Good morning!
The UMass women’s basketball team is on the map after its recent 11-game winning streak. The Minutewomen will probably never draw 12,000 fans a game or play marquee opponents like Baylor or Tennessee like our neighbors in Storrs, but my grandson Chase and I went to Wednesday’s game against VCU and saw top-flight athleticism for the price of a chocolate latte.
Coach Tory Verdi and his staff are sharp dressers and comported themselves well despite seeing a first-half lead dissolve into a 61-48 loss. The black knee brace over Verdi’s dark trousers didn’t stop him from limping along the sideline and quietly griping to an official about a crucial second half call.
Sophomore guard Destiney Philoxy can out-jump anyone in the A-10. The 5-foot-7 Queens native played with the same energy (and at the same height) as former NBA star Spud Webb. At the end of the first half, she banked a 55-footer off the glass, but the points didn’t count after the replay showed the ball had left her hand a millisecond too late.
Senior captain Hailey Leidel had an off night against the Rams, but the Michigan native leads the A-10 in 3-point field goals (51) and free throws (71), and is second in points scored (318).
A sausage grinder, popcorn, large Coke, bag of chips and box of Reese’s Pieces cost under $20. The sausage was tender and the popcorn was fresh.
Chase got a hat and team towel, and his raffle ticket was one number away from winning a practice jersey. The PA announcer and pep band energized the crowd, but kept the decibel level low enough for the 604 fans to be able to talk to each other.
We noticed that women hoopsters — at least in this game — preferred playmaking over coming down with the ball using all elbows. “I don’t think they foul as much as I do,” said eight-year-old Chase.
Tickets are as little as $6 at the box office, which is about half the cost of buying them online. Admission is free on Wednesday, so check ’em out, it’s a noontime tip-off and UMass might start another streak.
Former Eagles and Falcons quarterback Michael Vick will be an honorary captain at Sunday’s Pro Bowl in Orlando. Vick served a 21-month prison sentence for his involvement in a dog fighting ring, and not everyone is ready to forgive.
“He did incredible abuse to those dogs,” said Kathy Bemben, who’s worked and volunteered at adoption kennels on both coasts. Vick’s outfit was called the the Bad Newz Kennel, and under-performers were tortured and killed; hung and electrocuted. They trembled at the sight of him.
A few weeks ago, Bemben joined her friend Mary Ellen Paciorek on a rescue mission to Eufala, Alabama, to get a dog whose days were numbered.
“The little town where the shelter was had beautiful old mansions,” said Bemben. “The shelter guy was doing his best in a podunk town and getting threatened for seizing fighting dogs.
“The one I saw made me pee, he was so vicious. They mix pits with chous (chow chows) — Chinese fighting dogs — to get a vicious, unrelenting fighting dog. They use cats and kittens and small dogs as bait to get the dogs going. There was one little guy at the shelter who had his ear chewed off and his throat ripped open from being used as a bait dog. That’s why I hate when I see people giving away cats and dogs. It’s what the fighting-dog breeders look for, and they send a woman and kids to pick them up so no one suspects.”
The eight-year-old hound mix that they rescued had been used for breeding. “She’s a good dog, quiet,” said Bemben. “Mary Ellen’s keeping her at her house. She calls her Elsa.”
Asked about Vick’s presence at the Pro Bowl, Bemben replied, “That guy doesn’t deserve to be honored anywhere.”
The UMass men’s basketball team lost its 19th straight A-10 road game this week and fans are questioning why AD Ryan Bamford was quick to extend coach Matt McCall’s contract after his first season. McCall was hired in March 2017 after Bamford’s first choice, Pat Kelsey, walked out on a five-year, $4 million deal a half hour before his introductory press conference.
He was an unknown from Chattanooga, and the Minutemen won 13 games under his watch with a depleted roster. “Rather than take a chance and have to pay through the nose, sometimes you’re a little too quick with the switch,” explained a longtime basketball booster. “Now people have started saying to me, ‘I don’t know if this is the guy.’”
UMass has a dozen games left starting with today’s 2 p.m. tip-off against Duquesne, and they need to start winning or McCall will be choo-chooing it back to Chattanooga.
The $3 million Pegasus World Cup is today at Gulfstream Park (5:40 p.m., NBC). Omaha Beach is the prohibitive 7-5 morning line favorite in the 12-horse field, followed by Spun to Run (7-2) and Mucho Gusto (9-2).
The field for the $1 million Pegasus Turf Cup includes a 12-1 longshot named Zulu Alpha, which is Navy slang for close the hatches.
SQUIBBERS: Tom Brady to the Raiders is laughable. Class acts don’t play in Las Vegas. … Former UMass lineman Jack Driscoll transferred to Auburn two years ago and is projected by cbssports.com to be an early third round pick. … According to PlayoffStatus.com, the UMass hockey team has an 88 percent chance of making the NCAA tournament, but only a four percent chance of winning the title. … Sources say that BC offered Aazaar Abdul-Rahim $450,000 to get him away from UMass. Walt Bell’s busily trying to find a replacement who can recruit in the DC-Va.-Md. region. … Watchstadium.com claims UMass has the easiest admission requirements in the A-10 and Davidson has the toughest. … Reader Doug Stotz informs us that Rutgers’ new president Jonathan Holloway is the older brother of former Patriot lineman Brian Holloway.
Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for four decades in the Pioneer Valley.