Dane Pound

This is completely not about the Danes but I thought it was funny. You know the "without sports" commercials ESPN has been running? This one is my favorite: Unusual nickname brings fame to Michigan school By John Flesher ASSOCIATED PRESS 1:35 a.m. March 12, 2004 TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – In most places, calling someone a "nimrod" might earn you a cold stare or a fat lip. Not in Watersmeet, a rural township of 1,500 in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where "Nimrods" is a badge of honor – the nickname of sports teams at the local school, which serves all the grades and whose principal also doubles as coach and superintendent. Now that the oddball moniker inspired a series of commercials on ESPN, it has become a claim to fame. The cable television network in late January began airing three 30-second spots featuring the Watersmeet Township Nimrods boys' basketball team. They are part of ESPN's "Without Sports" advertising campaign, which celebrates the social and cultural importance of athletics. Two of the ads show the Nimrods playing against the another team as local residents voice pride in their team. In the other, 81-year-old Dale Jenkins – who played with the original Nimrods in the 1930s – sings the school fight song. Each ends with the narrator asking, "Without sports, who would cheer for the Nimrods?" The spots have struck a chord. Watersmeet Township, a K-12 school with 228 students including 77 high schoolers, has been deluged with requests for merchandise with the Nimrods logo – some coming from as far away as Germany. The school has sold more than $35,000 in T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, coffee mugs and other items. This weekend, the team, Jenkins and coach, principal and superintendent George Peterson III will fly to Los Angeles to appear Monday on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." "It's unbelievable," Peterson said Wednesday. The community has basked in the attention – poetic justice after the ribbing they've taken over the years, he said. "It builds character for our kids," Peterson said. "It's taught them a lesson that you need to find out about people before judging them." "Nimrods" apparently wasn't considered disparaging in 1904, when the school named itself after a biblical character described in Genesis as a mighty hunter and great king. Hunting is a way of life in Watersmeet, located in the Ottawa National Forest about 8 miles north of the Wisconsin line. The school logo depicts the head of a bearded hunter wearing a coonskin cap. But why not change the name later, when it became a putdown? When scenes from the sitcom "Cheers" showed Carla the barmaid deriding patrons Norm and Cliff as "nimrods?" Peterson surveyed the student body in the late 1980s. The response: Nimrods forever. "To them, the only insult was being asked" whether to abandon their beloved tradition, he said. Excitement ran high when the ESPN crew visited in December. Jenkins, a retired mechanic, was filmed singing the fight song in his garage, surrounded by fishing gear. "Both of my daughters were cheerleaders when they were in school, and they were always coming home and singing the song," he said. "You can't forget it." (The opening lines: "Watersmeet, the school that can't be beat, where the spirit's always high / Friends or foes, we have no cares or woes, for we are good sports, win or lose or tie.") ESPN marketing manager Kevin Kirksey, who filmed the ad, said he was smitten with the community's wholesomeness and loyalty to its team. "We're playing on the funny name, but the real story is how sports brings people together in small towns across America," he said. An added bonus for Watersmeet: With 17 wins and four losses, the Nimrods are having their best season in a decade. "Whatever happens, we're Nimrods and proud of it," Peterson said.

Good eyes UAlum. From that photo I sat just to the right of Meghan Buchanan and am not visible in the photo. I actually sat next to the guy with the white shirt in the far right of the picuture. Wish I could head over tonight also. Just no way I can be there near six.

Calls on Hutch were really almost surreal. She had a travelling called on her right in front of me that was ridiculous. If I didn't know better I'd swear they had it out for her-perhaps Rizzotti's influence. Didn't give Schumaker enought credit in my first post. She is a heady player and has become more than a 3 point specialist. Hartford really took away the things Albany likes to do on offense and the Danes reacted by stepping up in different ways. Schumaker driving the lane is a prime example. 6 points from your two leading scorers and you still find a way to beat the host team in their own building. They really showed alot of character last night. I'm sorry I won't be able to make tonights game. Is it on WCDB? Should we find a way to pull it off tonight I'm going to Hartford on Saturday.

Danes debut is a winner-TU The End Zone Albany's Defense Stymies Hawks Again March 12, 2004 By WOODY ANDERSON, Courant Staff Writer Hartford freshman Ikea Witt was trying to bust into Albany's 2-3 zone and create some trouble. Trouble was, it wasn't enough. Against Albany's zone, it was never enough for Hartford this season. Fourth-seeded Albany shot 43.9 percent (18-for-41) and survived a Hartford comeback Thursday night for a 52-50 victory in front of 1,508 in the quarterfinals of the America East tournament at Chase Family Arena. It is Albany's first postseason victory since joining Division I five years ago. No.5 seed Hartford (18-12) lost nine of its last 11 games. Three of the losses were to Albany. And in all three the Hawks shot under 30 percent. On Thursday, the Hawks hit bottom. They went 8:02 without a field goal and finished with 25.5 percent shooting (12-for-47) which tied tournament records for lowest percentage and fewest field goals. The Hawks made only five field goals in the second half, when they shot 18.5 percent (5-for-27). "We tried to penetrate the zone and get the ball into the post," Witt said. "And knock down some shots." The Great Danes led 47-41 with 5:10 remaining. But Liz Stich hit a three-pointer with 2:45 left to make it 49-46, the Hawks' first basket since Jessica Clark's layup with 10:53 to play. But Stich came up short on her next three shots. In the final 16 seconds, Albany made three free throws and the Hawks' Erika Messam one. Stich made a three at the buzzer. "Albany is tough to play because of their balance," Hawks coach Jen Rizzotti said. "You can't key on one player." Although Albany center Danielle Hutcheson fouled out with four points, Alicia Learn took over the scoring load with a game-high 19 points. Trailing 26-23 at halftime, the Great Danes began the second half with a 13-1 run that gave them a 36-27 lead. The Hawks never led after that. "We came out flat in the second half, we kind of zoned out," Rizzotti said. "We have to show a little bit more maturity. Next year we'll have more upperclassmen." Stich led the Hawks with 14 points (4-for-12 from the field, including three threes). Witt had 11 points, nine on free throws The Hawks' halftime lead - their largest to that point - came on Danielle Wexler's second three with 1:58 remaining. That came in between two Albany shot-clock violations the Hawks forced with their man-to-man defense. Albany's last five possessions of the half ended in turnovers. The Hawks, who led the conference in scoring defense (56.4 a game), made it tough on the Great Danes. "They switched on screens and doubled on Hutcheson," Albany coach Trina Patterson said. "We showed confidence, character and chemistry."

Was at the game last night but was too beat to post when I got home. Forgot to bring directions to UH on the way down and didn't realize it until I got past Bradley Airport. Then counldn't find any parking around the arena. Once I got inside they couldn't find my tickets at the will call-I swear it was because I was wearing an Albany hat. In alot of way my night started like the Danes did. The game started early so I missed the first few minutes. Hutch was already on the bench with 2 fouls and Ayers was on the bench with a jacket over her and not looking good at all. As someone who has watched this team all year I saw some pretty odd combinations of players out on the floor with Ayers and Hutch both on the bench. The Hartford pressure made them look bad on offense, Sweetland in particular. Took 15 seconds or more to bring the ball up court and they had no time left to set up a play. On two second consectuive possesions Sweetland was dribbling out on the perimiter as the shot clock expired with no idea how much time was left on the clock. Hartford had a 3 point lead at the break. Danes came out with a run in the second half lead mostly by Learn. They really leaned on Learn not just to score by creating her own shot but also by breaking the press and seeing over the top. They handled the press a little better in the second half but didn't really punish Hartford when they broke it. Several times players (Schumaker comes to mind) waiting for the second defender to come over instead of dribbling out of trouble or passing. Hutch was a foul magnet. It stinks that the officials aren't smart enough to see Hartford was trying to get her in foul trouble. Hutch's third foul was essential a Hawks guard just dribbling into her. Her fourth and most unbelievable foul was when she was coming up court. A Hartford guard dribbled backward to get away from Sweetland and backed into Hutch and Hutch got called for #4. Danes went on a run and had a 7 or 8 point lead with around 5 minutes to go. Patterson elected to put Hutch back in and go for the knockout. Patterson fired them up during a timeout and then went back out on the court where on the first defensive possesion Hutch got called for her fifth. I swear not more than 30 seconds went off the clock. It was a battle the rest of the way. Stacy Johnson played big in the closing couple of minutes. Patterson subbed her offense/defense for Schumaker. She made a great defensive play and then got the rebound with about 20 seconds to got (Patterson is a genus!). Next possesion with a four point lead and 15 seconds to go Johson fouls (Patterson is an idiot!). She played well the next possesion and the stregedy worked. Really poor free throw shooting kept Hartford closer than they should have been down the strech. Hartford 3 pointer at the buzzer made it a 2 point final. Really gutty effort and alot of people doing things that weren't required of them all season. More Danes fans there than I expected includuing a former player who sat behind me and whose name I couldn't remember until I got in the car-Shauna Brewer? Terrific win.

Certainly a step in the right direction. I'm assuming the turf field would be for lacrosse so they can plow it in the spring. Should be interesting to see what they come up in terms of capacity, etc. Hopefully McElroy will elaborate at the luncheon.

Danes start with upper hand-TU. Hartford Needs Momentum Shift-Hartford Courant. Hartford Needs Momentum Shift March 11, 2004 By WOODY ANDERSON, Courant Staff Writer It isn't lack of effort that's at the root of Hartford limping to the regular season finish 2-8. Maybe it's just the way basketball is, coach Jen Rizzotti says, "flow and momentum. Either things go your way or they don't." Certainly the Hawks had an abundance of flow and momentum during a nine-game winning streak. "You don't get called for things," Rizzotti said. "When we were winning, it was easy." Butnow it seems as if everything is going against them. The Hawks are in a tenuous state for tonight's America East women's quarterfinal game at Chase Family Arena against Albany. The same players who were 16-3 at one point are now 18-11. Fouls are up but that can mostly be explained because the Hawks are trailing and fouling to stop the clock. Turnovers are up. Rizzotti said that's because of a lack of focus. "Earlier in the year when we were fresher mentally and physically we didn't do that," Rizzotti said. "Now when the season is getting really long we can't maintain it and there's no excuse for it. "This time of year either you have kids who are mentally tough or you don't. And we don't and it's a hard thing to fix." And therein, perhaps, lies the problem. When the Hawks won the America East title two years they had six seniors and four juniors who carried the team to a 9-2 finish. Now the Hawks have one senior, Bridget Murray, and juniors Tanika Price and Liz Stich, who have been inconsistent. Sophomore Erika Messam and freshman Ikea Witt made All-Conference teams. Murray pointed out that Price and Stich have missed a lot of time in their careers because of injury or illness. "The sophomore class played all of last year so we do have experience and talent, but it's hard to turn the team over to sophomores," Murray said. "You want the upperclassmen to do well, but there's so few of us." Rizzotti noted that Maine, Binghamton, Boston University and Vermont, the hottest team in the conference, are led by seniors who are playing well, just as her seniors did two years ago. But Rizzotti doesn't think it's over. "We're good enough to win 18 games and we're playing at home. We know what it takes. Who's to say we can't turn it around?" Albany, for one. The Great Danes have defeated the Hawks twice this season. Because they are long and lanky their 2-3 zone has been crippling to the Hawks. "This is the first time we've been in a postseason tournament since turning Division I," coach Trina Patterson said. "And we've been peaking lately." Her team has won seven of its last 10. Patterson took over the team three years ago, when it was coming off a 4-23 season. "I had to change their attitude," Patterson said. Now the Great Danes are 12-15, 9-9 in the conference. Murray has noticed the Great Danes' hunger. "They're a bunch of smart kids who have lost their whole careers," Murray said. "But we have more talent. It's a matter of us getting over that they beat us twice."

OK, so that's not exactly true. Antione Johnson's Kansas City Knights team played Rodman's Long Beach Jam team in the ABA championship game. Long Beach won. Here's the link. Also the story if you can't get the link: Knights fall in title game ABA championship goes to Jam, giving Rodman a ring By JOSEPH D'HIPPOLITO Special to The Star LONG BEACH, Calif. — After needing a three-point shot to reach the American Basketball Association's championship game, a three-point shot proved devastating to the Knights' hopes of winning the title Tuesday night. Derrick Dial's off-balance three-point jumper proved critical in a final flurry that gave the Long Beach Jam the ABA championship with a 126-123 victory in front of 3,174 at Long Beach State's Pyramid. Dial's shot proved to be the most dramatic element during a game in which the Knights recovered from an 11-point deficit in the second half — and narrowed their deficit to two points with 57.5 seconds to play. “You might have to go to the NBA finals to get a better game than this,” said Knights coach Scott Wedman, who won two NBA championships with the Boston Celtics. The Knights, who trailed 86-75 with 3:01 left in the third quarter, narrowed their deficit to 113-112 on Cortez Groves' three-pointer with 3:40 left in regulation. But Dial and Juaquin Hawkins combined on a 7-0 spurt that extended the Jam's lead to 120-112 with 2:11 to play. Dial contributed a three-pointer and a fadeaway jumper from the right baseline, and Hawkins made a steal and layin to end the run. Joe Crispin, who finished with 19 points, made a three-pointer with 1:35 left to close the deficit to 120-117, then had a chance to shrink the margin to one point on a driving layin with 57.5 seconds remaining. But the basket was disallowed because teammate Doug Wrenn committed offensive goaltending. Crispin made two free throws to bring the Knights to within 120-118. Then Dial struck. Groves was defending the guard tightly as the shot clock was counting down. Dial, who spent time with the Orlando Magic earlier in the season, threw up a shot with 1 second left on the shot clock. The desperation shot went in with 32.3 seconds to play and extended the Jam's lead to 123-118. “I just threw it up,” said Dial, who finished with a game-high 30 points. “It was a tough shot. I had to throw up over his his hand. But I felt that if it went in, the game was ours.” Groves agreed. “He had that lucky shot,” said Groves, a former Kansas State guard said. “That's the only thing that made the difference.” Crispin and Hawkins each exchanged a pair of free throws before Antoine Johnson's three-pointer shrunk the Knights' deficit to 125-123 with 13.2 seconds left. After Long Beach's Geno Carlisle made the first of two foul shots with 11.2 seconds left, the Knights had a chance to tie. But just after Crispin crossed midcourt, Carlisle stole the ball with 5.5 seconds to play. The Knights entered the game with a nine-game winning streak but without their leading rebounder, Paul Shirley, who signed a 10-day contract with the Chicago Bulls last week. Making the Knights' situation seem more daunting was the appearance of Dennis Rodman in the Jam's lineup. Rodman, the tattooed rebounding specialist and erstwhile reality television contestant, made his first appearance in two months. He joined the Jam to try to resurrect his career and played twice in January before injuring his calf. In 25 minutes, the two-time NBA defensive player of the year — sporting a beach-blond dye job and a goatee and looking older than his 42 years — grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds despite being outhustled often underneath the glass. Neither team held control until the final seconds.

I was looking for Ayers to be all-conference as well. She's really a victim of a conference full of good players as well as a Danes team full of good players. The Lady Danes have had six different leading scorers this season. A couple all-conference picks came from teams with alot less balance and they were required to do alot more scoring. I'd imagine Ayers would take the balanced scoring and the wins and do without the acolades. If it works for motivation, I hope she feels snubbed and has a monster tournament. To follow-up on Statefan's comments of Patterson's recruiting. I agree this is just her first recruiting class and also while I'm not an expert on women's recruiting the women seem to sign earlier than the men. Patterson was hired in May or June in 2002 and only had a couple of months before the early signing period when alot of the better recruits sign. In any case I'm willing to reserve judgement until a few more recruiting classes come in. I hope she's a good recruiter because Hutch is going to be hard to replace. As for the tourney. The thing I'm most concerned about is that no player on this team has been to the tourney before. It's a different kind of atmosphere with a level on intensity this team isn't familiar with.

I haven't heard of any players transferring but then again, $iena football doesn't garner much media attention. We'll probably hear more about it when the academic year ends.

Small story in today's TU. Danes respectable against No. 1 Jays-TU.

Hartford Ticket Office. Directions to the Chase Arena. Mapquest.

Jon Iati rookie of year The York Catholic grad was honored for his outstanding freshman season at Albany. Daily Record staff Saturday, March 6, 2004 The University at Albany’s Jon Iati, a York Catholic graduate, was named the America East Conference Rookie of the Year in men’s basketball on Friday. Iati, a 5-foot-9 freshman guard, ranks ninth among America East scoring leaders with 14.5 points per game. He is also tied for sixth in assists (2.96 per game) and is fifth in 3-point field goals (2.5 per game). He has scored in double figures 23 times this season, including a career-high 26 against Stony Brook on Feb. 18. He also posted a 12-game double-figure scoring streak that ended in the regular-season finale against Northeastern. He was named the America East rookie of the week seven times during the season. He leads the nation in total minutes with 1,082 for a 40.1 average, and has played 40 or more minutes in 20 games. His 68 3-point field goals rank eighth on Albany’s single-season list and are the second-best total by a Great Dane freshman. Iati was the Daily Record Division II Co-Player of the Year as a senior at York Catholic. He finished his scholastic career with 2,216 points, the second-highest boys’ total in YAIAA history. Iati is the second consecutive Albany player to win conference Rookie of the Year honors, following in the footsteps of Jamar Wilson. Albany’s Iati was also named to the America East All-Rookie Team, along with Troy Hailey of Binghamton, Blagoj Janev of New Hampshire, Bennet Davis of Northeastern and Mike Popoko of Stony Brook. Taylor Coppenrath of Vermont was named the conference’s Player of the Year.

Probably not the surprise of the century. Scott Hicks was fired by Loyola after going 1-27 this year. Baltimore Sun Article.

Newsday columnist Steve Marcus defends Marachuk in a column. One reason he gives is that Stony Brook is a difficult place to recruit. Can't imagine they'd run the column if some fans weren't calling for his head. Newday Column. By the way, the story also has a poll called-should Nick stay or Go?

Men's lacrosse takes on #1 John Hopkins today. Hopkins is #1 in the coaches poll but as was pointed out yesterday Albany is #1 in the power poll. Hopkins lacrosse site. MEN’S LACROSSE MEETS TOP-RANKED JOHNS HOPKINS ON TUESDAY, MARCH 9 Albany, N.Y. – After beginning the season with a 16-5 victory over Manhattan, the University at Albany men’s lacrosse team will take on Johns Hopkins, the nation’s top-ranked squad, on Tuesday, March 9. Game time is 3:00 p.m. at Homewood Field in Baltimore, Maryland. Johns Hopkins (2-0) is ranked No. 1 for the second straight week in the STX-USILA national poll. The current rankings were announced on Monday afternoon. The Blue Jays, who reached the NCAA Division I championship game last year, defeated Princeton, 14-5, last Saturday. Kyle Harrison, a second-team All-America midfielder, scored a career-high four goals and added one assist, as his team ran its home winning streak to 21 straight games. UAlbany (1-0) won its season opener for the second straight year, as reigning America East Conference player of the year Luke Daquino totaled three goals and four assists against Manhattan. Michael Solazzo, a second-team all-conference attackman, added three goals and three assists, plus reached the 100-plateau in career points (102). Kevin Rae, the 2003 America East championship MVP, had 10 saves in three quarters of work at goalkeeper. Head coach Scott Marr, a 1991 Johns Hopkins graduate, is in his third season at the helm. Marr led the Great Danes to their first-ever NCAA appearance and the America East Conference championship last season. UAlbany will also meet No. 3 Syracuse in the Carrier Dome on Saturday, April 24.

I have to thank whoever sponsored the pre-game party in Boston on Friday. Lady DP and I went and I have to say it was much better than the previous year. Held in a resturant/bar a couple of streets down from Walter Brown arena. Mostly Boston area alums attended. We were discussing that alot of the alumni present graduated or played in the late 60's amd 70's. While they were interested in what we had to say about this years team and the guys coming back/in next year, they were really looking for people to reminisce about the players and coaches of when they went to school. I have to encourage long-time followers of the program to attend the gathering if they have one before next years tourney game (hopefully not before the play-in game next year!). Also chatted with some former Danes cheerleaders (Dane96 where were you?) who moved to Boston after graduation. They gave us some tips about Boston which enchanced our visit. Many thanks to them although we couldn't get into PF. Chang's-the resturant they recomended. Chatted with Don Ostrom who said next year's tournament site would be decided at an AD's meeting in May. If I remember correctly the four contestants were: Albany, Hartford, Bing and BU. He seemed to think it would go to BU because of the new arena although he thought Albany was better located and more to offer in terms of hotels, etc. I personally wounldn't mind any of those sites. Another interesting factoid I didn't know until I went but Statefan (Jets fan) might have known. I knew Dr. McElroy played football at UCLA but I didn't realize his brother played in the NFL. He was drafted by the Jets and played for 14 seasons. Here's his website.

Welcome to the board Johnboy! I'm glad you found us. If you have any problems with how things work feel free to email me at danefan1@localnet.com. Enjoy the Board!

Glad to see the women take care of business yesterday (TU Story). A terrific swing from last year-Last to fourth in the conference. An 8:30 game on Thurday night is all I could have asked for. Plenty of time to make it to Hartford.

I voted for St. Hillaire but I'm with Old Dog71. All four of those guys had better than expected seasons they just had less help then we expected at the begining of the season.

The only reason we haven't followed Brent Wilson is because there isn't any media coverage in his hometown. It's much easier to follow Dyson, Lillis and Bauman because their papers are online.

Both Dyson and Lillis' team won their respective playoff games last night. Dyson had a double-double again as his team won by 15. Sounds like Lillis had to battle to get the win. Newspaper story makes it sound like he gave a Knute Rockne-like halftime speach. Lillis game story. Dyson game story.

Today's TU article should clear up Brown's contract sitaution. He is in the second year of a four year deal. His goals for next year are pretty clear as well.

Danes' ironman plays on-TU. Lock Down-Portsmouth Herald. For Sturgill, no separation anxiety-Portsmouth Herald.

Great Post Statefan. I couldn't agree more. As much I'm looking forward to going to the tourney I regret that I'm going to miss the women's senior day. There was not much glory playing for Albany through most of Sweetland's career. It's great to see her have some sucess now. Hopefully if things work out I can catch them at the tourney. Statefan next year you're going to have to come up with someone new during close games when I ask "who do you want shooting free throws?"