We have a date

Ok folks, here's how this is going to work. We're going to do the chat Thursday at 1. You can get there from the Herald's site, Brad's going to put a link up, but it will be easier to get there from his site, which is bradcarrollgameday.blogspot.com.
Or you can email questions in advance to mstraubblog@hotmail.com, or post them to the new sticky thread on ccsufans.com and I'll look through them Wed. and add them. The ad in the paper says CCSU basketball, and that will be the main focus since it's almost March, but all things Central are on the table. Football, baseball and soccer questions are all welcome. We can also talk about the beat, me, conferences, facilities, whatever is on your mind.
I do really hope a lot of you can be there though, the numbers will help determine when we do it again and how often. If you can't make it live, you'll be able to read the archive on Brad's site forever. So check it out whenever you can.
Really looking forward to this, and I really hope you guys like it.

A couple of RMU thoughts

First off, I know Mike Rice rubs a lot of people the wrong way, but man does he get his team to play hard. They just claw at you from start to finish. The most impressive thing to be tonight was getting a 20-point lead down to about 13 and making a game of it again in the 2nd half.
As for their actual play: I thought they did their best stuff tonight against Pitt in their version of the weave. Lots of movement and drives, very well done. When they tried to just pass it around, they just kind of stalled because no one was moving. Also, Green picking up his third foul really hurt. Had they been able to get to the half in a little better shape, Pitt might not have started the 2nd with such a bang.
That little 2 guard is fun to watch, but I have a feeling Devan will be able to slow him down. To me, it comes down to 2 things Thursday. First, can CCSU survive against their bigs. 1 is tough enough, but two to worry about will be tough. Green is a nice 1-2 with Robinson. If Central can tread water there, then it just comes down to who runs its offense better. When these two teams are moving with and especially without the ball, they can score. If not, I think it could be a scrappy kind of game in the 50s. If Central can pick spots to run and not get beat up inside, I saw nothing tonight that makes me think it's an unwinnable game if the good CCSU shows up. But I do like this RMU team a lot.

RMU on SNY

Morris vs. Pitt is about to start on SNY. Gonna watch and will give you a scouting report later.

Chat update

We're going to go with the chat on Thursday at 1 p.m. If you can't be there live, don't worry. There are still 2 ways to be involved. First, email questions now to bcarroll@centralctcommunications.com or mstraubblog@hotmail.com, and we'll post them ourselves as the chat goes along if we get them in advance. Also, you'll be able to see the chat on Brad Carroll's GameDay site. You guys will like him, he's doing a lot to raise the level of the coverage we give CCSU. So get on board. Hope you can be there live on his site, but if not email questions in now and read the chat later!
And if this goes well we can certainly do more.

Hold your horses folks

I know everyone loves speculating (I'll do some before the month is over with you), but remember that there's a long way to go. I'll admit that i don't like the way the league schedule shakes out for Central this upcoming week, but then there's two more, then the tourney itself.
Right now I could write a convincing case that CCSU will get a home game, and I can write a good case that it could miss the tourney.
I'll say this though for the Blue Devil fans that want to dream about a big March: You want a red-hot Mount squad to play RMU in the first round. I know, I've been in love with the Mount for like three years now, but I really can see a surprise run coming from them.
Again, we're weeks away from even having the pairings, but doesn't this feel like a year where form will do anything but hold in the NEC tourney? If you're a high seed now, do you want any of the Mount? A suddenly hot and experienced CCSU? A Sacred Heart team that could hit 15 3-pointers in any given game? I know home is huge in the league this year, but I'm calling it now. Someone is going down.
And no I'm not contradicting myself because I didn't say who exactly is going down or who's pulling the upset. But someone is, I'm sure of that.
What about my chat idea? Who's in? When's good for everyone?

Delta Guy

I did mention that the charity game was on tv. It was in a box in the paper next to the story that got webbed. Remember folks, sometimes you have to see the actual paper!

sorry for the delay

the women's interview ran late.
Efese starting again, Dave is fine, Robby still out, Tull dressed.

Happy Herald Day!

I'll have an attendance report of the guys during warmups, but wanted to mention 2 things quickly.
1) We're putting together an online chat with me about all things CCSU on Thursday. Who's interested? comment here, on the board, or email me at mstraubblog@hotmail.com
2) I'll have a James Mallory feature Monday.

First reaction

I have a tidbit that might be interesting regarding the class.
I haven't seen any high school games this year save for one on Thanksgiving, but I just had two colleagues in the last five minutes say to me "they got Denzell Jones?!?!?" with great excitement. So the Bloomfield QB gets the official Herald seal of approval.

Update and a rant

First off, wanted to remind you that I will have a breakdown of CCSU's recruiting class in the paper tomorrow.
Only one I know much about so far is Chris Linares, an exceptional athlete at New Britain. Has baseball-level hand-eye coordination, which will help him. Interesting to see what they do with him, because I remember him being not that big.

While I have the floor... first off, let me say that I don't think the NCAA will ever actually go to 96 teams for the big dance. That said, let me remind them of why it's an awful idea.
1) You kill the regular season at the higher levels. You think the season gets made fun of now? Try getting someone to care when every team .500 or better in a BCS league gets in.
2) You kill the conference tourneys at the higher levels. Wanna make the Big East tournament and ACC tournament totally meaningless? Let them all in.
3) You kill the good non-BCS tourneys. The CAA semifinals are a perfect example. ODU, Mason and Northeastern playing for MAYBE two spots. Give them an at-large or two and, while I'd be happy to see good teams like that finally get a chance to dance, you're officially saying the season starts on Selection Sunday.

But, since I always chide people that email me complaints without a solution, I'll give the NCAA one. You want Jim Boeheim to stop whining? 68 teams. I'd prefer the Tuesday quadruple header be for the 12 seeds. And if the NCAA is smart, that's what they would do. This year is an extreme example, but it makes my point so I'll use it. What would get ESPN better ratings? A typical play-in game between the NEC and Southland champions, or a game between UConn and North Carolina with a bid on the line?
It's going to end up that the bottom 8 league champs play for each 16 seed, but it's better than Bobby Knight's idea of 64 big teams and no one-bid league champs getting in. So we'll take what we can get I guess.