Sports squawk

There are two things about Christmas this year that I find a little
bit disconcerting.
First, there's no snow. You call what we saw on our lawns at 8:30
Friday morning snow? Not where I come from, and it doesn't snow as
much in Pittsburgh as it does here.
Since Christmas comes on Sunday, there won't be a full schedule of
NFL games. The league has moved its full slate of games to Saturday.
There will still be Sunday and Monday night games.
But without the NFL on Sunday, Christmas Day is now ceded to the
National Basketball Association. The full day of basketball kicks off
at noon when the Celtics play the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
You can see that game on TNT.
If you've followed my writings over the years, you know I'm not the
biggest NBA fan going. If I had my choice, I'd rather watch the Final
Four than the NBA Finals, and I'd rather be in Salem, Va., at the
Division III Final Four.
Having said that, the idea of a 66-game NBA schedule that starts on
Christmas has me really juiced for the season ahead.
There's something about those NBA games on a Tuesday night in early
November that do absolutely nothing for me. The fat is cut from the
schedule this way.
If the NBA finds itself succeeding this year beyond all measure,
maybe baseball and hockey will look at cutting their regular-season
schedules.
Do we need 162 baseball games or 82 hockey games? I think not.
Maybe by accident the NBA is on to something.

Posted by Lindsey Marie at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christmas is Sunday, so that means many of us are going to take some time off.
In between the presents, the food and the family, there is also going to be some free time. We're fortunate here in Berkshire County to be close to a lot of larger cities where professional and college sports are played.
So, if you're looking for something to do, here's a list of some events.

The University of Massachusetts men's basketball team will be home twice through Dec. 31. The Minutemen host Davidson on Thursday at 7 p.m., and will host Central Connecticut on Dec. 30. Both games are at 7 p.m.
Boston College also has two home games. On Wednesday, the Eagles will play Sacred Heart in what has to be considered a gimme game - much like the UMass-Central Connecticut game. Then on Dec. 29, the Eagles will host Harvard. That's nationally-ranked Harvard. That's the same Harvard team that I saw beat BC last year. That game might just be circled on my calendar.
Closer to home, Siena will play once at the Times Union Center over the next two weeks. That game is Thursday against Princeton at 7 p.m. Albany has a Friday matinee at 2 against Dartmouth.
Tickets are never easy to get, but the UConn men are playing at the XL Center in Hartford twice in the next two weeks. The Huskies will host Fairfield on Thursday and then host St. John's at noon on New Year's Eve.
The Springfield Armor of the D-League are on the road until January - a 7-game roadie. Hope they packed enough.
Our regional minor league hockey teams have one game at home over the next two weeks, and both are on Friday, Dec. 30. The Albany Devils will host Manchester, while the Springfield Falcons will host the Providence Bruins. Bruins fans should go to Springfield.
And if you've got that feeling of adventure in you, there's always the Pinstripe Bowl. That's the bowl game at Yankee Stadium on Dec. 30. This year, Rutgers plays Iowa State. Iowa State is one of those teams we don't see quite enough of on television.
So, if you get tired of playing with your new gifts, take the family to a game.

Posted by Matthew Sprague, Eagle Sports Editor at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am often asked which sport do I prefer. Am I a football guy? A basketball guy?
Usually, I give the most generic of answers: "Whichever sport is in season," is the usual reply. But let me tell you this: The start of the high school basketballs season has me all gung ho.
All of our sports have their own excitement, but none of them have the Road to the Cage. That's the Curry Hicks Cage on the University of Massachusetts campus, and the home of the Western Massachusetts basketball tournament.
The Cage is undoubtedly the best thing that has ever happened to high school sports in the region. The run-up to the tournament can be just as much fun.
I have to say that I'm looking forward to seeing a Hoosac Valley game at the Adams Memorial Middle School. The high school is closed this year for renovations. Here's hoping that when the gym at Hoosac is renovated, what made it special isn't taken away. There is nothing like a Friday night in Cheshire when the Hurricanes are playing a rival team. The joint is jumping and there isn't any red paint left for sale anywhere.
Here's also hoping that the Pittsfield Boys and Girls Club once again becomes the center of basketball in central Berkshire County.
The Club has the most seats in Berkshire County and when full, the old barn on Melville Street can really rock. The noise stays in and when the gym is crowded, it has a Cage-like feel to it.
I am also very much looking forward to St. Joseph's appearance at the Hoophall Tournament in Springfield next month.
By the way, the Hoophall people are going to have Western Mass. player of the year awards and I'm planning to send a list of Berkshire County kids to put on their watch list. If you have any really good players who should be there, drop me a note at
hherman@berkshireeagle.com.

-- Howard Herman, Berkshire Eagle Staff

Posted by Matthew Sprague, Eagle Sports Editor at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov wants to be president of Russia.
Sounds pretty good to me. Besides, the way the Nets have played over the last couple of decades, Prokhorov may have a better chance beating Vladimir Putin for the presidency of Russia than his team does beating the Celtics, Heat or Bulls for the Eastern Conference championship.
Imagine if Prokhorov wins, the fun the Nets could have. Their charter would be Aeroflot, the Russian national airline. Their uniforms would be solid red -- no wait, that's the old Soviet Union. Instead of popcorn and Bud served at the game, we can get vodka and caviar.
The Nets could train in Moscow or St. Petersburg. They could have a summer team-bonding exercise in Sochi. Maybe the Springfield Armor, the Nets' D-League affiliate, could relocate to Siberia. That might keep the players in Brooklyn from playing badly and being sent to the minors. Would the Nets play two national anthems before the start of games?
If Prokhorov is elected, he would not be the first NBA owner to hold office. Herb Kohl, the retiring senator from Wisconsin, is also the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks.
"There is no prohibition on NBA owners running for or holding political office," Mike Bass, a league spokesman, told the New York Times.
If the Nets make the NBA Finals, which president -- Prokhorov or Obama -- would get the best seat? Can President Prokhorov borrow funds from the Russian treasury to give Chris Paul or Dwight Howard an extra year on a contract? Do the players on the Nets get dual citizenship? So many questions, so little time.
Will this lead to more team owners running for office? I'm sure that many Americans would have liked it if George Steinbrenner had run for office. Mark Cuban for governor of Texas sounds interesting. What would Massachusetts be like if Robert Kraft or John Henry were governor? If Henry ran the state, he might move the capital to Liverpool.
Good luck, Mikhail Prokhorov. Here's hoping you get your seat in Moscow -- and Dwight Howard.

Posted by Matthew Sprague, Eagle Sports Editor at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

O.D. Anosike was in a pretty good mood Monday night.
Not only did his Siena basketball team pull out a 64-60 win over Capital Region rival UAlbany, but the junior forward said he was excited about playing against an old teammate tonight.
"I played on the same AAU team with Chaz [Williams]," Anosike said of the University of Massachusetts point guard.
Siena and UMass will play tonight in the third game of the Basketball Hall of Fame Holiday Showcase. There are four games scheduled for the MassMutual Center's floor with the UMass-Siena game scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
That schedule could be somewhat problematic because American International will play Philadelphia University at 3 p.m. while Springfield College will face Trinity at 5. The final game of the day will tip off after the UMass game, and in that, Fairfield plays Old Dominion. Tickets are $21 and $11, and are good for all four games.
Williams is the blur of a point guard. He has truly been the biggest difference between this year's Minutemen and last year's. The transfer from Hofstra is from Brooklyn, while Anosike is from Staten Island.
"Chaz is a great kid. Obviously, he's a tremendous guard. He's quick, small, energetic and he's really going to cause problems with his speed," Anosike said. "What he doesn't have in height he makes up with his heart.
"He plays very hard. He's going to give Evan [Hymes] a lot of problems."
Hymes is Siena's freshman guard, and there probably won't be a dunk contest between the two point guards, because both are listed at 5-foot-8.
The two teams come to Springfield on good notes. The Saints (3-5) rallied from a huge deficit to beat the Great Danes on Monday night, ending a five-game losing streak. The Minutemen (7-3) held off East Carolina on the road.
It'll also be a homecoming of sorts for Siena assistant coach Craig Carter. Carter worked for one season at UMass under Steve Lappas.
Carter was director of basketball operations in the 2004-05 season, but was let go with Lappas after the season. Carter replaced Paul Culpo of Pittsfield, who left UMass to take over as the head coach at Division III Hartwick.
"UMass was a great time," Carter said. "Unfortunately, it didn't end well. I've always had a great affinity for that place. It was one of my first jobs when I was first starting out [in coaching]."
Carter is a former assistant coach at Rutgers and is very familiar with some of the younger Minutemen.
"Being from New York, I know Chaz real well. He's going to be a tough matchup," said Carter. "Cady Lalanne, who comes off the bench, I was kind of recruiting him when I was at Rutgers. It'll be an interesting game. I'm looking forward to it."

-- Howard Herman, Berkshire Eagle Staff

Posted by Matthew Sprague, Eagle Sports Editor at 6:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A penny for my thoughts.
There isn't much better in local sports than Super Bowl Saturday. All three Berkshire County teams acquitted themselves well on the field.
Off the field, Lee native Dick Lenfest Jr. and his staff at Westfield State University also acquitted themselves very well. They make our jobs much easier, and by extension, that enables us to give you, the reader, the best possible coverage.

Congratulations to my friend Mike Krzyzewski, who will share Sportsman of the Year Award from Sports Illustrated with Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt. I've known Coach K for more than 30 years, back when I was a broadcaster of Army basketball in the late 1970s. He has a well-deserved reputation as a classy coach who cares about his players. But I will tell you that some bus rides home from road games were pretty uncomfortable for broadcasters who listened to the coach blister his players.

On Monday, the New York Rangers tweeted that they would wear their white sweaters for a game with Toronto. The Maple Leafs wore their third blue jerseys in Boston Saturday as well. Hey NHL, it's time to put the home team back in white. It does get boring seeing all the visiting teams skate on the ice with road whites. I always found it more fun to see the Bruins skate into Pittsburgh in black, the Rangers in blue or the Flyers in orange.

Congratulations to MCLA's Chris Harris for reaching the 1,000-point mark, and congratulations to Williams' Nate Robertson, named MVP at the Hockenberry Classic this past weekend.

The quote of the week comes from Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin on Cleveland kick returner Josh Cribbs: "We cannot let Josh Cribbs do what he's done to us in the past. We've been dead Indians in his cowboy movie enough."

It's been reported on Twitter that Orioles general manager and Dalton native Dan Duquette has been kicking the tires about signing Manny Ramirez. Someone tweeted that, if this happens, Ramirez should pay Duquette some money instead of vice versa.

As Mount Greylock, Lee and McCann proved on Saturday, there is some very good football played in Berkshire County. That doesn't, however, translate into great college players coming from the Berkshires. That's why Lanesborough's Dylan Schultz deserves our praise today.
Schultz earned another All-NESCAC first-team selection as Williams College's middle linebacker. Schultz recovered from a knee injury that put him on an injury redshirt. He was not only one of the best defenders in NESCAC, but he was also the emotional leader of that football team. On top of that, he's a great kid from a great family. I'm sure he'll be successful in anything he does.

-- Howard Herman, Berkshire Eagle Staff

Posted by Matthew Sprague, Eagle Sports Editor at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Big 10 (Big 12?) and Pac-12 conferences are holding their inaugural championship games this weekend.
The Pac-10 game is tonight at 8 p.m. and the Big 10 game is Saturday at the same time. The Fox network has both broadcasts.
Fox has been getting into the college football TV business this year with weekend games on the FX cable channel and the Fox network getting a couple of games. The broadcasts, with former CBS play-by-play broadcaster Gus Johnson and Charles Davis, have been every bit as good as the Fox NFL games on Sunday.
It's going to be an interesting challenge for the duo this weekend because they're going to broadcast both games -- and are going to have a jet all to themselves.
"Just to be able to feel like James Bond for a day, and go from Eugene to Indy on the boss' boss' boss' plane. That's something we're going to remember," Johnson said with a laugh.
The Pac-12 championship is in Eugene, Ore., and the Big 10 game is in Indianapolis. Kickoff tonight is 8 p.m., and if you give them a four-hour broadcast, there's no way to get a commercial flight back.
So, they'll hop on the Fox jet.
"Fortunately, we have a great boss in Eric Shanks and he made a call to the boss of all bosses, Mr. Rupert Murdoch. We're fortunate enough to be flying on his plane from Eugene to Indy," Johnson said.
Johnson is in his first season with Fox after he and CBS parted ways. Davis has been part of the Fox Sports Net cable broadcasts for several years.
"Let's be honest, we don't have real jobs. We have great jobs. We don't work for a living," Johnson said during a conference call Wednesday. "We get a chance to go all around the country and call sporting events, right now football. This is an exciting time of year to be part of two championship games."
Johnson flew six hours from New York City to Eugene, Ore., and has had the opportunity to watch a lot of tape on all four teams.
"I've put three [spotting] boards together: Oregon, Wisconsin and UCLA," Johnson said. "I'm going to put this Michigan State board together after we meet with [Oregon coach] Chip Kelly."
Johnson worked for CBS from 1996-2011 and was one of the network's key college basketball broadcasters. He also was the radio voice of the New York Knicks from 1994-2010. Davis is a former All-Southeastern Conference defensive back at Tennessee.
"Our bosses have entrusted us with doing these games to represent the network and to do justice to the teams that are playing," Davis said. "In the back-to-back time frame, a lot of people say 'Whoa, how can you get that done?'
"It's not just the prep this week. We watch college football all year long."
The Fox duo have done this before -- going from a Saturday college game to a Sunday NFL game. Johnson has had even more experience doing multiple games than this. When he was with CBS, he used to do four games in one day during the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
"I think the NCAA Tournament for all those years was wonderful, sometimes doing four games in one day," he said. "Doing back-to-back college football games is, to me, a totally different animal."

- Howard Herman, Berkshire Eagle Staff

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Here's a sample of Gus Johnson's most notable football calls:

Posted by Matthew Sprague, Eagle Sports Editor at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)