The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Sunday Gravy: Now it’s time for Hurley to deliver
The drawstring to my favorite sweatpants was accidentally pulled up into the waistband. They’re fixed now. Quite a project. It’s actually how I spent my Saturday.
⏩ There’s no reason to doubt Danny Hurley isn’t the perfect man for the job at UConn. He’s relatively young, owns an outstanding track record and is hungry to succeed at the top levels of the sport.
UConn has practically fallen off a cliff in the four years since it won its last national title. But the past two weeks has proven teams can have NCAA tournament success outside of the Power Five.
The UConn brand still carries some weight in the men’s basketball world. So does the Hurley name. It may well be the right match. Only time will tell. We’ve seen charismatic coaches win the press conference and fall flat before. It’s been a bit of a recurring theme in Storrs lately.
No one can fault UConn for hiring the hottest young coach on the market. Now it’s up to Hurley to deliver.
⏩ Unpredictability, buzzer beaters and upsets galore. No complaints about March Madness. It’s the reason we watch.
⏩ That said, the one-anddone model has damaged the college product. Players should have the option to jump directly from high school to the NBA if they’re good enough. If not, give them three years before being eligible for the draft. It’s worked well for baseball.
⏩ While everyone is fawning over the Yankees (with good reason) the Red Sox are being overlooked. The AL East race will come down to the wire.
⏩ Secondary stories emerge during every NCAA tournament. They’re usually pretty lame. But who isn’t enjoying 98-year old Sister Jean and Loyola? People are more interested in what she has to say after each game than the players and coach. Odd. But understandable. There’s much wisdom in her words.
⏩ Tiger Woods is the favorite to win the Masters, despite multiple back surgeries and the fact that he hasn’t won a tournament in five years or a major in a decade. It’s not going to happen. It can’t happen. Can it? Who cares. All indications are he’ll be competitive and we all know a golf tournament with Tiger is a million times more interesting than one without.
⏩ This, I can only assume, were the instructions of CBS producers during its pre-NCAA tournament production meetings: “Close-up shots of fans weeping in defeat worked well in the past. But we need to get younger! This year, zoom in only on the children who are crying inconsolably! It’ll be ratings gold!”
The misanthrope in me wants to believe most those fans force alligator tears specifically to get on TV. But seriously CBS, stop publicly shaming young kids.
⏩ Alex Lyon, a two-time All-American at Yale, is making a strong case to be the top goaltender for the Philadelphia Flyers as they make a late-season playoff push. The rookie’s spent much of the year in the AHL, and relinquished to backup duty when the injury-riddled Flyers acquired Petr Mrazek from Detroit last month. Philadelphia is in position with a handful of games remaining, and Lyon, who’s emerged as the better goalie the past couple of weeks, should be the one it rides from here on out.
⏩ Random yet fascinating fact we stumbled across this week: the actor who played Lt. Colonel Henry Blake in the TV series M*A*S*H (McLean Stevenson) and the actor who played the same character in the movie M*A*S*H (Roger Bowen) died of heart attacks one day apart in 1996.
⏩ Random M*A*S*H side note: Harry Morgan filled in nicely as the commanding officer of the 4077th in his role as Colonel Sherman T. Potter. But the show was better with Stevenson leading the charges as Colonel Blake. Also, we prefer the episodes with Trapper John and Frank Burns over those with B.J. Hunnicutt and Charles Winchester, but it’s a close call.
⏩ If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been watching lots of re-runs lately.
⏩ East Haven’s Destiney Coward, a senior at Southern Connecticut State, recently won an NCAA Division II championship in the weight throw. She’ll have an opportunity to win another championship later this spring at the outdoor track and field championships.
⏩ Aaron Judge as a leadoff hitter? It’s not as crazy as it sounds given the firepower behind him in the Yankee lineup. Judge gets on base often and runs well. Aaron Boone says if it happens, it would be only against lefthanded starting pitchers. Why not?
⏩ One week later and the strategy of St. Francis (Pa.) women’s basketball coach Joe Haigh against UConn remains baffling. Rather than adjust his game plan against a far superior opponent, he opted to run and gun and not defend the paint against the most dominant team in the country. It was the equivalent of throwing a water balloon at a speeding freight train.
⏩ On the opposite end of the coaching spectrum, there’s Geno Auriemma. Year after year, you can’t help but watch the UConn women’s basketball team and marvel at how wellcoached they are. Yes, they’ve got talent oozing from their ear lobes. But they run their system to perfection.
⏩ Wallingford’s Dan Dupont and former Quinnipiac goalie Sean Lawrence led Colby College to a miracle run to the Division III men’s hockey Frozen Four, but came up on the short end of a 4-3 loss to No. 1 St. Norbert.
⏩ Four days until baseball season. It’s going to be a great week.