Archive for February, 2012

29
Feb
12

No Leap Just Yet

By bittym87 Leave a Comment
Categories: Basketball
Tags: , , ,

It’s not about this year anymore, right?

Ever since Cady Lalanne was basically ruled out for the season, I thought it was pretty clear that it was not to be for the Minutemen this year. The loss at Rhode Island, ghastly as it was, also served as a bit of a wake-up call – hey, they’re in over their heads, they could lose at any moment to any team, let’s not get carried away here, we’re still rebuilding, yadda yadda yadda. With the season visibly grinding Chaz and Carter mentally and physically (with no true backups at either position thanks to Cady’s injury and Laguerre’s ineligiblity), with bangs and bruises limiting the contributions of Hill and Farrell and sidelining Sampson Carter, it was hard not to see the Minutemen coming down to earth.

Indeed, heading into Philly for tonight’s duel with Temple, coming off an embarrassing rout at the hands of frigging Dayton of all teams, the Minutemen were 5-5 in their last ten, and almost sure to get run out of the building by just the second top-25 team they’ve faced all year. Our boys, once the darkest of dark horse bubble candidates, were now teetering on the brink of another .500 conference record, hoping that they could just survive this game with enough healthy bodies to avoid a second humiliation on Senior Night against Rhody.

For the first 30 minutes or so of game time tonight, it looked like UMass was going to make this a ballgame. They led by 5 at the break, the crazy three-pointers were falling, Chaz was dishing and driving and dicing up the Owl defense, and, despite a nearly-comical foul discrepancy, they were right there. Then, after a few more questionable foul calls (on top of that foul discrepancy, which, again, was nearing Adam Sandler levels of hilarity), all seemed for naught, as the Owls seemed poised to deliver the same killer blow that has carried them to a top-15 RPI all season long. When the lead was up to 9 with just a few minutes left, I even tweeted, “aaaand the team is done competing for the evening. shame.”

Then, as I also tweeted, the plot thickened. Chaz hit a 3. Stole the inbound. Hit a 3. 3-point game. It was seriously one of those College Hoops 2K8 moments that you never expect to actually see in a game, but there it was, the game was there for the taking. Then Sean Carter committed an over-the-back foul going for a rebound, which somehow led to another technical foul (it looked like it would be the latest awful flagrant call against the Minutemen this year, but somehow it was a technical on Freddie according to the Temple announcers) and the furious comeback was abated.

Or so we thought. All of a sudden, a wild Freddie Riley appeared, and he used “fire some random fucking threes because why not, I’m Freddie Riley!” Miraculously, it was super-effective. Mass finally got some missed free throws from Temple and a late lay-up to tie the game. Overtime in the battle of Bill Cosby’s alma maters! Jello Pudding Pops and free lobsters for everyone, ahh ahh ahh! Ahem – as you probably know by now, the fantasy finally came to a crashing end as the Minutemen couldn’t put away a six-point lead early in OT, nor a three-point lead in the final 90 seconds, and the Owls ended up winning the game on a pair of point-blank stops with a breakaway layup mixed in between. A chance to shock the basketball world goes by the wayside. Commence the endless bitching about the fouls and the Fire Kellogg chant. Blow it up, etc, etc.

Look, did UMass have – and blow – some chances to win this game? Of fucking course they did. I DID mention just now they were up six in OT, including 3 late, and had the ball in a tie game with under a minute to go.  And to the foul differential – yes, it was absolutely absurd that Temple had THIRTY more free throw attempts, but they did drive to the basket quite a bit more. UMass isn’t generally going to shoot more FT’s than basically anyone because of this shoot first, ask questions later offense, and they’re especially not going to do so against a team like Temple that plays a more aggressive and physical game. And, of course, that technical foul against DK is inexcusable in a tight game, and while you can’t assume the rest of the game would’ve gone the way it did (calling it “the difference in the game” because it was 2 points and they lost by 2 is ignorant of how timelines work, you nincompoop), it did seem like a turning point of sorts that led to Temple getting a big lead in the first place and forcing UMass to play catch-up.

Okay, back to the positives. I feel like I’m harping the same things, but honestly, they all felt amplified tonight:

-With apologies to Nicki Minaj, Chaz is a muthafuckin MONSTAH. Seriously. When he’s off, it can hurt the team big-time (see: Dayton, Rhody, Duquesne), but what he brings to the table would make him a force in any conference, and especially in THIS conference. Temple looked absolutely clueless as to how to stop him tonight at times, and this is with one of the conference’s absolute best coaches and no element-of-surprise to catch them off guard. He just really is that quick, and he’s got two more years left, so his game figures to only get more polished – especially if Laguerre lives up to even some of the hype and gives him a partner in crime.

-Sean Carter played a solid game, but he’s not “the guy.” He’s the only regular who’s graduating, and I feel pretty strongly that his production can be met, if not surpassed, by Cady, Esho, and Bergantino.

-Most importantly: the team played with heart. Last year’s team, aside from not having a chance to sniff a halftime lead, would’ve packed it in down the stretch. There was a level of fight in this team tonight that reminded me of – wait for it – Ford’s last year at UMass. And that was a year with a big NIT run and which set up what looked like a bright future, with the fanbase fired up and with some exciting players coming back the next year. And that was with Forbes and Milligan and Brower heading out the door and without nearly the same level of recruits coming in.

Really, what this all means is that UMass finally has a chance to get back to square one with this whole Ford debacle, where the school finally got the student and alumni base to care about – and get excited about – this team for a change, only for it to all fall back apart into “rebuilding mode” with Ford’s departure. Kellogg needed a few years to get there, but this sure feels like the precipice. Next year, they bring this entire core back a year older and wiser, with what almost has to be a more exciting schedule, a few complementary recruiting pieces, a healthy (fingers crossed) beast of a sophomore center, and of course the big question mark of what we really have with Jordan Laguerre if he can get his grades in order. I thought 20 wins was within reach if we had Jordan this year.

Now, in spite of the injuries and the bitter disappointment of having to wait for DK’s most touted recruit, 20 wins and a first-round home playoff game are on the horizon. And who knows? If they play like this, the Minutemen are a couple of lucky bounces in Atlantic City from making an even bigger leap.

One step at a time. Beat Rhode Island. Tear them limb from limb and get revenge. Otherwise, tonight’s near-win really will be as meaningless as anything else that happens on a Leap Day.

-Max

25
Feb
12

17 Seconds

By bittym87 1 Comment
Categories: Hockey
Tags:

It’s been an interesting year for us at Fight Mass. We’ve seen plenty of firsts – first time we’ve seen a UMass hat trick in person (twice!), first time we’ve seen UMass beat Xavier in hoops, first time ANYONE has seen a UMass hockey team blank the hated Eagles.

And in a span of 17 seconds last night, we just might have seen the beginning of another first for us: a Hockey East playoff that excludes the Minutemen.

The Mass Attack thoroughly dominated play last night for roughly 58 minutes, so much so that the inbred flag-waver from New Hampshire situated behind the net by the student section looked like he could hardly watch. Even as the Minutemen fell behind 2-0 on a couple of bad breaks, the shots-on-goal, and the play on the ice to accompany it, were both so outrageously one-sided that UMass’s coming back to tie the game at 2 was more an inevitability than anything else.

But the glee of Hanley’s game-tying goal was short-lived. In a span of 17 seconds, UMass committed two egregious defensive mistakes – the first leading to a two-on-one and the second a head-man pass before the aforementioned yokel had even put down his flag – and just like that, the UMass momentum had crumbled faster than the Old Man in the Mountain. (Oh yes. I went there.)

To their credit, the Minutemen dominated almost every second of the game from there on out, getting within one on a pretty Danny Hobbs goal (!), and even negating a questionable late Guzzo penalty with an aggressive penalty kill that drew an equalizing penalty with about 90 seconds to go. UMass was so dominant on the faceoffs that they were able to pull Boyle for the ensuing offensive-zone faceoff  without even blinking (I would’ve thought they’d at least make sure they had possession first, given the amount of time left and the fact that they had a power play coming).

In the end, it wasn’t enough. One goal short, thanks to a herculean effort from freshman Casey DeSmith. UMass may well have put ten goals past UNH sieve Matt DiGirolomo tonight, the way they were playing and the way DiGi’s season was going. Instead, DeSmith stepped up big-time against the most prolific UMass attack we’ve seen in a long-ass time, and those crazy 5th/6th place scenarios went by the wayside (although Merrimack unexpectedly clobbering Lowell put 5th place officially out of reach anyway). With Northeastern beating Maine in front of the Matthews Arena rubes, the Minutemen no longer have their playoff destiny in their hands.

UMass trails by two points with three to play. A win tonight and a Northeastern loss (which, by the law of averages, would probably be the most likely course of events) would set up the final weekend to determine everything. UMass plays a home-and-home with Merrimack, while the Huskies get one against a BU team embroiled in a rape scandal and dealing with a potentially distracting investigation. BU is almost a lock for home ice, while Merrimack is still fighting for it.

It’ll be a battle no matter what. The team had the fight and desire in them last night, without question, and I don’t think they’re done just yet. But if they lose tonight, we can look back at that 17-second lapse and wonder what might have been for this season.

—

Other sports: basketball plays at Dayton at 6, which they should play on the big screens at the Bill while we wait for hockey (but they won’t). Meanwhile, lacrosse is taking on the #11 Buckeyes out at the Ohio State University. As much as hockey needs the win tonight, it’s a pretty big day for those teams as well. This is one of the last games for lax this year against a ranked team, with a soft second half schedule – so they need to win these games now to make a case when selection day comes. (My roommate, lacrosse writer and noted curmudgeon Kyle Devitte, has agreed to write a UMass lax article for us if the Minutemen make the tourney. So, obviously, the stakes have never been higher.) And for basketball, which I promise to eventually get to, there’s three games left: a likely loss (at Temple), a likely win (home against Rhody), and this big ol’ question mark of a road game against a mediocre Dayton team. A win today likely wraps up a first-round bye and keeps UMass’s ever-so-slim at-large hopes alive. Right now, it probably would take winning out until the A-10 championship game and having two of those wins be against Temple – but damnit, anything is possible. Winning would also help their chances at getting into the NIT (and hopefully with some home games in that). More thoughts on that later.

Maybe.

-Max

19
Feb
12

Great White Hope

By bittym87 Leave a Comment
Categories: Hockey
Tags: , , ,

Alright, hold off on the “fire Toot” talk. At least for now.

The maddening inconsistency of the 2011-2012 Massachusetts Minutemen ice hockey team has reached a new level of what-the-fuckery. One does not simply march into Agganis and control the ice for almost the entire 60 minutes against that offense, yet UMass did just that – and proceeded to fall asleep, again, at home to Providence the next night. This weekend, UMass swapped days – they got pasted by the Black Bears on Friday, but held Maine off the board almost entirely last night in Orono save for a highlight-reel goal by noted doucheface Joey Diamond falling on his ass on a wraparound. God we hate Joey Diamond. Everyone knows Triangles are better than Diamonds anyway.

For seemingly the millionth year in a row, UMass has decided to fuck with our patience. Last weekend I was back in “can we move on from Toot yet?” mode. Now, as you can probably guess, I’ve migrated back into glass-half-full territory. UMass holds the eighth and final playoff spot in Hockey East at this point in time, and at least on paper, a very realistic opportunity to hold onto that seed or even move up (more on that in a sec). Call these last couple wins letdowns for BU and Maine all you want, but it’s become abundantly clear that the Minutemen have the ability to win these games – it’s a matter of putting it together on a nightly basis. For all the rumblings about discord between the team and its coach, about lines and playing time, and guys not being mentally tough enough to, oh, not take the first period off every other game, the most important takeaway is that the talent is there. Jack Parker even said so! And when is he ever wrong?

Look, Derek and I witnessed it with our own eyes (more on that later, too). UMass came out on fire in the first, scored on a bad Maine giveaway in the opening minute, and withstood two dangerous Maine power plays. From there, the Minutemen controlled play for the final 40 minutes in much the same way they controlled that BC game, or the pivotal stretches of both BC wins. They have it in them. Why why why why why can’t they do this on a regular basis though?

I kind of liken the Minutemen of the past five years or so to that student who’s smart enough to skirt by but procrastinates like a mofo. (I’m not not saying I’ve been that guy.) The thing is, you can pass exams and ace essays waiting til the last minute to study or write. But what good is it gonna do you if you’re not actually learning? And why put the unnecessary stress on yourself? UMass does the same damn thing. If they could get fired up to play teams like Providence and Northeastern and grab those points early, they could coast into the playoffs and even have a shot at moving up (which shouldn’t be the goal to begin with, but one step at a time here). Instead, yet again, it comes down to the last couple weekends if the Minutemen are gonna give themselves a chance to pull off an upset in the first round. Which, by the way, they’ve proven they could be capable of doing if they can even give themselves that chance.

Technically UMass could finish as high as 5th or as low as 9th. Friday night’s loss officially eliminated the Minutemen from home ice contention, as they now trail Maine by 10 points with 8 points up for grabs. Here’s the standings, and the teams’ remaining schedules:

5. Merrimack 26 pts   @Lowell, vs. Lowell, @UMass, vs. UMass

6. PC 23 pts   vs. BC, @ BC, vs. Lowell, @Lowell

7. UNH  22 pts    @UMass x2, @Maine

8. UMass 18 pts   vs. UNH x2, vs. Merrimack, at Merrimack

9. Northeastern 18 pts   vs. Maine x2, @BU, vs. BU

UMass’s season series with Mack and UNH will be determined in these last two weekends. They’ve lost the breaker to PC and they split 1-1-1 with Northeastern. The second tiebreaker is conference wins, and each team has 7. The third tiebreaker is record vs. the top team in the conference. So UMass holds that if BC is #1, and Northeastern wins it if Lowell is first. UMass is 1-2 against BU and the Huskies lost their only meeting with the Terriers so far. There are three/four-way tie scenarios with 5-8, but they get messy and most of them don’t favor UMass.

Following so far?

So, obviously, the best of all possible timelines is 5th place, which entails UMass sweeping its remaining schedule and Merrimack losing all four. In that scenario, UMass would need PC to finish with less than 3 points in that four-game gauntlet (very possible). If NU and UMass each won out, that first place tiebreaker (Lowell/BC) would come into play again. Also in this scenario, ABC announces it’s pulling Modern Family in exchange for a seven-season run of Community, and Jack Parker and Jerry York are simultaneously trampled by a pack of magical unicorns. Actually, it’s not the most far-fetched thing of all time. Most of it would be in UMass’s hands in sweeping Merrimack, but the other prerequisite (sweeping UNH while Lowell sweeps Mack) could easily happen, and make for a fascinating final weekend.

If UMass sweeps UNH, they’re in good shape. The Minutemen would clinch the tiebreaker, and then all UMass needs is for UNH to lose in Orono on Maine’s senior night, OR take just one point against Merrimack. However, 3 points puts UMass behind the eight-ball still, since it means splitting the season series. UMass then enters the final weekend a point back, and at that point, UNH holds the second tiebreaker of conference wins. (Which sucks, because they’re 0-6 against BU and BC.) Also, please please sweep UNH.

A split and UMass can’t catch the Wildcats unless they sweep Merrimack, again a far less likely scenario. However, Northeastern is still within reach at that point. Maine and BU are both better (and hotter) teams than UNH and Merrimack. UMass and NU play the same number of home/away games (3/1). In this regard, by the way, a win/loss split is much better for UMass than a tie-tie split, thanks to that conference win tiebreaker. Oh, and 0 or 1 points this weekend? That’s gonna put the ball in Northeastern’s court. But it’s important to note that if both UMass AND NU lose all four remaining games, UMass gets in and the Huskies don’t.

Really, it boils down to this: these two games are fucking massive. Lose one or both, and you’re betting on the Minutemen to pull it out of the fire against a team that, while not exactly lighting it up recently, still seems to have their number (not to mention a trip to the Lawler house of horrors). Win both, and both UNH and NU have to step it up against their superior opponents in order to keep UMass out of the playoffs.

It doesn’t need to be pretty. Just get there.

- Max

–

Also…

Derek and I checked the final Hockey East venue off our checklist with our long-awaited visit to Alfond. Of course, in a couple years we’ll have one or two new destinations tacked on as Notre Dame and possibly Mystery Team X (RPI?) enter the Hockey East ranks, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, we’ve finally got enough data to put together a Fight Mass guide to the rinks in our fine conference, and you can look forward to that shortly. Spoilers – Alfond’s gonna rank pretty high on my list. What a fun place.

I’ll get to basketball soon, I swear. Despite the La Salle letdown, Tuesday’s a huge game against Xavier, you should all go, blah blah blah. Oh, and lacrosse is 2-0, and now that I live with someone who knows a little something about the game, I might actually provide some insight this year. Maybe.

18
Feb
12

2/18 Maine Preview

By heavydrexler Leave a Comment
Categories: Hockey

This.

12
Feb
12

Crawl Space

By bittym87 Leave a Comment
Categories: Hockey

Maybe I’ve been watching too much Breaking Bad lately. (Okay, definitely. I just caught up on four seasons in the last 3 weeks or so.) But the last two weeks of UMass hockey has me feeling like Walter White, down in the crawlspace, alternately screaming and laughing maniacally as it all falls apart. (I won’t spoil anything else here for those who haven’t seen it, but here’s the scene I’m referring to. It’s one of the greatest 2 1/2 minute scenes in TV history.)

Of course UMass would find a way to stick around in back-to-back huge games at Northeastern and Merrimack. And of course they’d find a way to lose both games, one just moments into overtime and the other in the waning seconds, in a scene so reminiscent of opening night (at Northeastern, coincidentally) and so painfully predictable that all you can do is laugh.

And of fucking COURSE! they would go out the next weekend, clinging to their playoff lives, and get their first road win of the season, and first-ever win on the road against a top-ranked team, in a venue that has been a house of horrors ever since it opens its shiny-but-overpriced doors, only to come out the next night, with the same goalie and same lineup, and sleep through the first ten minutes of the game. Oh, and just as a bonus teaser, they rallied down 4-1 and 5-3 to pull within a goal with a few minutes left, and even got a gift power play, and proceeded to fail to take advantage of it.

Four games. Two points, with six more left on the table thanks to continued poor play at the beginning and end of games. UMass could’ve been in a position to leapfrog Maine with a sweep next weekend. But alas, here we go again, six games to go, dogfighting for eighth in a ten-team league for the fifth year in a row. Wait, wait, don’t tell me – they’re gonna win juuust enough, and catch enough lucky breaks, to sneak in as a “dangerous” #8, where they’ll proceed to lose a pair of heartbreakers at Conte Forum again. Pretty sure that episode is a rerun.

You know what’s more heartbreaking? This team, charmed as they’ve been to catch those breaks and sneak in as eighth, might have been better off missing the playoffs in those years. We’ve been tirelessly optimistic that Cahoon and his staff have been on the brink of figuring it out the last few years. It’s getting so very, very hard to keep that attitude. UMass is a snag with the coaching situation now, almost surely without the funds to make a coaching change thanks to the disgusting amount of money Kevin Morris will be getting from the state in order to protect our football team from having to be run any further into the ground by him. Playoffs or no playoffs, there’s no way Toot’s not coaching his final year of his contract unless he retires.

Look, I’ll say it again: Don Cahoon is, by all accounts, a fine human being, a great hockey mind, and a man the community is lucky to have. But it’s time to face the obvious – any other school in this conference would have already fired him by now. Look around the league at the schools that have made coaching changes this year. Hell, Lowell’s in first place. Lowell. And Providence has taken strides since shedding a longtime anchor as well. Northeastern’s had their struggles under Madigan, but they also lost the most talent on the ice in that group. Changing coaches isn’t some kind of magic bullet that’s guaranteed to improve things, but honestly, at this point, what choice do we have? BU head coach/evil Disney villain Jack Parker, who would certainly know about these sorts of things, was bewildered in interviews before and after the game by UMass’s lack of success this season. He thinks they’re too talented to struggle like this. Too fast, too skilled. If that’s not an indictment of our current coaching staff, I don’t know what is.

Next season we lose a guy who’s become an improbable anchor of the blue line in Marcou, and two of our most talented forwards in Syner and Hobbs. Certainly, production that is replaceable. But the vaunted Blaise MacDonald recruiting line has yet to land anyone who looks as program-changing as a Scott Wilson or a Chad Ruhwedel. Certainly, the nucleus that returns – talented forwards like Guzzo, Sheary and Pereira, a much-improved blue line, and three goalies with some playing time under their belts – shows a lot of promise.

But I’ve been saying that for far too long. Beyond next year, how this program positions itself in its recruitment of both players and Toot’s replacement (assuming next year is, indeed, his last) will go a long, long way to determining how soon this program escapes this perennial Groundhog Day-esque spring purgatory.

- Max

P.S. That’s enough negativity for one post. I know I’ve been slacking on articles, but I’ll have my slightly-more-optimistic basketball catch-up article up this week. Keep in mind that it’s a lot more fun to write these after a win.

11
Feb
12

Waka Waka

By blindspots88 Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

Hey everybody! It’s Matt with a bi-yearly article about UMass sports, reporting live from a Spanish household in Springfield!
Well, I might as well start this off by commenting on the improbable 3-2 victory over the number one Boston University Terriers IN BOSTON! Wut? Really UMass, really, your first road win is going to come in February and ITS GOING TO BE AGAINST THE NUMBER ONE TEAM IN THE NATION! Lol, you guys crack me up. But seriously folks, I’m still not 100% back on the UMass hockey train, but I will say this: The playoffs are starting to become intriguing again. With the glorious flagship wallowing in the twilight of the Toot Cahoon era, and UMass-LOL with an improbable breakout season, the idea of a UMass showdown in the Hockey East playoffs is in play. And while that is in no way an easy matchup, let alone a favorable one, its a sweet tossup from the perpetual 2-7 matchup at BC where we lose (seemingly) EVERY FUCKING YEAR.
I still have minimal faith in this team, having paid attention to the lows of the season in addition to the highs, something I suggest FTT commenters do (sample post: This team beat BC WHY WOULD THEY NOT BEAT LOWELL????). However, there is a chance, albeit slim, that having gotten over the hump of the first road win, an anecdote unable to ignore, its possible this team will start playing with more confidence on the road. There is absolutely no reason why this team should be dropping games to Northeastern and Vermont at ANY venue, yet this team was 0-2-1 against the cellar dwellers in Hockey east this year. Yet, with a road win behind them (and sadly, not longer from the 6-0 Fight Mass Vermont exodus last January) I hold out hope that UMass can be the gritty team they are in the Bill at Orono and the University of Sears. Unlikely, yes, but at this point can you really be certain with this team?

Ignoring very recent acts of glory, lets not forget the crushing mediocrity that UMass hockey fan experienced in the recent past. In an era of UMass athletics where there are so many high profile steps forward for high visibility sports, our beloved UMass Hockey program seems to be at a plateau. The apex of the Cahoon era came over half a decade ago, and the program has stayed consistently below average ever since. As other sports start showing potential (Basketball) or have new, exciting faces (Fooooootbaaaaaaaaallllllllll!) Hockey sits and waits for Toot to move on before its safe to be excited again.
Lets make something perfectly clear, I have a massive amount of respect for Toot. He took a program that had no identity or culture and built it to the point where the fan base earnestly feels they can make the jump to home ice contention. Toot has graduated players, limited distractions and built a fan base that did not exist before his tenure. However, the last few years has proven that UMass hockey is stuck in neutral, and frankly, there is a definable ceiling to what Toot can do. Toot is not on the level of Parker or York, and doesn’t have the youthful vision of a Dennehy or Tabbed. Toot is an old school coach who is what he is, and he is never going to be the next step that the fans of this program crave. So, like Penn State before all the kid sex, fan wait impatiently for the figurehead to step down before fresh blood comes in and reinvigorates the fan base (Yes, UMass, I said FRESH blood so no Blaise plz).
So yeah, I fully expect this team to make the playoffs barely, then get swept and I expect the same thing next year if Toot decides to ride out his contract, which according to Triangle seems to be the most likely outcome. So, in an era of great excitement for athletics at UMass, the hockey fan has years of the same outcome they have come to know and loathe. Ug.

Meanwhile, in exciting things, The UMass basketball team is also playing tonight. As a blog, we have been extremely cynical about the baskettaball team. Walsh was out at the start of the DK era, Max has been supportive yet skeptical and I nearly resigned from the blog and ruined my friendship with Max over smart ass tweets during a game the UMassHoops.com lost their shit over (please cue the Bob Dylan eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh). But this year has been transcendent for a kinda-sorta-fan like myself. This team is legit, and likable at the same time. Gone are the lifeless, lazy one man teams we have witnessed for the last few years. This team fucking MOVES. Plus, they hustle like a team that wants to win. Not only is it about running and creating fast breaks, but its the little things like diving for loose balls. This year the team does it, while I never saw it in years past. Its hard to point out a single reason for this. Yes, Chaz has been transcendent in his role as Point Guard/Scorer/Heart-and-soul/Good guy tweeter, but its not solely Chaz. It seems that the step away from a SG/SF dominated team to an interchangeable run and gun team has been the biggest change in culture. Yes, mistakes are made, but no longer is there a sense of laziness or an unlikeable player. I LOVE EVERY PLAYER ON THIS TEAM. I love this team, I do. And this is coming from someone who’s first major taste of the new look team in person was the train wreck at URI. Still love them, still love the effort. The entire culture of my UMass fandom has changed. Where I would previously be obsessing over hockey dates and giving slight glances towards the basketball schedule, I now find myself dreading Hockey games for their seemingly inevitable disappointment and feeling strong optimism towards the Basketball team. Yes, they may not be good enough to make the tournament, but at the very least I feel like theres a chance they will win any night, and at the very least they will play hard, fast and entertaining. The team that took a shit on the Mullins court against Dayton last year no longer exists, and damn, it feels good man.

Oh, and Football is going to be amazing. Molnar is the fucking boss. What a charismatic , likable dude. Now THATS something to riot over.

(But seriously folks, don’t riot and make us all look bad you fucking waste of space I hope you and your zoomass culture is systematically destroyed and your highschool quarterback mentality of cool is exposed for the immature garbage that it is. I hope you and your barstool culture is no longer viewed as ok in the lager culture and you become the social pariahs that you deserve to be you fucking scum.)

Here’s to hoping for positive peaceful gatherings for a successful Saturday,

-Matt

We are…

...a UMass sports (primarily hockey) blog created by, and written for, UMass students, alumni, and fans.

About the Author

Max Bitter (Communication/Journalism '10) created Fight Mass during his junior year. Born in Concord and raised in Leominster, he currently works and resides in Merrimack, NH. He is an avid Boston sports fan, plays guitar in his spare time, and is a fitness and nutrition enthusiast. Never try to tell him Shipyard Pumpkinhead is quality beer.

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The views and opinions of Fight Mass, while right, are not affiliated with anyone but ourselves. This includes the University of Massachusetts, the hockey team or anyone directly associated with it, any of UMass's media outlets, or your mother. If you're easily offended by cussing (read: uptight), we're all adults here, so consider yourself warned, and don't bring little Timmy or Grandma to the party. Unless she's THAT kind of Grandma after a couple gin and tonics. Eh, even still.

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