Campus Confidential

By Erik Boland

SYRACUSE -- So in the past two months I've flown United, US Airways, American, Alaska Airlines and, today, for Hofstra's game tomorrow night at Syracuse, JetBlue. JetBlue is by far the winner and it really starts with the seats - comfortable leather ones with actual leg room in front.

No offense to Alaska Airlines - nice enough flight attendants, et. all - but I'm sure its coach seats are prohibited somewhere in the Constitution. I'm 5-10 and 160 pounds and scrunched doesn't begin to describe it. Another reason JetBlue wins: mini tvs in every seatback. It is fed by Direct TV - complete with 39 channels - making the 1 hour 20 minute flight to Syracuse seem almost TOO short. This could be the only way New York area residents can see Rutgers in its bowl game: book a flight on JetBlue.

Travel pet peeve No. 377: People in the window seat who shut the window shade. Some woman sitting next to me - I was in the dreaded middle seat - on the flight up here suddenly pulled down her shade. She nudged me not a minute later to get up because she had to use the restroom. Was it really necessary to close the window shade for that? Strange.

Anyway, to the game. Syracuse is coming off an 84-79 loss to Drexel - a CAA team that should challenge for the conference title - while Hofstra has had 10 days off since an unimpressive three-point victory over winless St. Francis (N.Y.). Does this add up to a blowout at the hands of the Orange? Not necessarily. Syracuse will have the advantage up front (Hofstra hasn't had the edge there all year and likely won't the rest of the season), led by senior forward Demetris Nichols, whom Hofstra coach Tom Pecora called a "monster." Nichols leads the Orange, scoring 18.5 points per game and adding 5.1 rebounds. He scored 31 against Drexel.

But Syracuse will not easily match up with Loren Stokes, Antoine Agudio, Carlos Rivera and Zygis Sestokas. The first three played well in 2004 when Hofstra lost 80-75 at Syracuse and helped the Pride that day shoot over 50 percent from the floor. Non-Big East visiting teams almost never do that at the Carrier Dome, which has never been known as a great place for shooting. Still, in talking to Antoine Agudio yesterday after practice, he said he felt the baskets in the Carrier Dome were "shooters' rims." Few visiting teams would agree with that but if Agudio and his teammates believe that, that's all that matters.

Expect Hofstra to play well. The pick is still Syracuse - the rebounding advantage should be enormous for the Orange - but in a closer game than some may think.

By Erik Boland

SYRACUSE -- So in the past two months I've flown United, US Airways, American, Alaska Airlines and, today, for Hofstra's game tomorrow night at Syracuse, JetBlue. JetBlue is by far the winner and it really starts with the seats - comfortable leather ones with actual leg room in front.

No offense to Alaska Airlines - nice enough flight attendants, et. all - but I'm sure its coach seats are prohibited somewhere in the Constitution. I'm 5-10 and 160 pounds and scrunched doesn't begin to describe it. Another reason JetBlue wins: mini tvs in every seatback. It is fed by Direct TV - complete with 39 channels - making the 1 hour 20 minute flight to Syracuse seem almost TOO short. This could be the only way New York area residents can see Rutgers in its bowl game: book a flight on JetBlue.

Travel pet peeve No. 377: People in the window seat who shut the window shade. Some woman sitting next to me - I was in the dreaded middle seat - on the flight up here suddenly pulled down her shade. She nudged me not a minute later to get up because she had to use the restroom. Was it really necessary to close the window shade for that? Strange.

Anyway, to the game. Syracuse is coming off an 84-79 loss to Drexel - a CAA team that should challenge for the conference title - while Hofstra has had 10 days off since an unimpressive three-point victory over winless St. Francis (N.Y.). Does this add up to a blowout at the hands of the Orange? Not necessarily. Syracuse will have the advantage up front (Hofstra hasn't had the edge there all year and likely won't the rest of the season), led by senior forward Demetris Nichols, whom Hofstra coach Tom Pecora called a "monster." Nichols leads the Orange, scoring 18.5 points per game and adding 5.1 rebounds. He scored 31 against Drexel.

But Syracuse will not easily match up with Loren Stokes, Antoine Agudio, Carlos Rivera and Zygis Sestokas. The first three played well in 2004 when Hofstra lost 80-75 at Syracuse and helped the Pride that day shoot over 50 percent from the floor. Non-Big East visiting teams almost never do that at the Carrier Dome, which has never been known as a great place for shooting. Still, in talking to Antoine Agudio yesterday after practice, he said he felt the baskets in the Carrier Dome were "shooters' rims." Few visiting teams would agree with that but if Agudio and his teammates believe that, that's all that matters.

Expect Hofstra to play well. The pick is still Syracuse - the rebounding advantage should be enormous for the Orange - but in a closer game than some may think.

By Erik Boland

That seemed to be the question making its way around the Mack Sports Complex last night after Hofstra's surprisingly close 67-64 victory over St. Francis, which came into the game winless. Hofstra has won six straight but questions abound about its potential as an NCAA Tournament team because, as has been correctly pointed out by just about everyone, including head coach Tom Pecora, the Pride has not looked particularly impressive in any of those wins.

My reaction to the early-season knee-jerk reaction to Hofstra's sometimes unimpressive play is, well, what did you expect? To steal from Cardinals' coach Dennis Green during his hysterical rant after that Bears loss, "They are what we thought they were."

Hofstra's guards were a given, post play was question mark. Well, nine games into the season Loren Stokes averages 21.8 points, Antoine Agudio averages 18 and Carlos Rivera is at 11.7. Next has been the surprise of the young season, sophomore Zygis Sestokas, a guard/forward who plays almost exclusively on the wing, who averages 9.7 points and has hit 50 percent of his three-pointers. It has been a mess in the post, with undersized Mike-Davis Sabb mixing solid performances with indifferent ones, Chris Gadley rarely getting off the bench and Arminas Urbutis, a 6-9 sophomore who plays hard but is physically overmatched. Hofstra is outrebounded by a 34-31 average per game and its difficult to imagine that suddenly improving over the final 2/3 of the season.

The good news is the three guards will be a challenging matchup for whomever Hofstra is playing, particularly in the conference. The Pride will struggle against teams with size, or even teams that simply have athletic front courts without size, but those same teams will be unlikely to come up with defensive schemes to stop Hofstra's high-scoring quartet on the perimeter. That adds up to close games, which have been a trend nine games into the season and will likely continue the rest of the way. And keep in mind, for better or worse, the way teams play in November rarely resemble how they play in late February and early March. Some teams progress, others digress.

What's wrong with Hofstra? The same thing that was wrong with it before the season started: killer guards with a questionable frontcourt. They are what we thought they were. And it's too early to determine whether that's good or bad.

By Erik Boland
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Traveled to Columbus' famed High Street on the Ohio State campus last night to get the flavor of the city before the biggest college football game in, well, you know.

Here's what I discovered: It was completey understandable why the University of Michigan sent out an email message to students suggesting they avoid High Street. Not that it felt unsafe, far from it, its just walking about in Wolverines' gear brought to mind a Christians and lions situation from ancient Rome.

Funniest t-shirt? There were several with interesting, not to mention suggestive, derivations of "Michigan" and "Wolverines," but the winner had to be "Ann Arbor was a..." It is here I pause and paraphrase. It was something along the lines of Ann Arbor was a promiscuous woman.

Also discovered this about High Street: don't step off the curb into the street to flag down a cab. Now, living in New York there is simply no other way to grab a cab as he who politely waits curbside waits for an eternity. I stepped off a curb to get a cabbie's attention and had two police officers step up on me.

"Get the h*** out of the street!" one yelled. "Didn't you here the announcement?!?"

"Umm, no," I wittily replied.

Neither was impressed I was from New York, in fact one of them I believe was ready to ticket me for that infraction alone. Fortunately, another cab unloaded a passenger nearby and an officer said, "Get moving!"

Yes sir.

Anyway, it's about one hour from kickoff at the Horseshoe and about half of the 106,000 expected are here. Most will be in their seats by the time the Ohio State Marching Band, which by the way has it's own media guide, enters the stadium to perform Script Ohio. It's supposedly cheered louder here than touchdowns in other places.

How tough a ticket has this been? Stubhub.com had advertised tickets for upwards of $4,500 and I actually saw one - ONE - ticket this morning on ebay for $12,000. In a testament, barely, to common sense, no one, yet, had bid on it. But there's still time.

By Erik Boland

COLUMBUS - Taking a break from Hofstra basketball to cover this college football game in the midwest that seems to be getting a little attention: No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Michigan.

Last week's Rutgers/Louisville game brought big-time college football to the New York area. There was some hype, a sellout crowd, major media coverage. And totally amateur hour compared to what's happening here.

Forget the 1,100 media credentials - seriously - that have been distributed for this game; turn on the television or open up a newspaper. I watched a local newscast Thursday night and the first 13 minutes were Ohio State/Michigan related stories. They broke for weather and the weathergirl did three minutes...on the forecast for Saturday's game. One anchor said "we" when refering to Ohio State and at one point the crew seemed poised for an impromptu "Script Ohio" formation.

The newscast ended 12 minutes early for, of course, a special expanded sports segment on...well, you know. On the front page of the Columbus Dispatch, a very reputable newspaper, an important story from Washington [something about the United States' top Iraq military commander testifying in front of Congress] was shoved to the right-hand column.

Smack in the center of the front page was a story with this banner headline: "Know one's place. Michigan sending police to watch over fans." Apparently Ohio's finest cannot be trusted to keep rowdy Ohio Staters from harassing maize-and-blue clad fans from Michigan, so Wolverines' fans will have cards with a number they can call for, according to the Dispatch, "police support."

Not only will Michigan have some of its own fans, it will have some its own police as well. You can't make this stuff up.

And there's still one day to go.