It was a pretty quiet yesterday in Navy sports news, so we’ll be brief today.

In case you missed them, there were a couple of pieces on the blog yesterday you should read.  Mike addressed Army’s absence at the Army-Navy media luncheon and explained why Chet said what he said.  Later in the day, slhnavy91 took a look at the Poinsettia Bowl and who the potential opponents may be.

Alabama’s Rivals site has a nice article on the Kelly family playing football at Navy and Bama.  Mike Kelly is a youngster outside linebacker for the Midshipmen, while older brother Ryan is a junior and 2-year starter at center for the Crimson Tide.

Quick Hits:

• The Annual “Paint the Country Navy Blue” drive for bowl game ticket donations is on.
• Episode 9 of “The Brotherhood” is out, taking a look back at the win over South Alabama.
• Navy wrestling heads to Las Vegas to compete in the Cliff Keen Invitational this weekend.

Navy’s Poinsettia Bowl opponent will not be known until Sunday, officially.

However, there are a lot of projections that the Midshipmen will face San Diego State. ESPN thinks so. Phil Steele thinks so. CBS Sports thinks so. Heck, I shook up my Magic 8 Ball, and it said “All signs point to San Diego State.”

Continue reading “WATCHING THE MOUNTAIN WEST” →

The bench for Navy women’s basketball came alive on Tuesday and lead the Mids to a come-from-behind 55-51 victory over visiting Towson.  After struggling to 30 points in the first 31 minutes of the game, the ladies outscored the Tigers 25-10 in the closing 9 to secure the victory.  Of the 55 points scored by Navy, 42 came off the bench.  It was not a game for those who like to see effective shooting: Towson was 0-14 from three while Navy shot just 5-of-26.  And both teams shot below 37% for the game.  But when it came to crunch time, Navy got the hot hand.  Over those final 9 minutes, Navy was 50% from beyond the arc, 64% from the field, and 82% at the free throw line.  This victory ends a six game home stand where the Mids went 5-1.  This weekend they fly out to the Pacific Northwest for a pair of games against Portland State and Oregon.

Men’s basketball fell at home last night to previously winless Penn 57-46.  It was pretty much over by halftime as the Quakers closed on a 28-11 run.  Navy did clamp down in the 2nd half, allowing just 19 points.  But the Mids were themselves just 33% from the field in the final 20 minutes, including a paltry 2-for-12 from three.  This isn’t the start to the season we may have expected after watching Navy hang with Michigan State in the opener.  But we also didn’t expect so many injuries.  As Bill Wagner of the Capital Gazette writes, Navy Coach Ed DeChellis has used a lot of freshmen in a year when we expected to have more depth.  Yes, it’s disheartening, but the team should be healthier for the start of Patriot League at the end of the month.

Men’s soccer senior defender Joseph Greenspan has been selected as a semifinalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy, the top individual award in collegiate soccer, by the National Coaches Soccer Association of America (NSCAA).  This continues a string of accolades for Greenspan, who won his second consecutive Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year award this year.  He is one of just two defenders among the 16 semifinalists.  Greenspan anchored a Navy defense that had a 0.65 goals against average and tallied 9 clean sheets in 20 matches.  We’ll keep an eye out for the announcement of All-American teams, as Greenspan is sure to be present on a good many of those as well.

Women’s soccer senior defender Jade Seabrook was named to the All-Mid-Atlantic Region First Team by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America for the third consecutive year (a 1st for Navy).  Previously, Seabrook had been named the Patriot League defender of the year.  She lead the team in minutes played with 1,832 and tallied 11 points on 4 goals and 3 assists.

Senior men’s basketball guard Kevin Alter has been nominated for the Allstate NABC Good Works Team.  The award is designed to recognize student-athletes who are involved with their communities and dedicate their time to helping others.  Alter volunteers with Covenant House, a homelessness shelter in Washington DC and works with his hometown (Rumson, NJ) to raise money for Homes for Our Troops.

Quick Hits:

• Women’s Indoor Track tallied 9 wins at the Navy Lid Lifter on Tuesday.
• Through the conclusion of fall sports, Navy sits 3rd in the Patriot League President’s Cup race.  Bucknell, who participates in 2 additional fall sports, sits in 1st place, while Boston University is in 2nd.
• Squash lost their first match of the season, falling 6-2 to #9 Penn (the Quakers had it out for us yesterday, didn’t they).  The team travels to New Hampshire to face #11 Dartmouth on Saturday.

Since news is a little slow this time of the year, we’ll start branching out to cover some topics that impact other service academies and our future conference when they pop up.

Junior defensive end Will Anthony was named the independent defensive player of the week.  Against South Alabama he recorded 12 tackles and 2.5 tackles for a loss.  His third quarter sack was the first solo sack of his career and ended a South Alabama drive.

There have been some peeks at what the theme for the Army Navy uniforms will be.  It appears that the First Navy Jack – perhaps better known as the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag to civilians – will heavily influence the design.  I’m just going to leave this here…be sure to wipe up your drool.

Boise State was, once upon a time, going to be a conference mate of Navy’s in the Big East.  But they headed back to the MWC for a sweetheart TV deal.  Two years in, some MWC athletic departments are realizing just how bad the deal to get them back was.  UNLV, for example, has gotten zero “bonus” money, while Boise has pulled down $3.7 million.  That gulf will only widen if Boise gets the access bowl this year, since the deal allows them to keep half the $6 million payout.  Air Force has fared only slightly better than UNLV.  Despite going 9-3 and beating both Boise and CSU, the Falcons got zero “bonus” this year, leaving their 2 year total at a paltry $300k.  That’s a hard pill to swallow for an athletic department that is reported to have an annual budget deficit of $26 million.

Quick Hits:

• If you haven’t been watching the videos coming out of the football office, start with the week 10 motivational video.
• You can also catch Noah Copeland giving ESPNU’s all access crew a tour of Ricketts Hall.
• Towson comes to Alumni Hall tonight to seek a measure of revenge for a 1 point loss last season to the women’s basketball team.
• If you have Showtime, tonight’s episode of “60 Minutes Sports” will have a segment on Army football, the hiring of Jeff Monken, and his attempt at rebuilding the program.
• In non-sports Navy news, just 9 plebes dropped out during Plebe Summer, an all-time low.  The 4-year attrition rate is around 14%, which comes as a shock to this 90’s grad whose class slipped below 900 by the time we graduated.

Good morning!  Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend.  We have a few things to catch up on thanks to the holiday, so read up!

No news was bigger than Navy locking up the Poinsettia Bowl bid with a “why must you do this to my heart after I just ate nothing but turkey and pie for the last 24 hours” win over South Alabama on Friday afternoon.  Geoffrey Whiteside fumbled with 4:30 to go, giving South Alabama a chance to tie it late with a touchdown and a 2 point conversion.  And they did.  Twice.  But both were called back for penalties.  Brendon Clements picked off the third try and Navy got the onsides kick to seal the deal.  It was another record setting day for Keenan Reynolds, as his 3 touchdowns put him 1st place all-time for rushing TD’s by a quarterback with 61 total, surpassing Colin Kaepernick and Eric Crouch who had shared the record at 59.  Reynolds has at least 14 games left in his career, putting the all-time rushing record of 77 (held by Wisconsin’s Montee Ball) clearly in his sights.

Navy will face a Mountain West team in the Poinsettia Bowl, which gets the 2nd pick after the Las Vegas Bowl.  We’ll do a post later this week on possible opponents, but in the interim, if you can’t go to the game, head on over to NavySports.com and donate tickets so a military member can go in your stead.

It was an up and down weekend for the Navy men’s basketball team.  On Wednesday evening, the Mids overcame a sluggish and error prone first half to beat Penn St.-Harrisburg 67-42 for its second win of the season.  Freshman Jace Hogan came off the bench and lead the team with 14 points in 17 minutes of action while forward Edward Alade came one rebound shy of a double-double as he added 11 points.  But Navy would fall to Saint Francis University 85-62 less than 72 hours later as the Red Flash seemingly couldn’t miss a shot.  Navy was actually 50% from the floor, but St. Francis U was a blistering 65.4%, including an unreal 70.4% in the first half.  Navy’s home to host Penn on Wednesday before heading south to play The Citadel on Saturday.

The women’s basketball team won a pair of games over the weekend while hosting the Navy Classic.  The ladies defeated UNC Greensboro 71-64 in a game that had quite the dichotomy of halves.  After an opening 20 minutes that saw the Mids go into the break trailing 23-21, the Navy offense exploded for 50 2nd half points (the most ever in a half for a Stefanie Pemper Navy squad) to grab the victory.  That game was followed by a 60-51 win over Grand Canyon on Saturday, the 3rd win in a row for the team and 4th in 5 games.  Freshman Taylor Dunham was named to the all-tournament team after putting up a combined 26 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals.

Quick Hits:

• Navy football co-captain Parrish Gaines has been selected to the East-West Shrine All-Star Game.  The game is played on January 17th in St. Petersburg, Florida.
• Spirit spots are starting to come out of Bancroft Hall and elsewhere:
  • Does the game lose its shine after 12 wins in a row?  These mids will tell you that they still give a ship.
  • Navy EOD got in on the fun from Panama City.
  • Alright alright alright.  Fake Rich Ellerson is brought to tears reflecting on the rivalry.
  • The USS Comstock took an awful adaptation of a board game and made it in to a much better spirit spot.
  • Some may remember the 36th CAB pulling off a Go Army spirit spot last year while embarked on the USS Ponce.  Well the then-CO of the Ponce is now the XO on the USS Makin Island, and he has a few words for those guys.

That was way too close
San Diego here we come
Someone check my pulse

You all have read how Mike and I loved the Veterans Classic.  Tonight, you can go behind the scenes with CBS Sports when they air “Hoops Confidential: Veterans Classic” at 9pm on CBSSN.  The half-hour long show follows VCU, Tennessee, and Michigan State players and coaches as they get a look at the Yard and what going to a service academy entails.  Additionally, Edward Alade (this blogger’s favorite player on the team thus far) was followed to provide a look at a typical day.  As Mike said yesterday, the Veterans Classic is just the gift that keeps on giving.  For those who miss it, fret not.  It will re-air on Thanksgiving night at 11:30pm and on Friday morning at 11:30am.

Yesterday we talked about the Navy men’s lacrosse schedule for 2014.  Today it’s the women’s turn.  A 17-game slate was announced, including games at powerhouses Virginia and Duke in addition to 7 other road games.  The Cavs and Devils finished 2014 ranked 10th and 11th, respectively as Duke reached the NCAA quarterfinals and Virginia made it to the Final Four.  The ladies didn’t win the Patriot League title for the first time in 5 years in 2014 after being knocked out in the semis by Boston University (revenge is set for March 21st in Boston).

Navy women’s basketball defeated George Mason last night in Alumni Hall, 84-79.  As the team’s SID Justin Kischefsky pointed out, that was the 2nd highest point total in regulation for a Stefanie Pemper coached Navy squad.  Navy held a 6 point lead at the half and went on an early run in the 2nd to open up a lead that got as big as 18 with under 8 minutes to go.  The Patriots made a furious rally, but were never able to get closer than 4 points with 24 seconds to go.  The Midshipmen were 11-of-28 from three, which proved to be the difference as the Patriots held the edge in rebounds, 2nd chance points, free throws made, and turnovers.

Quick Hits:

• Navy Men’s basketball returns home tonight to face Penn State Harrisburg.  Tip is at 7pm and is available for viewing on patriotleague.tv.
• 4/C Josh Hughes of the Squash team was named the NAAA Athlete of the Week.  His 5-game win in the 5th position helped the team defeat #10 Princeton for the first time since 1985, a string of 19 defeats.
• The Akerson Tower club level at NMCMS is on schedule to be finished by the end of the year.  The two hospitality suites will be used outside of football to host receptions and other functions.

The Navy men’s lacrosse 2015 schedule was announced this past weekend.  The Midshipmen have a challenging slate of 13 games, including the first game against Air Force in over a decade.  Five of Navy’s opponents finished in the top 20 last season and 4 of them played in the NCAA tournament.  Navy will open at home with traditional opponent VMI before welcoming in-state rivals Maryland to NMCMS on February 14th.  Navy’s other OOC games will be a home tilt vs. Towson and an away game against Johns Hopkins on March 7th.  Opinion incoming: call me crotchety, but I think the lacrosse season is getting going way too early.  Navy will play four games in February and their season will be more than half way over by March 10th.  That’s a bit ridiculous.

For those who came up in the dark ages of Navy football, it never gets old to read commentary that shows just how much the program has grown since the option renaissance took root in 2002.  South Alabama coach Joey Jones spoke to this point when addressing the media ahead of the Friday afternoon game: “Getting a program like Navy to come here is a big deal…We want to play teams like that.”  That Navy has gone from a winless team to one that is bringing a national brand and cachet into away stadiums is something else.  As Bill Wagner of the Annapolis Capital Gazette writes, Navy needs to lock up a bowl bid with a win in Mobile.  If there is no solid back-up plan for the Poinsettia Bowl committee, a 5-6 Navy could be locked out before the Army-Navy game.

Quick Hits:

• Navy intercollegiate sailing is your new #1 team for women’s sailing and #4 in the coed rankings for the final poll of the fall season.  The women’s team finished 3rd at last year’s national championship.
• Women’s basketball  forward Sarah Reilly was named the Patriot League freshman of the week after averaging 10.5 points and 11 rebounds in games against Mary Washington and Penn.
• Brandon Venturini was named to the Tip-Off All-Tournament team after posting 49 points in 3 games.
• Navy swimmer Tom Duvall (200m/500m free) and diver Nate Belch (1m, 3m) swept the Patriot League weekly awards after a strong showing at the Nike Cup.
• Gaby Smith of the volleyball team was named to the Patriot League All-Tournament team.

Navy men’s basketball got their first win of the Season on Sunday vs. Binghamton in the consolation game of the Tip-Off Tournament.  Though they lead by one at the half, Navy found themselves down 53-42 with less than 14 minutes left in the game.  Over the course of the next 9 minutes, Navy hit 8-of-10 shots from the floor, including two Brandon Venturini three-pointers, to tie it up at 60.  Venturini hit his 4th three of the game with 3:15 left to give the Mids the lead for good.  For the game, Ventrini was 9-of-13 from the floor and a perfect 4-of-4 at the free throw line to lead the team with 26 points.  The men return home for a Thanksgiving-eve match-up with Penn State Harrisburg.

This week’s football opponent, South Alabama, kept it close with South Carolina in the first half before dropping the contest 37-12.  Twice in the 1st half the Jaguars got inside the Gamecocks’ 5-yard line, but had to settle for field goals.  There is an air of uncertainty around the quarterback position at South Alabama heading in to Friday afternoon tilt, with three different quarterbacks having played in the past 4 games due to injuries and ineffectiveness (two QB’s have combined for 8 interceptions in the past 3 games).

As anyone who has set foot in Alumni Hall and has seen the banners knows, the women’s basketball team has had an amazing run of success.   But now the ladies find themselves going through a bit of a rebuilding year, returning just one starter from last year’s Patriot League regular season champions.  On Thursday night, the team rallied from a 3-point halftime deficit against Division III Mary Washington to prevail 79-59.  But there would be no such rally on Saturday vs. Penn.  Trailing by 12 at the break, Navy was only able to gain back three in the 2nd half and ended up falling 60-51.

Quick Hits:

• With a win this past Saturday, Western Kentucky became the 8th bowl eligible team Navy has played in 2014.  Temple has the potential to become the 9th such team if they can win one of their final two games of the season (vs. Cincinnati, at Tulane).
• The Senior Bowl has a nice Q&A with Navy long snapper Joe Cardona, just the 3rd Mid to be selected to the prestigious event.
• Water Polo ended its season with a 3rd place finish at the CWPA Championship this past weekend.
• Wrestling finished 8th at the Navy Classic with 5 place-winners, but was shut out of an individual championship for just the 4th time in the 37 year history of the meet.
• Navy cross country runner Steve Schroeder finished in 182nd place at the NCAA championship.  Despite a strong start, Schroeder was hampered by back spasms for the final 5000m of the race.
• Navy volleyball’s season ended with a 3-set loss to Lehigh in the Patriot League tournament.  The season ends with Navy having its first winning record since 2008 and the first sweep of Army matches since 2005.