This edition of FTS is dedicated to Will McDonough of the Boston Globe who died the other day — a Boston original and a guy who knew how to get a story. Most people probably remember Will as the ruddy faced reporter for “NFL Today” on CBS and later on NBC. ESPN.com’s Sports Guy and fellow Bostonian Bill Simmons gave Will a fitting tribute in a recent column: http://espn.go.com/page2/s/simmons/030110a.html

Bob Duffy of the Globe tells an interesting tale of how Will could get the story that nobody else could: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/011/sports/Loss_of_a_legend+.shtml

Back before Al Gore invented the Internet, I used to have my Mom send me copies of the Sunday Boston Globe which would contain the “Notes” columns of guys like Will, Peter Gammons and Peter May-literally a Murderers Row of journalism. Later, when ‘big box’ bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble came into vogue, I would peruse the Sunday Globe Sports pages and then put them back, without paying the $5 they were asking. A quick read of the “Notes” columns from these guys enabled an expatriate Boston sports fan to keep up with his teams. And talk about leaving a legacy — Will’s son Sean is one of the most versatile broadcasters on TV today.

Speaking of notes, I got one from Doug Hoyng (alias IA Flyer) concerning our buddy from Marquette, the MU Message Board poster known as Cloudpiercer:

As expected, the win over Marquette is made more sweet by the remarks from the MU fan. However, since he comes off as so knowledgeable at how much better MU is, and always has been than UD, no matter what you want to count (including NIT final fours).

I would like to offer this little tidbit from CBS Sportsline.com
http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/ce/feature/0,1518,5115021_55,00.html

Dayton is tied for 2nd with most final four NIT appearances at eight, finishing 1st twice (62,67), 2nd five times (51,52,55,56,58) and 3rd and 4th once each. Marquette has one victory and one runner-up appearance and doesn’t have enough NIT final four appearances to make the list.

Just for the record, he is right, there is no comparison! Go Flyers!

Doug Hoyng (IAFlyer)

Thanks for the info, Doug. You had to figure Cloudpiercer was making that stuff up as he went along. I searched the Marquette Basketball Message Board and here is all that Cloudpiercer has had to say in the days since MU lost to UD, this in response to a fellow Golden Eagle fan mentioning an MU Warriors hat for sale on eBay:

COME ON WITH THE GARAGE SALE! WHO WANTS THIS WORN OUT CRAP?

Clearly, CP is a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal.

I’ve had a really nice email relationship going on with Mike DeCourcy the past couple of years. After he devoted an entire TSN online column to the Flyers victory over Marquette, I wrote him this to thank him:

Mike:

Great article on the UD/Marquette game. The Flyers really seem to be putting the pieces of the puzzle together at the right time. You neglected to mention that the A-10 Tournament is moving to UD Arena this year, which certainly won’t hurt the Flyers’ chances.

Thanks again for the great article…hope you can make it back for the UD/X game at UD Arena.

Jim “Swampy” Meadows

Here’s Mike’s response:

You’re right about that. I was concentrating mostly on at-large chances and didn’t factor in UD’s possibilities of winning the thing at home. Have to file that away for later.

Good to hear from you.

Mike D.

Between Mike at TSN, Dickie V giving us some love on ESPN and our new best friend Gregg Doyel at ESPN.com, the Flyers have a veritable PR machine behind them, pumping out the positive press. You gotta love it!

Okay, in a nutshell here’s the A-10 season so far:

Fordham beats UMass
Duquesne knocks off Temple
Richmond upsets X at Cintas
UD narrowly escapes LaSalle
UD almost loses to Duquesne

I think it’s safe to say that fans of all 12 Atlantic 10 schools can throw out all of the predictions and all of the trash talk from the A-10 Message Board and come to an agreement that this conference (like all of college basketball) is totally up for grabs.

As to the Flyers, the younger Swampette has a human anatomy chart on her wall, with all of the organs and systems clearly marked. I suggest OP get one just like it, hang it up in the locker room with a big arrow pointing to the jugular. The boys have to find a way to go straight for that particular vein when they have a 20 point lead or they will end up on the short side of one of these games and it ain’t gonna be pretty.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”