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!