I’ve been reminded of something the past four days, other than my desire to move somewhere, someday, where green grass and no-jacket-required weather in March are more than a silly dream. It’s that the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is the greatest spectacle in all of sport, and that second, third and fourth don’t even have […]
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The Hot Corner: No home ice advantage for Anthoine, but well worth trip
LEWISTON — There are home games, and then there are family reunions. Connor Anthoine’s first college hockey season at SUNY-Geneseo ended in a trip to the NCAA Division III Frozen Four. Long the domain of arguably America’s most historic hockey village, Lake Placid, N.Y., that mass gathering moved this winter to another community that pucks […]
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The Hot Corner: Lewiston’s hockey legacy not just ‘back then’
Hockey Week in Lewiston received the perfect launch Sunday when hometown hero Kyle Lemelin made the short ride home with the Travis Roy Award in his lap. It’s no stop-the-presses revelation that the best senior schoolboy player in Maine hails from this extended community. Easy to make the case that Taylor Landry from neighboring Edward […]
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The Hot Corner: Silver anniversary worth its weight in gold
Some guys have all the luck. Other than being an insufferable song that will wedge itself in your brain all day like the musical cotton candy it is, it’s the recurring theme of my career. Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the day I first walked through the doors at 104 Park Street and fooled […]
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The Hot Corner: Tourney’s great, but no reason to fear change
It’s always tricky analyzing things in a world where the Greatest Thing Ever is usually no more than eight minutes old. But the general consensus is that this year’s high school basketball tournament was one of the best in a while. And when something is good, the tendency — especially here in Maine, where the […]
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The Hot Corner: Ride’s over, with no regrets
The ride is over. That’s what we learned Friday night. This fortnight with Poland Regional High School was a joyride, not a motion picture. There was to be no “Hoosiers” ending. The Knights would have settled for a “Teen Wolf” ending. You don’t always hoist the Gold Ball at the end of a joyride. (I […]
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The Hot Corner: Final thoughts that won’t bounce away
After covering eight days of a high school basketball tournament — morning, noon and night, in two cities 60 miles apart — what does the writer do? This is neither a riddle nor a rhetorical question. I’m going to tell you whether you like it or not. My aching bones and bleary eyes tell me […]
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The Hot Corner: Knights’ journey like no other
PORTLAND — Counting the number of Maine high school basketball teams who have knocked off the third, second and first seeds consecutively to win a regional championship doesn’t require many fingers. Which is good, because if you follow the Poland Regional High School boys with even a modicum of passion, you lack nails. I’m comfortable […]
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The Hot Corner: A roaring start, no shot clock necessary
There’s no objective way to measure it, of course, but I humbly submit that we just experienced the best opening weekend of a Maine high school basketball tournament in at least a decade. Overtime games. Multiple-overtime games. Drama. Controversy. Upsets. The christening of a new regional site. The two inches of snow that held us […]
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The Hot Corner: Waiting out the winter weekend doldrums
So this is what a weekend without football is like. Funny, I tried to forget. Sunday was particularly challenging for me. It’s the only one on the calendar without some variety of televised football, baseball or auto racing. Can’t even play Sunday morning point guard and overanalyze all eight high school basketball tournament games that […]