By Tim McCaffrey:
Hello everyone! If you missed the preseason column amid our site’s dealings with our website host, Presto, it can be found here.
https://www.d2easthoops.org/men/features/McCaffrey-s_Musings/McCAFFREY-S_MUSINGS_-_PRESEASON_EDITION
This column will be the last posted here and hopefully it will end up easy to access for all. For all future Musings….. Please subscribe.
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We’ll have rankings and opinions galore later in the season, but for in this edition we critique the media. Wait, what?
As a superfan of the region, the only time I root for teams is in the preseason against a Division I opponent or when our regional champ competes in the Elite 8. So when Pace beat Saint John’s, I was excited for Matt Healing and the Setters. The next day, however, I read the ESPN story and was a touch perplexed.
When I perused Myron Medcalf’s column my eyebrows were raised upon read Healing’s thoughts. I’ve had enough conversations with the Pace Head Coach to know he very rarely says anything that would rile anyone up. When I went hunting for a juicy quote, instead I received a thoughtful measured response that is what I expected. In fact, Healing downplayed the ESPN article and complimented all involved.
“It is a great win for our program and we were just happy to be invited,” stated Healing. “Reporters have a job to do and I was thrilled to just be quoted, although context is important and sometimes things are misconstrued.”
“ Media at times may try to push a narrative that is eye-catching,” Healing added. “We have the utmost respect for Saint John’s and the Ne-10 and I believe that feeling goes both ways.”
One thing is for certain, Pace will get the best effort from everyone it faces. Remember, the last men’s squad that knocked off a major program was when Le Moyne upended Syracuse (who was #1 later in the year) in 2009. The Dolphins didn’t make the NCAAs in the campaign. Food for thought.
Next time we begin to look at potential regional hosts, who is making a case for an at-large and who has work to do in our way too early (or is it) projections. Also coming up on Patreon, I’ll discuss my one-time encounter with a young Stephen A. Smith.
Most thoughts in this column are from Tim McCaffrey and do not express the views of d2easthoops.com! When Tim isn’t writing this column he is the play-by-play voice of the Le Moyne Dolphins women’s basketball team. When he’s isn’t doing that, he’s probably teaching umpiring on closecallsports.com, where the website has over 30,000 You Tube Subscribers.