Revenge

We all know what happened on Saturday – now it’s time to play spoiler.

This weekend, the Minutemen will face UNH and have the chance to put a serious damper on the Wildcats’ playoff hopes. UNH is coming off a loss to Villanova, and need one more win to reach the eight victories needed to qualify for the FCS playoffs.

These will be desperate Minutemen. Their playoff hopes are fading and their only chance to revive them will be a win over UNH.

UMass has losses to Texas Tech, James Madison and Richmond to go with the loss to Maine and will try to get back into the playoff discussion against the Wildcats.

The Minutemen defense had improved in recent weeks, but Maine rolled up 296 yards rushing on them, For its part, the Maine defense held Massachusetts to 311 yards of total offense. Not only that, but the Black Bears intercepted four Liam Coen passes in the game.

If nothing else, I hope UMass plays for pride this weekend and takes down their CAA rivals. The loss to Maine stings a little, but a win over UNH always takes the bite out of a tough loss.

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Hidden somewhere between the pages of UMass athletics – the men’s soccer team won the A-10 regular season title.

Granted, this is a far-off cry from last year’s Final Four run, but it’s still very impressive for the boys to win the conference after a slow start to the season.

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The UMass women’s basketball team pounded Bishop’s University in its exhibition game.

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A little late on this: Gary Forbes was drafted No. 4 overall by the Sioux City Skyforce of the NBA’s Development League.

This is the second time in two years we’ve had a played in the D-League – Stephane Lasme played there last year.

A-10 champs!

The UMass football team romped, but the biggest news of the weekend comes from the field hockey team.

The Minutewomen, who are now No. 17 in the nation, won the Atlantic 10 regular season title with a 2-1 victory over Temple. It’s UMass’ first outright title since 2001.

Justine Sowry continues to build a winner in Amherst – it’s amazing that this is only her second season at the helm.

Here’s the writeup from UMassAthletics.

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Stephane Lasme, who was waived by the Heat, is now playing overseas for Partizan Belgrade. He also helped his team beat KK Zagreb in overtime.

Zagreb fell behind in the extra period when Stephane Lasme made one of two at the stripe for a 92-91 lead.

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Zach Greene, a defender for the Haverhill soccer team, has his eye on UMass and wants to continue playing soccer in college.

I’m planning on going to college and am looking at Roger Williams and UMass Amherst. I’m thinking about studying construction management and architecture. I’d definitely like to continue playing soccer, too.

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Looks like Todd Bankhead, the quarterback for the 1998 National Champion football team, was at the Richmond game. His wife posted some photos on her blog.

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Brandon London had his first NFL catch for the Dolphins on Sunday.

Good show

Almost two weeks after UMass pissed off (some of) the sporting press at the Celtics game, it made up for it at Alumni Weekend.

Bruce Dowd, a columnist for CAA Today, wrote a column about the UMass/Richmond game, and, even in a loss, UMass came out smelling like roses.

I guess it pays off to feed sportswriters well.

I have to mention that Jason Yellin and his staff at UMass went out of their way to make me feel welcome, especially considering the last-minute notice. They run a first-class operation there. I have been to just about every press box in the CAA and a few FBS ones, too, such as Virginia, Maryland and Navy. Never, and I mean NEVER have I seen a food spread like these guys put out.

Dowd was also impressed with the overall feel of the scene – including the tailgate, which I wouldn’t have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes.

I had a blast again cruising the tailgating and interacting with the fans. I feel sorry for those who don’t know what they are missing when they sit at home on their couches flipping channels. Nothing compares to the atmosphere and smells of a beautiful fall afternoon at a football game.

I must say that UMass has done an excellent job building interest in the football team. My freshman year (2001) you couldn’t pay students to wake up and head down to McGuirk. Now, only seven years later, the place is packed, the parking lot is full, and UMass football games are an event rather than a two hour contest.

Kudos to the Athletic Department and the fans.

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Speaking of football, the Daily Collegian had an article on Bryant’s propensity to blitz.

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The Collegian also had its Hockey East power rankings.

UMass is ranked No. 6.

A nine-day break didn’t slow the Minutemen down against Rensselaer Tuesday night in Troy, N.Y. UMass put up six goals and goaltender Dan Meyers made 24 saves in his first-career shutout following a 40-save effort against North Dakota.

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Ptah Myers, a former standout for the UMass men’s soccer team, was resigned by the Philadelphia Kixx of the MISL.

Myers returns to the KiXX for his fifth season, all with the KiXX, after being signed as a free agent out of UMASS. The Columbus, OH native ranked third on the KiXX in three-point goals (4), two-points goals (15), goals (19), blocks (28), and points (50) during the 2007-08 season. Myers was a member of the U.S. National Futsal Team that competed in the CONCACAF FIFA World Cup in Brazil this summer along with KiXX captain and recent signing Pat Morris.

I tried to figure out Myers’ stat line, but I have no idea what the hell 2PGs and 3PGs are. I’m guessing its two-point goals and three-point goals, but I have no idea. Either way, he has a lot of 2PGs.

Atta boy.

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Ed Pasque has been hired as associate commissioner for governance and external affairs of the Atlantic 10/

Amick makes USA Under-20 National Team

Stuart Amick, a freshman on the UMass men’s soccer team, has been selected to play on USA’s Under-20 Men’s National Team.

Via the Atlantic 10’s Official Web site:

UMass soccer freshman Stuart Amick has been selected as a member of the U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team. The team will train and play in two games from Feb. 19-24 in New Orleans. Amick was an integral member of the Minutemen’s historic run through the NCAA Tournament and berth to the NCAA College Cup. A midfielder for UMass, Amick will play as a defender for the National Team.

More than half

Fifty eight percent: more than half, better than bad and an absolutely unacceptable shooting percentage to concede.

That’s exactly what the Hawks laid on UMass last night.

Saint Joseph’s beat the Minutemen with a different style and did so with offensive authority. Its 98 points was, by far, the most it scored all year. Ahmad Nivens, the Hawks’ forward, scored a career-high 31 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. UMass was essentially outrebounded, outplayed and one might say outcoached.

Via Travis Ford:

“We could not see this coming tonight. I thought we would respond better. St. Joseph’s is a much tougher and more physical team; especially on the inside. We played pretty tonight, while they played hard. We were out-rebounded by 15, and we gave up 21 points and 15 rebounds to their third best player.”

It should be interesting to see how this team adjusts to this type of loss. UMass has visibly moved away from an interior-based game, and now it has to pay the price against teams that pound the post. These are the games where we miss Rashaun and Stephane, but how can anyone complain when the team is “exciting” and beats the likes of Boston College and Syracuse?

UMass was picked in the middle of the Atlantic 10 prior to the season, and it was because prognosticators could foresee games like this. The team may be in transition still, and maybe the final product is an inside-out squad that runs with the best of them — something along the lines of an old Bob Huggins Cincinnati team.

Either way, things are not going to get any easier for the Minutemen. They have to respond in the face of two-straight losses and do so against: Dayton, Charlotte, Saint Joseph’s again, Xavier, Duquesne and Rhode Island … in a row. Everyone has been waiting for the A-10 to come back. Well, here it is — now it’s time to put up, and, for the love of Aunt Jemima, play a little defense.

Coach Ford:

“We changed our defense to trapping later, but it was really the second shots that killed us. Every time we would get back in the game, they would come up with a huge second shot. When something is on the line, things need to switch. Luckily, it is not too late in the season for a change to happen. This league is a physical and an aggressive league, and tonight we were on the soft-side.”

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Zack Simmons was named the UMBRO/New England Soccer News Men’s Player of the Year.

Simmons recorded nine shutouts in 2007, earning his team their second-ever appearance in the NCAA Men’s college tournament. His performance in the net guided the Minutemen to their first ever appearance in the Men’s College Cup before their Cinderella run was ended with a 1-0 loss to Ohio State.

Congrats Zack — thanks for the great season.

Should they stay or should they go now?

Greg Hansen, a columnist for the Arizona Star, had an excellent article on the state of Chris Brown, Doug Rappaport and the UMass men’s soccer team in general.

Both players will graduate this year but have another year of eligibility. The problem is that they will basically have to pay their way for another year.

Rappaport, who plans to attend medical school, and Brown, whose tentative career goal is to be an investment banker, are about to go pro. Or maybe not.

There are some finances involved.

Incredibly, UMass played its way to the final weekend of college soccer with a budget that included the equivalent of 2.3 scholarships. Coach Sam Koch somehow split that relatively small amount of tuition/rent/ food money over a squad of 25 players. Brown, for example, was granted $2,000 for the entire year, which probably covered a half-year’s apartment rental.

Then there was this interesting statistic:

The NCAA allows each men’s soccer team 9.9 scholarships. UMass, which attempted to kill off its men’s soccer program as recently as 1991, had an operating budget of $98,000 for the 2006-07 fiscal year. By comparison, Arizona’s women’s soccer team is allowed 12 full scholarships and worked on a budget of $170,000.

Brown’s defense and Rappaport’s ability to make plays in the midfield will surely be missed by the Minutemen if one or both decide to move on from their days in the Pioneer Valley. Of course, the financial situation isn’t exactly conducive to retaining athletes that have already paid their dues in the classroom.

Either way, I wish both of these guys the best in the future. Even if they do venture off into something new, they should not look back with any regret. They gave UMass fans the best season in team history, and they made us all proud to be Minutemen.

Via Brown:

“…the great thing about UMass is that the people there are the people who want to be there. It’s a good family.”

Koch up for honor

Sam Koch is up for coach of the year.

The UMass soccer coach has been named a finalist for the NSCAA/adidas National Coach of the Year Award. What an amazing honor this would be for Koch, especially since he didn’t even get Coach of the Year honors in the Atlantic 10.

From UMassAthletics.com:

The Concord, Mass., native has led the Minutemen to three regular season Atlantic 10 titles, two Atlantic 10 Tournament titles, two NCAA Tournament appearances, and one NCAA College Cup appearance. During his tenure in Amherst, the 23-year head coaching veteran has produced two All-Americans in Jeff Deren (2001, 2002) and Zack Simmons (2007), a College Cup All-Tournament selection, a two-time Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of the Year, two Atlantic 10 Rookies of the year, two Atlantic 10 Tournament MVPs, 17 All-New England selections, 53 All-Atlantic 10 players, 25 Academic All-Atlantic 10 honorees, and 20 Atlantic 10 All-Tournament picks.

Then later:

Assistant coach Jon Davy was earlier named East Region Assistant Coach of the Year and is now in the running for the National Assistant Coach of the Year as well.

Dan Donagan, Saint Louis’ soccer coach, is also on the list of head coaches and was named the A-10 Coach of the Year earlier.

Road less traveled

Tonight is the biggest game in the history of the UMass men’s soccer team, and it is appropriately getting its due from the national media.

The New York Times had an absolutely lights-out solid article about the potential disbanding of the soccer team in the early ‘90s. It also gives some good background on the school’s scholarship situation and how truly amazing this year’s run has been for the Maroon and White:

Men’s soccer at UMass is allotted only 2.2 of the 9.9 scholarships allowed by the N.C.A.A., and that money is spread among 26 players. In a preseason poll, the Minutemen were forecast to finish 10th among the Atlantic 10 Conference’s 14 teams. Only once before, in 2001, had UMass qualified for the N.C.A.A. tournament. And now it is two victories from a national championship.

From John McCutcheon:

“If all you did was submit budgets and photos of your facilities, you wouldn’t need to play the games,” John McCutcheon, UMass’s athletic director said. “But that’s what makes sports so exciting and unpredictable.”

… and a little bit of humor:

At the Atlantic 10 tournament in Dayton, Ohio, the Minutemen ate their meals at a sandwich shop inside a Wal-Mart.

“When Olive Garden discontinued the $8 Never Ending Pasta Bowl, Coach was visibly upset,” Brown, the defender, said with a laugh.

From ESPN.com, the outlook is a little less positive, but realistic nonetheless:

Alas, the nightcap between unseeded UMass and No. 5 seed Ohio State (7 p.m. ET, ESPNU) might not be as pretty to behold. The Minutemen’s run to Cary has been nothing short of miraculous, but there is no disputing the fact that they lack the top-end talent and pedigree of the three other squads. Thirteen of their 25 contests this season have been decided by a single goal, and they allowed more than one goal in a game just four times this season. So if coach Sam Koch’s charges are to upset the underrated Buckeyes, bunker ball (and another big game from keeper Zack Simmons, who was lights-out against Illinois-Chicago) is how UMass will punch its ticket to the final.

Don’t count on that happening.

Good luck tonight boys, you’ve already made any and all UMass athletics fans incredibly happy and proud, but then again:

“If we’re going,” Simmons, the goalkeeper said, “we might as well come back with some hardware.”

UMass hangover

Wow, what a weekend. So good, I somehow vanished for an extra day.

The football team is heading back to the playoffs and once again has to face off against an always-dangerous Patriot League team (paging Colgate). The men’s soccer team is heading to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in program history. Hoops continues to play fast and somewhat effective. And hockey, well they tied and beat Boston College — and that’s better than birthday cake … especially since I saw a B.C. hockey fan at a Rocky Mountain Rage game on Saturday.

He now knows that no matter where he is, be it Commonwealth Ave. or a random hockey rink in Broomfield, CO., there will always be someone to vocalize how much “B.C. Sucks.”

Anyway, I tried to sit down and assemble this crazy, borderline emotional weekend of UMass sports and was simply baffled. If you couldn’t already tell, I have a soft spot for the soccer team and hope it can beat Boston U. at home. Coach Koch deserves this — he is by far one of the most unsung coaches and people at UMass.

Football continues to look eerily familiar to last year, just replace Lafayette with Fordham. I hope Brown isn’t looking past this Rams team. I can’t imagine he is.

I’m actually kind of excited to hear Larry Coker call this game.

As far as hoops and hockey are concerned, I can’t get a full read on these teams yet. Hockey has a different identity than years past, but it is upholding a constant progression toward the top of Hockey East, and that’s all any of us can ask for.

The basketball team has once again played absolutely nobody of merit, but this year that may be a good idea. Get the kids some confidence. Let them shoot and run against teams that are going to spend a lot of time catching up.

I wish I had more time for this, but there is just too much, and that’s a good thing. Between work and attempting to organize myself for my first trip home in almost three years, I’ve slipped a little bit on this blog, and I apologize.

UMass athletics has been incredibly special recently, and I can’t do it justice right now.

And, as weird as it sounds, I couldn’t be happier.

Win one for Koch

Sam Koch deserves a great season.

Koch, the UMass men’s soccer coach for the past 17 years, has always teetered on the line between calm and excited; happy and mad; successful and unsuccessful. His teams play hard and together but very seldom have a standout star (save for the occasional Ptah Myers).

This year is more of the same for the UMass footballers (7-4-0) — the team has all of its scoring spread out across eight players, four of which have multiple goals. This is good for an Atlantic 10 team considering the Northeast, A-10 style tends to grind-it-out and force the close shot — however and with whomever you can.

Koch also has a keeper that can handle that style of play when conversely applied.

Zack Simmons is exactly what coach needed between the pipes. For a long time the Minutemen split time (SEE: Nick Billman and Colin Burns) or simply suffered from sub-par goal tending. Simmons has posted a .81 GAA with four shutouts this year.

I wonder if this success has anything to do with the assistance of Jon Davy — the assistant coach for the Minutemen? Davy has an impressive list of goal tending accomplishments and has worked with Simmons ever since he walked on the team. Since then he has set the single-season record for shutouts (10) and has contributed to an impressive decline in goals against: 1.93 in 2004 to .81 to date in 2007.

The Collegian has been following the team closely and wrote a preemptive article in regards to the team “eyeing” an A-10 championship. Just so you know, Koch hates preemptive articles — I wish I could see his reaction to the headline.

Especially since this quote is an example of how much coach looks to the future:

“We’re concerned about continuing to improve and eliminating mistakes,” Koch said before Friday’s match. “We’re far from being in the [Atlantic 10] Tournament. We have to win three or four more games. Can we get one this weekend? Odds aren’t in our favor. But I’ll tell you what – [qualifying for the tournament] will validate everything for us.”

That’s vintage Sam Koch right there — just another reason why he deserves some success.

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Juan Moliere was named to the A-10 sports honor roll this week:

Juan Moliere – Massachusetts

Sophomore, San Juan, PR/Collegio San Ignacio

Moliere captured gold in the 50-yard freestyle (21.19) and 100-yard freestyle (47.32) events on Oct. 13 in Massachusetts’ 124-119 loss to Boston University…swam the lead leg of the winning 200-yard freestyle relay (1:28.45) and the anchor leg of the winning 200-yard medley relay (1:37.34) on Oct. 19 as the Minutemen downed Stony Brook, 182-117.

Here’s the rest of the list.

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Kyle Baumgartner, a women’s basketball recruit, has opted to go to the University of Akron in lieu of UMass — and other schools on her list.

I had not heard anything about her, but my access to women’s basketball recruiting is zero at best:

Akron offered the 6-foot-3 Baumgartner a full scholarship this summer after a team camp. She chose the Zips over Kent State, Northeastern (Mass.), Manhattan and Division II California University of Pennsylvania. UMass and Lafayette (Penn.) were other colleges that showed strong interest.

Here’s the rest of the article.

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The Sports Network had the updated FCS poll and a description of each team:

Massachusetts (6-1) stayed in the No. 4 position with a 24-7 Colonial Athletic Association win over Northeastern, and earned four first-place votes.

Yup, here’s the rest.