There were whispers. Then it was quiet. Murmurs from somewhere else, then quiet again. A few weeks ago the whispers picked up from a few different directions and they were all saying the same thing: High-level talks were going on to get the New Hampshire football game off the schedule this fall. Were those talks real? They may have been, but apparently they were to no avail.
UNH released its 2009 football schedule yesterday and it looks like this:
Sept. 5–ST. FRANCIS (Pa.)
Sept. 12–at Ball State
Sept. 26–DARTMOUTH
Oct. 3–at Towson
Oct. 10–VILLANOVA
Oct. 17–at Massachusetts
Oct. 24–at Hofstra
Oct. 31–NORTHEASTERN
Nov. 7–RHODE ISLAND
Nov. 14–at William & Mary
Nov. 21–MAINE
Crafty scheduling, I'd say. The Wildcats have sandwiched their annual FCS game between a pair of winless teams. St. Francis was ranked No. 242 of 245 ranked teams in the nation last fall in USA Today's Sagarin ratings after going 0-11. Dartmouth was ranked No. 223 after going 0-10.
I think I missed this earlier but Kijuan Ware, who coached at Dartmouth in 2004-05 and served as a "coaching intern" at Notre Dame last fall, has been added to the staff at Miami University in Ohio. (I've always been bothered by the "Miami of Ohio," thing. Nobody says, "Miami of Florida.") Here's his profile on the Miami site.
Kijuan is a good guy and I've always thought he had a bright future in coaching. An aside: Also on the staff will be Pete Vaas, the former head coach at Holy Cross.
You've read my whining in this electronic neighborhood about the lack of attendance at Dartmouth men's basketball games, so it's only right I share a little good news on that front. No, they didn't sell out last night's game against Brown. In fact, the attendance for the 63-61 overtime win that lifted Dartmouth to 3-2 in the Ivies was listed at just 966, which seems a little low to me. It's the nature of the "crowd" and the back story that is the good news.
Dartmouth punter Brian Scullin and former teammate Cole Springer used a Blitz blitz (translation: Email blitz) to drum up student support for a "Black Out Night." I'm not sure that's what they called it because I never saw their email(s) but that's what it was. The student side (where we sit) had more students than I can recall in a long, long time, with most of them wearing black.
The section opposite the Dartmouth bench was particularly packed and loud, and by midway through the second half or so, was on its feet chanting, singing, cheering and booing. Eventually our whole side was on its feet roaring. Even the "wine and cheese" side of the stands got on its feet for the final seconds, as hard as that is to believe for anyone who has watched a game at Leede Arena.
When the game was over coach Terry Dunn streamed across the court to personally thank the students. Then it was the players' turn to go over and clap, slap high fives and celebrate.
Amusingly, Dartmouth security lined up at regular intervals in front of the stands at game's end ostensibly to stop the crowd from "storming the court." Maybe someone should have told them that while there was an abundance of excitement in the building, no one was going to cut down the nets after a win over a team that is 0-5 in the Ivy League, no matter how exciting it was.
Chosen for the basketball promotions were Scullin, who won a prize bag after hitting a layup, foul shot and 3-pointer in an allotted amount of time (he got a little grace from the scorekeeper), former quarterback Josh Cohen, who came up empty when he missed all his 3-pointers in a version of round-the-world, and receiver Kyle Battle, who narrowly missed a pair of half-court shots that would have brought free books for a term.
The Big Green returns to action tonight against Yale, which has far and away the loudest and most aggressive student section in Ivy League basketball. Hopefully a good number of the Dartmouth students who turned out last night got hooked for a least another game and will be back at Leede Arena.
Now if only the students would turn out and cheer like that for a football game or two next fall ...
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