Just Take A Minute: May 4-8, 2009Look back at the week that was.
Friday, May 8
The big weekend of UMass action gets underway today and it starts early as UMass hosts the New England Track & Field Championships. Fans of all schools can watch the meet via UMass All-Access for a monthly charge of 9.95 for both days of action. Also, Friday is the third day of the A-10 Softball Championships at Fordham where UMass beat the Rams, 5-1 on Thursday. UMass baseball hosts Rhode Island in a three-game set this weekend. On Saturday there will be a big 1969 College World Series team reunion. Finally, the lacrosse teams will play their NCAA Tournament games on Sunday.
The baseball begins a critical three-game homestand with Rhode Island today. The Daily Hampshire Gazette has a brief preview and other baseball notes. That includes Mitchell Eilenberg being named an Academic All-District I University Division first team. Eilenberg, an economics major, has a 3.79 grade point average.
Speaking of baseball, UMass Hall of Famer Ron Villone is back in the majors with the Washington Nationals and got the win last night as the Nats beat the Manny-less Dodgers in LA. His recall is covered in the Washington Post. Villone, who made his major league debut in 1995 with the Seattle Mariners, is joining his 12th different big-league team.
The Daily Princetonian has a preview of the UMass-Princeton NCAA Tournament FIrst Round game.
Former UMass All-American punter Christian Koegel will be a star in MTV's Real World Cancun coming this summer. Check out these websites with info on Koegel, who finished at UMass in 2006. Vevmo and Reality Blurred. The show finished filming on April 17 in Mexico.
Former UMass soccer star and current New Jersey Ironman Oral Bullen has been named the head coach of the middle and high school soccer programs at Mary Help of Christians Academy in New Jersey.
More news on former UMass Athletic Director Bob Marcum stepping down from his A.D. spot at Marshall. In this story in the Herald-Dispatch, he recommends former UMass Assistant A.D. Jeff O'Malley to replace him as the head man at Marshall.
UMassAthletics.com Feature To Check Out: Tournament Centrals have been set up for the men's lacrosse team and the women's lacrosse team. Both pages feature awesome "interactive brackets" check it out!
Don't miss this: Looking ahead to Sunday there are three events related to the NCAA Tournaments. The UMass women's lacrosse faces No. 1 and four-time NCAA Champion Northwestern at 2 p.m., in the NCAA First Round. The men's lacrosse team takes on No. 4 Princeton at 5 p.m., in a game televised on ESPNU and radio broadcasted on WRNX 100.9. At night, the softball team will learn its NCAA Tournament fate as part of the selection show.
Thursday, May 7
Rain, rain go away, let the softball team play today! The nationally-ranked UMass softball team hopes to get on the field today in the A-10 Tournament down at Fordham, weather permitting. The top-seeded Minutewomen are scheduled to play their first game of the event at 1 p.m. Also, JTAM has news on the lacrosse teams and the baseball team which fell at Northeastern yesterday.
Matt Vautour in the Daily Hampshire Gazette has this look at the powerful batting order of the UMass softball squad.
Here is a preview of UMass softball and the team's opening game against Fordham in the A-10 Tourney, courtesy of the Daily Collegian.
The Daily Collegian has extensive coverage of the UMass-Princeton NCAA First Round game set for Sunday at 5 p.m. Here is the game preview. Eli Rosenswaike has piece on how UMass could pull of the upset of the No. 4 Tigers.
In his debut in the Philippines, Gary Forbes had a team-high 21 points in an overtime loss for his team Talk'N'Text.
UMassAthletics.com Feature To Check Out: Have a high schooler who plays football? If you do, check out the Kevin Morris Football Clinics being held this summer on June 14 and July 31.
Don't miss this: Hopefully you all get to follow the softball team as it begins its quest for its 21st A-10 title, this afternoon at 1 p.m. We will provide live streaming video, audio and gametracker from Fordham.
Wednesday, May 6
Join us for Wednesday's action-packed Sports Luncheon at 12 Noon at the Cape Cod Lounge in the UMass Student Union. The featured speaker will be basketball coach Derek Kellogg, who will talk about his 2009-10 recruiting class. Along with DK, Jerome Mileur, author of newly released book "High Flying Birds The 1942 St. Louis Cardinals" will speak to those in attendance. A trio of Athletes of the Week will be honored in softball's Brandice Balschmiter, lacrosse's Doc Schneider and track's Lisa Wilson. Just Take A Minute has stories on UMass' baseball, softball and both lacrosse teams. Also some news on former UMass All-American hoopster Gary Forbes.
The two ESPN announcers who will call the UMass-Princeton lacrosse game on Sunday, each have columns on Inside Lacrosse's website. Play-by-play man Dave Ryan has a great column about why lacrosse is his favorite sport to call. Analyst Quint Kessenich writes about the bracket in his blog.
The Daily Collegian wraps up the ECAC Lacrosse season in this story.
In his BaltimoreSun.com blog lacrosse writer John Weaver writes about where most of the nation's lacrosse players in the country come from. He cites: Of the 16 postseason teams, 146 players are from Maryland, while 201 are from New York. No wonder, Syracuse has 28 New Yorkers and 1 kid from Maryland, while Siena has 40 from their home state and none from ours. Not surprisingly, Maryland has the most from Maryland with 32, while UMBC is second with 26. Both have some New Yorkers though with 11 and seven respectively. UMass has 11 kids from Massachusetts, Brown has eight and Maryland has four.
The Daily Princetonian school newspaper has a story on the Tigers' win over Brown in their final regular-season game, setting up their NCAA First Round match-up with UMass.
In his legendary column "Hitting To All Fields" the Springfield Republican's Garry Brown mentions UMass' basketball coach: Derek Kellogg adds five incoming freshmen to his UMass basketball program. Always the good recruiter, from his John Calipari days.
The baseball team travels to Northeastern on Wednesday, here is the Daily Collegian's preview.
After a great season with Sioux Falls and Tulsa in the NBA D-League, former UMass basketball star Gary Forbes is headed to the Philippines to play more hoops. The Manila Standard Today has a story on Forbes' signing with the Talk N Text Tropang Texters. Additionally, the Manila Bulletin has this story mentioning Forbes won't play a lot in his debut on Wednesday against a team known as Rain or Shine. NICE NICKNAMES!
UMassAthletics.com Feature To Check Out: Sign up to watch the Atlantic 10 softball tournament which starts on Wednesday from Fordham. Check out the Softball A-10 Tournament Central with links to everything you need to know on the softball squads.
Don't miss this: In addition to the UMass Sports Luncheon at the Cape Code Lounge, the baseball team plays its final regular-season road game at Northeastern at 3 p.m.
Tuesday, May 5
Feliz Cinco De Mayo! Its a happy day for UMass basketball as Terrell Vinson is officially set to join the Minutemen for 2009-10. JTAM has various stories on the top recruit. Here at UMass the lacrosse teams are prepping for their NCAA Tournament games this Sunday. The softball leaves today to head to Fordham for the A-10 Championships which start Thursday. Just Take A Minute has stories on all three teams as well as features on alums Ron Villone and Zack Simmons.
The women's lacrosse team which is rematching against Northwestern in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, was a little surprised to be facing the Wildcats again in the first round according to this story in the Daiiy Collegian.
Check out this recap of the track and field teams performances at the Atlantic 10 Championships in Charlotte this past weekend in the Daily Collegian.
The crew team's competition at the ECAC Championships is covered in the Daily Collegian.
UMassAthletics.com Feature To Check Out: Tournament Centrals have been set up for the men's lacrosse team and the women's lacrosse team. Both pages feature awesome "interactive brackets" check it out!
Don't miss this: The ECAC Lacrosse yearly honors are expected to be announced today. League champ UMass should take home many of the top honors.
Monday, May 4
What a weekend! The weekend was capped Sunday night with the men's and women's lacrosse selection shows. UMass is one of eight schools to have both lax teams reach the NCAA Tournament. How impressive! The men travel to fourth seeded Princeton on Sunday while the women play at top seeded Northwestern. Not to be forgotten, softball and baseball also had big weekends. JTAM has stories on all that, and more.
The Springfield Republican, Boston Herald, and Daily Collegian each have stories on both the Minutemen and Minutewomen lacrosse teams and their upcoming tourney games. The Chicago Tribune also has a story on four time defending national champion Northwestern and its game against UMass.
Lacrosse Magazine has this in-depth analysis of the women's lax tourney, with a mention of the UMass game at Northwestern. The sam publication has a great breakdown of the men's field. The Baltimore Sun has this analysis as well.
The Western Mass Pioneers and former UMass soccer star Chris Brown lost their home opener to Richmond on Saturday. It's covered in the Springfield Republican.
Softball's win on Saturday which clinched its 20th A-10 Regular Season Title was also covered in the Republican.
UMassAthletics.com Feature To Check Out: Want to revisit the magical men's lacrosse run of 2006 as the team prepares for another tournament appearance? Click here for the archived national finalist page!
Don't miss this: Monday means the announcement of weekly awards, including the UMass Athlete of the Week.
