Midnight.

A lot to write about from Midnight Madness. I'll try to keep this brief.

-- Flannagan is officially back (as is his buddies' Hope of Glory chants) and looks as good as we remember him. He had three buckets, the first of which was a three. You can't see it, but i'm excited.

-- The "Secret Agent" Basketball man officially had more turnovers than Sam Titus. (Seriously. I counted. 5 to 1.)

-- Donny had one fun little moment as he described his 09-10 Barons team. As he talked about Flannagan's stats before he left for Austria last year, he sounded like my dad describing the new HDTV he just bought. "You won't believe the things this thing can do!" Good to see Donny excited again.

-- Good to see Oscar back for his 18th season as Finnegan Fieldhouse MC.

-- A new intro video! I wish someone took a picture of my face as the new vid hit the screen. I must have had 30 different types of shock bleeding from my eyes. I turned to celebrate with my bud about the new video until ..... i realized it wasn't a video. Franciscan University: where we re-use "pump-up" videos for multiple years and then replace them with slideshows. That's it, i'm walking in late every game naked in protest.

-- The birth of Powder Pete. Not only did he have the single best introduction of any Baron during the night, but it was hands down the best one i've seen in my time here. Props to him and his fan section for such a crafty idea. I overheard someone making jokes about the Transfiguration and God's voice coming out of the cloud of baby powder that lingered over the bleachers for a while, it was that good-looking. 

I'm saving my thoughts on the scrimmage for my season preview. Check back soon.

Go Barons.

11.17.08

Tryouts are over and the roster is set, although it probably was not that hard.  Wednesday marked the first day of tryouts and sources revealed that about fifteen eager ballers came to tryout.  But Big D's run and gun atmosphere must have been too much for some of those ballers to handle, resulting in only twelve tryoutees to show.  So the team is set, and now we wait.  

Roster coming soon.

A response to our "All Weather Fan"

Greetings from Baronville!
Well we've encountered some resistance.... from students and administration alike. But we're trying for a peace offering with administration, but with our "all weather fan", let's respond to your post. For those of you too lazy to click on the comments link in our assessment of the St. Vincent game, I will repost his comment here:


Man, after the obviously qualified hide-behind-my-computer-blog-coach(charles) noted such a great improvement in play following the St Vincent game it sure would be great if we had an update from him regarding the away game at Hiram tonight....win or lose he obviously knows more than the man hired to actually lead the team (and the years he has spent ACTUALLY on the court coaching).... oh wait, he only bashes the team when it doesn't take a toll on his gas card....

First of all my all weather friend, we are not here to bash this team. We are here to give our opinions. We give credit where we think credit is due, and complain when we think something should be fixed. It's our opinion. And so far we have been equal opportunity employers, when a player does good, we say good job, when he does bad we say so. And as far as the coach goes its the same thing. When he does a good job we say so (St. Vincent), when we think he didn't we'll say so too (JCC). We love this team, the athleticism, the youth, the leadership, this university. We aren't here to bash. Show me one place where we have said somebody sucks at basketball. Or should quit. That's bashing. We don't do that. We respect the players and what they do. But a little constructive criticism, or praise for that matter, doesn't hurt anyone. We aren't mean. Otherwise I wouldn't be so nice right now.

Second we might not be coaches, but we've played one in a blog. Kidding. But seriously everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you want to create an all love fest blog go ahead. Conform to the University's unwritten policy of criticism is a sin. But we are trying to give our opinion, with a humorous twist on it. That's fine to disagree, but don't challenge our decision to "hide" behind our computers. We did that on purpose. There was already a witch hunt to try and get us out. And I don't see you using your real name either.

All three of us have prior playing experience, one of us even at the college level. We might not be coaches but we can still figure out that if you're going to keep 32 players on the roster, you might as well use them. Especially if they have some real talent.

Finally, we, like yourself, are college students. This blog is something we do to get out our "creative juices" and show our love for sports. But we're college students first. No I'm not going to travel 2 hours to go see us lose by 20 when I have exams starting the next night. That's too much pain for a recreational hobby. Obviously this team means a lot to you. Did you go (And it doesn't count if you had to go as part of the team or a manager, etc.)? If you didn't go and are worried about last night's score we still got it for you. It will be coming soon after this post. But in the long run we might go check out some away games, but for the most part we'll update you on the scores, but not much else.
So that's what we've got to say to you Mr. All Weather Fan. Calm down a bit. Don't get your panties all tied up in a knot.
It's just a blog.
It's just a game.
It's just a 1-8 D-III team.
If you don't like our opinions there's a little red box with an X, in the right top corner of your screen. Click it.
Otherwise stop being an ass. My firewall I "hide" behind can't block that.

PS- Thanks for reading and commenting on our blog! Please pass it along to friends if you like it.
-The Baron Bloggers

St. Vincanity

OK, this game wasn't as out of control as the name suggests, but we can all appreciate a Vince Carter reference.

The Barons played a much better game against the best competition the home crowd at Finnegan has seen this year.

We were supposed to lose this game, but we were supposed to lose this game by much more. To quote a player on the team, "Dude, please don't come".

This writer, however, was glad that this suggestion wasn't taken to heart. The Barons showed a glimpse of what this team could be. The Barons may have made an amazing comeback in the first home game, but that was the same old 3-point dependent basketball that has excited, but more commonly, broken the hearts of the Baron faithful the last year and a half. Today, however, was the start of something special.

Okay, for a fastbreaking team we don't fast break like one, and our zone defense is something that could maybe stop Catholic Central, but is not at all intimidating in DIII ball, but I am still encouraged after this game, believe it or not.

But today showed that the baron bench is deep and very usable (not to say I tolja so, but...).

Andrew "A-O" Kay - This kid has the potential to be the best big man in recent history at this school. Don't get me wrong, this kid is OBVIOUSLY a freshman. But with his inexperience comes much confidence down low that is sorely need on this undersized squad. O yeah, and this kid can play some serious post D.

Dan "Headband" O'Brien. Looks like this kid's dedication in the weight room has payed off (seriously, does he do anything else?). Came in and and controlled the game like someone who hasn't been riding the bench all season.

Zach "Sidewinder" Hohenburg (have you seen the side spin on this guys shot? eh, it goes in). Zach displayed a new found jumper that was money today and drove to the hole with authority. AMEN!

PROPS TO COACH DONNY

The man coached with crazy emotion in a game that we all knew we couldn't win AND explored the depth of his 42 men bench. Hopefully this wasn't just an experiment in a game that was a throwaway, but rather a realization of the potential of this team. God only knows.

2 minutes left in the game...It's coach Donny TIME!!!!!

Gotta Love Donny Osmond's moves. Must be the fourth quarter of his act. Cause thats usually when coach pulls out those sexy spin moves. Really pumps up that crowd. Owww!!!