Watchdog

Tidy 18-hour work shift this Memorial Day - up and back to Foxborough, with an overtime NCAA lacrosse championship game sandwiched between drives up I-95.

Congratulations to the Syracuse Orangemen on yet another national title, aided significantly by an epic Cornell meltdown in the final minutes.

Newsday was all over the story, of course. We even provided journalistic balance by having Syracuse alum Bob Herzog write the game story and me write a column, focused mostly on Max Seibald of Hewlett and Cornell.

As I wrote, it was a good day for lacrosse in general and LI lax in particular.

Still . . . brutal loss for the Big Red. Is it hockey season yet?

(More later Tuesday on my excellent lacrosse adventure.)

Ho, hum. As I was saying the other day, the game against top-ranked Virginia was a mere warmup.

On to the big one Monday: Cornell vs. Syracuse.

What say we ditch Foxboro and play the first half at Schoellkopf and second at the Carrier Dome?

Deal?

(Here is Herzog's game story. True pro that he is, he wrote about Cornell because it was the better story, not about his beloved Orangemen.)

(Here is Bob on Max Seibald for Monday's newspaper.)

Continue reading "Cornell or Syracuse to bring lacrosse title to Central NY" »

Bemidji State? Really?

I remember them as a Division II power when I covered that level in Alaska in the early 1980s. Having them knock off Cornell with a Frozen Four berth on the line . . . not good.

B.U., Vermont, Miami of Ohio and Bemidji State has to be the weirdest Frozen Four ever, no? And why the heck are they playing it in Washington, D.C., not customarily known as a college hockey hotbed, while the basketball version is headed to Detroit, which does like its college hockey?

Whatever. I'm in the 75th percentile of Yahoo's men's hoops bracket, the 40th percentile of Newsday's men's bracket and the 18th percentile of ESPN's women's bracket. I'm alive in my men's survivor pool.

How about you?

Yes, I saw the entire thing on March Madness on Demand while the rest of the country was watching East Tennessee State put a scare into Pittsburgh on its television sets.

Whatever. It's hockey season, people. (Saturday night's ECAC final can be seen on tape delay at noon Sunday on the NHL Network.)

Speaking of the NCAA Tournament, as I've written before, I enjoy the sarcastic hi-jinks Steve Berthiaume reliably sneaks into the late Friday SportsCenter, presumably figuring no one is watching anyway.

This week's installment featured Berthiaume and Jonathan Coachman asking themselves the question "Why?" while reading their copy, then answering it, clearly a dig at Digger Phelps' annoying habit of doing that.

Tough day upstairs from the basement, by the way. One of the WatchDog pups had Wake winning it all in her bracket. Oy.

Click below for the official Sunday TV slate, now that Friday's games are through.

Continue reading "Cornell hoopsters simply ran out of time vs. Missouri" »

Thanks for reading this week, and especially to the Max Kellerman fans who took over the blog for a couple of days.

I have to go now, as tickets to the Nov. 28 Cornell-B.U. game at Madison Square Garden went on sale today, right here. (Newsday and the Garden have the same corporate parent.)

Speaking of which, for those of you who patiently have tolerated my annoying obsession with the 1979 Cornell-Providence game over the years, here is the key video of the big event, about 4:07 in.

Have a pleasant weekend. Enjoy Selection Sunday.

Photo: Getty

Continue reading "First tix for Garden's 2009-10 hockey season on sale!" »

Cornell was the first team to qualify for the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Its hockey team is ranked 12th. Its lacrosse team is ranked fourth. Its wrestling team is ranked second.

Wait . . . wrestling? Second? Really? Behind only Iowa? Apparently so.

Rampaging Cornell fans celebrating yet another Ivy League hoops title - ho, hum - demolished a computer and caused an incorrect score to be initially reported after Friday night's clincher.

Let this serve as a warning to whatever opponent - and official scorer - draws the Big Red in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Be careful out there.

I keep getting distracted by people sending me stuff about this spat between Ann Coulter and Keith Olbermann, who have veered from their political differences into trash talk about their respective Cornell degrees.

This is terribly unfortunate on the very day we should be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Cornell vs. Providence ECAC hockey quarterfinal - still tied with Game 6 of the 1986 World Series for the most memorable sports event I ever have witnessed. (Scroll to the bottom of this link for details.)

(Olbermann was there; Coulter wasn't.)

I left a message for Devils boss Lou Lamoriello, the Providence coach that night, so we could reminisce. Haven't heard back yet.

(UPDATE: Cornell won its second consecutive Ivy League men's hoops title Friday night.)

Photo: Getty

As long as we're giving you this blog stuff gratis, I might as well post whatever I feel like posting, no matter how much it annoys people.

So . . . No. 4 Cornell faces Army in lacrosse at 5 p.m. Saturday on ESPNU. The Big Red, naturally, has some prominent Long Islanders on its roster.

(Cablevision does not yet carry ESPNU. If you don't get the channel, drive up to West Point and take in the game in person. Make a little family outing of it. Tickets are $6, only $1 more than an obstructed view from the Yankee Stadium bleachers!)

Former Phillie Jim Bunning publicly anticipated Saturday that Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Cornell '54) would be dead within the year from pancreatic cancer.

Then he apologized, which seems appropriate.

(A donation would be a nice touch, Senator.)

Regardless, Ginsburg returned to work Monday.

Photo: AP

Jets game day host Jenn Sterger is writing a Super Bowl blog for TampaBay.com.

Darren (Roslyn) Rovell of CNBC writes that secondary market prices for home opener tickets at the new Yankee Stadium are in freefall.

Herm in, Emmitt out in Bristol?

Brian Hayward, the Ducks' TV analyst and the only future NHL goaltender in my college graduating class, spoke in ESPN The Magazine of the visibility of Canadiens players in Montreal:

Hayward, Roy's backup from 1986 to 1990, recalls sitting next to Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall in a restaurant. "The chef came out for an autograph and walked right by them and came to me," Hayward remembers. "Mick and Jerry were looking at us like, Who the hell is he?"

Troubling story from Glauber about the brain disease that likely led to the premature death of former Cornell and NFL lineman Tom McHale.

And, oh, almost forgot: Cornell is ranked No. 3 . And No. 1 in the power ratings.

Sorry to have bothered you with this. Carry on.

Friday programming notes:

1. After ending its exclusive run on DirecTV, the third season of "Friday Night Lights" begins its NBC showings at 9 p.m.

2. Cornell at Union hockey, NHL Network, 7:30 p.m.

3. Conference championship game news conferences, NFL Network, Eagles at 11:45 a.m., Ravens at 1:30 p.m., Steelers at 2:15, Cardinals at 3.

Cornell has suffered a great loss that has nothing to do with sports, but which I'm linking to here anyway, because I feel like it.

Cornell lost its 31st consecutive game to Syracuse Wednesday night, but hey, we led at halftime!

Former Cornell icer Ryan O'Byrne's unfortunate incident in the Isles-Habs game Monday night must have been cosmic payback for the 1979 Cornell-Providence game.

Oy.

But I'm happy for Our Isles.

They'll take victories wherever and however they can get them.

Cornell bounced back from Monday night's loss to St. John's by winning Tuesday and in the process causing Loyola (Md.) coach Jimmy Patsos to exhibit some mighty peculiar behavior.

At one point he watched the game from the stands.

The Big Red is back!

When is the NCAA Tournament selection show?

The Washington Post looks back at the life and death of former Cornell gridiron star Tom McHale, who grew addicted to painkillers after retiring from the NFL.

(Oh, snap. I think the Post requires free registration to read its stuff. Sorry. How early 2000s of them!)

When a national newspaper - even one that's kinda sorta a direct competitor - chooses Cornell as the focus of its story on the new, more-distant three-point line in college basketball, that deserves a link, my friends.

Thank goodness college hoops season is at hand. The numbing predictability of both New York-area football teams' weekly victories was growing tiresome.

I'd love to tell you that I spent the weekend reading Liz Robbins' new book, "A Race Like No Other," in preparation for the New York City Marathon Nov. 2.

In fact, I spent it reading Jeff Pearlman's new book, "Boys Will Be Boys," about the early 1990s Cowboys in preparation for the Pokes-Jints game Nov. 2.

But I did scan Ms. Robbins book, and it appears as if it would be a worthwhile read for those of you so inclined. Plus, she went to Cornell, so it must be good.

Not that I'm biased or anything.

Wow, tough choices early this afternoon on what to watch during the Cornell-Harvard commercial breaks on Versus.

Rutgers-Cincinnati on SNY (good Carlin-bashing fodder), Syracuse-West Virginia on ESPNU (real life rematch of apparently mischaracterized 1959 game between the teams depicted in new movie about Ernie Davis), Texas-Oklahoma on ABC (will Erin Andrews be there?).

Wait, come to think of it, I don't get ESPNU. Never mind.

(UPDATE: The Giants' Kevin Boothe, the best player out of Cornell currently in the NFL, relays a cheap shot at the school via Warren Sapp in today's NY Post.)

(UPDATE: Cornell scuffling in third quarter, 28-10. The play-by-play man just said he was Rich Ackerman. Is that OUR Rich Ackerman, WFANer and loyal WatchDog reader?)

(UPDATE: The Bengals' starting quarterback against the Jets Sunday went to Harvard!)

Tonight it's hockey and baseball. Apparently the Sarah Palin puck-dropping at the Rangers-Flyers game that I heartily endorsed the other day has been blasted by many as being politically motivated because Flyers boss Ed Snider is a big Republican donor.

I don't care. Let the hockey mom celebrate hockey, doggone it.

Speaking of the Islanders, did any of you have the same problem I did Friday night, in which the first period of the Isles-announcers version of the game did not appear on the overflow channel designated for said telecast?

I am looking into that situation.

Ho, hum.

Cornell is 3-0, winning by a combined total of five points, after Saturday's last-second victory over Lehigh.

Here's the video evidence.

(Thanks for the link to Newsday's own Chris Mascaro.)

WatchDog kudos to first reader to identify the guy in the picture.

It's not Marinaro. It's the best Cornell running back in the post-Marinaro era.

(By the way, the Giants offense didn't seem to slow down much when Cornell's own Kevin Boothe stepped in at right tackle for the injured Kareem McKenzie.)

I spoke to Ned Harkness in 1982 when I was writing a history of Cornell hockey for The Cornell Daily Sun, and I saw him at the Garden last November during the Cornell-BU game.

Now he's dead. From RPI to RIP. Sigh.

Thanks for all you did, sir.

How pumped up is Cornell for the start of its football season?

The Big Red will be the last team in the nation to take the field!

The hockey team opens at Princeton Nov. 7.

Josh Bernstein has a new show debuting on Discovery Channel tonight.

I don't know if it's any good, but I guess it's sort of about sports since it has something to do with gladiators. Bernstein was in my fraternity - a decade after me - so it must be worth checking out.

I've decided to start compiling a list of people I know personally and/or who were in my fraternity and who now make more money than I do.

So far it includes Michael Strahan, Bob Costas, Mike Francesa, Chris Russo, Josh Bernstein and pretty much everyone who graduated the same year I did.

Any other nominations?

The Cornell basketball blog is reporting that the Big Red will open against St. John's in the Whatever the Preseason NIT is Called These Days.

Here is the link.

How the heck did Glazer get beat on this one?

OK, I'll stop procrastinating now and get on the Brett stuff for the paper.

Here is a synopsis of my four-day vacation in Lake Placid, which I recommend as an interesting, sports-related weekend summer getaway:

Poodles pooped on infield of speed skating oval where Eric Heiden starred in 1980.

Toured Olympic Center hockey rinks, celebrating site of Cornell completing undefeated 1970 national championship season.

Learned another important hockey event occurred at Lake Placid Olympic Center 10 years later.

Rode bobsled (with wheels) down course used in '32 and '80 Games.

Watched summer ski jumping competition at Olympic venue.

Listened to Mike Francesa and Chris Russo do a show together via wireless Internet connection.

The best speech I ever have heard in person was delivered by Kurt Vonnegut on May 3, 1980, on the occasion of The Cornell Daily Sun's 100th anniversary.

It ended with one of the most eloquent tributes to journalism ever written. Here it is:

I was happiest when I was all alone - and it was very late at night and I was walking up the hill after having helped to put The Sun to bed.

All the other university people, teachers and students alike, were asleep. They had been playing games all day long with what was known about real life. They had been repeating famous arguments and experiments, and asking one another the sorts of hard questions real life would be asking by and by.

We on The Sun were already in the midst of real life. By God, if we weren't! We had just designed and written and caused to be manufactured yet another morning newspaper for a highly intelligent American community of respectable size - yes, and not during the Harding Administration, either, but during 1940, '41 and '42, with the Great Depression ending and with World War II well begun.

I am an atheist, as some of you have gleaned from my writings. But I have to tell you that, as I trudged up the hill so late at night and all alone, I knew that God Almighty approved of me.

I don't pretend to be a lacrosse expert, but one rule of thumb is that when the opposing goalie records the first score of the game, on your home field, and lands in the No. 1 position on SportsCenter's list of Top 10 plays for Saturday . . . it is a very, very bad sign.

Cancel that rematch against Duke.

Oh, well. Remember, people: It's a basketball school.

Am I allowed to link to a competing newspaper's Web site if said Web site is running an NCAA Tournament diary by a Cornell lacrosse player?

Silly question.

Ohio State has a lacrosse team? Who the heck knew?

Whatever. Once we swat them aside this weekend, it's on to a quarterfinal shocker over Duke - in Ithaca! - and then another Final Four.

Yay!

ESPN.com's Bill Simmons made fun of Cornell fans and Cornell cheerleaders after the first round of the NCAAs, meaning we finally have hit the big time. (Thanks to Newsday night desk boss Jeff Weinberg for the tip.)

And it finally is time to stop torturing readers with Big Red posts.

Until the NCAA lax tournament, obviously.

Coulda been worse.

In 2001, I covered a first-round NCAA Tournament game in Storrs in which UConn beat LIU, 101-29.

And Geno was being kind.

He easily could have won it, 201-29, if he wanted.

Well, this is troubling.

Men's hoops Thursday, hockey Friday.

Now there is only one hope left.

Well . . . At least we're getting closer. Remember, Cornell fans, we lost by 40 to Arizona in 1988. We could make it really interesting in 2028!

Sigh. Well, it was fun while it lasted. On to what really matters:

The ECAC hockey semifinals and final will be live on the NHL Network Friday and Saturday.

SNY will show the semis on delay Saturday afternoon starting at 1 and the final live at 7 p.m.

Enjoy.

Quick programming note for all you Stanford, St. Joe's and Oklahoma fans in the NY area who have CBS College Sports Network (formerly CSTV):

Stanford's game Thursday afternoon and the St. Joe's-Oklahoma game Friday will be that channel's two out-of-market offerings this year.

So there are three ways to see Stanford's first-round game: Via "March Madness on Demand" on your computer, via DirecTV's "Mega March Madness" package or on CBS College Sports.

I forget what team Stanford is playing in the first round.

Here is The Boston Globe's take on the Great New York Hope (Along with Siena) in the NCAA Tournament.

Sources tell me the story appeared on the front page of the sports section, appropriately.

And here is another look at the Big Red from Newsday.com's own Mark La Monica.

(Sorry, readers. But don't worry, your long nightmare almost is over. Barring a glorious upset, by Thursday night I'll be on to other obsessions . . . like the Cornell women's team.)

Connecticut? Connecticut?

The NCAA selection committees continue to insult the upstart Cornell men and women by patronizing them with inferior first-round challenges.

First, it was the men against the eggheads from Stanford.

Now this: A matchup Sunday for the Cornell women against Geno Auriemma's overrated UConn squad. In Bridgeport, Conn.

The Big Red women laugh in the face of this alleged challenge and already are studying tape of Texas and Minnesota for their second-around matchup.

(And don't forget: The only No. 16 seed victory over a No. 1 in tournament history was an Ivy League squad, Harvard, in 1998, over . . . Stanford.)

Look at the bright side, everyone. I'm only the second most annoying Cornell alum in the media . . . if you count fictional sitcom characters.

As a reward for your patience, I shall not mention the Big Red again until after Thursday's upset of Stanford.

Thanks for reading.

Stanford? Stanford?

This is going to be way easier than I ever dreamed, so easy I'm willing to overlook being given a No. 14 seed rather than the No. 13 I insisted upon last week.

You heard it here first: In the first round Cornell will . . . cover the spread.

And congratulations to the Cornell women for the first NCAA berth in that program's history.

Holy cow. I thought I went to a hockey school.

Cornell dismissed Princeton Saturday night to finish 14-0 in the Ivy League.

Memo to NCAA Tournament committee: We shall accept nothing less than a No. 13 seed.

(This picture is not entirely accurate. The Big Red has six more victories to go to complete its mission.)

Here is a followup to the amusing story of the Binghamton sports TV guy who grew annoyed with ESPN bugging him Saturday night for Cornell basketball video.

It's nice to see the Big Red turning the sports media world upside down.

And it's nice to see a media professional comfortable with his life in a small market.

Binghamton isn't all bad.

Bridget Moynahan was born there.

Tony Kornheiser went to college there.

I once drove there during my college days to have a large cooking pot refinished.

The Cornell hoops story now has become a source of attention and amusement in the wider sports blogosphere.

Our friends at Awful Announcing alerted the world to a blog post in Binghamton that seems to take issue with ESPN's aggressiveness in seeking Cornell video, of all things, Saturday night.

Wow. However it came down, thanks to WBNG for helping ESPN lead SportsCenter with the Big Red.

Looks like John Feinstein has company.

Now two AP pollsters are voting for Cornell.

Top 25, here we come!

(UPDATE: I again tapped into the vast network of college hoops spies I developed in the early 1990s to uncover the identity of the second Cornell voter. It's Steve Rivera of the Tucson Citizen. I assume Steve recalls how close the Big Red came to upsetting Arizona in the first round of the NCAAs the last time we qualified, in 1988. It was 90-50, but Cornell clearly was about to turn the tide and simply ran out of time.)

Here is a disturbing post from our friends at Fang's Bites regarding Cornell, Glauber and me.

The item speculates about how I celebrated the clinching of the Ivy title, at the expense of hapless Harvard.

Three words: Genny Cream Ale.

There now is one team in the big dance.

So if no one else shows up, we win, right?

OK, maybe not. But still . . . congratulations, Big Red.

If the committee does the right thing and gives us a No. 12 seed or better, I will guarantee a first-round NCAA Tournament victory.

We've had 20 years to study the mistakes that were made against Arizona in that 90-50 loss the last time around. We'll do better this time.

(UPDATE: What makes Saturday night's hammering of Harvard even better is this story in the Ivy League's Paper of Record that will be profoundly embarrassing to our friends in Cambridge. My suggestion: Kick Harvard out of the league and replace it with Stony Brook, an institution with high academic and athletic standards that is free of scandal.)