Maine!

Ever wondered what happened to Jermaine Middleton? Read Bart's column on Monday.

Joe update

It was for defensive reasons (mostly at least) that Hall started over Joe tonight, according to Coach Dickenman.
I don't have a feel for Hall yet as a player, but anyone who defends is o.k. in my book. Plus, I like the idea of Joe off the bench for instant offense. And you have to give him this, he didn't let his play suffer by sulking. 12 points on 4-for-6 from three in 27 minutes.

Yet more changes

Joe has become the instant offense man off the bench. I believe it's tied to Coach's attempt to get Tristan more rest. The move is a surprise, so I'll ask after the game, but it could have something to do with wanting more scoring off the bench.
Or it could be due to Joe's defensive struggles. That might actually be a better bet, I might be overthinking this.
I'll dig into it after the game, however.

The rout is on

and I don't mean at the Yale Bowl. Though that one is far more surprising than the one I'm watching.
Albany's just better. Every weakness we've seen in the Blue Devils this season has been exploited to perfection by the Great Danes. CCSU just doesn't have the horsepower this season to hang with them it would appear.
Still, as I said in Gameday today, the Blue Devils deserve tons of credit for getting this far with such a young team. When the squad that just played for the conference championship comes back next year with another year under its belt, it could be a bigger year.
Of course, now that I've written their eulogy, watch the Devils score 28 straight now.

A couple of hoops notes

Well, my day off has turned into four stories, but that's what I do for you people!

3 quick things.

1) Larry: Hang on there brother. I like the way this team is fighting and their athleticism too, but let's not go putting them at the top of the conference until they figure out how to win a game, k?

2) Still want everyone's predictions and thoughts on mine, as well as more questions I can dig into for you. I broached the whole "we need to pass more" topic again this week in Gameday. Give me something new you want me to chew on.

3) A bit of breaking news. CCSU can't say anything about this until she signs, but the women's hoops team will be getting a letter of intent from Gabby Oglesby from Career in New Haven. She'll sign it on Tuesday.

I just got this news and haven't seen her play, but I know someone who has, so I'll find out more about her for you. For now I can tell you she already had 1,000 points as a junior on a team that went 61-14 over those three seasons. She has a shot to break the school record for points this season.

If Central can start getting Connecticut kids the way coach McInerney has, it will only help raise interest in the program. The state seems to be producing more big-time women's players than men in recent years (at least from the Herald area... we have four girls and 2 boys playing D1 this year), and there aren't as many top-level hoopsters locally as their are football players for some reason, but any local connections help increase fan interest.

Thoughts on the first home game

If effort won championships, the Blue Devils would be ranked first in the country after last night. They moved on defense, were active on the boards and moved the ball around. Perhaps most impressive was the way they made Albany's ridiculous size advantage a non-factor. Hustle and being in the right place can make up for lack of height.

Offensively, there's some work left to do. Tristan is pressing, and sort of admitted to as much after last night's game (notebook coming Friday with more). Once he learns to trust his new running mates, and once they give him enough reason to trust them, he'll stop trying to do everything.

But I will say this: he's capable of doing everything. As poorly as he shot the ball Wednesday, he led the team in rebounds, ran the offense and was the best defender.
The kid's a machine. There's literally nothing he can't do on a basketball court, and he's as nice a kid as you'll meet. Last night, after a tough loss, he went out of his way to greet each reporter with a handshake, then did the same as he left the interview room.
Not that any Blue Devils have been disresprectful in my four years watching them, but Tristan just stands out in that way. He's never said no to an interview, and I've bugged him during some unusual times, and is the kind of guy who will take the heat, as his quote last night indicates. He wouldn't blame his miss on a bad call.
(For the record, it was right in front of me, and he WAS fouled at the end of overtime.)

I liked David Simmons' work a lot, but I'm not going to go crazy after one night. Just like I'm not going to lose hope on Tamir because he didn't get a ton of rebounds against a much bigger team.

Joe's bigger, Tristan's bigger, and the Blue Devils had more bulk inside than they have in some time last night. There was a lot to take out of the game, especially in the way the team fought back from a big hole and worked so hard on defense.

Shemik, I think, is going to become a fan favorite. He's quick, he doesn't mind shooting the ball, and he's tough. The kid has a cut almost the length of his cheek under his left eye.
I'm not going to burden him by comparing him to a recently departed fan favorite, but the Thompson has a similar kind of intangible quality, at least to me.

The bottom line is this. The Blue Devils will struggle early while they figure things out and the newcomers get their legs, but this will be the kind of team you don't want to play in March. It might be like three years ago, when CCSU was the eight-seed, but ask Monmouth if that team was an easy out come tournament time.

I don't think Central will be an eight, by the way. Speaking of which, now that we have some game scores to look at, and you've had the chance to see your squad in person, what do you guys think of my preseason predictions? What are yours?

I'm writing Gameday tonight, so I'll save football talk until tomorrow.

Fired up!

Oops, wrong sport. But I am excited. I'm in my seat just a step to the right of the midcourt stripe, and I'm psyched. I'm a basketball guy first and foremost, so I can't wait to tip tonight. Plus, as I said yesterday, I'm eager to see all these young guys play.

I'm a little surprised that the banner's on the left. I figured it would be with the other two on the far side, by the visitors bench. Maybe that's where the 2008 banner will go?

Let's find out.

Time to raise the banner, have to go.

Random thoughts

Very excited about the game Wed. night. It will be my first banner ceremony at Central as a reporter (the women's soccer team never really does anything too formal publicly). Should be fun. Looking forward to seeing the boys in person. I think there's a clear 6 or 7 man rotation already, with plenty of time to find a couple of more guys to steal some minutes.

History in the making tonight, as Tristan begins what will be a year-long assault on the CCSU record book. He'll likely pass Justin Chiera tonight, and could, with a good game, catch some guy named Dickenman.

What people don't know about him, however, or at least don't talk about as much, is his distribution. He's already in the top 5 in school history in assists, and moving up fast.

Joe looked assertive the other night, I'm interested to see what he does tonight, as well as my current favorite Shemik. Also can't wait to see Marcus Palmer.

The Danes are huge, but Central is fast and (I think) deeper than last year. It will be an interesting clash of styles.

Good effort by the women, who managed to live at the foul line. If nothing else is working, get yourself extra chances by being aggressive. This is going to take some time, but Beryl will get them going eventually. If tonight is any indication, the Blue Devils are playing hard.

Final thoughts on the weekend

Good things coming out of the Princeton loss.... terrific first half, then a great comeback when things were bleak late. That game could have gotten out of hand, and Central ended up having a shot to tie or win instead.

I hope I'm right about Shemik, I think he has a chance to be good quickly. Not Tristan-good, but useful. They have some good frontcourt guys too... if only they had one big boy.

Finally, to finish my thought from earlier... I've had more than one coach tell me the two years or more bit, and I buy it. I wasn't saying that Central isn't or shouldn't be working on a passing game. In fact, I was saying just the opposite.

For the record, yes I would like to see Central get more diverse on offense. My point was simply that you can't just run a few passes late in a blowout and expect that the few extra plays will improve your passing offense in time for the Albany game.

It takes a couple of years to truly install an offense and rep after rep to be able to break it out in a game. That was the only thing I was trying to clear up for people, and it's this: Whether or not CCSU passed down 34-7 on Saturday, or a few more in (insert game here) would have very little impact on this game this week. It's too late for that. The Blue Devils, and every team for that matter, are who they are at this point in the season.

Now, with that said, CCSU fans have two choices going into Saturday. They can whine about what their team isn't and take a negative attitude into the NEC title game, or they can get geared up for the biggest game of the year.

Central has never won the NEC on its home field. Remember the discussion we had not long ago about media coverage and general buzz? This is your chance. Make this the biggest game of the week. Sell your building out, go crazy and help guide your team to the title and the postseason.

Yes, there are issues to be addressed about the program's future. But they won't be fixed this week. Live for the moment, you're about to witness a special one.

Very quick on football

Because it was such a non-game on every level, I won't talk too much about it. I'll just say this to some of my friends over on our favorite CCSU message board.

It literally takes thousands of reps to master a particular play, ask any big-time coach. You can't work on something the week before a big game and expect to be able to use it the next week. Football at any kind of advanced level just doesn't work that way. If you wanted CCSU to pass a lot against Albany, the prep work for that would have had to start literally 2-3 years ago, not last week.

This isn't Madden where you can work on a play for a couple of hours and get the hang of it.

Good job girls

I think we got a little greedy with the women's soccer team.... actually more so spoiled. They can't win every year, and being the 2-seed in the conference tournament in a year where they made some national powers work for wins.

This was a good group of kids who worked as hard off the field as on it. I'll never forget two years ago, when I saw two players hustle down to the field before a big game with their bags, whip them off and get into uniform just in time to play. They had come from class, which is always first and foremost at Central.

"We'd be hypocritical if we said, now you can miss class," CCSU coach Mick D'Arcy told me before the Devils left for the tourney . "If we have a game at 3 p.m. and they have a class at 1, they go to class from 1-2. They're supposed to go dressed in their gear and come right down. We try not to change anything now that we've been doing all year."

They didn't, and it's a commendable thing. Next week I'll be writing about all their academic awards. They are what student-athletes are all about.

First of 3 today

Catching up after a much-needed weekend of rest.

The men look really good right now. As I mentioned earlier, Shemik was one of the most intriguing of the newcomers. I like him. I worry about Tristan having to be point and a scorer, so if he and Joe can take the heat off of him, they'll be in good shape.

Don't go crazy yet, though, Princeton's going to make some shots before we're done here.