Schedule for Week November 1 - November 7 (Updated x2)

Here is the updated schedule for this week, including the Big East Soccer Tournament. It has been updated again to reflect that the Men's Soccer Tournament game is on Thursday, not Wednesday, and therefore I will be attending that instead of the Women's Basketball exhibition, but will be attending the Men's Basketball Exhibition Wednesday Night.

Key:

Y - Definitely Attending

P - Probably attending

M - Might attend

D- Doubtful To Attend

Wednesday, November 3rd:

Men's Basketball Exh. vs. American International 7:30 PM (Y)

Note: Game will be scored but will not be included in ratings.

Thursday November 4th:

Men's Soccer Big East Tournament vs. Depaul 7:30 PM (Y)

Friday November 5th:

Men's Ice Hockey vs. Canisius, 7:05 PM (P)

Women's Volleyball vs. Georgetown, 7:00 PM (D)

Saturday November 6th:

Women's Field Hockey Big East Tournament vs. Louisville 1:30 PM (Y)

Note: This game will be scored, but as it is considered to be hosted by the Big East Conference as opposed to a "home" game, it will not be included in the rankings.

Men's Ice Hockey vs. Canisius, 7:05 PM (Y)

Sunday, November 7th:

Women's Field Hockey Final vs. TBD 1:00 PM (Y)

Note: This assumes UConn is involved in the final. If they lose the semifinal, I will not attend the Final.

Men's Basketball exh vs. Bridgeport 1:00 PM (D)

Note: This game is at XL Center which means I'd need a bus ticket. I will attend the Field Hockey meaningful game over an exhibition, but I would need to buy the bus ticket several days early. And if I don't know if I'm going, it's not worth it. So unless I manage to get the ticket from a student on short notice, it's not going to happen.

Women's Volleyball vs. USF 2:00 PM (M)

Note: I will probably attend this game if UConn is not in the field hockey final and I do not manage to obtain a roadshow ticket to basketball.

Blog Update

• Unfortunately I was not able to go to either event yesterday (Women's Ice Hockey or Field Hockey).


• Next weekend is huge, and I will post a tentative schedule in a few minutes, but that will be updated after we know what the deal is with men's soccer and the Big East Tournament.


• Also, with one or two basketball exhibitions next week, keep in mind these will be scored but will not count in the ratings.

Football - October 29th vs. West Virginia

What: Football vs. West Virginia

When: October 29th, 2010, 8:00 PM

Result: Win 16-13, OT

Summary: First home football game in almost a month. Going in, we hadn't scored since a Dave Teggart field goal as time ran out in the first half against Rutgers, 3 weeks prior. And we didn't wind up scoring here until Teggart booted one through with 1 second left in the first half. So almost 8 quarters without a score. Yet remarkably, despite giving up several long drives, we only went into halftime down 10-3. Todman than got a touchdown to cap a long drive in the third quarter, and we traded field goals to ultimately force OT. West Virginia drove down to the 1 on the first posession, but fumbled and we recovered, so we just needed a field goal to win. Teggart booted a chip shot from 31, and that was that. Storm the field time. No, I did not participate, because I am not particularly fond of crazy mobs, but it looked fun, that is if you like crazy mobs. And it was the first win over WVU in program history. On a side note, a lot of interesting costumed characters including 2 gorillas and a banana. (Banana guy stole my costume idea - I was planning to wear the exact same costume to the Whitney Dance Thursday until it was cancelled.)

Ratings:

Atmosphere:

Fan Friendliness: Not always the most clean, but usually nothing bad. The people next to me making out for the entire first half (literally) before leaving because the concession stands stopped serving alcohol wasn't nice, but aside from that not too many issues, except for a few profanities. Rating: 7/10

Fan Enthusiasm: Loud,  rocking, and amazing. Fans (except for the ones who just came to get drunk and left after Last Call) stayed for the whole game and went crazy when we won. Rating: 15/15

Event Atmosphere: Some of us may remember watching the "Pandemonium in Piscataway" game in which Rutgers got the biggest win in school history (although some could argue winning the first game ever in the history of college football was bigger) at which point the RU radio uttered that famous line. Well we need something like that for this game. I'll be taking suggestions. Post them in the comments or email me at gregory.koch@uconn.edu. I'll post some of the better ones. And keep in mind, Piscataway is where the football stadium was, and RU is actually in New Brunswick, so preferably it should involve "East Hartford" (or "Rentschler or something like that") over "Storrs" though I will accept anything on those lines (even "Connecticut"). Rating: 15/15

Overall Atmosphere: 37/40

On-field:

Quality of Play: Best game at Rentschler all season. Both teams really played well, and in the end UConn emerged victorious. Rating: 19/20

Excitement: What a thriller. Overtime and a game-winning field goal. Amazing. Rating: 10/10

Quality of UConn Play: Also amazing. Played very well. Struggled a bit in the first half, so this won't get a perfect score, but we did very well. Rating: 9/10

Result: Win 10/10

On-field total: 48/50

Other:
Clarity of Fan Communication: A couple times when you couldn't hear the refs over the crowd, but other than that very good. Rating: 4.5/5

Magnitude of Event: Could be the biggest win in program history. We were struggling, and if we lost we'd have been 3-5 and lost 3 straight heading into the Pitt game. In all likelihood, we wouldn't even make a bowl. Now we're back to .500, and beat a team we were 0-8 against, and given the terrible state of the Big East, we have an outside chance of winning the conference if we win out (and since we'd have wins against WVU and Pitt, that would help us with the tiebreakers.) So a huge win for us. Rating: 13/15

Size of Crowd: Sellout, stayed for whole game. Rating: 15/15

Other total: 32.5/35

Overall total: 117.5/125


 

Update for October 27th

Some news points

• Sorry I haven't been on lately.... I've been extremely busy.


• I was unable to attend the Women's Volleyball game this past Sunday, so no review will be posted.


• I also will not be in attendance at the women soccer game tomorrow because I have a class at 4:00 PM. So no commentary for that.

Stay tuned over the weekend for commentary and review of the West Virginia football game, as well as most likely the Field Hockey game vs. Rutgers (although there is a chance I will be at the Women's Ice Hockey Game vs. Boston College.)

Schedule for Week ending October 31st

Below is the schedule for the week ending October 31st, 2010.

Key:

(Y) = Definitely Attending

(P) = Probably Attending

(M) = Might Attend

(D) = Doubtful to Attend

Thursday, October 28th:

Women's Soccer vs. TBD First Round Big East Tournament (M)

* Stay tuned - I will update this once we know when they are playing, not to mention there is no guarantee this will be a home game, although most likely it will be

Friday, October 29th:

Football vs. West Virginia, 8:00 PM (Y)

Saturday, October 30th:

Women's Field Hockey vs. Rutgers, 1:00 PM (M)

Women's Ice Hockey vs. Boston College 1:00 PM (M)

Note: I will almost definitely be attending one of these events. Which one remains to be seen.

All in all, not a very exciting week. But come November, we'll have an Exhibition Men's Basketball game and/or a Men's Soccer Big East Tournament Game on Wednesday, a women's exhibiton game on Thursday, Men's Hockey Friday, and potentially four (yes, 4!) games Saturday. And either Volleyball or Field Hockey on Sunday. It's doubtful I'll go to the Men's Basketball Exhibition game against Bridgeport since I'd have to buy a bus ticket before Friday, and for an exhibiton game, I'm not sure I want to commit $4 for that with a potential for other events.

Update on Swimming and Diving Meet

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the S&D meet today. So there will be no review for it. Sorry.

More Blog News October 23rd

here is another update on blog news:

• First, just for clarification as we approach the championship season: Conference or NCAA Tournament Games hosted by UConn and designated as to be played at "campus sites" such as the first round/quarterfinals of the Big East Soccer Tournament will be counted as UConn sporting events if they are played at UConn. However, tournaments which are hosted by UConn specifically (such as the Big East Field Hockey Championship this year) will also be rated and reviewed if I am in attendance but will not be used in the overall ratings for the sport.


• Just clarification for Swimming and Diving (and any other meet that involves more than two schools): The "result" rating for these will be used with 10 representing first place, 0 representing last, and every other place spaced evenly in between. In the event of a tie for a ranking, the score will be equal to the average of the two (or more) ranking scores that they are tied for. For example, today's meet includes 5 schools. A first place finish earns 10 points, a second place earns 7.5, third place 5, fourth place 2.5 and 5th place (last) 0 points. Note that all scores will be rounded to no more than 2 decimal places. If UConn ties for second with one other team, their score for result will be equal to the average of 7.5 and 5, which is (7.5+5)/2 = 12.5/2=6.25. Also note that for meets where Men and Women compete simultaneously but are scored and ranked separately, there will be two separate ratings for the event. These ratings will be identical in all categories with the exception of the on-the-field ratings (Quality of Play, Excitement, Quality of UConn Play, and Result). This ensures two things. First, it makes the ratings more accurate. Second, on the rare occasions when it is either just men or just women competing (which I believe happens only once this season) it allows us to rate them alone.

Men's Soccer October 19th vs. West Virginia

What: Men's Soccer vs. West Virginia

When: Tuesday, October 19th, 7:30 PM

Result: Win 2-0

Summary: Ok, I must have forgotten to input this game so I am now. But I don't have time to write at length so I'm just doing ratings. Maybe I'll put more in later.

Fan Friendliness: 9/10

Fan Enthusiasm: 15/15

Event Atmosphere: 14/15

Atmosphere Total: 38/40

Quality of Play: 18/20

Excitement: 9/10

Quality of UConn play: 9/10

Result: 10/10

On-field total: 46/50

Clarity of Fan Communication: 5/5

Magnitude of Event: 11/15

Size of Crowd: 10/15

Other total: 26/35

Rating total: 110/125

Men's Soccer October 22nd vs. Notre Dame

What: Men's Soccer vs. Notre Dame (Senior Night)

When: October 22nd, 2010, 8:00 PM

Result: 0-0 draw, 2OT

Summary: Goal Patrol meeting before, as usual. And it was Senior Night. Senior ceremony was brief, and I swiped a copy of the PA Notes from the customer marketing booth when nobody was looking. That's good because I couldn't really hear most of the ceremony. Oh, and somewhere between my dorm (in East) and Gampel, the hood fell off my coat. So if anyone finds a dark blue hood from a winter coat on the path (possibly near the construction site, but definitely either on the bath between Whitney and the circle, or between the circle and Gampel) let me know. Anyway, it was COLD. Temperature was posted as 41 degrees, and it felt colder. I had a sweatshirt (fortunately one with a hood) on and a winter coat (sans hood) and I was still freezing. And there were 20 extra minutes, which didn't help either. As for the game itself, not much to report. Both teams had a few chances, and we had a few good ones late, but nobody could convert. So now we need to beat Georgetown on the road (tough, they're #1 in the division) and Pitt on the road (pretty easy, but if we beat GU could be a potential "trap" game) to get the #1 seed (we would be tied with the Hoyas, but I believe we would own the tiebreaker by virtue of having beaten them.) This would be the case even if we had beaten the Irish, but now the Irish could pass us by winning out. But keep in mind, the Irish face GU at home in the final game. Assuming Georgetown beats Marquette at home (they should) they will be 3 points ahead of us and 4 ahead of ND. With a win against Georgetown, we would be tied for first and Notre Dame would be one back. We would then win the division for the regular season with a win vs. Pitt, and would get a bye with anything other than a loss and a draw in ND-GU (this assumes both teams win their next game). If we draw to Georgetown, we would be 3 points behind GU, and 1 behind Notre Dame. We could not win the division, but with a win vs. Pitt we would get the bye regardless of the result in GU-ND. A loss vs. GU would put us 6 points behind GU and 3 behind ND. With a draw or ND win, we would not get a bye no matter what, but with a GU win it would come down to the next tiebreak, and I'm not sure what that is. Bottom line, we need to beat or draw GU (preferably beat) then not get trapped vs. Pitt. We'll see how that goes. Now for the ratings.

 

Ratings:

Atmosphere rating:

Fan Friendliness: Decent crowd. Some interesting language, but not much obscenity. It's a bunch of college students, so you can't expect much better. Rating: 7/10

Fan Enthusiasm: As always, amazing. Rowdy crowd, though many left after regulation due to the weather. The ones that stayed were very enthusiastic, however. Rating: 14/15

Event Atmosphere: Senior Night, truly spectacular. Giveaways, though I didn't win. Rating: 14/15

Atmosphere total: 35/40

On-field:

Quality of Play: Both teams struggled to get going, and in this case it wasn't due to good defense. Just bad missed plays. Rating: 14/20

Excitement: Not very exciting. Only a few breakaways, and those failed. Bad reffing too. Rating: 6/10

Quality of UConn Play: We did not play the greatest. We were lucky they didn't either. Rating: 6/10

result: Draw 5/10

On-field total: 31/50

Other:

Clarity of Fan Communication: No issues. Rating: 5/5

Magnitude of Event: Senior Night, big regular season game. Rating: 12/15

Size of Crowd: Near sell-out Rating: 15/15

Other total: 32/35

Rating total: 98/125

Blog News Update for Saturday 10/23

Some blog news updates for today

• First of all, I mentioned tags in an earlier post. We will be using categories instead. This should make things easier for everyone.


• I will not be live-blogging during the UConn football game today. However, expect a post after the game.


• Soccer review from last night is forthcoming.


• In an addition to my schedule for this week, I may be attending the swim/dive meet against Providence, Central Connecticut, Fordham and Fairfield. That is today at noon.

That just about wraps it up. Go Huskies! Oh, and with all the "Too Damn High" jokes floating around, here's one more: Cody Endres is TOO DAMN HIGH!!!!!!! (YOU CON!)

Ironic twinge update: As I hit "publish" after the last a pop-up popped up for a "drug and alcohol addiction cure" Sorry, I'm not Cody.

Regarding the Quarterback Situation

So you've probably heard by now that Quarterback Cody Endres is suspended for the rest of the academic year, which according to several sources is due to a third failed drug test. I have heard many people (students and fans) complain that our program is going downhill and that Edsall has lost control of the team. In fact, it is almost the exact opposite. When you look at schools like the University of Florida, which has had about 30 felonies committed by football players over the last 5 years. Our program has been pretty clean except for Cody and Erik Kuraczea. (And we don't even know what the deal is with Erik - he was suspended with Cody earlier, but we don't even know if that was for the same reason, and if so, whether they were connected or just two failed drug tests, and now he's withdrawn and we don't know if that's because he failed again and withdrew before he got caught or what.) But anyway, Edsall's running a clean ship for the most part. We're not on probation, nobody's been convicted of a felony, nothing like that. And more importantly, when a player does do something wrong, they are disciplined appropriately. If John Brantley had a positive drug test, you think Urban Meyer would suspend him for 8 months? Of course not. And they have had players caught drunk driving, underage drinking (often together), marijuana, etc. And they've either gotten off the hook or been suspended for a game or two. And every team has one or two players who break rules. At least we're doing something about it. And the fact is, some schools (like the Gators) may have more players who fail drug tests then we know about, because the school lets it fly if the player is a star of the team. So contrary to what people think, we are not going downhill, and kudos to Coach Edsall for actually disciplining players.

National Anthem Tryouts

Last night, I tried out to sing the national anthem at a UConn sporting event (tryouts were held at Gampel). According to the email, I could sing at a UConn basketball, hockey, or soccer game. But since there's only one soccer game left (plus postseason) I'm not quite sure how that will work out. But I'd love to sing at basketball or hockey. Given my singing voice, I doubt I'll get a callback, but if I do, stay tuned. And watch out, for Gregory Koch, the amazing UConn National Anthem Singer (I wish).

We Have Tags!!!!

In a short while, you will see tags on new posts. This will group it by sport, as well as by content (game review, commentary, etc.) Blog news (such as this) will also be noted. Note that old posts (those before now) will not be tagged, but there will be a Tag Cloud added on the right shortly as well. So look for that.

In other news, there is a small chance I may live blog the football game Saturday from the TV Lounge in the Student Union. Stay tuned!

Schedule for Week through October 24th

Below is the schedule for events through Sunday, October 24th.

Key:

Y- Definitely Attending

P - Probably attending

M - might attend

D- Doubtful to attend

Tonight (Tuesday October 19th):

Men's Soccer vs. West Virginia 7:30 PM (Y)

Friday October 22nd:

Men's Soccer vs. Notre Dame 8:00 PM (Y)

Sunday October 24th:

Women's Volleyball vs. Rutgers 2:00 PM (M)

October 17th: Field Hockey vs. Princeton

What: Field Hockey vs. Princeton

When: October 17th, 2:00 PM

Result: Win 4-2

Summary: At first I was planning to go to the Women's Soccer game vs. DePaul for the first half before this one, but due to Senior Day ceremonies that didn't start until 1:30, so I stayed for about 5 minutes before heading to Sherman. So that doesn't get a review. But this does. We won 4-2, were up 2-0. They tied 2-2 but then we won. So good job Huskies.

Ratings:

Environment:

Fan Friendliness: Crowd was very friendly. But there were a lot of Princeton fans screaming "GO TIGERS!" Rating: 9/10

Fan Enthusiasm: Princeton and UConn fans were all somewhat enthusiastic. But not that much. Rating: 8/15

Event Atmosphere: Once again, I missed the trivia question (in restroom during halftime). But someone won this time. And they had free pizza and t-shirts (the latter I missed since I was at women's soccer.) Rating: 9/15

Atmosphere rating: 26/40

On-field:

Quality of Play: Overall well-competing. Princeton is a good team and so are we. And it was 3-2 until we got a goal with 4 seconds left. Very competitive. Rating: 18/20

Excitement: Very exciting. Close at least until 4 second left goal when we knew it was over. Rating: 8/10

Quality of Uconn Play: Very good too. We played well. Rating: 9/10

Result: Win 10/10

On-field Overall: 45/50

Other:

Clarity of Fan Communication: No issues here. Rating: 5/5

Magnitude of Event: Matchup of 2 top-5 teams. Pretty big. Rating: 11/15

Size of Crowd: Much better than last time. About 2/3 full, although many were Princeton fans. Rating: 9/15

Other total: 25/35

Final: 96/125

October 15th: Women's Soccer vs. Notre Dame

What: Women's Soccer vs. Notre Dame

When: Friday, October 15th, 4:30 PM

Result: Tie 1-1, 2OT

Note: I was in attendance for the first half only due to First Night

Summary: There was heavy rain and wind for much of the game, but that didn't stop UConn from drawing. Unfortunately, the first half was goalless and that's all I saw because I went over to Gampel for First Night, but oh well. Nasty weather. But I loved how the man behind me tried to convince his children that the sun was coming out once they turned the light on (it did get brighter). Anyway, here we go. Note that ratings only apply to what I saw, with the exception of end result (which was a draw anyway.)

Ratings:

Environment:

Fan Friendliness: Very friendly crowd. Children and fans and students and free gloves for the first 200 fans (I needed mine. Between the game and the line for First Night, it was freezing.) Anyway, good crowd. Rating: 9/10

Fan Enthusiasm: They were active, for the most part, although not very knowledgeable. At one point when the ball went out of play, a girl a few rows behind me said "Goal kick.... I mean corner kick". It was a Notre Dame throw-in. But still enthusiastic, cheering the team on. Rating: 12/15

Event Atmosphere: Bad weather, but free gloves. And a good crowd.I don't know if anyone won the Goal of the Game contest because it came in the 88th minute by which point I was gone. But it wasn't me. I didn't pick Ruutu. I picked her last time (three weeks ago against Penn State before I had this blog.) But oh well. I wasn't there anyway when the goal game so it doesn't matter. But still fun. Rating: 12/15

Environment total: 33/40

On-field:

Quality of Play: Not a good game played. In soccer, a 0-0 game can mean great defense or that the offense struggled. Here it was the latter. Defense was unremarkable, but the offense missed a lot. Bad crosses, poor shots from way out that went wide, some of which just missed despite no effort by the goalie thinking it was way out. Rating: 10/20

Excitement: Not much. I was only into it because I wanted Shufelt to score the first goal so I could win the prize pack. I'll be there tomorrow for most of the first half before heading over to Field Hockey most likely. Hopefully the person I pick scores then. But the intern said she "couldn't say" what the pack was. Ooh, a secret. But anyway, not very exciting. Partly the weather and partially the poor play. Rating: 5/10


Quality of UConn play: Ditto to Quality of Play. Offense struggled, defense really didn't get many chances. Rating: 5/10


Result: Draw 5/10

On-field total: 25/50

Other:

Clarity of fan communication: Not much here, but no problems. Announced "Goal Kick" "Corner" etc. Rating: 5/5

Magnitude of Event: Notre Dame is the best team in the Big East. So pretty big. Rating: 11/15

Size of Crowd: Pretty crowded given the weather. It was about 2/3 full. Which is more than they usually get. I don't know how many of those people were using it as a "warm-up" for First Night, but still pretty good. Rating: 11/15

Other total: 27/35

Final Rating: 85/135

October 10th: Men's Soccer vs. Seton Hall

What: Men's Soccer vs. Seton Hall

Result: Win 2-0

When: Saturday October 10th, 7:30 PM

Summary: I almost didn't go since it was Family Weekend here at Uconn, but I managed to get away to go. I got to Gampel just before Goal Patrol left and got a ticket. I wasn't disappointed. Nearly sold out, crazy crowd, and we won (again.) Freezing cold, but oh well. It was fine.

Ratings:

Atmosphere:

Fan Friendliness: All the youngers in the stands for Family Weekend mellowed the crowd a bit. We still had the "YOU SUCK" but really nothing much nastier than that. And they were friendly to eachother. Rating: 9/10

Fan Enthusiasm: Always a good crowd at Morrone Stadium and this was no exception. Loud and raucos, and lots of them. Rating: 15/15

Event Atmosphere: It almost had the feel of a party with all the families there. And it was nice. Rating: 14/15

Atmosphere total: 38/40

On-field:

Quality of Play: Both sides played well, we dominated in the first half but they played well in the second half holding us goalless. Overall a nice job. Rating: 17/20

Excitement: With us up 2-0 early, it was pretty much over. We knew we weren't letting in 2 goals. We've let in 4 all season up to this point (1 each vs. Yale, Harvard, Marquette, and Maryland). We weren't about to let in 2 in 60 minutes. But it was still fun. Rating: 7/10

Quality of UConn Play: Strong outing from the Huskies. 2 goals, and dominant defense and goalkeeping. Rating: 13/15

Result: Win 10/10

On-field: 47/50

Other:

Clarity of Fan Communication: No complaints, other than the pronunciation of sophomore (the second "o" is silent - it should be said "sof-more" not "sof-o-more". But that gives it character. Rating: 5/5

Magnitude of Event: A regular season conference game. No biggie, yet no smallie either. Rating: 10/15

Size of Crowd: After the dismal showing in our last game against BC due to the weather, I promised this rating would go up. And it did. Sold out house. Rating: 15/15

Other: 30/35

Overall rating: 115/135

October 6th: Women's Field Hockey vs. Yale

What: Women's Field Hockey vs. Yale

When: Wednesday October 6th, 7:00 PM

Result: Win 7-1

Note: I was only present for the first 10 minutes or so of the first half and all of the second half except the first 5 minutes or so. The rest was spent watching the conclusion of Roy Halladay's no-hitter.

Summary: I got to Sherman about 15 minutes before game time and it was deserted. Then a few Yale fans came in. I thought it would get better. 10 minutes in I got a text update from ESPN saying Roy Halladay had thrown a no-hitter through 7 innings. I ran over to the Student Union to try to catch it. I did. Then I headed over back to Sherman for the second half (I got there about 3 minutes in) and it was still almost deserted except for about 20 girls who had come from Hilltop and were hanging with eachother and paying no attention to the game. That being said it was my first Field Hockey game of any kind, and it took me until there were about 15 minutes left to realize that penalty corners are like corner kicks in soccer, not like penalty kicks. But then I learned that they sometimes are given for penalties. So who knew? Anyway, we dominated Yale much to the chagrin of the 5 or so Yale fans in the bleachers. And say what you want about our Goalie Sarah Mansfield but she's so good they named the town after her.

Ratings:

Atmosphere:

Fan Friendliness: Since pretty much everyone there was either Yale fans or Hilltoppers who came down or were on their way up and stopped in, this is hard to classify. But there really are no complaints except a Yale fan yelling "come on ref" when a few bad calls went against them (or he said they were bad; I really wouldn't know.) Rating: 8/10

Fan Enthusiasm: I am going to make an executive decision here and say that visiting fans don't count. And neither do I. So the only people who would count were the Hilltop girls who just chatted with eachother and payed no attention to the game. They probably just wanted some benches to sit on and the bleachers worked for them. So therefore, if I could give this a negative score I would. Unfortunately by executive decision (me again) that is not allowed. Rating: 0/15

Event Atmosphere: There was a Goal of the Game contest, which nobody won. Probably because I think I was the only one who entered, and I picked someone who wasn't even starting. But I'll win eventually. And they had a trivia question. I missed the question (Halladay) but heard the answer. And that was it. Other than the music that played after each goal. Rating: 2/15

Overall Atmosphere total: 10/40

On-field:

Quality of play: From what I heard, both teams played well. But of course that was the Yale fans praising their players while trying to not piss off any UConn fans (what? did they think I would beat them up? Let's think - there's 1 UConn Fan, and there's 5 event staff and a cop. I couldn't try if I wanted to.) So those fans may be biased, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt (if only to boost the score.) Rating: 15/20

Excitement: It's field hockey. It's empty. All I need is an ipod with audio of William Henry Harrison's inaugural address and it'll be the best sleep I got in weeks. Just kidding. I slept well last night. Almost too well. I slept an hour after my alarm went off and got to class 1 minute late. Fortunately the instructor did too. But anyway.... Not too much excitement. Especially since we won by 6 goals. Which is a lot.... I think. Rating: 3/10

Quality of UConn play: Pretty good, I assume. We dominated them, and since we're believing Yale guy when he says they played well, we must have played really well. Rating: 7/10

Result: Win 10/10

Overall on-field: 35/50

Other:

Clarity of fan Communication: PA announcer was good. Even though his voice echoed eerily. Oh well. That's the acoustics people fault. Half a point off for having to ask how to pronounce some Yale player's names. Rating: 4.5/5

Magnitude of Event: In-state "rival" (so they claim, presumably to get fans. What do we get when it isn't a rivalry?) But a regular season game against a mediocre team. Rating: 5/15

Size of Crowd: Once again, if I could give this negative I would. I was the only UConn fan paying attention to the game (unless you count Event Staff when they weren't chatting with eachother.) And there were the 5-10 Yale fans. Bad. Rating: 0/10

Other: 9.5/35

Overall: 54.5/35

Blog Note: Men's Soccer vs. Seton Hall from Saturday should be up tonight or tomorrow. I'm off to the Union for dinner and a Young Americans for Liberty meeting. Catcha later!

Schedule Through Sunday October 17

as promised (yesterday) here is the schedule through October 17th (Sunday)

By the way, I am selling a ticket to the Away Soccer game at St. John's this Saturday. Ticket includes admission and bus. Cost is face value of $4 (because I want as many people as possible to go, but at the same time I am not a charity.) Must be a UConn Student. (I will not make you show ID but the bus will.) Contact me for info.

Key:

(Y) = Definitely Attending

(P) = Probably Attending

(M) = Maybe Attending

(D) = Doubtful Attending

Friday October 15th:

Women's Soccer vs. Notre Dame 4:30 PM (D)

First Night Men's and Women's Basketball 7:00 PM (Y) Note: While commentary will be provided for this, no rating will be made

Saturday October 16th:

Women's Volleyball vs. St. John's 2:00 PM (M)

Sunday October 17th:

Women's Soccer vs. DePaul 1:00 PM (M)

Women's Field Hockey vs. Princeton 2:00 PM (M)

Note: I will almost certainly be attending one of these. Which one is TBD. I may also go to the first half of soccer before heading to Field Hockey. We will see.

 

October 2: Football vs. Vanderbilt

What: Football vs. Vanderbilt

When: October 2, 2010 12:00 PM

Result: Win 40-21

Summary: Homecoming here at Rentschler Field. Sold out crowd to witness a win. We got down 21-14 but came back to score 26 unanswered points. And I won 2 tickets to the Beef O'Brady's Bowl (in St. Petersburg, Florida). Their website held a contest to predict the score of the game (they have a different one each week). I guessed UConn 28-17. Didn't happen. But nobody got it exactly, so they randomly picked a winner from those who had the correct team winning. And it was me. But unfortunately, since I didn't get it exactly, I don't get lodging or airfare included. So I'm not going unless UConn makes it, and even then I might not. I'll post more info on these tickets in December once I have them and we know who is playing there. Stay tuned! Anyway, here's the ratings. And I also have reports for Men's Soccer on last Saturday vs. Seton Hall and Field Hockey last Wednesday against Yale. Those will be up here tomorrow probably. And after this gets up, I will be posting a list of events through Sunday.

Ratings:

Atmosphere:

Fan Friendliness: Solid crowd cheering UConn on. Weren't getting too dirty, and were having fun. Rating: 9/10

Fan Enthusiasm: Very enthusiastic crowd, chanting and cheering. Got very exciting. A lot of people left when it was another home blowout, but oh well. Rating: 13/15

Event Atmosphere: Loud, rowdy, awesome. And it was homecoming, which meant the singing of the Alma Matter, and a ton of people being honored in timeouts. Very fun. Rating: 13/15

Atmosphere total: 35/40

On-field:

Quality of play: Vandy gave us a run for our money in the first half, before we pulled away. Every game it seems we play well for some stretch and horrendously for the rest. You saw what we did on ESPN Friday Night at Rutgers. Outscored them 17-0 in about 5 minutes there in the end of the first half, and they outscored us 27-7 for the rest of the game. But enough on that. Anyway, we struggled for a stretch in the first half, trailing at home 21-14 first time this year we were losing at home, but other than that we played excellently. And Vandy played well too for most of the game. Rating: 16/20

Excitement: First half was exciting. Then we ran away with it and people started leaving. So it's a bit ok. Rating: 7/10

Quality of Uconn Play: Overall a good showing except that little blip in the first half. Rating: 8/10

Result: Win 10/10

On-field overall: 41/50

Other:

Clarity of Fan Communication: PA announcer was good. No problems. Ref was good with saying what penalties were. Rating: 5/5

Magnitude of Event: It was homecoming. Big game therefore. But still a non-conference game. But we could beat Vandy, unlike our next home game West Virginia. And September 25th (our previous game against Buffalo) was way too early to have it. Rating: 12/15

Size of Crowd: Sold out. So perfect. Rating: 15/15

Other total: 32/35

Overall: 108/125

October 1: Women’s Volleyball vs. Louisville

What: Women's Volleyball vs. Louisville

When: Friday, October 1 7:00 PM

Result: Loss 3-0 (25-21, 25-11, 25-12)

Write-up: Hello, again. Sorry for the absence, I haven't had time to do this. But I have gone to events, so here we go again. I got to the Gampel before the game started for once. And stayed for the whole thing before heading over to late night at Union. It was pretty fun. And a lot of the Louisville players are from Russia or other former Soviet countries (like Uzbekistan.) At one point one of them yelled something, and I couldn't tell if she said "Net!" or "Nyet!". They should name their fan club something along those lines. Like "Nyet Fans". On second thought, probably not that. "Nyet Fans" could better be applied to us.

Ratings:

Atmosphere:

Fan Friendliness: Overall a good atmosphere. Pretty fun. Some creepy guy kept swinging his wife beater over his head while in the meantime having no top on, but other than that it was fine. Still, creepy guy detracts from the rating a bit. Rating: 7/10

Fan Enthusiasm: Guys behind the Louisville side screaming "Oh-o-o-o-" every time they served. And overall, the crowd cheered when we scored and were still good sports when we didn't. But they weren't that loud. Nice. Rating: 9/15

Event Atmosphere: On-field contest featuring some guy trying to serve a volleyball over the net and hit some t-shirts which were lined up. And what he hit, he won. But he didn't win anything after 3 tries and a second (fourth?) chance try. Oh well. He was fun. Rating: 11/15

Overall Atmosphere rating: 27/40

On-field:

Quality of Play: First set was pretty competitive, but then we just fell apart and made stupid errors. Overall, somewhat decent. Rating: 15/20

Excitement: First set was pretty exciting, but then it fell off. And we knew it was over basically by the time the 3rd set started, and maybe even before. Rating: 4/10

Quality of UConn Play: We played decently in the first set, then struggled. But it was a good fight for a little while. Rating: 6/10

Result Loss 0/10

On-field rating: 25/50

Other:

Clarity of Fan Communication: No complaints here. Announcer was fine. Rating: 5/5

Magnitude of Event: Louisville is a major team, and to beat them would have been huge. We didn't, but it was still exciting. Rating: 10/15

Size of Crowd: Volleyball Exemption (which states that since Gampel is designed for Basketball, we can't penalize Volleyball for being 90% empty) prevents this from failing. It was about 15% full, which for volleyball is good. Rating: 7/15

Other total: 22/35

Total Rating: 74/125