Call me crazy, but I’m not happy at all with the college hoop migration toward the pro game. Remember when teams actually ran offenses and set plays.
Now, it’s more of the NBA-style pick-and-roll till you puke game.
Not that I didn’t spend at least 40 hours glued to the games from Thursday to Sunday, I mean I love the tourney, but the hoop is losing some of its luster.
Amazing how so many of the games follow the same script, where the upset-minded team pushes a panicked high seed to the brink and with about five minutes left, the talent shows through.
Finally, you figure with three ref crews, that one of those zebras could blow the whistle for three seconds just once. There were times when the Blair kid from Pitt or Hashim Thabeet of UConn sport cob webs from camping out in the lane, but again I watched at least 40 hours of hoop and didn’t see it called once.
Quickly, I will close out the boys hoop season here with my final Fantastic Four.
1. Central
2. Pelham
3. Salem
4. Andover
The Devils did enough to slide up into third and might have, with one more step, wrestled the No. 2 spot from Pelham.
Sorry, it’s just how I feel.
Hot rumor of the weekend has UMass Amherst pulling the plug on its baseball program.
Why is it in a state where we can afford assistants to assistants assistants and every legislators cousin has a job taking tolls on the Pike or working on the MBTA, we can’t afford a baseball program at Our State U? I mean what’s the baseball budget at UMass anyway, a couple hundred grand?
It’s a sad day if the rumor is true. It also leaves a giant pool of talented athletes, with UMass kids and Vermont kids looking for a place to play.
I don’t know. Maybe somebody, an alum like a Gary Disarcina, with some big league cache can step up and right what, if true, would be an ugly wrong.
Congrats to Salem’s Josh Jones for being named Mr. Basketball in New Hampshire.
Consider that Jones beat out the likes of a Jordan LaGuerre, who strapped Trinity on his back all the way to a state title. And he beat out the state’s leading scorer Justin Hojlo of Pelham, not to mention his teammate, Mike Kimball, who just put up a monster year.
It just goes to show you the amount of respect Jones has garnered from the voters over the last four years.
The one fact that pops out to me is that in a career that spanned 90-plus games, not once did Jones ever average less than 10 points a game. Never, ever.
Those of you who had caught my season-ending hoop column in the Sunday Eagle-Tribune, might have noticed Jones’ omission from my all Tandem team. It was not an oversight. The Salem outfielder noted he probably wasn’t going to play baseball this spring.
Not sure if that status has changed.
Baseball season around the region is coming.
Methuen scrimmaged North Andover Saturday three hours Saturday.
Ranger coach Dave Fabrizio liked what he saw from the knight pitching staff, especially frosh Brandon Walsh, whom you all remember started at QB in football.
We’ll have plenty more baseball news as the scrimmages unfold this week.
Man, it’s still cold out there, though.
