Thoughts while scribbling “No. 12 Northeastern,” again and again in my class notebook:
There’s so much awesome happening for Husky fans this fall. Headlining this, of course, is the Hockey East-leading men’s squad.
Hopefully there are more wins in the bag for these Huskies, who have won three straight against ranked opponents. More importantly, these aren’t Miami (Ohio) or North Dakota. Those three wins were against Hockey East teams, including Black Friday’s thrilling overtime win over the hated Boston College.
Sophomore Brad Thiessen, who made 58 saves on 60 shots Nov. 19 against New Hampshire, has certainly been hot lately.
“There are two weeks and it’s four games, so we’ll get a lot of practice time to work on things,” Thiessen said. “We need to maintain where we are and get better.”
Now here’s a catch – with only four games in the next month, are the Huskies in danger of losing some momentum?
“We all believe that we had it [in] us to do well and to meet this challenge,” Thiessen said. “We know that every team that plays us knows we’re good, so we’ll just have to be more ready to play.”
The men’s basketball team’s recent performances against big-time programs at their court – in Champaign-Urbana against Illinois and College Park against Maryland – should serve as nothing but highlights. Losing is certainly tough, and an overtime loss can be even more deflating. But, an overtime loss against an ACC team that won a national championship not too long ago (2002 isn’t too long ago, is it?) and ACC champs in recent history (2004) will only make a team hungrier.
But let’s keep our guard up against these bigger teams since there are a few more left on the schedule. With Connecticut Dec. 6, Boston College Dec. 22 and Syracuse Dec. 30, be on the lookout for the first match-up against George Mason Jan. 12 in Virginia.
The Patriots are without the tough non-conference schedule (can’t say the same for Northeastern) and are off to a good start at 5-1. Included in those five wins is an 87-77 upset of then-No. 18 Kansas State.
It seems as though it’s a high-risk, high-reward schedule. Play these teams tough, and they’ll make some national noise (a la, Garden Webb). Lose, and run the risk of deflating a good, young team.
Improvement is abounding for the women’s squads, who have split its first four games for an even record of 2-2. Sophomore Kendra Walton looks like a keeper, earning the CAA Co-Player of the Week award for a 19 point, 12 rebound performance in an 86-81 squeaker over Massachusetts.
Looking at their other win against Coppin State, the only question I could ask – where is Coppin State? In Baltimore, Md., where the Eagles are no pushovers. After going 18-0 in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play last season (24-7 overall) they made it all the way to the second round of the National Invitational Tournament, only to lose to South Florida (who was subsequently bumped in the next round).
So, names aside, a win over Coppin State appears to be a solid sign for a team that was 4-26 a year ago.
Here’s something interesting – our first basketball win ever came courtesy of … Harvard Law School! The captain was Charles Foster and the coach was Herbert Thompson, who surprisingly was not the head coach after the win.
A little memento from the football season – don’t be too upset, the Colonial Athletic Association is tough. Three of the eight teams still playing are from the conference, including Massachusetts, which made it to the finals a year ago. The Mountaineers were given a run by James Madison (who beat the Huskies 21-14 earlier this year), winning by the slimmest of margins, 28-27. If I were to choose a team, I’d take former Husky Don Brown’s Massachusetts Minutemen. Quarterback Liam Coen is as good as it gets in the subdivision.
Lastly, is it too early to be thinking about the Beanpot? With the semester’s end closer than (I think) most of us realize, the Beanpot is just a hop, skip and a jump away. Could this be the year?
– Matt Foster can be reached
