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Sunday, March 27, 2011
NCAA Day 4: The Weekend Wrap
The Central Collegiate Hockey Association will be represented by two teams in the Frozen Four. Neither is Miami.
Michigan qualified Saturday. Tonight, Notre Dame beat New Hampshire 2-1 to win the NCAA Northeast Regional here at Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, N.H.
If you’re the RedHawks, are you happy or just kicking yourselves about two CCHA teams qualifying? Michigan was the CCHA regular-season champion, the Irish were second and Miami was third, but the RedHawks won the CCHA tournament and had a winning record against the Wolverines (2-0) and the Irish (2-1-2) this season.
Miami got ousted by New Hampshire 3-1 on Saturday. I don’t know if the Wildcats were the better team, but they were certainly the better team Saturday. The RedHawks were sluggish, whatever the reason, and got outplayed. If you saw the game, you can come to no other conclusion.
That said … regardless of how diplomatic MU coach Enrico Blasi wants to be, it’s a complete farce that the regional’s No. 1 seed (Miami) had to travel 900 miles to play in the backyard of a No. 4 seed (UNH). The Wildcats traveled 35 miles from their campus in Durham. They were supported by thousands of fans. Was all this the difference in the game? I would say no. Was it a factor? Absolutely. And therein lies the point. Blasi correctly pointed out that there aren’t a great amount of places that can or want to host regionals. It would be nice to keep a No. 1 seed somewhat close to home in the regionals … fine, that’s reasonable, nobody would complain about that. But a No. 4 seed should NEVER, EVER get the kind of home-ice advantage over a No. 1 seed that we saw with Miami and UNH this weekend. Send four teams to a regional that’s close to none of them if that’s what needs to happen. I don’t want to hear whimpering about ticket sales. Teams are seeded where they’re seeded because that’s what they’ve earned. When ticket sales trump seeds, we’ve got a major problem. And the egg continues to drip all over the NCAA’s face.
A few non-hockey thoughts from my trip to the Northeast (I’ll be back in “beautiful” Ohio on Monday night) …
Took a road trip to Maine this afternoon (after finishing up a Miami follow-up story for Monday’s publication) because, well, I’d never been there before. I’d like to visit all 50 states before I kick, and this was an opportunity to knock one off the list. Interesting area. I don’t really need a reason to just drive through different parts of the country. Different looks, different architecture, every area has its own distinct feel. Not a big seafood person, but had some broiled haddock in Portland, Maine, and right next to the ocean (the Atlantic was right there) is the best place to do that. Also stopped right down the road in Old Orchard Beach, a Maine resort town. Strange to see so few people in a place chockful of hotels, cottages, etc. But it was also strange to be freezing to death in a beach area. I walked out on the beach just to check it out. As I was standing there in a heavy coat that wasn’t doing much good thanks to a biting wind, my thought was, if there is a beach in the Arctic, this must be what it feels like. And, does the ocean water around here ever get warm enough to swim in? I suppose it must. Or summer vacationers love an extremely brisk dip. Whichever.
Just for good measure, drove through Durham to check out the UNH campus on the way back to Manchester. Seemed like a pretty cool place to hang out, the town had that small-college-town feel to it, school has about 15,000 students.
That’s about it from here in the NH. An hour drive to Boston for the flight home awaits me Monday. And then back in the OH for some high school baseball Tuesday, Ross at St. Xavier. Sounds like I may need an extra layer of clothing for that one as well. Can’t wait.
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