Wes Johnson named first-team All-American

The Associated Press named Syracuse men's basketball star Wes Johnson to their 2010 All-America first team today. Johnson is the first Orange player since Hakim Warrick in 2005 to receive such an honor.  He had already been named to the US Basketball Writers Association first team and was named second team by Sporting News.

Costly gaffes doom Lakers

Last week, Syracuse Post-Standard assistant sports editor Jason Murray sent me on assignment to cover the Oswego State men's hockey team's appearance in the Division III Frozen Four.  It turned out to be a very short assignment. For whatever reason, my article appeared in the paper, but not online at Syracuse.com. Therefore, I have decided to post it here for those that did not get a chance to see it.

Bowdoin v. Oswego State to be streamed online

I am in Oswego for the NCAA quarterfinals. Log onto Oswego.edu/Athletics to watch!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Syracuse (Finally) Joins Big East Tourney At High Noon

Conference rivals Georgetown and Syracuse will tangle for a third time this season when the 2010 Big East tournament resumes today at noon.

It should be interesting to see how the Orange come out for this one, having sat the first two days of action while Georgetown played a little less than 24 hours ago. Naturally, Syracuse coach (and 2010 Oppenheimer Funds Big East Coach of the Year) Jim Boeheim hates this.

"I think it's awful," said Boeheim, whose club earned the top seed this season and will not play until noon Thursday. "Conventional wisdom says the double-bye teams should fare better, but two of the four lost last year. If that doesn't say something, I don't know what does."

But he can't hate the fact that newly-minted conference player of the year Wes Johnson was able to rest an accumulation of injuries for a few extra days. The junior wing man will try to help the Orange avoid their first losing streak of the season today. Syracuse responded to their two previous losses with winning streaks of 11 and four, respectively.  Today's game will be carried by ESPN and ESPN360.com.

Oswego State's Musselwhite Selected For Frozen Four Skills Competition

It has been said that Oswego State senior Neil Musselwhite has "NHL speed." He'll get the chance to show that he at least has Division I speed when he participates in the NCAA Frozen Four Skills Challenge on Apr. 9 at Ford Field in Detroit.

The NCAA announced the field for the annual competition today, Musselwhite was the only men's Division III player to earn an invite. He will vie for the title of fastest skater as part of the East squad.

Musselwhite

Tickets for the event are $10 and are on sale at all Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster.com or by phone at 800/745-3000. The Frozen Four Skills Challenge will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern, and will be preceded by the Hobey Baker Memorial Award at 7 p.m. and the Hockey Humanitarian Award at 6:30 p.m.

NCAA D3 Hockey Tournament Preview: Adrian at St. Norbert

8 p.m. - Cornerstone Community Center

It's put up or shut up time for the Adrian men's ice hockey program.  An unstoppable force in the MCHA since their arrival three seasons ago (67-1 conference record), the Bulldogs finally get their shot in the NCAA tournament after the association granted the conference an automatic bid before the 2009-10 season.

Adrian won their third straight conference tournament, but also suffered their first-ever three-game losing streak to start the calendar year (two losses at Hamline followed by a loss at Oswego State).  Those were the only three out-of-conference road games played by Ron Fogarty's club this season, so they'll be looking to score their first non-MCHA win away from Arrington Ice Arena since Jan. 4, 2009.

St. Norbert is on a 10-game unbeaten streak and coming off of their third NCHA championship in the past four seasons.  Junior goaltender B.J. O'Brien has been Jyle Jones-esque this season, losing just twice in his 26 appearances while stopping more than 92 percent of the shots he saw and letting in little more than a goal-and-a-half per game.  He has allowed just a single goal in seven of his last eight games; the only game preventing that from being a streak of eight was a Feb. 13 shutout of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Prediction: St. Norbert 3-2 in OT
UPDATE: Final, St. Norbert 4-3

NCAA D3 Hockey Tournament Preview: St. Thomas at Gustavus Adolphus

8 p.m. - Don Roberts Ice Rink

St. Thomas sent shock waves through the Division III hockey troposphere when they upset Hamline and Gustavus Adolphus--both on the road and in overtime--to win the MIAC tournament and earn a Pool A bid into the NCAA tournament.

The Tommies' victory last Wednesday was their firt of the season against the Gusties, a club that had outscored St. Thomas 11-1 in their two December meetings.  Despite their 13-10-4 record, coach Terry Skrypek's team is among the hottest in the nation going into tonight's game, having won seven of eight.  The Tommies are hoping that senior netminder Joe Schraeder (79 saves in the last two games) can continue his stellar play and tally his second victory over Gustavus in as many weeks.

Gustavus Adolphus was embarrassed in front of their home crowd seven nights ago and will have revenge on their mind tonight.  The Golden Gusties' offense may have been suffering from a hangover after it took them nearly 139 minutes to top Augsburg in the MIAC semis on Feb. 27.

They should be well-rested tonight as they look to get their high-powered offense (5.93 goals per game) going early.  Right winger David Martinson (29 g, 20 a) was shut out in the previous meeting.  Don't look for that to happen again.

Prediction: 6-3 Gustavus
UPDATE: Final, Gustavus 3-1

NCAA D3 Hockey Tournament Preview: Curry at Elmira

7 p.m. - Murray Athletic Center

Five losses over the last seven games of a season will normally kill a team's chances at making the 11-team NCAA tournament field, but not if you're Aaron Saul and the Elmira College men's hockey program. The first-year coach watched his Soaring Eagles drop an overtime heartbreaker to Manhattanville in the ECAC West championship game on Saturday, then found out less than 24 hours later that his team had been selected over the Valiants (20-6-1) as the recipient of the Pool B bid into the dance. This marks the first time in 26 seasons that the winner of the ECAC West tournament will not participate in the NCAA tournament.

Despite the slow finish, you have to be impressed by Elmira's résumé.  The Eagles own a home victory over SUNYAC champion Oswego State and battled to a 1-1 tie with highly-ranked Plattsburgh in January.  They also responded well to a shocking early-season loss to Morrisville, going 15-1-1 in their next 17 games (the only loss being to Oswego State and the previously-mentioned tie with Plattsbugh).  They'll rely on a spread scoring attack (six players with at least nine goals) and veteran goaltending from senior Casey Tuttle (13-6-1, 2.50 GAA, 91.2 save %) to try and avoid a second straight play-in round loss.

Curry won the ECAC Northeast and earned an automatic bid to the tourney, winning three straight in their conference bracket after finishing the regular season with a pair of losses. The Colonels faced just two tournament teams in the regular season: they were shutout 4-0 by Norwich on New Year's Day then fell 6-4 at Bowdoin on Jan. 6.  They are a young team that typically spends more minutes in the penalty box than their opposition.  However, they have a quartet of sophomores, led by forward Payden Benning (29 g, 35 a), who are capable of lighting the lamp in a hurry.  Curry is making their first tournament appearance since 2004-05 when they were drilled 6-0 by Middlebury in the quarterfinals.

Prediction: Elmira 5-2
UPDATE: Final, Elmira 4-1

Coming Soon: TheVOTL.com Podcast

For the past four years, I had used Garage Band's Gcast service to host all of the radio work I had done with 88.9 FM WNYO Oswego, SportsRadio 620 WHEN Syracuse, and 570 WSYR Syracuse.  Recently, Garage Band announced they would no longer take uploads from their users, effectively ending its service as a host to current podcasts.

After a few weeks of scrambling around to find a new home for my large catalog of MP3 files, I discovered how to make my Blogger account into a podcast host.  I am hoping to have new episodes uploaded soon, with guest appearances from everyone's favorite fireside chatter.  This would require said chatter to download Skype, but Canadians struggle when it comes to life the internets.  Stay tuned.

Perfect Weekend Puts Syracuse Crunch Back In Calder Cup Playoff Picture

A three-win weekend has the Syracue Crunch thinking playoffs again.  The club posted a 5-2 decision over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday, topped Portland 4-3 the next night, then traveled to Binghamton to score a 4-3 overtime win over the Senators on Sunday.

Syracuse now sits just a point behind Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for fourth place in the East Division.  However, due to the layout of the Eastern Conference, the fourth-place team in the East Division is not guaranteed a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

The Atlantic Division is stocked with one more teams--eight total--than any of the other three divisions.  Therefore, if the fifth-place team in the Atlantic has more points than the fourth-place team in the East, they get the playoff spot.  Bridgeport currently occupies the fifth spot in the Atlantic and has four more points than Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.


Syracuse has 16 games remaining and will return to the ice Friday night when they host Lowell.

Full NCAA Division III Hockey Bracket Released

The NCAA finally revealed the full layout for the 2010 Division III men's ice hockey tournament.  Oswego State finds themselves in the same half of the bracket as the western schools;  Plattsburgh, Middlebury, Norwich, Elmira, and Curry make up the other half.

The way this year's tournament is set, the potential exists for some great rivalry match-ups.  We're already guaranteed one such showdown in the quarterfinal round when Plattsburgh visits Middlebury on Saturday.  We could also see an Elmira-Norwich game on the same day if the Soaring Eagles can get past Curry on Wednesday.  I'll post previews of all three play-in games throughout the day.

A Headache-Filled Season Ends For Former Oswego Coach George Roll

The Clarkson University men's hockey team failed to escape the first round of the ECAC tournament for the second year in a row, losing 3-2 Sunday evening at the hands of arch-rival St. Lawrence.

The Golden Knights were playing shorthanded the entire season after two defensive recruits were suspended by the school following an off-ice incident.  Additionally, several defensemen fell to injury over the course of the season, forcing head coach George Roll to shift some pivots to the blue line.  The results were poor.

Clarkson went through a long stretch of failures this season, going 1-12-3 from Nov. 21-Feb. 6. The lowest point came in an 11-2 loss at Union on national television on Feb. 5.

Roll, who took the Clarkson job in 2003 after leading Oswego State to the Division III championship game, is just 19-43-11 in the two seasons following the program's last Cleary Cup.  Despite the suspensions and injuries that had depleted his roster, Roll came under fire from some impatient fans earlier this year.

In recent weeks Clarkson coach George Roll has been criticized in an anonymous letter to weekly publication North Country Now, and on the Internet in the Clarkson fan forum, LetsGoTech.com.

With a team currently in last place in the ECAC Hockey standings, coming off of last year's 10-19-7 season, some believe the criticism is justified.

Despite possessing a record of 5-20-3 on Feb. 11, Clarkson played competitively down the stretch and went 4-4-1 over their last nine games.  They never lost by more than a goal during that stretch and came within five minutes and 13 seconds of ending fifth-seeded St. Lawrence's season on their own ice.

"I think the future is bright with the guys returning," said Roll. "I thought our young guys on defense (Andrew Himelson and Nik Pokulok) had really good freshmen years. I thought (forward) Nick Tremblay really started coming along. With the kids coming in, I like our prospects of getting it turned around in a hurry next year. But there is going to be a lot of sting from this one."

For more on Clarkson hockey, read Cap Carey

For more on St. Lawrence hockey, read Dan Cassavaugh

For more on the ECAC tournament, read Joe Gladziszewski

D3 Hockey Selection Sunday: Oswego State Draws Bowdoin in Quarterfinals

Oswego State is one victory away from a trip to the 2010 NCAA Frozen Four in Lake Placid.

The Division III men's ice hockey selection committee gave the SUNYAC champions a bye into the quarterfinals of the 2010 NCAA tournament in the bracket leaked just moments ago.  The Lakers will host NESCAC tournament runner-up Bowdoin on Saturday night at the Campus Center.  The Polar Bears won eight straight games to finish their season before dropping Sunday's NESCAC championship at Middlebury by a score of 3-2.

Only four "western" schools were invited to the dance, three of whom were guaranteed a spot after they won their conference tournament.  All four will have to take the ice in Wednesday night's play-in round.

Wednesday's Play-ins:
MCHA Champion Adrian (24-3-0)
at NCHA Champion St. Norbert (21-3-3)

MIAC Champion St. Thomas (13-10-4)
at Gustavus Adolphus (19-6-2)

ECACNE Champion Curry (19-8-1)
at Elmira (18-8-1)

Saturday's Quarterfinals:
Curry/Elmira winner
at ECACW Champion Norwich (23-1-4)

Bowdoin (19-6-1)
at SUNYAC Champion Oswego (25-2-0)

Plattsburgh (18-5-4)
at NESCAC Champion Middlebury (19-4-4)

West first-round winners
play each other

Oswego State Scratches Seven-Year SUNYAC Itch

ESPN Radio Returns To Syracuse After Brief Absence

The Central New York radio landscape welcomes an unprecedented third sports talk station to the area today as ESPN Radio 97.7 FM begins broadcasting.  The World Wide Leader had been absent from the Syracuse airwaves since breaking ties with Citadel's WSKO 1260 (formerly WNSS) last month.

Galaxy Communications is ESPN's new home in the Salt City, as they had an extra frequency available to accommodate ESPN's wish to bring ESPN Deportes to Syracuse listeners.  On-air personalities like "Mike & Mike in the Morning" and Colin Cowherd can now be heard in FM stereo in Central New York for the first time.

Meanwhile, WSKO is now affiliating themselves with Sporting News Radio.  Local talk show host Brent Axe will remain on the air and his show will now run from 2-6 in the afternoon rather than 3-6.

SportsRadio 620 WHEN remains a FOX Sports Radio affiliate.

Lundqvist Stops 50, Loses

It would appear that this video does not work. I'm okay with that.

Hank Lundqvist made a career-best 50 stops last night in a performance that drew comparisons to Mike Richter's 59-save effort in Vancouver some 19 years ago (a feat which Adam Wodon was immediately reminded of).  But then Wade Redden had to go and ruin it by hooking Jordan Staal in overtime.  Staal scored the game winner on the resulting power play to give Pittsburgh two points and sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division.

The Rangers picked up a point in defeat and are now tied for eighth place in the Eastern Conference with Atlanta.  Both teams have 66 points, but the Thrashers have a pair of games in hand.  The blue shirts travel to Washington tomorrow night to face a Capitals club that hasn't lost at home since Dec. 28...

DECEMBER 28TH!

On a positive note, Chris Drury's backhand-from-his-knees goal in the first period made SportCenter's top plays this morning.  It was quite impressive, go ahead and click the play button up top to wat--nevermind.

Former Marrone Assistants Rob Spence and Jaime Elizondo Find Work

Rob Spence (Frank Ordoñez/P-S)

Two of the three assistants fired by Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone in November have recently found jobs, according to FootballScoop.com.

Rob Spence, last year's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Orange, has accepted a position on Temple's staff as wide receivers coach.  The Owls, who were booted from the Big East Conference in 2005 for their lack of competitiveness, won nine games last season under fourth-year coach Al Golden.  Temple appeared in the 2009 EagleBank Bowl in DC, their first postseason appearance since they won 10 games in 1979, but lost to UCLA 30-21.

Spence replaces Kevin Gilbride, a former grad assistant at Syracuse and son of the New York Giants offensive coordinator with the same name.  The younger Gilbride was hired by the Giants last month to be their offensive quality control coach.

Elizondo (Argonauts.ca)

Ironically, Syracuse's former wide receivers coach, Jaime Elizondo, has been hired as the offensive coordinator of the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts.  That franchise has gone downhill at an alarming rate, winning just seven games over the past two seasons, breaking a string of six consecutive playoff appearances (2002-2007) in the process.  They are just six seasons removed from their last Grey Cup title.

The third assistant that Marrone fired, Derrick Jackson, caught on with Akron in January.  He will coach the Zips' defensive line, the same responsibility he held for three seasons at Syracuse.

Video: Ryan Callahan Doesn't Need A Post-Olympics Rest

Syracuse Hoops Tops Media, Coaches Polls

The Syracuse men's basketball program sits atop the national polls for the first time since that season when they became the first two seed to lose to a fifteen seed in NCAA tournament history.  That seems to have everyone really excited.

The Orange jumped ahead of Kansas, Kentucky and Purdue after all three schools lost to conference foes last week.  Of those teams, the Jayhawks were the only one to lose to an unranked opponent, yet they still retained six first-place votes.

It would appear that some, including this jackass, think that Kansas' body of work is good enough to keep them ahead of Syracuse.  Thankfully, 59 other writers, 23 coaches and Bobby Knight disagree.

(Click the poll image on the right to enlarge.)

Canada Tops US For Olympic Hockey Gold