I know it’s been awhile but, what with the Olympics and then the NCAA tournament, I’ve been tied up with my editorial duties.  It’s not an excuse, mind you, simply an explanation of why this issue of Purple Pondering might be more rambling than usual.  Nevertheless, let’s get to it:

So, where did I leave off last time?  Oh, yeah.  Tim Doyle.  Well, the basketball team ended it’s season rather ignominiously, didn’t it?  There where a few games since my last missive in which the team showed what it can do when properly motivated.  But the BigTen tournament game against Penn St. reminded us of what we’ve seen all season long.  This is a team, in my opinion, that has sufficient talent for the system that they are plugged in to.  While perhaps not a top 25 team, at least they should be involved in post-season play on a yearly basis.  But, for whatever reason, they can never motivate themselves to win consistently.  Coach Carmody doesn’t have the answer, I’ve heard him say so more than once, usually on during a post-game interview of a game just lost. 

You can say a lot of negative things about Coach and his system and, believe me, I’ve heard plenty.  As far as motivation goes, the coach IS the leader of the team and is responsible for some of it.  But, there need to be leaders amongst they players’ ranks, too.  The obvious choices this year were Vedran Vukusic and Mohammed Hachad.  In my opinion, they failed miserably in those roles.  At the beginning of the season, I felt that this team could withstand the loss of T.J. Parker and, in terms of physical talent, that may be true.  But he seemed to carry with him some leadership abilities that were sorely lacking on this team.  Maybe, as far as T.J. is concerned, this is what we miss the most about him?

Anyway, back to Tim Doyle.  If you remember, I only partially accepted his rant.  He was also a part of this theoretically motivated team.  But, unlike Vedran and Mohammed, he’s not leaving.  He’ll be back next season and it’s his turn to be a senior leader.  Doyle put a lot of emotion into his rant against the students, let’s see if he can use that energy to put a charge in his teammates next season.

Sheila McCorkle. (nusports.com)

The Spring sports season is in full force.  Most of our teams are doing well.  Here are some highlights from the past week or so:

The softball team goes 8-2 on it’s West coast roadtrip culminating with a 3-2 victory over top-ranked UCLA.

The lacrosse team beat no. 14 Notre Dame, California and no. 18 Stanford to go to 8-0 and maintain it’s number 1 national ranking.

Mike Alexandrov. (nusports.com)

Jake Herbert placed 2nd, Ryan Lang placed 4th and John Velez placed 7th in their respective classes, at the NCAA Wrestling championships.  Overall, the team placed 13th.

The women’s tennis team swept Washington and Michigan and beat Michigan State last week.

The men’s swim team placed 10th at the NCAA championships with Matt Grevers retaining his national title from last year.

Here is what some notable alumni are up to:

Mark Ori ('05) is at the Astros’ minor league Spring training camp.

J.A. Happ ('04) is at Phillies’ Spring training but whether it’s the major league camp or the minor league camp is unknown.

Sean Bennett. (evansvillebluecats.com)

Kevin Bentley ('02) tested free agency but, in the end, returned to the Seahawks.

Damien Anderson ('01) was resigned by the Arizona Cardinals.

Luke Donald ('99) won the Honda Classic golf tournament a couple of weeks back.

Sean Bennett ('99), playing for the Evansville BlueCats of the United Indoor Football Association, caught 5 passes for 63 yards with one rushing TD in the season-opening loss to the Rock River Raptors.

Barry Gardner ('98) was cut by Jets and I don’t believe he has been picked up by anyone yet.

Paul Dana ('97) was killed during pre-race practice for the Toyota Indy 300.  Dana was 32.

Finally, Mike Dunbar has left the football team to become the offensive coordinator at California.