent quotes, here’s one from the Philadelphia Inquirer:

“We just lost to a better football team today,” Delaware coach K.C. Keeler said. “This was a huge game for both of us, but they showed they were better and came out on top.”

Now there’s Northeastern on the docket, and UMass may very well have its work cut out. The Huskies are actually ranked ahead of the Maroon and White in the CAA, but obviously the season is still very young.

Also, UMass’ Josh Jennings was named one of the conference’s Players of the Week.

As always, check out THE UMass Football Blog for more information on the Maroon and White. Frank has some images up from the Delaware game.

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The UMass hockey team beat down the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds.

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The Atlantic 10 baseball championships are going to be held at Fifth Third Field in Dayton.

Coaching house swap

All across the country, college kids are moving into their new digs.

Moving trucks clog small university-town road, and mom and dad and doing their best to ensure that Joe and Sally College are comfortable before the first days of the upcoming semester.

The same moving cycle is happening with the Kellogg family – perhaps sans parents. The Kelloggs are packing up and moving into Travis Ford’s old house, according to the Springfield Republican.

Kellogg and his wife, Nicole P. Flory-Kellogg, recently purchased Ford’s house at 27 Owen Drive for $755,000, according to the Registry of Deeds.

The house is right by the North Amherst Cometary (spooky) and is directly off East Pleasant St.

Hopefully some of Ford’s karma is still on the property.

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Looks like Stephane Lasme has secured himself a roster spot on the Miami Heat.

Once Wright signs, it will leave the Heat with 13 players under guaranteed contract for next season: Centers Mark Blount and Joel Anthony, forwards Wright, Jones, Diawara, Marion, Udonis Haslem, Stephane Lasme and Michael Beasley, and guards Dwyane Wade, Daequan Cook, Marcus Banks and Mario Chalmers.

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The UMass baseball team lost a recruit to Northeastern.

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More good UMass Football stuff coming out of THE UMass Football Blog.

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Jeff Howe, a former editor with the UMass Daily Collegian, had an excellent (and pretty funny) column about the Olympics.

You talkin’ to us?

Travis Ford made a comment about the fans at Oklahoma State and how they rank up against other schools.

One has to wonder about whether he was talking about UMass.

It has really been impressive to me how much people love this university when I went and spoke at those places, because that’s not true everywhere. It’s really not. There are a lot of places where they may like basketball only if they are winning and things like that or maybe there are fans who are just fans because they are sports fans. … It has been really neat for me to learn about that true love from the people who are there and are with the university one way or another.

He did not specifically say UMass here, but what other schools could he be talking about? I know it’s not Kentucky, and I find it hard to believe that he would reference Eastern Kentucky in this capacity.

This seems like a shot at UMass and its fans. The reason being – the sentiment is mostly true.

UMass fans don’t come out when the basketball team is playing .500 ball, they don’t come out when a below-average Atlantic 10 team comes to town. UMass fans come when games are on television, when the opponent is recognizable, and, most of all, UMass fans come when it’s convenient.

Of course this is not all UMass fans. There are those that live for the Maroon and White. There are those that go to every game, have StatTracker on when they are unable to, and they root for every team on campus simply because those teams represent their university and – in some capacity – themselves.

Those are the true UMass fans, and maybe there are just too few of us out there these days.

Then again, maybe Ford wasn’t talking about us. Maybe he was just talking out of his ass to appeal to his new fans, to make it seem like they are the best fans in the world.

That’s what he said to us – and we all know how honest he can be.

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The Day had a couple of stories pertaining to UMass recruits today.

Sara Plourde will play softball for UMass next year.

Anthony Schiavone chose to play football for Temple over UMass, Buffalo, UConn, Delaware and Boston College.

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Two UMass baseball players helped win the Tri-County League title in Holyoke.

“Yeah, I’ve been pretty successful,” he said, “mainly because I’ve been blessed with good players. Like this season, we had Ryan Franczek (of Chicopee and UMass), who won the MVP, and Aaron Smith (of Holyoke and UMass), who won the Wes Carr, which is our league’s version of the Cy Young.”

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ESPN had an Atlantic 10 basketball preview yesterday.

Possible small forward?

Anali Okoloji, a small forward on UMass’ recruiting radar, is getting some respect via CAA Insider.

Okoloji looks to have decent athleticism and can hit jump shots – similar attributes to Gary Forbes, another 6′7 small forward that excelled during his time with the Maroon and White.

On the wing, Anali hit a pull up jumper and had a couple nice drives to the rim. He had a short drive inside and banked home a shot in the post. He also scored around the rim for an old fashioned three point play. Anali got out and ran the floor too and showed some athletic ability on a dunk.

I’ve seen him mentioned as a possible UMass recruit elsewhere, but here on Rivals only Rhode Island is mentioned as an interested Atlantic 10 school.

After our recent transfers, I’m pretty happy with UMass’ future in the post. I would like a couple of athletic swingmen, and this guy seems to fit the mold.

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Wait a minute – there is UMass-related golf news?

Yes, yes there is.

Hunter Stone, son of UMass baseball manager Mike Stone, was mentioned in the Boston Herald for his performance at the Francis Ouimet Memorial Tournament.

Stone, who also led the Mass Amateur after Day 1, said he was very surprised to grab the lead while playing in the final threesome of the afternoon. He is the 19-year-old son of UMass baseball coach Mike Stone.“I just need to execute my shots,” said the younger Stone, who will enter his freshman year at Rollins College this fall.

John Calipari, Derek Kellogg and Bruiser Flint will play in the Becker College Basketball Golf Classic on Aug. 19 at Wachusett Country Club.

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Anthony Anderson, one of my all-time favorite UMass basketball players, has a highlight reel on YouTube with the Manchester Millrats.

I didn’t know this, but I guess he earned a tryout with the Indiana Pacers in May – according to his player page on the Millrats’ official site.

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Per yesterday, Sean Morris will join former teammate Jack Reid on the Boston Blazers.

“We are very excited about Sean’s potential for growth as an indoor lacrosse player,” said Blazers head coach and general manager Tom Ryan. “Sean and Jack Reid led the 2006 UMass Minutemen to the NCAA Finals, and we believe they will be two key components for the future success of the Blazers.”

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The UMass Football Blog mentions its Top 10 UMass Football Experiences.

What if?

Marty Scarano, the athletic director for UNH, gives a big “what if?” in regards to UMass football making the leap to I-A.

He mentions this because it would directly affect New Hampshire in the new – bloated – CAA on the horizon.

“We want to be affiliated with the right group of people and a competitive group of people,” said Scarano. “We’re looking at this very carefully. (What if) we go into a league with Northeastern and UMass, (then) Northeastern drops football and UMass goes I-A? Then it’s us and Maine — and who?“

“What if?” is right. Even this week we started to hear coaches talking about Northeastern not being able to compete with the facilities in the CAA. Then there’s UMass, which almost has the facilities to compete in a low-level Division I-A conference.

As it stands, UMass’ McGuirk Alumni Stadium holds about 17,000 at capacity, while schools like Miami of Ohio (24,286), Ohio (24,000), Bowling Green (23,724) and Ball State (23,724) are not that far ahead, yet all play Division I football.

Of course the question has been and will always be: MONEY. Even adding lights to the stadium has been a long, drawn-out process, and adding around 7,000 seats (cap those endzones, fellas) will cost a pretty penny. There are also scholarships to deal with, marketing and dealing with the infrastructure of a small, Western Massachusetts town.

I hope UMass can eventually make the leap, but you have to feel for schools like UNH and Maine, who are competitive every year and may be forced into a conference that could very well dissolve into mediocrity if the power teams leave for greener pastures.

Programs like UMass and James Madison have publicly considered moving up to Division I-A. Others, like Northeastern and Rhode Island, have mulled dropping the sport. Scarano, who has no intention of doing either, wants to make sure UNH is sitting with the right partners as this conference shuffle plays out.

What if?

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DNRonline compares Liam Coen to James Madison’s Rodney Landers.

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Ron Villone, a former star pitcher for UMass, did a Q&A with bnd.com and mentions is former aspirations to play pro football:

Q: You were a star tight end in football at the University of Massachusetts. Did you ever have aspirations of a professional football career?

A: Years ago, sure, you have idea and dreams when you’re younger. But my first love was baseball. Football was something that I guess you could take your aggressions out on the field legally and have fun and punish somebody else once in a while. That was a great team sport to learn and put together. But I bring that with me onto the baseball field, a lot of the things I had in football –understanding the team game. If you can do it together out there, you can get a lot of things accomplished.

Another one bites the dust

Trey Lang, we hardly knew ye.

Lang has transfered out of UMass and is off the basketball team, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Lang saw limited time in Travis Ford’s system and is probably hoping to garner more playing time elsewhere.

Lang follows Papa Lo (Bryant) and Max Groebe (Cornell) out the door.

From the Gazette:

Lang, the 6-foot-7 son of former NBA player Andrew Lang, was a highly-recruited player out of Wheeler High School in Marietta, Ga., but never cracked coach Travis Ford’s rotation. He played in just five games and didn’t score a point in nine total minutes of play.

I wasn’t 100 percent sure if Lang was going to make in impact for the Minutemen next year, but it certainly hurts to lose more depth in the paint. As it stands, UMass will have to use a combination of Tony Gaffney, Luke Bonner, Matt Hill (maybe?) and newcomer Tyrell Lynch in the post.

Only Bonner is taller than 6′8, and Gaffney (6′8) is hardly a dominating offensive presence down low.

It’s a good thing UMass has some big boys coming for the season after next. As it stands, UMass is going to have to – still – rely on perimeter play in order to succeed.

Thank goodness for Chris Lowe (it’s his birthday today, fyi) and Ricky Harris.

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Kate Mills, a former standout basketball player for the UMass women’s basketball team, is taking her talents overseas.

Mills is going to play for “a team in Pamplona, Spain,” according to Delaware Online.

It didn’t say which team she was going to play for, but I did particularly like this quote from Kate:

“Probably my biggest disappointment from college was not getting to play in the NCAA Tournament.”

(NOTE: For what it’s worth, the UMass women’s basketball head coach is Marnie Dacko, not Marnie Backo as this article states.)

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Karen Healy, a former assistant coach for the UMass women’s lacrosse team, has been named the head coach of Bryant’s squad.

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Winston Smith, a former UMass basketball player, has been named the Director of Basketball Operations for Drexel. Bruiser Flint, the coach of the Dragons, coached Smith at UMass.

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The Andover Townsman had a good story on Matt Hogan, a Merrimack baseball player that has overcome a lot during a short amount of time. Hogan was cut from the UMass baseball team and didn’t really enjoy his time in the Pioneer Valley.

That’s just the UMass connection – he dealt with a lot worse than getting axed by the Maroon and White:

Despite the tragedy, Hogan made the decision to continue with his plan to attend UMass. But further trouble struck when he was cut from the UMass baseball team during fall tryouts, and did not feel comfortable on campus.

“I gave it a shot and it didn’t work out at UMass,” he said. “School-wise, I wasn’t happy there, and then I wasn’t playing baseball. After a year there, I was definitely ready to be back where I could get on the right track.”

How many is too many?

The Colonial Athletic Association will be adding two teams to its football league – Old Dominion (2011)  and Georgia State (2012) – which will have 14 teams competing on a yearly basis.

Is that two too many?

The Richmond Times-Dispatch had a story on the new teams, potential scheduling problems and the fact that this 14-team league will be the biggest at the Division I level.

From the article:

Can eight league games, the obligation CAA schools would like to maintain, deliver a legitimate champion in a 14-team league? Each year, the “champion” would not have faced five of 13 (38.5 percent) possible league opponents.

No current members expressed interest in leaving the CAA during the league’s annual meeting, according to Chuck Boone, the CAA’s director of football operations.

When is this league just going to boil over and implode? Teams like UMass, James Madison and Delaware need to figure out if there is anything other than a watered-down league on the horizon. Of course, there is always the lingering conversation as to whether UMass will make “the jump” and play Division IA (sorry FCS fans, this is what I call it).

I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel as far as that’s concerned.

Anyway, this is yet another example of the unstable atmosphere in I-AA. I really hope the powers that be will make the right decisions for UMass in the future.

Is that the MAC on the other line?

No, I won’t go there today.

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Coach Stone’s son was mentioned in this article about the 100th Mass. Amateur Championship.

Trouble in Torrington

Apparently Brian Baudinet can’t hit in the heat.

The UMass outfielder – who was easily the best offensive weapon for the Maroon and White – is in a bit of a slump with the Torrington Twisters in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

The Republican-American had an article on his struggles:

Baudinet takes it all in stride. He finished a grinding 45-game college schedule, had about 10 days to regroup and then embarked on the 43-game Twisters schedule. He couldn’t have possibly kept up his UMass pace, not with the switch from aluminum to wood bats.

Baudinet isn’t hitting well, but he’s getting exposure to another level of baseball.

“It’s great to see better pitching consistently,” he said. “All the pitchers throw harder than in college. Using wood bats, you have to hit it right on the good spot. That will only help when you get back to metal bats.

Hopefully his summer struggles help him by next spring. The article mentions that the team itself is struggling to hit – so maybe this is just contagious.

In other news, today I learned where Torrington is.

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Stephane Lasme had 14 points off the bench in Miami’s rout of Oklahoma City.

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The new lights at McGuirk are up, and UMassAthletics has a photo gallery.

For some reason I thought they were going to be bigger. I’m not complaining – just sayin’.

Potential hurler?

John Lenane, a pitcher for Sanborn Regional High School in New Hampshire, is heading to UMass.

Not sure if he is planning to play baseball, but the kid obviously knows the game. He was named All State, and can hit and pitch. Seacoastonline reported that he went 8-2 with a 1.93 ERA. He batted .340 with 22 RBI.

From the article:

John was the definition of an ace this year with 12 appearances and an 8-2 record (including the playoff loss to Belmont) to finish his senior year. Without John this year I don’t think we would have won at least four or five of the games we did win. He is a player that can’t be replaced and I wish him well as he continues his education at UMass-Amherst.“

Like I said, the article doesn’t really go into whether or not the kid is actually playing at UMass. I’m sure he could help the team – especially if he is already going there on his own dime and doesn’t have to take one of the team’s few scholarships.

Can you see us yet?

Mike DeCourcy, a reporter with SportingNews, wrote a column about Bernadette McGlade, the new commissioner of the Atlantic 10.

He asked the burning question: What the hell is going to happen with the A-10’s pitiful television contract?

From SportingNews:

“The only thing I can say, on a very superficial level, is that it’s loud and clear to me about the different needs that are out there,” she said. “I’m looking forward to sitting down with our current television partners and looking to see what we can do with our current contract.”

He mentions the significant ACC television contract she helped to develop while working for the conference, but our Southern neighbor is obviously a much different animal. While the A-10 has solid Division I basketball teams – that’s all we got.

There are no other sports in the conference that grab headlines.

I hope that McGlade is able to sit down and add some visibility to the currently invisible conference. I don’t expect a network television contract, but I would like to find an occasional UMass game that doesn’t HAVE to involve Temple, Boston College or a major conference team.

Then again, those games are pretty tough to find as well.

McGlade talks about the strength of the conference a bit, but it is obvious that she is just getting started and needs more time to get a feel for the A-10. However, I can appreciate the fact that she’s reaching out to every team in the conference.

“One of my priorities would be to visit each campus and to sit down with all the senior folks on the campus and to really get a good understanding and a feel for where they are right now. To be able to do that during the interview process was just not possible.”

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Larry Leckonby, a UMass alumni that received his master’s in sports management, is the new athletic director of The Citadel.

From The Post and Courier:

Today, The Citadel will name Leckonby, also a senior associate AD at Maryland, as its next athletic director, sources have confirmed for The Post and Courier.

… and then:

Leckonby got his start in athletic administration in 1981 at Massachusetts, and he earned his masters in sport management at UMass. He was ticket manager and assistant business manager at Boston University from 1982 to 1988, and assistant AD for finance and operations at Old Dominion from 1988-93.

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Several UMass baseball players made headlines today.

Adam Tempesta will play at the 33rd annual New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association College All-Star Game at Fenway Park.

From the Brockton Enterprise:

Tempesta, chosen to the All-New England Div. 1 second team, has hit above .300 all three seasons at UMass and registered a .318 average this season (55-for-173).

The former Brockton High School standout, who has 167 career hits with one season to go, started 44 of 45 games for the Minutemen and was third in batting average and hits.

Kyle Davis, who just finished his freshman campaign with the Minutemen, will pitch for the pitching for the Sanford Mainers in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

From the Boston Globe:

This spring, the Spaulding High grad from Rochester, N.H., finished with a 3-3 record and a 3.54 ERA in 10 appearances, including nine starts. The 5-foot-11 Davis struck out 54 batters in 56 innings.