Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

UMass Lowell sophomore guard Kyle Caiola was honored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) as a 2010 First Team East Region selection, as announced by the NABC office on Wednesday.

Caiola is one of six members of the East Region First Team, and is eligible for the State Farm Coaches' Division II All-America teams, chosen by the NABC.

The guard finished the year averaging 20.2 points per game while shooting 46.9 percent from the floor (40.1 percent 3-pointers). He led the conference in free throw shooting (89.9 percent).

Caiola was joined on the First Team by Bentley's Jason Westrol, Le Moyne's Laurence Ekperigin, Merrimack's Darren Duncan, Stonehill's A.J. Rudowitz and Bloomfield's Gage Daye.

Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff

Perhaps I'm finally growing up and realizing there's more to life than sitting in front of a television set seven nights a week to watch college basketball. Or perhaps I'm getting older and crankier by the day, thereby hating anything that seems to have passed me by.

Whatever the reason, I find myself watching less and less college hoops with each passing year. Conversely, but perhaps not coincidentally, my grades in Bracketology are deteriorating by the year. (Not that I was ever an honors student to begin with...your friendly neighborhood sports know-it-all hasn't caught a whiff of victory in one of these darned pools, going 0-for-lifetime) So this year, I've opted to use the "system" suggested a few years back by a former co-worker who has actually won one of these things. Not once. Not twice. But three times.

What this Sweet Sixteen swami recommends is choosing chalk all the way through. Not that selecting favorites in every round makes the tournament interesting (how much fun is there in rooting for David over Goliath?), but it does make sense. No matter how many early round upsets. No matter how many fantastic finishes. When the dust settles after Elite 8 weekend and only the Final Four are left standing, you can rest assured that a #1 or #2 seed will occupy each and every one of those spots.

Yes, there are exceptions throughout tournament history, but nobody gets rich in the gambling world by continuously betting against the odds.

So with all that said, allow me to invite you to participate in our 5th annual March Mayhem contest, open to Lowell Sun and SunBlog readers. Signing up with our group actually enters you in two separate contests: a national pool where someone could win up to $1,000,000 (insert Dr. Evil's pinky in the tooth gesture here) and a local pool where the winner receives four tickets to a Lowell Spinners game. The second and third place finisher each receives a pair of tickets.

Joining in the fun is real easy. To enter, simply go to the following website: http://lowellsun.collegehoops.upickem.net

Follow the instructions to register and once that's been successfully done, click on the "My Groups" tab, choose the "Join a Private Group" option, then enter the following information:

Group name: SportsTalk
Password: lowellsun

Voila! You are done!

Of course, you must remember to enter all your picks before noon Thursday. Then sit back and enjoy the Mayhem! Compare your score to your friends' scores. Talk smack with the other members of our little group. Win bragging rights for an entire year.

And with any luck (or is it skill?), you might just find yourself sitting at LeLacheur Park one night this summer, courtesy of the Lowell Sun.

The River Hawks' six-game unbeaten streak has enhanced their chances of being selected for the NCAA Hockey Tournament after a 14-year absence. The pairwise rankings have always been a reliable predictor of which teams are going to make the tournament, and after last night's 2-1 triumph over Maine the River Hawks find themselves in a tie with Minnesota-Duluth for 14th in the pairwise rankings.
Sixteen teams make the tournament.
But flies do get into the ointment at this time of the year, which is why UML remains a "bubble team" at the moment to get into the tournament.
Champions of the six Division I league tournaments get automatic invitations to the NCAA Tournament. Most often, teams that were already sure things because of their positions in the pairwise win their league tournaments. But upsets do occur.
Also, the champions of college hockey's two weakest Division I leagues, the College Hockey Association and Atlantic Hockey, are automatically in, even though rarely are their champions strong enough to make the NCAA field on their own merits. That means non-champions from the other four major conferences are competing for 10 at-large bids to the national tournament.
What makes the River Hawks even more of a bubble team right now is because of what happened last night in the CHA Tournament. Bedmidji State has been a Top Ten team nearly all season and was going to make the NCAA Tournament on its own merits anyway. But when Niagara upset Bedmidji State 5-4 last night in the CHA semifinals, that means another CHA team in addition to Bemidji will now be going to the nationals, either Niagara or Alabama-Huntsville, leaving one less at-large berth for a more deserving team from one of the four majors.
The CHA has shrunk to four teams and is disbanding after this season, and now half the league's teams will be in the NCAA Tournament.
All the River Hawks can do at this juncture is keep winning and hope to move up in the pairwise rankings while crossing their fingers that there are no other upsets in the league tournaments.
The River Hawks may have to pull an upset themselves by winning the Hockey East Tournament to be assured of getting into the nationals for the first time since 1996.
Notes:
If the River Hawks beat Maine tonight (or tomorrow, if necessary), the victory will give them 20 wins in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1993-1994.
UML went 20-17-2 under Bruce Crowder in the 1992-93 season and followed that up with a 25-10-5 record in 1993-94, when the River Hawks went to the NCAA Tournament.
The River Hawks were 20-16-2 last winter. They are 19-14-4 at present.
Junior center Scott Campbell has a six-game scoring streak (4-4-8) and has 10 clutch goals, the most game-tying or go-ahead goals by a River Hawk since Mark Roebothan had 10 in 2007-08 ... Kory Falite is second on the team in clutch goals with 8 ... Of Ben Holmstrom's 9 goals this season, 4 have been game-winners ... Senior Carter Hutton, who has been in goal for all of them, has a 1.30 GA average during UML's six-game unbeaten streak and has stopped 138 of 146 shots for a stellar .945 save percentage. Hutton now ranks fifth among the nation's goalies with a 2.01 GA average and remains fourth in save percentage with a .928 mark.

Is the UMass Lowell hockey team star-crossed or what?
Ever since losing the Hockey East championship game to eventual national champion Boston University by a 1-0 score last year when the River Hawks had the tying goal washed out by a blown call by the referee -- who later confessed to his mistake -- it doesn't seem they can catch a break.
As if it weren't tough enough for them to score goals this winter, they probably led Hockey East in disallowed goals, a half-dozen if not more. They gave up the second-fewest goals in the league, had the third-best record overall, and finished in a three-way tie for third in the standings. Their reward for a third-place finish?
The River Hawks earn the dubious distinction of becoming the first third-place team in Hockey East's 26-year history to have to go on the road for the first-round of the Lamoriello Trophy Tournament. Because they lost the season's series to both Boston University and Maine by 2-1 margins, the River Hawks become the tournament's fifth seed and have to play the best-of-three first round at the one road arena where they least want to be against the team they least want to play: Alfond Arena and the University of Maine.
The River Hawks have never beaten the Black Bears in a Hockey East playoff game. They are 0-12 against the Bears and 0-7 at Alfond Arena.
UML is 15-32-1 all-time at Alfond Arena, including a victory in each of the last two seasons. But even with those two wins the River Hawks are still just 2-15-1 in their last 18 games in Orono.
In Hockey East's history, in only three other seasons has a team lost home ice after finishing in a tie for fourth place. Curiously, Providence was in involved in all three.
In 1991 Providence and New Hampshire tied for fourth with 22 points, and the Friars got the tie-breaker. Two years later UMass Lowell and Providence tied for fourth with 21 points, and the River Hawks got home ice. In 2003 Providence and Boston University tied for fourth with 27 points and the Friars got the tie-breaker.
But in a season in which the difference between finishing in third place in Hockey East and missing the playoffs completely was a mere four points, the third-place River Hawks find themselves at a huge disadvantage in the first round.

Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff

A month from now, April 4th to be exact, the Red Sox and Yankees will open Major League Baseball's 2010 season. What the two bitter rivals will also open is a flood of Fantasy Baseball activity.

Millions of Americans participate in this make-believe sport annually, which by many estimates is a billion dollar business. Much of that money is accounted for by information services providing "expert" draft advice.

For those of you too cheap to pay for those services, or simply smart enough to realize one man's expert is another man's fool, here's some free advice on the projected fantasy fortunes for Boston's Boys of Summer (broken down by category):

The Charlize Theron Division (must have on your roster):
Jacoby Ellsbury
Dustin Pedroia
Kevin Youkilis
Victor Martinez
Jonathan Papelbon
John Lester

Ellsbury's speed makes him the most valuable fantasy commodity in crimson hose, as the former Lowell Spinner is likely to lead the league in stolen bases again...Pedroia edges out Youkilis because offensive minded second baseman are more scarce than their first or third base counterparts...V-Mart would top this list, but his penchant for off seasons following good ones, plus the fact he's going to spend a lot more time behind the plate this year than last, drop him down a few pegs in these eyes...Little Papi is a saves machine with a lot of financial incentive to bounce back from what, for him, was an off year...Lester is going to put up a monster statistical season at some point, and this could be the one.
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The Jennifer Aniston Division (looks great but something's wrong):
Marco Scutaro
Josh Beckett
John Lackey
Clay Buchholz

As I said when Scutaro was signed, a 34-year old coming off a career year is suspicious...Contract year status could push Beckett to strong numbers, but he's been flirting with injury problems two straight years now, so buyer beware...Lackey has battled elbow issues, plus his career numbers at Fenway are horrible...As the bats struggle, Buchholz is going to hear his name in trade rumors all summer, which can't be good for a young pitcher.
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The Lindsay Lohan Division (damaged goods):
David Ortiz
J.D. Drew
Mike Cameron
Adrian Beltre
Jason Varitek
Jeremy Hermida
Tim Wakefield

Big Papi's '09 stats looked respectable because he feasted on lousy pitching. Don't be surprised if even those numbers slide...Drew is one guy I never warmed up to as a fantasy player, even as he underachieved in other uniforms...Cameron is Darren Lewis with a little more power, so forgive me if I can't get excited about that .250 career batting average...In his contract year of 2004, Beltre belted 48-homers, 22 more than his next highest total (hmmmmm?)... Varitek won't get enough at bats to continue his recent decline...Hermida couldn't even cut it in Florida, where nobody cared...Wakefield is done, only he's such a character guy nobody wants to tell him.
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The 2 at 10:00 and 10 at 2:00 Division (depends on how late they're available):
Mike Lowell
Bill Hall
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Daniel Bard
Hideki Okajima

When Lowell gets traded, some team could very well luck into an 80-90 RBI, undervalued First Baseman/DH...Hall once put up decent numbers in Milwaukee, and with Cameron and Drew's injury histories, could see just enough at bats to make for a nice mid-season waiver wire pickup...Don't roll the Dice-K in the early rounds, but 18-win potential is definitely worth a late round gamble...a Papelbon injury or trade makes Bard a potential stud closer, who is also deserves a roster spot if your league values middle reliever stats...Holds also make Okajima the only other Sox reliever worth carrying.

Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

UMass Lowell freshman guard Bianca Simmons earned co-Freshman of the Year honors for the Northeast-10 Conference, and she also earned a spot on the All-Rookie Team.

Simmons, a native of Middletown, Conn., finished the regular season as UMass Lowell's scoring leader with 12.7 points per game. She also tallied 4.9 rebounds per game and shot .826 from the free throw line.

Named the NE-10 Rookie of the Week four times this season, Simmons ranks among NE-10 leaders in free throw accuracy (second) and scoring (15th). She enjoyed season-highs of 28 points and 12 rebounds in a 73-64 win over Le Moyne; and six assists in a 77-65 win over Merrimack.

Simmons shared the NE-10 honor with Gabrielle Gibson of Assumption.

Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

UMass Lowell point guard Kyle Caiola, a sophomore from Parma, OH, was named to the NE-10 Second Team for the second straight year.

The 2009 NE-10 Freshman of the Year, Caiola fed the River Hawks in scoring (20.5 points per game) this winter. He ranked third in the conference and 26th in the country. He also shot .476 from the floor (.393 from long range) and .917 from the free throw line, pitting him second in the nation.

He finished the regular season ranked among conference leaders in six major categories: free throw accuracy (first), scoring (third), minutes played (eighth), steals (1.8, tied for 10th), 3-point field goal percentage (10th), and field goal percentage (14th).

Hockey East is heading into its final two weekends of the regular season, and in the league's 26-year history seldom -- if ever -- have the standings been so bunched. Only Providence has been eliminated from the Lamoriello Trophy scenario, and seven of the league's teams are just eight points apart with four games to go and all with a mathematical chance to get home ice for the first round.
Northeastern is one point behind fourth-place Boston University, which currently is hanging onto the last home-ice berth, while UMass Lowell and UMass Amherst are two points out of fourth, Merrimack three, and Vermont four.
One of them, however, will not make the playoffs at all.
If the results of other league games over the final two weekends broke perfectly in their favor, the enigmatic River Hawks could finish as high as second ... if they can sweep the two teams at the bottom of the standings, last-place Providence and ninth-place Vermont, with three of those four games at the Tsongas Center. But they could also join the Friars on the sidelines if they don't finish strongly.
A sweep of the final two regular-season weekends would also boost the River Hawks' NCAA Tournament chances immensely. That would give them 20 wins, and if they win their first-round series, they would have 22, which should be enough to at least make them a team on the bubble for selection regardless of how much farther they get in the Lamoriello Trophy Tournament.
Even if the River Hawks were to claim home ice or finish as high as second, they could be completely shut out for post-season individual awards. Kory Falite is their only scorer in the top 25, and he's 19th.
Jeremy Dehner is certainly deserving of being All-Hockey East, but there are a lot of rival defensemen out there with flashier statistics, including BU's Colby Cohen (10-11-21 in league play), Maine's Jeff Dimmen (10-10-20) and Will O'Neill (4-15-19), and UNH's Blake Kessel (4-18-22). Dehner, with 5 goals and 14 points in 18 league games, is only 10th in scoring among HEA defensemen.
Carter Hutton is ranked 11th in the country among goaltenders -- the highest of any Hockey East netminder -- with a 2.24 GA average and is fifth with a .923 save percentage. He also ranks third among goalies in league play in both goals average and save percentage. But because he and Nevin Hamilton have split time in goal almost right down the middle while most of the league's other top goalies play nearly every game, being perceived as a "platoon goalie" is certain to hurt Hutton's chances of making the All-Star team.
As for freshmen with a chance to make Hockey East's All-Rookie team, none of the River Hawks has made that much of an impact compared to freshmen at other schools.

Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff

Let's wax up the skis and slalom around this crazy downhill course we call the sports world:

-Besides the obvious New England connection, New Hampshire's Bode Miller and Vermont's Lindsey Jacobellis share a bond in this scribe's mind for the lessons their respective stories can teach young athletes.

The rebellious Miller nearly let his career expire without winning the most prestigious prize of them all, an Olympic Gold Medal. After taking home a pair of silvers from the 2002 Salt Lake City games, the man many call the greatest Alpine skier in American history partied his way out of contention at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy.

Jacobellis had her Gold medal well within reach back in 2006, except she opted to use her hands to grasp her snowboard instead in a showboating maneuver that led to a fall, a second place finish and a long four years to think about what might have been.

Both approached the 2010 Games in Vancouver as a shot at redemption. For Bode, that came Sunday. For Lindsey, it might never come.

The lesson to young athletes: don't ever take anything for granted. Respect the sport. Respect your opponent. Respect the opportunity when it presents itself.

Miller's Alpine Combined victory showed that hard work and dedication can lead to a second chance. Jacobellis' Snowboarding failure showed that even a second chance isn't a guarantee. What must make it even tougher for her to take is that the roles could very easily have been reversed.

There's a fine line between winning and losing. Sometimes, that line is as fine as the border between New Hampshire and Vermont.

-Speaking of athletes who could use a lesson, I see where Randy Moss is beginning the process of shooting his way out of town. Here's hoping Bill Belichick sees the light and sees to it that 2009 is Moss' last year in New England, not 2010.

Don't invest too much money in one of those #75 Patriots jerseys, either. By franchising Vince Wilfork the Patriots have in essence ensured the big nose tackle will be elsewhere, if not next year, then certainly the following year.

Franchising players never ends well, even when it's the right move, and this is one of those cases where both sides are going to do the right thing...for themselves, not for the fans.

The Patriots need to get something in return for their run-stopping nose tackle, a very valuable commodity. Giving Wilfork the big-money, long-term deal he seeks is a risky move for the position he plays and the body type he possesses, so committing the team to anything more than one big money year isn't a wise investment.

Wilfork and his agent also know his time in the league is limited, so this is the big guy's one, and likely only, chance to set himself and his family up for life. The Pats best defensive lineman by far last year, Wilfork plays hard, plays hurt, and has been a good soldier up to this point. He deserves every penny he can get.

Sports fans like to point to the NFL and its hard salary cap as the right way to run a league. Tell that to Vince Wilfork when he has to uproot his family and move elsewhere to get what he deserves. And tell that to the Patriots when they're scrambling to fill a very big hole in the middle of their defense.

That's the view from Mount Olympus...how do you see things? Is Moss a goner? What about Wilfork? Did Miller and Jacobellis get what they deserved?

Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

- Apparently, attitude had a large part of the UML women defeating Bentley for the first time since 1994. Senior guard Rahshala Valentine admitted that intimidation may have hampered the River Hawks in the earlier meeting between the teams (a 20-point loss on Dec. 2).

That wasn't an option for the final home game of the season and in the career of five seniors, Valentine included.

"No, not in our house," Valentine said of Bentley not intimidating UML the second time around.

- How about this year's freshman class? Two freshman played key roles in yesterday's big win. This is even after losing a pair of freshman who have started games this year and who've won the last four NE-10 Freshman of the Week honors in Bianca Simmons and Sarah Bennett to suspension for violation of team rules (indefinite length).

Briana Szidat and Bri Calver each played 12 minute or more on Wednesday, with Szidat playing 24 minutes at center and Calver substituting at the point guard position.

The 6-foot-3 Szidat forced Bentley to adjust offensively to her presence in the paint. She blocked five shots, several times covering up for teammates who were beaten on dribble penetration. Bentley responded by making Szidat match-up with a forward playing 14 to 16 feet away from the basket.

Both Szidat and Calver kept the ball moving offensively as they notched three assists apiece (tied for the team high).

- There are reasons basketball teams carry all those bench players. The River Hawks showed that last night with their bench. Along with the freshman Szidat and Calver, sophomore Meghan Kirwan had a big impact on defense and energy. Kirwan not only had 10 points, but also five rebounds and three steals.

While seniors Liz Desir and Amanda McGrew started on Senior Night, they've been primarily bench players. They too had valuable contributions. McGrew (5-foot-10), Kirwan (5-foot-9) and Szidat also provided a very long group for the River Hawks, which never hurts on defense.

The River Hawks, ranked in the national preseason polls and every week thereafter, dropped out of the U.S. College Hockey Online poll for the first time this week. Despite splitting a weekend series with 10th-ranked Boston College, the 20th-ranked River Hawks beating the Eagles 4-1 at the Tsongas Center and then losing 2-1 in Chestnut Hill, BC moved up two spots to eighth while UML fell out of the rankings.
The River Hawks, now 15-13-2, were 21st in the balloting this week.
UML had been ranked as high as third when the River Hawks got off to an 8-2-1 start. But a lengthy team-wide scoring slump has seen them go 7-11-1 since then while plummeting out of the national polls.
UML has lost five 2-1 games this winter, and 10 of its 13 losses have been by one goal. The River Hawks have surrendered the second-fewest goals in Hockey East but currently reside in seventh place because of their inability to score goals.
Offensive help may be on the way, although not in time to help the River Hawks this year as they appear on the verge of missing the NCAA Tournament for the 14th year in a row, the longest drought in school history. On the weekly UML hockey radio show earlier tonight, coach Blaise MacDonald said the River Hawks have several recruits with dynamic offensive skills who will be joining the program next fall.