Merry Christmas

Bob Ryan with his annual state of New England sports team column.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good nite!

Coyne's Clippings

Bob Ryan stays in Miami from the Pats game Monday night, and checks in on the road Celtics, here's what he came up with in the Celts 108-100 loss. From the end of his story...

The fact is this was pure fan entertainment from start to finish, with dunks and drives and oohs and aahs aplenty. It was yet another example that the NBA many of us fell in love with is creeping back. They could have played this one in the shorty-shorts and Chuck Taylor high-tops.

And props to the Fam who made a stop in Provy last night to check out PC Men's basketball blow out Maine, 104-74 at the 'Dunk. A win is a win, that's all I'll say, hopefully they take their high scoring ways to Memphis with them on Thursday night.

Coyne's Clippings

Links to the Jeff Alison story published in last week's Globe. Part I and Part II. It's an intersting read, although the Sports Illustrated article in the Dec. 20 issue is better. Peyton Manning is on the cover... I find it interesting that SI has a better story than the Globe, and it's not the first time I've noticed this trend. It'll be interesting to see if it continues over the years.

Bob Ryan tries to tell us the Pats game at Maimi tonite is NOT a roll over game, that it will be competitive. Me thinks B.R. has been spending a few too many days in the Florida sun, and had one too many cocktails! Wonder who has really been drinking the Belichick Kool Aid?!

One reason they have won 27 of 28 and have that gaudy jewelry is the fact that they have gulped substantial quantities of the Kool-Aid.

And props to James Madison who's football team (An Atlantic 10 member!) won the I-AA National Championship Friday night. Since the A-10 Football Conference was formed in 1997, the A-10 has won three of the eight titles including UMass' 1998 championship run.

Coyne's Clippings

B.R. tries to tell us the 9-12 Celtics are looking better... I don't know if I buy it, but since I don't have a tv that works, or cable to watch the games on my own, I have to go with it.

Memo to all you fallen-away Celtics fans: It's better. They lost a 100-99 game to the Denver Nuggets at the Fleet last night, but I'm still telling you that things are better.

Coyne's Clippings

B.R. checks in on the Pedro issue with some info on Edd Roush. Excuse, that's HALL OF FAMER Edd Roush.

The man who sat out the entire 1930 season because he could not come to a contract agreement with the New York Giants. Mr. Roush did not play solely for fun. He played for money, as do they all, then and now.

As Latrell Sprewell would say, a man's gotta feed his family.

The longer I've been around professional sports, the more I realize I should always pay heed to the wisdom of the incomparable Roger Angell, who warned us long ago that, when the subject is baseball players, "they are what they do." In other words, we should fix on their talent, not their perceived humanitarianism.

I say what ever... I look forward to watching him pitch for the Mets. If any team can afford to eat one year of his contract (that dreaded fourth year the Sox wouldn't give him), its the Mets so what ever. Hopefully they use Petey in the same way the Sox did. That means in terms of pitching him on five or more days, not pitching him in the cold, not letting him go over 100 pitches, and pulling him after the 7th inning unless he has a no-hitter going.

Now if the Mets could some how swing the Cliff Floyd for Manny trade, along with the signing of Jason Varitek to a four-five year contract (10 million per) things would be fine in Queens!

And let's not talk about UMass basketball, they're still bad. Of course you still root for the alma mater, but they're not good! GO BRYANT!

The Year Of The Nail

With all the talk about rivalries between the Red Sox / Yankees and UMass / UConn being decidely one-sided over the years, there was lots of discussion about the use of the word rivalry considering one team had dominated the series.

That led to the anology between the hammer and the nail and how the nail never wins that battle.

Well in light of the Sox triumphs and the UMass win last night, I'm christening this 'The Year Of The Nail'. Here's Matty V's take. He got Lappas' classy quote on the whole thing... that's why MV is great!

As Lappas' wife Harriet shed a few tears of joy in her seat behind the UMass bench and his 14-year-old son Pete raced into the celebration on the floor, Lappas hurried into the locker room, not wanting to steal the moment from his players.


''It was great for our guys who came here wanting to bring this program back,'' said Lappas, whose hair was disheveled from the locker room celebration. ''I was reflecting on how happy I was for them.''


He thought about beloved former UMass coach and radio broadcaster Jack Leaman, who died in March.


''Jack Leaman was knocking a couple of their shots away from that rim. Jack was a defensive guy and he was playing a little D for us tonight,'' Lappas said. ''He always wanted this game so bad.''


In a season of highs for sports in the Commonwealth, this ranks far behind the World Series win by the Red Sox and the Super Bowl title for the Patriots. But around Massachusetts, quite a few fans have UMass gear sharing closet space with that of the Red Sox and Patriots. The Minutemen ending 21 years of Husky-fueled frustration provided a tasty dessert for a happy sports year. Before Thursday, UMass last beat UConn in 1983.

Hopefully more UMass stuff to follow the next couple of days...

Coyne's Clippings

And the Notre Dame mess continues... As today's Boston Glove reports, The President of ND, who apparently is stepping down at the end of the year, said "In my 18 years there has been only two days that I've been embarrassed to be president of Notre Dame... Tuesday and Wednesday of last week."

And for anyone who missed it, one of Bob Ryan's finest columns, following Syracuse's biggest win in years. Undoubtly the resignation of current SU AD Jake Carathoumel help Pasquoli stay on (you can't get fired if you don't have a boss to do it) but I think it was this win that really did it for him. Of course Pasquolini is on the hot seat again from next year's opener and just one bad loss will have people calling for his head again. Here's two of the best lines, including the opener...

There may have been gloomier, more depressing, and costlier days for a Boston College athletic team in the past 40 years, but I can't think of one.

and

The Orange outplayed BC in every way imaginable in what some familiar with the program were saying was their best performance in two or three years.

GOOD TIMES INDEED! PS - I'm trying to start the Ty Willingham to Providence College rumors on the account he will keep our undefeated and untied football team going strong (50 years and counting, every football saturday since WWII!).

Coyne's Clippings

I didn't really realize how much I don't like Notre Dame until I started working at another BIG EAST school... From all the accounts I've heard, and the people I've talked with, its like they're the Boston College of America. That's the theory I'm going with, we'll see how it plays out over the next couple of months, but I wonder if people across the nation hate Notre Dame the way I hate Boston College?!

Bob Ryan sheds a little more light on the situation with an excellent piece on why Notre Dame is like everyone else, and they need to wake up and realize that key fact. Also, I feel like its BR at his finest, throwing out quality points, quality words along with a little light-heartedness about the sultries of life (eg. the Lou Holtz era) where he alludes to things and allows the reader to speculate what really happened. GOOD TIMES!

And we won't talk about PC against Winthrop last night... all I know is that I thought I would never have to see these type of games when I left UMass. Let that be a lesson to me.