One of the regional Sports Illustrated covers coming out this week
Greetings from Gampel Pavilion and the second session of what is a sportswriting doubleheader for the likes of Ed Daigneault, Wayne Norman, Zac Boyer, Chris Elsberry and myself.
We’re waiting for UConn-Hofstra to tip off and still trying to come to grips with the death of Ken Ober.
You don’t know Ken Ober? The host of MTV’s old game show “Remote Control” and the man who helped start the careers of Colin Quinn, Denis Leary, Adam Sandler and Kari Wuhrer?
Shame on you.
OK, maybe it’s not that big a deal.
I know he’s a UMass guy but I think Ober grew up in Hartford West Hartford. And he was just 52.
Oh wait, this is a basketball/football blog not an ode to odd pop culture of the 1980′s. OK then, on to the hoops:
– Hofstra coach Tom Pecora has been around. We’re not saying he’s old, but he knows his basketball gyms.
An assistant at Villanova, UNLV and other places, Percora has been the head coach at Hofstra since 2001. But his team’s trip to Kansas earlier this season was one of the most memorable of his career.
“The reverence that the people in Kansas have for the game of basketball….It’s the toughest place to play where everyone is polite,” Pecora said with a laugh. “It’s not the Big East tournament. It’s not like going into the Garden. You can’t repeat what people say to you in there during the course of those games.”
– UConn coach Jim Calhoun has plenty of respect for Hofstra, especially guard Charles Jenkins.
“A couple guys _ one without question is a Big East guard,” Calhoun said of the Pride roster. “He’d score in our league at the same rate he scores if not higher.”
– One of Calhoun’s biggest gripes with the Huskies’ performance against Colgate (there were many), was their ability to get to the line.
“Ten foul shots for us against this team is despicable,” Calhoun said. “Our four- and five-men did not take a foul shot, nor did they deserve to take a foul shot.”
- Neill
