Lost recruit

Looks like UMass lost a women’s lacrosse recruit to ‘Cuse.

Jill Cammett, a lax player from Norwell, is heading to Upstate New York in lieu of Western Mass.

Two schools had Cammett’s interest last summer; Syracuse and UMass, with the Minutemen leading the charge.

A late official visit in July 2007 to the un-frozen tundra in upstate New York sealed the deal.

“I absolutely loved it at Syracuse,” she said.

(Someone needs to put some spaces in this story online.)

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.”

Off to Storrs

Angela McMahon, the associate head coach for the women’s lacrosse team, will lead the UConn Huskies into battle next year.

McMahon is only 26 – great gig for someone her age.

She played for Northwestern after spending a year at UMass. She is also a Western Massachusetts native.

From UConn’s Athletic Site:

“We are extremely pleased to have Angela leading the UConn women’s lacrosse program,” said Hathaway. “Her experience both as a head coach and assistant coach combined with her participation as a student-athlete at Northwestern University brings a wealth of knowledge about the sport to our University. Angela is committed to academic success, the development of student-athletes and the overall enhancement of our lacrosse program.”

Obviously it’s never good to lose a great young coach to one of our hated rivals, but you have to support her decision to take the job. Good luck in the future – just not against the Minutewomen.

NOTE: I don’t know how much this happens, but UConn essentially ripped a portion of McMahon’s bio directly from her player page on UMassAthletics. Not a big deal at all, just thought I should point that out. Yes, I read way too many player bio pages.

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Jackie Rosenzweig, of the women’s team and Doc Schneider, from the men’s team, were selected as First-Team Jewish All-Americans by the Jewish Sports Review.

Mazel tov.

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UPDATE: I missed this, but Andy Katz is reporting that Papa Lo is transferring to Bryant.

Soft served

Looks like UMass is softening up Texas Tech.

Well, its schedule, that is.

Bruce Feldman, a senior writer with ESPN, ranked the Red Raiders’ schedule the second softest and attributes some of the super softness to their game against the Minutemen.

From Feldman’s blog:

Then again, Eastern Washington and UMass both are at the FCS level and Tech has outscored its last four non D-I opponents by an average of 61 points.

One might think that a statement like this would upset a self-respecting UMass fan, but it really doesn’t. The Minutemen have shown that they can play with I-A squads during the past few years – I’m looking at you Boston College, Army and Kansas State. While I would love a victory in Lubbock, I don’t want to be blinded by my Maroon sunglasses.

The Red Raiders should be able to dismantle the Minutemen at home, but then again I saw a horrible University of Colorado team – one that lost to Montana State – take down Tech at Folsom Field almost two years ago. Sure, you can’t exactly judge a team based on that, but after charging Folsom in my “UMass Drinking Team” T-shirt, I realized that anything can happen in college football.

Just call me a big softy.

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KUsports is reporting – albeit via Rivals.com – that the Jayhawks and UMass are recruiting Sherrod Wright from Mount Vernon High School.

From the Web site:

Rivals.com’s No. 113-rated player has a list of KU, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Xavier, UMass, Connecticut, Marquette, Florida, Rutgers, Seton Hall and Temple.

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The Torrington Twisters, a team in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, are partially owned by a former UMass women’s lacrosse player – Rite Hubner.

From the article:

Hubner majored in sports management at UMass and was the starting goalkeeper for the women’s lacrosse team, which won the 1982 Division I national championship. Wadsworth was a U.S. national racquetball champion at the elite level in 1978 and 1981.

Bye, bye … bye week

Prepare to say adios to the bye week.

Since the FCS playoffs are growing to 20 teams, the NCAA is planning to eliminate the bye week and force teams to play 11-straight games before the playoffs.

The Daily News Record interviewed some of the top dogs from the CAA, and none of them are very pleased about it – to say the least.

“I’m not happy about it,” Massachusetts coach Don Brown said Tuesday. “It’s nice to see the expansion of the playoff system, but I’m not sure it’s enough to make me happy about losing my bye week.”

Brown and Hofstra coach Dave Cohen both noted that – with just 63 scholarships at the I-AA level – losing a bye week to get healthy could make it hard to redshirt freshmen, something just about all I-AA coaches try to do.

Losing a bye week is going to be incredibly hard on teams and their young athletes. Of course, there can’t be excuses from week to week due to the “everyone has to do it” argument. However, keeping a full team healthy throughout the course of the season is going to get increasingly difficult.

As it stands, many FCS schools have to rely on transfers and the ability to redshirt freshmen and sophomores. These players are going to have an immidate impact, give up their redshirts and play when starters and second stringers go down with injuries and have no time to recover.

With an 11-game grind, I guarantee we’re going to start seeing walkons playing more than just special teams.

Let’s just see how this pans out, but I have a feeling that this decision may very well alter teams’ seasons if one of their specialty players goes down and has no time to get back on his feet.

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Stephane Lasme is going to have the chance to play a little summer ball with Michael Beasley.

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Kaitlyn Johnson, a former women’s lacrosse player from UMass, apparently transferred to the University of Vermont. I don’t remember covering this, but it was on UVM’s athletic site:

Johnson is also a transfer from UMass. An attacker, she hails from Meriden, N.H. and played her high school lacrosse at Lebanon High School. She holds the Lebanon school record for goals (168) and assists (69) and was a four-time all-sate selection. Johnson saw limited action with the Minutewomen in two seasons in Amherst and will have two years of eligibility remaining including the 2009 season.

Women’s lax recruit

Danielle Pelletier, a women’s lacrosse player committed to UMass, helped her high school team win the state championship.

I mentioned Pellitier briefly a little while ago.

Pelletier plays for Souhegan High.

From the Union Leader:

The team’s trio of college lacrosse recruits caused its share of chaos around Londonderry’s crease. Along with Tyler Petropulos (Harvard), middie Danielle Pelletier (UMass) tallied five times and dished to assists. Attacker JoJo Curro (UNH) netted five markers and an assist.

“They were huge,” Maren Petropulos said of Souhegan’s standouts, “with some support from some other kids — Chelsea Larivee, Delaney Brault, Teydin Hall, Steph Norton. And (goaltender) Kate Dobbs (12 saves) really came up huge in the first five minutes of the game. That allowed the nerves to go away.”

Flock of Cardinals

Three UMass women’s lacrosse players have transfered from UMass to Louisville.

Ashley King, Lyndsay Ward and Aimee Dixon are all heading south.

From CSTV:

“I’m thrilled that these three student-athletes have chosen to join the Louisville family,” said Young, who led the Cards to an impressive 12-4 record in the program’s inaugural season in 2008. “Three talented players who are also incredible young women, they will be tremendous assets to both our program and the university, on and off of the field.”

The trio did not see much time this year for the Minutewomen, and only Ward had a goal. King and Dixon had 20 groundballs between them during their cumulative nine games played.

Doesn’t look like a big loss for the program – it just seems like the transition that occurs under a (relatively) new coaching regime.

It also might have something to do with the fact that Kellie Young, the head coach of the Cardinals, has a bit of a local connection. Young graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1993. She also received her masters in sports management from UMass in 1997.

The Massachusetts native was an assistant coach at Amherst College for awhile as well.

Looks like she’s going back to her roots.

What’s the catch?

The CSN Log had a story about the UMass football team and how it needs more receivers for Liam Coen.

This hasn’t been much of an issue in the past – especially with the running game that UMass teams have possessed. I agree with the sentiment here, but I also haven’t had much of a chance to check out the new crop of offensive players.

The UMass receiving corps returns just 20 percent of its catches from last season and 15 percent of the receiving yards. And there isn’t a senior in the group.

“It has been different, but the learning curve has been pretty good,” UMass receivers coach Brian Crist said this week as the Minutemen continue spring practice. “They obviously paid more attention back in the fall than I thought they had.”

… and then:

Horne, Joe Sanford (4 catches, 71 yards, 2 TDs), and Victor Cruz (1 catch, 26 yards) are the “experienced” receivers for the Minutemen. Fortunately, UMass is not asking them to be the next J.J. Moore (80 catches, 1,100 yards, 5 TDs), Rasheed Rancher (49 catches, 1,007 yards, 9 TDs) and Mike Omar (44 catches, 530 yards, 2 TDs). Not by themselves.

To think, Sanford wasn’t even a receiver when he came to UMass. He was a walk-on quarterback with Virgina and came to Amherst after some off-the-field business.

Coach Brown knows what he’s doing, and I have confidence that, with Coen at the helm, UMass will be fine through the air again.

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The UMass women’s lacrosse team fell in the A-10 finals to Temple.

From the Republican:

“I thought we got ourselves into too much of a hole in the first half,” Venechanos said. “We were a little tight, and they definitely took advantage of that. They had some opportunities, and we came out flat. They executed well, and by the time we got into our rhythm the game was out of reach. The effort was there, but Temple played a complete game and deserved to win.”

There was a brief mention in the MetroWest as well:

Medfield native Kathleen Typadis played her final game as a member of the UMass women’s lacrosse team yesterday. The Minutemen lost to Temple in the Atlantic 10 title game, ending their season. Typadis, who leaves UMass as the second-leading scorer in school history, was named to the All-Tournament team. …

B.C., UMass team up

Boston College and UMass are helping raise awareness of brain cancer.

From CSTV:

The Eagles decorated their lockerroom for Judith (Theriault) and gave her her own locker, a BC jersey, sweatpants and lacrosse stick. She was joined by her parents Kathleen and Denis and twin brother Larry. Larry is also battling a brain tumor and has been adopted by the BC baseball team.

Boston College’s matchup with UMass on March 22 at 4 p.m. will mark a celebration for Judith and Lexie. Minutewomen head coach Alexis Venechanos has been instrumental in helping raise brain cancer awareness through the FOJ Foundation, which began during her time as an assistant coach at Northwestern. There will also be a donation box at the entrance of the stadium to make contributions to the foundation.

For more information about the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, please visit www.friendsofjaclyn.org.

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Temple fell to Michigan State 72-61, and Xavier came back to defeat Georgia 73-61 in the NCAA Tournament.

Cold as hell

Well, I guess I’ll start today with a little bit of hockey.

No, hell has not frozen over — but they are checking their thermostats.

The Boston Globe had an article on Hockey East, the competition at the top of the division and, of course, most of the information comes from Boston College:

BC, UMass-Amherst, and UMass-Lowell are each a point behind. Only 6 points separate the top teams from the bottom. What can we expect from the remainder of the schedule? BC coach Jerry York believes it should be a close race to the end.

“We lost a lot of good players to graduation and pro signings,” York said of the conference. “I still think as the year goes we’re going to have some legitimate teams that can win a national title. The records don’t seem to indicate that, but I think there’s something there that as the year progresses, it could be different teams. Northeastern and UMass are having fabulous years. There’s enough in our league that when we get toward March and April, we’re going to have some really good teams, and hopefully BC will be one of them. It could be a really interesting second half.”

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Michael Torres, a former kicker for UMass and current kicker for UCF, had brief feature in the Journal News. Torres and the Golden Knights will face Mississippi State on Saturday in the Liberty Bowl.

Torres, in his second season at UCF after spending a post-grad year at Fork Union (Va.) Academy and two years at UMass, is 19 for 21 on field goals, including a sensational 6 for 6 on kicks between 40 and 49 yards.

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Lindsay Hegarty, a UMass women’s lacrosse player, was mentioned in the Andover Townsman in regards to the Andover women’s lacrosse team and its “pipeline” of Division I athletes:

The pack is led by two-time All-Scholastic Rachel Fox. Already having signed on with national champion Northwestern, she capped off her high school career with an 86-goal, 36-assist senior season to give her 256 career goals and 125 career assists.

She was joined by All-Scholastic Lindsay Hegarty, who is now at UMass Amherst. She scored 46 goals last year. Players from the 2008 team that have already earned Division 1 scholarships include Ilana Cohen (UNH), Kelly Driscoll and Jordy Shoemaker (Notre Dame), and Jessica Forster (St. Mary’s of California).

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UPDATE: Make sure you vote for Zach Simmons as the UMBRO Soccer Player of the Year:

Thanks to Mike at UMassHoops.com for posting this on his site.