Gaudet Helps UVa Squeeze Orange

The Chad Gaudet '08 story keeps getting better. In front of a lacrosse-crazy, Carrier Dome crowd of 16,595 yesterday, the former Dartmouth tailback won 12-of-23 faceoffs to help No. 2 Virginia upend No. 1 ranked Syracuse, 13-12. Gaudet also had eight ground balls. On the season he has won 41-of-73 faceoffs playing as a grad student for UVa, which is 5-0. He also has two assists.

Former punter Brian Scullin worked hard to drum up crowd support for the men's basketball team in last night's critical showdown with Ivy League-leading Cornell and while the student turnout wasn't what it was for the "blackout" earlier this season, there was a a healthy group of students in the crowd of 1,572. Unfortunately, a barrage of Cornell 3-pointers helped the Big Red all but end Dartmouth's title hopes with a 75-57 final. (The Dartmouth women's team, which was cruising along undefeated in the Ivies, fell for the first time over in Ithaca, 66-61 in overtime, and now holds just a one-game lead over the H-school.)

While the basketball game was going on, there was a rollicking crowd of 4,422 at Thompson Arena watching the Big Green topple Princeton, 2-0.

Regarding yesterday's post about basketball and hockey going head to head for fans, I received an e-mail that explains the predicament this way:

ECAC Hockey requires that all men's and women's hockey games start no later than 7:00, except for TV (when both schools agree) and when also hosting a women's playoff game on a Friday, in which case the women's game must start no earlier than 3:30, and the men's game no later than 7:30.

Point taken. I do wonder, however, if it's time to pressure the ECAC into revisiting the rule. Granted, the basketball game was relatively well-attended, but there were still 500 or so seats available according to the official attendance (and probably more than that in reality). A little more flexibility wouldn't hurt.

While action was heating up in Hanover, the baseball team was opening its season at Duke. Playing a doubleheader on the same day it bused to the airport and flew to North Carolina – the games were moved up because of an ominous forecast – the Big Green dropped a twinbill, 8-5 and 6-1.

At the basketball game last night there was an unofficial Dartmouth mascot in the form of a big, dark brown moose. The issue of a college mascot comes up every few years at Dartmouth and has yet to be resolved. While Dartmouth muddles along without a mascot, William & Mary is taking a different approach. Consider this letter from the W&M president:

We have the Tribe to unite us, but no mascot at the moment. Let's find one and have fun while we search!

Do visit (mascot website) to submit your mascot ideas and see how the search is going.

It will be great if the mascot is ready to roll at some point next fall, perhaps by Homecoming.

Kudos to William & Mary for making something happen.

Find a Q&A with Mike Slive '62, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, here. Among other topics, Slive addresses the idea of a plus-one championship format in the BCS, whether there will ever be a true football playoff, the image of the SEC, coaches criticizing their peers at other schools, and the dearth of minority head football coaches in Division I.