Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

Isn’t college basketball in December kind of silly?

My brother is a University of Connecticut men’s basketball season-ticket holder and at least once a year he takes me to a game. Usually it’s in December and college basketball fans know what December means.

December means teams like Quinnipiac and Stony Brook and Morehead State and a lot of blowouts.

A couple of weeks ago, my brother and I went up to Gampel Pavilion in Storrs to witness the bludgeoning UConn put on Morehead State. On the way up we joked about how Moorehead State (the alma mater of my football hero, Phil Simms) was 1-7 and had already been blown out by more than 50 points a couple of times.

We knew the game would be a blood bath.

But, still, we went.

With the college on break, the Pavilion was only partially inhabited with very few students in the stands. That’s okay, though, because the game was over inside the first three minutes … about how long it took my brother to do the math and wonder if UConn would set an all-time single-game scoring record.

Except for the season-opening tournaments like the Maui Invitational, December basketball always brings together some of the most mismatched opponents (UConn versus Stonybrook? Duke versus Bucknell?). I wonder sometimes if there is another purpose other than UConn building up an impressive (and somewhat misleading) record heading into the conference schedule Morehead State getting more exposure than it will get the rest of the year and even as silly as these games tend to get, they are kind of fun.

Fun for teams like UConn, that is.

Not much fun for teams like Morehead State.

But what purpose did a 68-point win over Morehead State or the blowouts of Quinnipiac or Stonybrook serve? Did it help the Huskies prepare for Marquette on Tuesday? Doesn’t seem like it did.

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Athletes like to say there is no such thing as a good loss, but there is nothing wrong with the No. 2 team in the country getting a wakeup call.

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I guess this would go into the Are You Kidding Me? File – a mini football helmet (big enough that it might fit over a closed fist) at the University of Connecticut bookstore in Storrs was selling for $34.95.

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Hey, was that Kyle Lyddy behind the UConn bench during the Morehead State game shucking towels and getting water?

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I wouldn’t be voicing an opinion espoused by some fanatic on some sports radio program somewhere, but why wouldn’t a playoff system in Division I-A college football work if most teams have five weeks off between their regular season finale and their bowl game and two or more of those weeks they are on semester break?

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I guess this would go into the Silly Political Correctness File – a flyer on the gym wall at Masuk High School actually used the word sportspersonship.

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Every once in a while I brag at home about how well Newtown sports teams are doing.

It’s easy because more often than not I’m telling my wife or my kids that I have to go to cover a championship game somewhere. I talked so much about the soccer teams and the football teams and all the players going on to Division I teams that my 13-year-old son said with genuine awe, “Whoa.”

Newtown has dozens of former athletes playing collegiate ball. Four are, or will be, playing major Division I ball with a few others playing lower Division I ball.

One former athlete (John Ball) is playing professional soccer.

One former resident (Pete Zingoni) is playing professional hockey.

With all of that going on, even I can’t help saying, “Whoa.”

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I hate to end this on a downer, but I have to make one comment about the tragedy in West Virginia.

Not only was it tragic that 13 miners were trapped inside a mountain after an explosion, but it was equally tragic that their worried families – after some 40 hours – were first told that the miners had been found alive only to be told three hours later that all but one had been killed.

No matter what “miscommunication” problems there were, this is a sorry example of politicians, company executives and journalists striving to be the first to get the news out rather than the first to get the news right.