Quick hitters as we reach the middle of the week:
- As speculation on candidates for the Dartmouth head coaching job gets going, one thing to keep in mind is that Robert Ceplikas is an acting athletic director. The school will probably need to have someone in that role before they can realistically hire a new head coach. Director of Varsity Athletics Communications Rick Bender said he’s not sure if Ceplikas is a candidate for the job on a permanent basis.
- In the prep ranks, last week showed the potential for the Rivers School in the future as Andrew Mirken tries to build the program. They picked up a 63-62 win at Class B stalwart Brimmer & May and also knocked off the Middlesex School at the end of the week. Along the way, one could see what some of the young talent on the team will be capable of: athletic guard Taariq Allen running the floor and scoring, young point guard Carlin Haymon running the show, and wing Kyle Reardon being the consummate glue guy, among other things. (Included was Reardon sealing the Middlesex game with four free throws in the final minute.) One could also see how this team will lose games right now, but the young talent is getting better right now.
- Albany has talent, but the Great Danes didn’t seem to run any offense in their 79-58 loss at Boston University on Tuesday night. The offense seemed to have no rhyme or reason, especially in the first half when they dug themselves a hole they could never get out of. Shooting just over 39 percent from the field in the second half didn’t help.”We’re not a team that offensively can trade baskets with a team like Boston University when they’re clicking,” said head coach Will Brown, who characterized his team as “selfish offensively in the first half”.
- Sacred Heart is thought to be a contender in the Northeast Conference, and they certainly have a veteran bunch that’s good enough to be in the mix. But if the Pioneers are going to win, they’ll have to play a lot better on defense than they did last weekend. They couldn’t shut down a Bryant team that has struggled to score and didn’t have their best player in Cecil Gresham, who is done for the season, and two days later they gave up 88 points in a blowout loss to a Central Connecticut State team that doesn’t have its best player, Ken Horton, due to injury.
- Although his team is getting a lot of attention for it, Kansas State head coach Frank Martin is keeping a level head about the win. The win is sure to mean only as much as their future performance allows, even though it will get them in the national spotlight for a short time and also had the benefit of helping to sell all remaining tickets to their home games.”To me, it means that we won a game on January 18,” Martin said. “I do not mean to be silly about it, but we do not get parades this time of year.”
