Big Red Alert Indeed

Although Princeton won five Ivy League titles in one weekend, what Cornell has accomplished this winter certainly deserves a nod.

In addition to the national headlines it earned for knocking off Temple in the opening round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, the Big Red will be playing for the NCAA championship in women's ice hockey today. Last night the Cornell men's ice hockey team won the ECAC Championship with a 3-0 victory over Union. And at the National Wrestling Championship, Kyle Dake won the 141-pound title to help Cornell finish second in the team scoring behind Iowa and ahead of Iowa State.

Harvard's JP O'Connor, by the way, won the national title at 157 pounds.

Oh yeah, the Cornell men's basketball team tips off at 2:50 p.m. today against Wisconsin with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line. Cornell's game information is available here.

The Williams College men's basketball team lost its shooting touch at the worst time and that proved costly for former Dartmouth assistant Mike Maker and the Ephs, who dropped the Division III national championship game to Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 66-59. John Feinstein covered the game for the Washington Post and drew this telling quote from Maker:

"For a lot of our kids it's a choice between an Ivy League school or a Patriot League school or us," said Williams Coach Mike Maker, whose brother, Wyatt, played on Villanova's 1985 championship team. "They're all great students. But the kids who go Ivy or Patriot make a decision that they want to play basketball to make the tournament. Our kids want to play to win this tournament."

Think about that.

Former Dartmouth assistant Courtney Banghart and her Princeton Tigers dropped a 65-47 decision to St. John's in the opening round of the women's NCAAs. link

Now for a little football mention before some editorializing. Over the past few years Dartmouth has celebrated championship teams on game days. I just learned that the teams being honored this fall are the 1965, 1970, 1973 and 1991 squads. Members of those teams should "save the date."

And now for that editorializing. The following comment popped into my in-box this morning and it really got to me:

Come on Bruce--As I understand it, this is supposed to be a Dartmouth football site. New coaches to be interviewed, thoughts on what they will mean to the program, an article on the entire recruiting class, thoughts on the AD delay...There is much to cover beyond Williams basketball, etc. .

First, please understand that this blog takes a lot of my time. I mean a lot of my time, and I frequently wonder why I bother. It's certainly not for the money because over the course of a year those Google ads up there bring in about enough money for one very nice family dinner out. And the donate button, which I have put up and taken down a few times over the years because it makes me feel guilty, gets clicked on maybe once every six months. That's it, folks.

Still, each and every day I sit down at the computer and spend my time looking around for notes so you have something to read. Except for vacations, and an unfortunate circumstance or two, there's been something virtually every day for five years.

Is it always football? No, and it shouldn't be. People who stop by the blog have e-mailed and told me as much. It's a chance to hear about some of the things that are going on at other schools, as well as learn about trends – Ivy League and otherwise – that may have an impact on Dartmouth football and Dartmouth athletics in general.

As for Williams basketball, the first thing you should know is that Mike Maker left Dartmouth with more friends than just about any coach who has worked in Hanover for the past couple of decades, and some of those friends visit here to see what's up in his world.

The second thing you should know is that there just may be another reason why people around Dartmouth are paying close attention to his success this season. And given that Mike's team is being mentioned it just seems right toss in a note or two on Courtney Banghart and Sharon Dawley, two more familiar names to people around here.

Regarding stories about the new coaches and recruiting, etc., if you are a subscriber to the main site, all that and much more will be covered once spring ball kicks off. To be brutally honest, there are far too few subscribers to the premium site to begin with, and if I were to start putting that material on this site it would be even worse.

As for the full recruiting class, Coach Buddy Teevens isn't allowed to address it publicly until all the acceptances are officially out, and all the paperwork for the incoming kids has been returned. That's usually in early May and will be covered fully on the premium site.

My apologies for the rant.