Leading off today: A few notes, rumors and observations picked up during the annual weekend trek to Glens Falls for the NYSPHSAA basketball tournament:
Future tournaments: It's not a lock, but I'm nevertheless willing to head to Las Vegas to put down some money on this one: Glens Falls is in the driver's seat and can feel comfortable about the prospect of retaining the boys tournament through 2016.
Back in December, The Post-Star reported that the Carrier Dome in Syracuse would be a likely bidder this spring when the three-year contract beginning with the 2014 tournament came up for consideration by the boys committee. I said back then that the Carrier Dome people should be thinking really big if they're serious about plucking the event from Glens Falls, which has hosted the boys since 1981. I suggested that the Dome staff should be thinking about configuring the massive facility so that the boys could play their 15 games at one end of layout while the girls tournament was being held at the other end.
I didn't know it at the time, but that's apparently exactly what they had in mind. The thing is, though, they weren't leaning in that direction solely to be innovative and splashy; in discussing options this weekend with knowledgeable types circulating through the back corridors here, it became apparent that Syracuse probably can't make the finances of its bid work unless the girls, currently hosted at Hudsn Valley Community College, also agree to move to Central New York.
(A not unrelated aside: If the Houston Astrodome is considerered the Eighth Wonder of the Modern World, then the cost of renting its smaller version in Onondaga County would be the ninth.)
Well, guess what? Syracuse didn't submit a bid to the girls committee, leaving that group with nothing to consider. They'll be going back to Troy unless something monumentally odd happens between now and May.
Barring a substantial infusion of cash or donations-in-kind from other sources, then, Syracuse cannot make a blow-them-out-of-the-water offer by the end of this month to the boys committee, which in turn will need the NYSPHSAA Executive Committee to sign off on its decision.
And, as one basketball committee member noted, Glens Falls usually starts off with a bit of a 6-5 geographical advantage whenever the issue of moving comes up. If you don't believe it, go back and look at look at the bid proposals the last time Section 4 submitted a bid. To this day, more than a few people remain in disbelief that Binghamton's bid didn't win.
Honoring L.I. coach: Bob Hodgson, William Floyd's veteran boys basketball coach, was remembered with a moment of silence before the Class AA final between Mount Vernon and Glens Falls.
Hogdson, 63, died Saturday at Stony Brook University Hospital, Newsday reported. he had been admitted to the hospital last Sunday complaining of chest pain a day after Floyd lost to Baldwin in the state Class A quarterfinals.
"Mr. Hodgson has been a part of our Floyd family for over 23 years and his death is a tremendous loss for our faculty and staff, families and students," district officials said in a statement posted on the school website. "Mr. Hodgson’s dedication to teaching and coaching has inspired and motivated countless students, and he certainly will be
missed."
Star power: Back-to-back losses by Bishop Kearney and Jamesville-DeWitt to open the Saturday morning quadrupleheader sucked a lot of the star power out of Sunday's championship card. The loss marked the end of the scholastic careers of J-D's Dajuan Coleman (Syracuse) and Tyler Cavanaugh (Wake Forest), and Kearney junior Chinoso Obokoh and freshmen Thomas Bryant are both on their way to being two of the most heavily recruiting backetball players in Section 5 history.
But with disappointment comes opportunity, and the two winners of those Saturday games made the most of it. Harborfields and Tappan Zee gave us probably the second-best Class A final (trailing only J-D's overtime win vs. Peekskill in 2009) since the tourney added a fifth class in 2004.
Harborfields won 67-58, but the it was great end-to-end action and the outcome was still in doubt with 35 seconds to go. John Aptron and Justin Ringen scored 20 points apiece and tourney MVP Lucas Woodhouse added 15 to help offset 20 by Tazzap Zee's Patrick Peterson, who wowwed folks all weekend with 11-for-21 shooting on 3-pointers despite defenders flying at him from all directions.
I had a funny encounter with someone from the Tappan Zee delegation during the break between semifinal sessions on Friday. While Kearney and Harborfields were on one side of the Class A bracket, the Flying Dutchmen were paired against Jamesville-DeWitt in the semis and had been hearing daily how J-D was gunning for its fifth straight NYSPHSAA title.
The guy from Tappan Zee said he ran into some folks early FRiday from Harborfields, one of whom told him, "We're rooting for you guys. We're really rooting for you guys."
Can't say I blamed them. It's funny how it all ended up playing out the next two days.
Triple crown: How cool must life be for Nick Reisman right about now?
The 6-foot-1 junior wasn't the star of the show in Tuckahoe's 77-66 win over OTC Middle College on Saturday in the Class C final -- that honor belonged to Sky Williams following a 37-point, eight-rebound effort.
Heck, Reisman didn't even make it into the boxscore as the Tigers capped their 25-0 season.
