I have few rules in life, but one of them is this: any time the United States is playing for the gold medal in Olympic curling, I have to keep a running diary. And I'm doing it live at a ridiculous hour. Four years ago, I did a running diary of the women's gold medal game on tape delay. But I don't want to take any risk of this being spoiled for me. I love curling. It’s my fourth favorite sport (by the way, soccer was way too high on that list, I apologize to myself, it's not in the top ten). I get to see a lot less of it than my three favorite sports. So I love the Winter Olympics. I’m shocked that the United States has made it this far. Beating Canada in the semifinal has to be the biggest upset the US has pulled off in the Winter Olympics in my lifetime, right? I was born in 1984, so I wasn’t around for the Miracle on Ice. US-Canada in curling didn’t have the historical geopolitical significance of the Miracle on Ice, but isn’t Canada in curling pretty much what those Soviet teams were in hockey?
Much like when we beat the Soviets in 1980, we still need to win another one for the gold medal. I’m really excited for this. How much do I want this? Here’s how I’d rank all the things I want to see happen in sports:
1. Notre Dame National Championship in football- Maybe when Jenkins, Swarbrick, and Kelly are gone I’ll get to see this.
2. Dodgers World Series championship- I haven’t blogged about it, but they were so close. Game 7 was never close, but it went seven. The Dodgers definitely could have won two of the games they lost. The final combined score for the series was 34-34 (I didn’t have to look that up). It hurt to be that close and not win. I don’t think I’ve fully appreciated how much it hurt. Hopefully they’ll get one (hopefully more than one) with Clayton Kershaw on the team. But if they don’t, it will really hurt. I think what I’m most upset about is that they never won one with Andre Ethier on the team.
3. Celtics championship- I got to see them beat their biggest rival in the NBA Finals in 2008. But they lost a heartbreaking seven game series to their biggest rival in the NBA Finals in 2010. I could really go for another championship. I have confidence that Danny Ainge, Brad Stevens, Kyrie Irving, and Gordon Hayward will get it done in the next few years.
4. Notre Dame National Championship in men’s basketball- We’ll see how everything shakes out with the FBI investigation, but it could be good for Notre Dame. I’m worried about Demetrius Jackson’s involvement, but if he (or his family) had lunch with an agent and/or got money from an agent after his last game at Notre Dame, then that’s nothing. I seriously doubt that Notre Dame is guilty of whatever Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisville, etc. is guilty of. I love Mike Brey and I’d love to see him win a championship. By the way, Notre Dame football was clearly number one on this list and the Dodgers were clearly number two. But it was pretty close between the Celtics and Notre Dame basketball.
5. Jets Super Bowl championship- At one point in my life, this might have been number one on this list. I guess if the Jets ever got to be good again, I’d get back into them (unless they draft Sam Darnold, I can’t go through caring too much about a team with a quarterback from USC again).
6. USA Curling Olympic gold medal- I could divide this into men and women. Women’s curling would be ahead of men’s, but I’ll take a men’s gold medal.
7. Rangers Stanley Cup- I saw it once, which is probably a lifetime’s worth of championships for a Ranger fan.
8. Notre Dame National Championship in women’s basketball- We’re probably the best team that hasn’t won a National Championship in the last ten years. Muffet McGraw is awesome and I can’t stand UConn. I’d love to see us beat them.
9. Notre Dame National Championship in hockey- I do watch some Notre Dame hockey games from time to time. I hate the fact that we’re in the Big Ten in hockey, but whatever.
10. USA Hockey Olympic gold medal- The United States is not a hockey country, but it’s pretty cool that one of the biggest moments in sports in the history of the country comes from hockey. I would have loved to have seen it in 1980. The women beating Canada was nice. Hopefully I’ll get to see the men do it someday.
11. Notre Dame National Championship in baseball- I’d be pretty excited if we ever made it to the College World Series. We’ve only been there twice: 1957 and 2002. Since I enrolled there, we’ve only made the NCAA Tournament three times: 2005, 2006, and 2015 (I was a student in 2005 and 2006 and I have no memory of this).
12. American male winning Wimbledon- This was a common occurrence when I was young. Wimbledon is the only tournament that I care much about.
13. USA Basketball Olympic gold medal- I love basketball, but we should always win the gold medal in basketball. If we don’t, it’s a complete failure. When we do win, I’m not going to get too excited about it.
14. USA World Baseball Classic championship- I almost forgot that this happened last year. I have this ahead of winning the Olympic gold medal in baseball for two reasons. First, the World Baseball Classic has players that I know. Second, the Olympics happen during baseball season, when I’m much more concerned about the Dodgers than about Olympic baseball.
After that, I would put Olympic gold medals in baseball, volleyball/beach volleyball, short track speed skating, swimming, track, and cross country skiing (just kidding, I definitely don’t care about cross country skiing, but that call of the American winning was pretty cool). Notre Dame championships I’d like to see would be volleyball, soccer, and lacrosse. Notice that the World Cup isn’t on here. I don’t care. Soccer is stupid (I mentioned Notre Dame soccer because I’ll watch Notre Dame playing soccer for a National Championship if I have nothing else to do and nothing else interesting is on TV).
Here we go:
1:24- They just went through John Shuster’s Olympic career. I had always said that Pete Fenson was the greatest American curler of all time for winning the bronze in 2006. I’ve joked about him before, but it’s got to be Shuster now, right? Shuster was on Fenson’s team in 2006. And he’s been the American skip in three straight Olympics since then. He’s going to add a gold or silver today.
1:28- Mr. T called the curling team to wish them good luck. I’m not making this up.
1:31- I just looked up hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics. The Soviet Union won silver even though we beat them in our second to last game. If we had lost to Finland in our last game, the Soviet Union would have won gold. It wasn’t really semifinals and finals. It was the top two teams from each group. Each team played the two teams from the other group and it was based on points. In fact, there was still a chance that we wouldn’t win any medal even after beating the Soviet Union. Weird.
1:35- First stone for the US. It’s in the house. The US has yellow and Sweden has red. I don’t like that because the American flag has red in it and the Swedish flag has yellow in it.
1:37- Sweden has the hammer because they were the one seed. It’s early, but I’m expecting a blank end. Matt Hamilton is from Wisconsin. I was telling my friend Dennis who lives in Minnesota that I was frustrated by Canada’s dominance in curling. But when you consider that American curling is pretty much Minnesota curling and Canada has ten times the population of Minnesota, it’s a little more understandable. But Hamilton is from Wisconsin.
1:41- First rock for John Shuster coming up. There’s only one rock in play. This should be a blank end.
1:43- And we have a blank first end. Sweden keeps the hammer.
1:45- South Korea is playing Sweden in the women’s gold medal game. I appreciate how women’s curling is the main event of curling at the Olympics. If John Shuster can get to the gold medal game, then someday the American women can win a medal.
1:48- Sweden just made an impressive double takeout. Sweden is lying one.
1:52- Tyler George just made two impressive shots. The US is lying one with five total rocks left in this end.
1:55- Shuster is only the third curler ever to be in four Olympics. And he’ll have two Olympic medals. He has to be the greatest American curler ever.
1:56- The two teams had been exchanging rocks in the house, but Sweden just ignored the American rock and played a draw to the four foot.
1:57- Shuster just missed a run back. We had a chance to force Sweden to take one. Now they should get two. Nuts.
1:58- 2-0 Sweden. Plenty of curling left to play. The US gets the hammer.
2:05- The US just bumped their own guard and ended up with two in the house, but Sweden is still lying two. This end could be trouble.
2:07- The US scored the most points in round robin play, but also gave up the second most. You get some high scoring games with the Americans.
2:09- Tyler George just made a nice double. The US lying two with skip rocks left. Apparently Ivanka Trump is at the game.
2:11- Niklas Edin just answered with a nice double. Sweden is lying two.
2:12- Shuster missed a double. Can Edin miss a shot here? That would be helpful.
2:13- Edin left Shuster with a chance for a double to score two.
2:14- Shuster just made the shot. We’re tied at 2! USA! chants from the crowd.
2:16- It’s time for a beer. I have a handful of Octoberfests left that are good until April. It’s my second favorite beer currently in my refrigerator (I have some Chocolate Bock in there). Maybe I’ll have a Chocolate Bock to celebrate if we win. I really enjoy watching curling and having a beer. I also enjoy watching baseball and having a beer. Part of that is being at a game in warm weather and enjoying an outdoor beer. I don’t feel the same way with other sports. With Notre Dame football, I prefer to watch the game without any alcohol and then drink to celebrate victory (the NCAA can’t vacate the victory beers I had in 2012). With basketball, I could go either way.
2:21- We have a lot of rocks in the house. Shuster and George are strategizing.
2:24- Tyler George just made a nice shot. Sweden is lying one, but there are a lot of rocks in the house. I love curling, but when you get to a spot like this and there are a lot of rocks in the house, I’m pretty much clueless about proper strategy. And I think it’s more exciting when I have no idea what the proper strategy is.
2:27- Skip rocks remain. Sweden is lying two after a nice shot.
2:28- Shuster just made a beautiful shot to give the US shot rock.
2:30- Edin just missed his first shot of the fourth end.
2:31- Shuster left Sweden with an opportunity for two, but if they miss, we can steal two. Huge shot coming up here for Edin.
2:33- We’re going to get a measurement. I think the US is getting a steal of one. This is exciting.
2:34- I was right. The US takes the lead for the first time!
2:42- We’re halfway through the fifth end and we have a lot of rocks in the house again. Sweden is lying one.
2:43- Tyler George just made a nice shot and the US is lying four. We get a reaction shot from Duluth, Minnesota. They’re excited.
2:45- The Americans are strategizing again. There are lots of gesticulations with the brooms and I don’t know what’s going on again.
2:46- They’re taking a lot of time to think about this shot, but the US has more time left on their clock than Sweden does.
2:48- Big miss for Sweden. They got rid of one yellow, but they definitely wanted to get rid of more than that.
2:51- Shuster throws a guard. I’m hoping for another steal. Three rocks left in the end.
2:53- Shuster just missed badly. Sweden is lying one with the last shot of the end coming up. Sweden has a chance for two.
2:55- Sweden gets two. 4-3 Sweden after five. We get the hammer down one in the sixth. Not a terrible situation.
3:02- We’re in the sixth. If the US had given up one in the fourth instead of getting the steal, they would have been down 3-2 and you probably would have wanted to blank the fifth to keep the hammer in the even ends. So being down 4-3 with the hammer in even ends is fine. Let’s see if we can take advantage.
3:05- Sweden just missed a chance for a double.
3:08- Sweden just made a double. I’m not optimistic about our chances for multiple points in this end.
3:09- Sweden just missed on a run back. We might have a chance for two.
3:12- Sweden took out a yellow rock on their last shot, but they left a pretty easy shot for two.
3:13- The US scores two to retake the lead. This is a great game. I’m hoping for a force of one to get the hammer back in the even ends with the game tied.
3:16- I just got a text from Sean. It’s a reasonable hour on the west coast. He used an American flag emoji so you know he’s excited. I’ve never used an emoji in my life.
3:18- Bad shot by Matt Hamilton. He jammed a red onto a yellow and Sweden is lying one.
3:20- Hamilton just redeemed himself. The Swedes are shooting a higher percentage than the US, but the US is winning. It made me think of the “lies, damned lies, and statistics” quote that apparently comes from Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli.
3:22- The Swedes are strategizing. That’s some language they got there. And they talk like that 24/7, huh? I assume they probably speak English also. The Americans don’t speak Swedish. Is there any advantage there for the Swedes?
3:28- Edin just had a big miss. One rock left for each team. The US has shot rock right now. I’ll take a steal if we can get it. But as long as Sweden doesn’t score two, this is a good end.
3:32- Edin just made a nice shot to get one. We can live with that. We’re tied and the US has the hammer in the eighth.
3:39- John Shuster just did some impressive sweeping to get a yellow rock into the house. I thought it had no chance. Sweden is lying one.
3:42- Tyler George has a chance for a huge double here.
3:43- He couldn’t get rid of both reds, but he got rid of one and the US is lying three with skip rocks left.
3:46- Shuster got rid of the Swedish shot rock and Sweden calls their timeout.
3:49- Sweden didn’t get the roll they wanted. The US has a chance for a big end on Shuster’s last rock.
3:50- Shuster just made the biggest shot of his life. He makes the double and the US scores five! I let out an audible “Yeah!” Two ends to go.
3:51- Reaction shot from the Duluth Curling Club. They’re excited.
3:52- The US put their first two rocks through the house intentionally. We want as few rocks in play as possible.
3:53- It’s time to start peeling off some Swedish rocks. Sean just reminded me of Shuster sweeping that rock into the house in the last end. I thought it had no chance to get there. It got us an extra point.
3:55- The most Sweden could possible score in this end is four. The US is in great shape.
3:56- And we just swept a Swedish rock out of the house.
4:00- Sweden just scored two. We’re up 10-7 going to the tenth with the hammer. Let’s finish this off. I want it to end with Shuster making his first shot to clinch it. I don’t even know if it will get to that point.
4:01- Sweden starts with a guard.
4:02- John Landsteiner tried to tick the guard for the US, but he ended up removing it, so it gets replaced because of the free guard zone rule. That sentence made absolutely no sense to people who don’t understand curling. Not what the US wanted, but it shouldn’t be a big deal.
4:03- The second US rock gets thrown right through the house.
4:04- Matt Hamilton gets a double peel of the two guards.
4:05- Matt Hamilton’s last rock of the Olympics is a successful peel.
4:06- Tyler George peels a guard.
4:07- Sweden puts up a guard. They have one in the house. They need their last two rocks to score. George’s last shot is a successful peel. Shuster is going to get to shoot for the gold.
4:09- Sweden has conceded before Shuster even gets to shoot. I really wanted to see him shoot for the gold. But the USA has done what I thought was impossible. This is the greatest victory in US curling history. The Americans are celebrating.
4:10- Sweden still has better statistics. But who has the gold medal?
4:11- I’m playing the Star Spangled Banner.
4:17- The only thing that could have ruined the Star Spangled Banner that I just listened to was Fergie singing it. The United States has won a gold medal in curling. I’m going to bed. God Bless America.
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Hello Nassau Coliseum
Before it was renovated, I called Nassau Coliseum "the worst stadium/arena in major North American professional sports." I recently attended some basketball games at Nassau Coliseum. I’ve been to basketball at Nassau Coliseum before. The Knicks used to play a preseason game there (this was a long time ago). I went to at least one of those. I googled Knicks preseason games at Nassau Coliseum. Apparently they played the Nets there in 2012. I didn’t realize that. I googled and found an article mentioning that they played the 76ers there in 1993. I’m pretty sure I was at that game. There might have been another preseason game or two at the Nassau Coliseum that I went to. There was also NBA Summer League at Nassau Coliseum in the mid-late 1990s before Summer League was a big thing. I went to that with my dad. It was somewhere in the 1996-1998 range. Now that the Nassau Coliseum has been renovated, the Long Island Nets are the only permanent resident. I wanted to check it out after the renovation so I got tickets for two events.
First was a MAAC tripleheader. It caught my attention because Fairfield was playing and my dad went there. They were the first game. We only stayed for that game and half of the second game. It was a very small crowd and you could just sit wherever you wanted. We sat right at mid-court at a little bit of an elevation. Great seats. It was Fairfield against Quinnipiac. Quinnipiac led for most of the game. Fairfield tried to make it interesting late, but Quinnipiac held on for the win 75-70. I was interested in checking out the concessions. A lot of them weren’t open, which wasn’t surprising with such a small crowd. There was a barbecue concession stand. I had a brisket sandwich that was solid. They have a little beer garden/Umberto’s Pizza. I didn’t feel like drinking. Umberto’s Pizza in New Hyde Park is excellent. I feel like the personal pizza that’s being made at Nassau Coliseum is not going to match the quality of the real thing. Also, I don’t feel like paying $14.50 for it. I don’t know what the attendance was, but it wasn’t a lot. If they do an event like this next year, I think a MAAC-CAA Challenge would be an idea. Do Fairfield vs. Northeastern, Iona vs. Hofstra, and Manhattan vs. Delaware (or something like that).
Then we went the other night for NBA G-League. It was the Long Island Nets against the Maine Red Claws. We went because the Red Claws are the Celtics’ affiliate. We had the same view of the action as we did for the college basketball, just on the other side of the court. It was a good game to go to since it’s the NBA All Star Break. The Celtics had Guerschon Yabusele playing with the Red Claws to get some playing time. The coach of the Nets is Ronald Nored. You probably don’t remember that name, but I do. He was on Brad Steven’s teams at Butler. I loved those teams. I remember at one point Mike Brey was rumored to go to Maryland and I came up with the idea of Brad Stevens going from Butler to Notre Dame. It worked out much better than that for me. Mike Brey stayed at Notre Dame and Brad Stevens went to the Celtics. The Nets controlled the game the whole way. At one point they led by 30. The Red Claws cut into to it, but the Nets won by seven (which I think was as close as it got in the second half). Yabusele had 24 points, but he wasn’t dominant or anything. The last time these two teams played on Long Island, Kadeem Allen scored 46 for the Red Claws. This time he had 14. The Red Claws also have the number 1 overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, Anthony Bennett. He didn't play. The box score says "NWT - Canada National Team." The box score said that there were 1,710 people there, but my dad didn’t believe it.
A few other thoughts. The G-League uniforms were pretty bad. The Red Claws’ uniforms were particularly bad. Red and green together works at Christmas. They don’t work together for anything else. The halftime entertainment made me think of this (except these performers actually weren't white):
The concessions were very limited at the Nets game. I ended up just having a hot dog because, again, I’m not paying $14.50 for imitation Umberto’s. The mustard selection was lacking. I mean, this is New York, you have to have real mustard. Cosmo Kramer has some thoughts:
Before I get to my overall Nassau Coliseum thoughts, I have to mention that the Brooklyn Nets have the worst name in the NBA. They’re named for an inanimate piece of basketball equipment. And there’s no way they would have been named the Nets if it didn’t rhyme with Mets and Jets. My idea is that the Brooklyn Nets should change their name (I don’t have a name in mind, but they can come up with something better) and the Long Island Nets should stay the Nets.
As for the renovated Nassau Coliseum, it’s not bad. I was told before going there that it was like a mini Barclays Center. That seems like an accurate description. The seating and the concourse definitely remind me of the Barclays Center. It went from being the worst arena in major North American professional sports to being a solid arena that doesn't host major North American professional sports anymore. It’s no Madison Square Garden. And it doesn’t have the size or the capacity of the Barclays Center, but it serves a purpose.
It would be cool if some minor college basketball conference had their tournament there. I was thinking about possibilities. The America East Conference would be one, but it seems a little too far south since that’s mostly a New England/upstate New York conference (Stony Brook and UMBC are the exceptions). The CAA isn’t a bad option. You’d definitely get some Hofstra people to go. I just check on where they’ve had their tournament in the past. It’s always been Baltimore or farther south, but why not bring it to Long Island for a year or two? The MAAC Tournament has mostly been in Albany. You could put it on Long Island, but I don’t know if you’d draw better on Long Island than Albany. Apparently the Nassau Coliseum is being considered for the 2020 MAAC Tournament. The conference commissioner said he was hoping for 6,000-7,000 people for the tripleheader. Maybe a bunch of people showed up late (Iona-Manhattan was the last game and that was the best game of the day), but there were nowhere close to 6,000 people there when we were there. Most people aren’t going to go to the MAAC Tournament unless they have a connection to one of those schools and Albany is more centrally located for that conference (it’s Siena’s home court). You could put the NEC Tournament there, but you’d be getting some really tiny crowds for those schools. The Patriot League is a conference that goes from Boston to Washington, DC, but it doesn’t have any school that’s all that close to the Nassau Coliseum. Some of these minor conferences are probably better off just sticking with campus sites. I love neutral sites for conference tournaments because I love the idea of four basketball games at the same place on the same day, but they’re probably better off with some energy with a game on campus rather than playing in front of 750 people in Nassau Coliseum. The Atlantic 10 would probably be the dream scenario for the Nassau Coliseum, but I don’t see them going there when they’ve kind of made the Barclays Center their home (when they’re not getting kicked out by the ACC). Of all the realistic possibilities, I think the CAA would be the best option. It’s probably the best of the conferences I mentioned and I think it would draw the best.
When I went to the college tripleheader on January 27, I thought about the Islanders. Their new Belmont arena had recently been announced, but it’s not going to be done for a while. The Islanders are last in attendance at just over 12,000 fans per game. Barclays Center wasn’t built for hockey and their fans don’t like it. With the reduced capacity after the renovation, Nassau Coliseum now holds 13,000 people for hockey. I thought why not just play there until the new arena is built? Two days later it was announced that they’re kind of doing that. They’re going to play 12 home games there next year and then a total of 48 over the following two seasons. I assume they’ll draw very well next year with 12 home games there. Depending on how the Islanders are doing, there might not be as much excitement there after that (it won’t be new anymore and the supply will increase greatly). If tickets aren’t too expensive, I’d definitely be up for going to an Islander game or two. I just wonder how the new arena will impact Nassau Coliseum once it’s done. You won’t have hockey there anymore. I would assume that the Long Island Nets will stay because it’s not like they need a bigger/nicer arena. But what about concerts and college basketball? Villanova played Hofstra and Maryland played Stony Brook in the Nassau Coliseum this season. Are those games going to be played at Nassau Coliseum when there’s a newer/bigger/nicer arena on Long Island? Anyway, I don’t know how often I’m going to be back at Nassau Coliseum, but I guess it’s good to have a nice Nassau Coliseum instead of a really crappy Nassau Coliseum.
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| It has a weird spaceship look on the outside. That probably cost a whole lot of money and serves no purpose, but okay. |
First was a MAAC tripleheader. It caught my attention because Fairfield was playing and my dad went there. They were the first game. We only stayed for that game and half of the second game. It was a very small crowd and you could just sit wherever you wanted. We sat right at mid-court at a little bit of an elevation. Great seats. It was Fairfield against Quinnipiac. Quinnipiac led for most of the game. Fairfield tried to make it interesting late, but Quinnipiac held on for the win 75-70. I was interested in checking out the concessions. A lot of them weren’t open, which wasn’t surprising with such a small crowd. There was a barbecue concession stand. I had a brisket sandwich that was solid. They have a little beer garden/Umberto’s Pizza. I didn’t feel like drinking. Umberto’s Pizza in New Hyde Park is excellent. I feel like the personal pizza that’s being made at Nassau Coliseum is not going to match the quality of the real thing. Also, I don’t feel like paying $14.50 for it. I don’t know what the attendance was, but it wasn’t a lot. If they do an event like this next year, I think a MAAC-CAA Challenge would be an idea. Do Fairfield vs. Northeastern, Iona vs. Hofstra, and Manhattan vs. Delaware (or something like that).
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| Our view for Fairfield-Quinnipiac |
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| Brisket sandwich |
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| I took a walk around after the first game. You can see the Nets ABA banners. |
Then we went the other night for NBA G-League. It was the Long Island Nets against the Maine Red Claws. We went because the Red Claws are the Celtics’ affiliate. We had the same view of the action as we did for the college basketball, just on the other side of the court. It was a good game to go to since it’s the NBA All Star Break. The Celtics had Guerschon Yabusele playing with the Red Claws to get some playing time. The coach of the Nets is Ronald Nored. You probably don’t remember that name, but I do. He was on Brad Steven’s teams at Butler. I loved those teams. I remember at one point Mike Brey was rumored to go to Maryland and I came up with the idea of Brad Stevens going from Butler to Notre Dame. It worked out much better than that for me. Mike Brey stayed at Notre Dame and Brad Stevens went to the Celtics. The Nets controlled the game the whole way. At one point they led by 30. The Red Claws cut into to it, but the Nets won by seven (which I think was as close as it got in the second half). Yabusele had 24 points, but he wasn’t dominant or anything. The last time these two teams played on Long Island, Kadeem Allen scored 46 for the Red Claws. This time he had 14. The Red Claws also have the number 1 overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, Anthony Bennett. He didn't play. The box score says "NWT - Canada National Team." The box score said that there were 1,710 people there, but my dad didn’t believe it.
A few other thoughts. The G-League uniforms were pretty bad. The Red Claws’ uniforms were particularly bad. Red and green together works at Christmas. They don’t work together for anything else. The halftime entertainment made me think of this (except these performers actually weren't white):
The concessions were very limited at the Nets game. I ended up just having a hot dog because, again, I’m not paying $14.50 for imitation Umberto’s. The mustard selection was lacking. I mean, this is New York, you have to have real mustard. Cosmo Kramer has some thoughts:
Before I get to my overall Nassau Coliseum thoughts, I have to mention that the Brooklyn Nets have the worst name in the NBA. They’re named for an inanimate piece of basketball equipment. And there’s no way they would have been named the Nets if it didn’t rhyme with Mets and Jets. My idea is that the Brooklyn Nets should change their name (I don’t have a name in mind, but they can come up with something better) and the Long Island Nets should stay the Nets.
As for the renovated Nassau Coliseum, it’s not bad. I was told before going there that it was like a mini Barclays Center. That seems like an accurate description. The seating and the concourse definitely remind me of the Barclays Center. It went from being the worst arena in major North American professional sports to being a solid arena that doesn't host major North American professional sports anymore. It’s no Madison Square Garden. And it doesn’t have the size or the capacity of the Barclays Center, but it serves a purpose.
It would be cool if some minor college basketball conference had their tournament there. I was thinking about possibilities. The America East Conference would be one, but it seems a little too far south since that’s mostly a New England/upstate New York conference (Stony Brook and UMBC are the exceptions). The CAA isn’t a bad option. You’d definitely get some Hofstra people to go. I just check on where they’ve had their tournament in the past. It’s always been Baltimore or farther south, but why not bring it to Long Island for a year or two? The MAAC Tournament has mostly been in Albany. You could put it on Long Island, but I don’t know if you’d draw better on Long Island than Albany. Apparently the Nassau Coliseum is being considered for the 2020 MAAC Tournament. The conference commissioner said he was hoping for 6,000-7,000 people for the tripleheader. Maybe a bunch of people showed up late (Iona-Manhattan was the last game and that was the best game of the day), but there were nowhere close to 6,000 people there when we were there. Most people aren’t going to go to the MAAC Tournament unless they have a connection to one of those schools and Albany is more centrally located for that conference (it’s Siena’s home court). You could put the NEC Tournament there, but you’d be getting some really tiny crowds for those schools. The Patriot League is a conference that goes from Boston to Washington, DC, but it doesn’t have any school that’s all that close to the Nassau Coliseum. Some of these minor conferences are probably better off just sticking with campus sites. I love neutral sites for conference tournaments because I love the idea of four basketball games at the same place on the same day, but they’re probably better off with some energy with a game on campus rather than playing in front of 750 people in Nassau Coliseum. The Atlantic 10 would probably be the dream scenario for the Nassau Coliseum, but I don’t see them going there when they’ve kind of made the Barclays Center their home (when they’re not getting kicked out by the ACC). Of all the realistic possibilities, I think the CAA would be the best option. It’s probably the best of the conferences I mentioned and I think it would draw the best.
When I went to the college tripleheader on January 27, I thought about the Islanders. Their new Belmont arena had recently been announced, but it’s not going to be done for a while. The Islanders are last in attendance at just over 12,000 fans per game. Barclays Center wasn’t built for hockey and their fans don’t like it. With the reduced capacity after the renovation, Nassau Coliseum now holds 13,000 people for hockey. I thought why not just play there until the new arena is built? Two days later it was announced that they’re kind of doing that. They’re going to play 12 home games there next year and then a total of 48 over the following two seasons. I assume they’ll draw very well next year with 12 home games there. Depending on how the Islanders are doing, there might not be as much excitement there after that (it won’t be new anymore and the supply will increase greatly). If tickets aren’t too expensive, I’d definitely be up for going to an Islander game or two. I just wonder how the new arena will impact Nassau Coliseum once it’s done. You won’t have hockey there anymore. I would assume that the Long Island Nets will stay because it’s not like they need a bigger/nicer arena. But what about concerts and college basketball? Villanova played Hofstra and Maryland played Stony Brook in the Nassau Coliseum this season. Are those games going to be played at Nassau Coliseum when there’s a newer/bigger/nicer arena on Long Island? Anyway, I don’t know how often I’m going to be back at Nassau Coliseum, but I guess it’s good to have a nice Nassau Coliseum instead of a really crappy Nassau Coliseum.
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Let's go Eagles, I guess
I’m finding it hard to care too much about the Super Bowl. I’m ready to just move on to the Winter Olympics and curling. I’ve continued to become less and less of an NFL fan. Part of that is the Jets being the Jets. Part of it is NFL players disrespecting the flag of the only country in the world where they could make millions of dollars playing football for a living (just because they have the right to do it doesn’t make it the right thing to do). And part of it was the seeming inevitability of the Patriots making it to the Super Bowl again. Of course, I was rooting for the Jaguars despite their amazingly ugly uniforms. In the NFC, I was really hoping for the Vikings to make it to the Super Bowl. The home Super Bowl would have been cool and I would have had no problem rooting for Harrison Smith against the Patriots. As it is, we have the Patriots, no Notre Dame players, and another team that I’ve never liked.
This is the second Patriots-Eagles Super Bowl. The first one was right after I transferred to Notre Dame. Charlie Weis had been hired as Notre Dame’s new coach. I was rooting for him because I thought him winning the Super Bowl would be good for Notre Dame. Oh, how silly that was. I didn’t hate the Patriots then. They had not become the NFL’s evil empire and they hadn’t been caught cheating yet. As a Jets fan, my least favorite teams were the Dolphins and the Raiders. As time went on, the Patriots kept winning the AFC East, got caught cheating, lost Super Bowl XLVI to the Giants (which was wonderful), kept winning the AFC East, got caught cheating again, and then won two more Super Bowls. Those two were my least favorite Super Bowls of all time. The first one was between my two least favorite teams. The Patriots have certainly become my least favorite NFL team and I despise the Seahawks because of Pete Carroll. The good news was that one came right after the Patriots were caught cheating for a second time so it was clearly tainted and they won thanks to some terrible coaching decisions so we could easily blame Pete Carroll for the loss. Then last year the Patriots won in the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history thanks to some terrible coaching decisions again, but I had nothing against the Falcons so there was no silver lining in that one.
This makes it six out of seven Super Bowls where I’ve hated at least one of the teams (that includes the 49ers who I hated because of Jim Harbaugh, I’d be cool with them now). A team I’ve hated has won three out of four. Super Bowl L was the exception. I can live with the Jets not being in the Super Bowl (and not getting anywhere close most years), but can’t I at least get some Super Bowls where there’s not a chance of a team I hate winning it? I revisited my Sports Hate Power Rankings. Let me update my list in terms of NFL teams:
1. Patriots
2. Seahawks
3. Raiders
4. Dolphins
5. Cowboys
6. Redskins
7. Eagles
I’m not a Giants fan, but I’ve always disliked the other NFC East teams. I wouldn’t say I hate the Redskins and Eagles, so I can live with the Eagles winning the Super Bowl, but I definitely don’t like them. I drink by mood, so I have tried to avoid Sam Adams. I made a couple of exceptions for Celtics games. On Friday I went out with some people after work and the selection was limited so I had a Sam Adams Cold Snap. Last night, I had Brooklyn Naranjito as kind of an anti-New England/anti-Philadelphia beer. I bought a six pack of Troegs HopBack Amber Ale. It's from Hershey, Pennsylvania. So that's my Super Bowl beer to support the Eagles. It's pretty good.
It’s also noteworthy that the Bills are not on that list. I have nothing against the Bills. The Bills and Jets have very rarely been good at the same time during my lifetime. The first four Super Bowls I watched featured the Bills losing. I got a little tired of them losing the Super Bowl every year, but I don’t hate them.
Also, the NCAA got rid of those terrible standardized courts a few years ago. They’re still pretty much standardized and not nearly as good as just playing on the regular arena courts that have much more personality, but their not nearly as bad as those sterile-looking courts of the past. When does the NFL get rid of the standardized/zero personality Super Bowl logo? I googled and found a logo that isn’t great, but it would be significantly better than the silly standardized logo that they’ve been using since Super Bowl XLV.
I’ll have a post soon about the renovated Nassau Coliseum. I was there last weekend for some college basketball. I’ll be back in the coming weeks for some NBA D-League basketball (you most likely know it as the G-League, but it will always be the D-League to me). Until then, let’s go Eagles!
This is the second Patriots-Eagles Super Bowl. The first one was right after I transferred to Notre Dame. Charlie Weis had been hired as Notre Dame’s new coach. I was rooting for him because I thought him winning the Super Bowl would be good for Notre Dame. Oh, how silly that was. I didn’t hate the Patriots then. They had not become the NFL’s evil empire and they hadn’t been caught cheating yet. As a Jets fan, my least favorite teams were the Dolphins and the Raiders. As time went on, the Patriots kept winning the AFC East, got caught cheating, lost Super Bowl XLVI to the Giants (which was wonderful), kept winning the AFC East, got caught cheating again, and then won two more Super Bowls. Those two were my least favorite Super Bowls of all time. The first one was between my two least favorite teams. The Patriots have certainly become my least favorite NFL team and I despise the Seahawks because of Pete Carroll. The good news was that one came right after the Patriots were caught cheating for a second time so it was clearly tainted and they won thanks to some terrible coaching decisions so we could easily blame Pete Carroll for the loss. Then last year the Patriots won in the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history thanks to some terrible coaching decisions again, but I had nothing against the Falcons so there was no silver lining in that one.
This makes it six out of seven Super Bowls where I’ve hated at least one of the teams (that includes the 49ers who I hated because of Jim Harbaugh, I’d be cool with them now). A team I’ve hated has won three out of four. Super Bowl L was the exception. I can live with the Jets not being in the Super Bowl (and not getting anywhere close most years), but can’t I at least get some Super Bowls where there’s not a chance of a team I hate winning it? I revisited my Sports Hate Power Rankings. Let me update my list in terms of NFL teams:
1. Patriots
2. Seahawks
3. Raiders
4. Dolphins
5. Cowboys
6. Redskins
7. Eagles
I’m not a Giants fan, but I’ve always disliked the other NFC East teams. I wouldn’t say I hate the Redskins and Eagles, so I can live with the Eagles winning the Super Bowl, but I definitely don’t like them. I drink by mood, so I have tried to avoid Sam Adams. I made a couple of exceptions for Celtics games. On Friday I went out with some people after work and the selection was limited so I had a Sam Adams Cold Snap. Last night, I had Brooklyn Naranjito as kind of an anti-New England/anti-Philadelphia beer. I bought a six pack of Troegs HopBack Amber Ale. It's from Hershey, Pennsylvania. So that's my Super Bowl beer to support the Eagles. It's pretty good.
It’s also noteworthy that the Bills are not on that list. I have nothing against the Bills. The Bills and Jets have very rarely been good at the same time during my lifetime. The first four Super Bowls I watched featured the Bills losing. I got a little tired of them losing the Super Bowl every year, but I don’t hate them.
Also, the NCAA got rid of those terrible standardized courts a few years ago. They’re still pretty much standardized and not nearly as good as just playing on the regular arena courts that have much more personality, but their not nearly as bad as those sterile-looking courts of the past. When does the NFL get rid of the standardized/zero personality Super Bowl logo? I googled and found a logo that isn’t great, but it would be significantly better than the silly standardized logo that they’ve been using since Super Bowl XLV.
 |
| I would call this logo solid, not great. But solid is much better than the stupid standardized logo. |
I’ll have a post soon about the renovated Nassau Coliseum. I was there last weekend for some college basketball. I’ll be back in the coming weeks for some NBA D-League basketball (you most likely know it as the G-League, but it will always be the D-League to me). Until then, let’s go Eagles!
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