College Sports

Photo by Purdon Photography It was a long time in waiting, but Saturday the Reading Royals for in the Kelly Cup Finals for the first time in their franchise’s history. After three division tittles, and a 2013 Eastern Conference crown, the Royals looked to open their first Kelly Cup Finals series on the right foot. The opponent standing in Reading’s way from hoisting Kelly is the Stockton Thunder. The Thunder opened the game displaying sloppy breakout pass attempts through the defensive and neutral zone. Those passes were intercepted multiple times by Royal skaters, leading to chances against Stockton goaltender Olivier Roy. With the game tied 3-3 ten seconds before the 15 minutes mark of the final frame, Nikita Kashirsky tallied his fourth goal of the postseason off a centering pass from T.J. Syner. It gave Reading a lead which would last only 18 seconds. The opposite direction, Nathan Deck scored his first of the postseason to bring the score even again at 4-4. Overtime looked promising until the Royals were awarded a power play with 2:22 left in regulation. The Sovereign Center crowd erupted when with 48 seconds left, Alex Berry squeaked a soft shot through the five-hole of Roy. Game 1 looked to be in Reading’s favor, but a miraculous game for the ages had another surprise left. Amazingly, in the final minute, Stockton stormed down ice and tallied a tying goal with 22 seconds left in the third period. 5,000-plus spectators looked on in disbelief as the Thunder stormed back to tie the game only seconds after the roof was about to come off. But in sudden death overtime, Kashirsky won the game for the Royals and clinched the franchises first win ever in the Kelly Cup Finals. In the game, former Bears Nikita Kashirsky, Patrick Wellar, Evan Barlow, Alex Berry and T.J. Syner all combined for four goals and six assists. The Royals have a chance to open a 2-0 series lead before heading to Stockton with Game 2 Sunday evening.

In exactly 100 days, fans (more PSUers than Cuse fans, more than like) will fill the rows in New Meadowlands Stadium to watch both teams kick off their 2013 football seasons. Now, there's a lot going to happen between now and then (summer workouts, football camp, the NCAA-mandated free-for-all transfer period, just to name a few) but, after today, we're in double digits! As per usual, stick with BSD in the coming months; we'll have previews, news and more to get alumni and fans ready for the upcoming football season. Just a little bit to tide everyone over: Follow @BSDtweet on TwitterAnd join us on FacebookAll BSD community members should review our current Posting & Commenting Policies before creating any posts or commenting.

There was a time when Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy cared about his quarterbacks enough to get hopped up on Red Bull and famously defend them in a shouting rant. That was pretty cool. This week he said quarterback Wes Lunt, who began last season as a freshman starter but slipped down the depth chart after he sustained some injuries, could transfer but was given a transfer restriction list that included schools from the Big 12, SEC and Pac-12, and Southern Mississippi and Central Michigan as well. All transfer restrictions are pretty unfair, and if the NCAA cared in the slightest about student athletes it would never let broad transfer restrictions happen. But even in a world where coaches often have some rules on where a player can transfer to, that's a pretty substantial list. If Lunt wanted to go to a restricted school he would not only have to sit out but he'd have to pay his own way for a year. It seems rather petty and unnecessary after both sides went out of their way to say that both sides appreciated what the other did, but it was time to move on. There's just no good reason for this. So we grabbed a newspaper with the headline, "Coach restricts quarterback from going to whatever school he chooses for no good reason," sat Gundy down and let him know how we felt about it: "I’m going to talk about this article right here. If anybody hasn’t read this article — I don’t read it, but it was brought to me by a mother ... of children. I think this is worth reading. Let me tell you why I want to talk about this article. It’s all accurate, not fiction and this article embarrasses me to write about athletics tremendously. That article had to have been written about a coach that doesn’t have a child, and has never had a child that has changed their mind at 19 years old and come home from their freshman year upset! And had to fairly deal with the child when he is upset! And kick a person when he’s down! Here’s all that Wes Lunt did: He goes to class. He is respectful to the media. He’s respectful to the public. And he’s a good kid. And he’s not a professional athlete and he doesn’t deserve to be restricted on what school he can transfer to when he's down. If you have a child someday, you’ll understand how it feels. But you obviously don’t have a child. I do. If your child goes to a school and somebody makes fun of him because he has a lot of potential and might not start ahead of Clint Chelf, or says he’s fat, and he comes asking to his coach to go to the school of his choice, you’d understand. But you haven’t had that. Someday you will and when your child comes home after his freshman year when he's still young enough to regret his college decision, you’ll understand. If you want to mess with the future an athlete for no good reason — one of your athletes! — you mess with one who doesn’t do the right things! You don’t restrict his transfer process because he does everything right and may not start on Saturday! We should not let you make that decision! That’s why I don’t believe the NCAA’s rhetoric about caring for student athletes. Because it’s garbage! And the Oklahoma State administrator that let you restrict his college future is garbage! Restricting an amateur athlete who you’ve said left on good terms. And then you want to take care of guys who don’t do things right and downgrade them, the ones that do make plays. Are you kidding me? Where are we at in society today? We expect more from you! You’re a man! You’re 45! You’re not a kid. Take some responsibility! Or your coaches. Don’t restrict a kid that does everything right, that’s heart is broken he isn’t the starter at Oklahoma State, and then say he can’t go to Southern Miss! That ain’t right! And then to make that decision about Wes Lunt, after you thanked him for everything he did. That’s not right! So get your priorities straight. And I hope someday you have a child and somebody doesn’t let them choose their own college future and needlessly messes with the

Every PSU sport except for Track and Field is done for the year, which renders this piece more irrelevant than it already is (insert "That's not possible!" joke here). We'll figure out how we'll cover track every week, but for now, let's consider this the final Pickin' Nits of the year. There is only one song that is appropriate here, the most successful single in Motown history and my pick for the second greatest boy band song of all time -- End of the Road by Boyz II Men. Let's go. Track and Field Track had their outdoor championships, where the women's team won the Big Ten and the men's team took eighth. GIMME DAT McGLOIN CHAMPIONSHIP BELT GIF. Several Nittany Lions had notable days: Mahagony Jones locked up first in the 100 M dash and second in the 200 M dash, Marta Klebe came in second in the 1500 M run, Evonne Britton won the 100 M hurdles and came in fourth in the 400 M hurdles (teammate Kiah Seymour took second in the 400 M), Melissa Kurzdorfer came in second in the hammer throw and Lauren Kenney/Laura Loht were 1-2 in the javelin. On the guy's side: Casimir Loxsom came in second in the 800 M run and Robby Creese came in second in the 1500 M run. That's it for their finisher who came in the top two. Well, that's not good. The Week Ahead: The team has NCAA Eastern Prelims in Greensboro, where 41 Nittany Lions will be competing. To put that into perspective, every other PSU team is sending zero athletes to the NCAA Eastern Prelim in Greensboro this week. Impressive stuff. Women's Golf Women's Golf had NCAA Regionals at Auburn, where the team came in 19th place at +47, shooting a 911 on the tournament. PSU's two best finishers were junior Ellen Ceresko, who shot a +9 225 and came in 60th, and freshman Grace Chung, who shot a +11 227 and came in 70th. The Week Ahead: The season's over. Instead of a song to remember their season, I'll instead use an insanely appropriate video: the last few minutes of the greatest golf movie of all time, Happy Gilmore. Lax Both lax teams fell in the NCAA Tournament. The men got waxed by Yale, 10-7. I know that score looks close, but Yale went on an insane 9-1 run. Now, I only played one year of lax, so I'm far from an expert, but I can say with 71 percent certainty that letting your opponent go on a 9-1 run isn't good. TJ Sanders led the way for the Lions with two goals. He's a freshman, and he's very good (not unlike Barry Zuckerkorn, I know I've used that joke before but you can never have too many Arrested Development jokes). Women's lax won both of their early round games (beating Canisius 14-13 and UMass 12-9) before falling to Northwestern in the Elite Eight for the third time this season, 15-7. The ladies had 12 2-goal performances over the three games. They all deserve Nattys for their performance. The Week Ahead: The season's over. Obviously, we're honoring their season with some DMB, because stereotypes of Lax players never stop being fun. Here's Say Goodbye. Softball Softball lost their Big Ten tourney quarterfinal matchup against Minnesota, 4-0. They got two hit in the process. On a far more interesting note, Minnesota had won 34 games this season up to that point, 30 of them by the person who pitched against PSU. That's cool, I guess. The Week Ahead: The season's over. Because softball is a comically bad team, we're gonna remember them with a comically bad song (that you probably forgot ever existed): PopoZão by Kevin Federline. Baseball Since I decided to wait until women's lax finished up their season to publish this, baseball has had seven games since the last edition of Pickin' Nits. The Cliffnotes version: they went 2-5. They lost all three against Illinois two weekends ago (9-0, 8-6, 5-4), beat Villanova last Tuesday (7-4) and went 1-2 against Sparty (lost the first game 16-1, won the second game 9-0, lost their season finale 2-1). Some fun stats for the end of baseball's regular season -- the team went 9-11 at home and 3-25 on

Michael Adams wants you to know at heart he’s another Dawg fan, nothing more, nothing less. “I don’t have many regrets,” Adams said during an interview in his north campus office in his final weeks as president before his retirement on June 30. “You want to know what my biggest regret is? Not getting the final five yards against Alabama. To have gone out in the national championship game, and I felt that night that was the national championship game and I think the following events proved me right. I’m not sure I’m over that one yet.” See?  That’s just like you or me or any other slob who didn’t preside over the hire of a man who would preside over an embarrassing academic scandal. But in Adams’ mind, Harrick doesn’t count as his biggest regret because his hire wasn’t really Adams’ fault. “I said to coach Dooley, ‘Would you like for me to get Jim Harrick in the pool,” Adams said. “He said, ‘Yes. I think the better the pool, the better.’ We interviewed three finalists. Coach Dooley made a recommendation to me for whatever reasons. I think, and still think, that he and coach Harrick got along very well.” Dooley’s first choice was then Delaware coach Mike Brey, who turned down the chance and eventually landed at Notre Dame. Harrick won the national title at UCLA in 1995 but was fired the next year over expense reports from a recruiting dinner that violated NCAA rules. “Ultimately on decisions on the head basketball coach and the football coach, I make the decision only from the standpoint of that was my recommendation to the president,” Dooley said. Adams said Dooley recommended Harrick twice, the second time after Harrick decided he wanted to stay at Rhode Island before changing his mind. “I think the AD was involved in the hiring, he played the lead role in hiring Jim Harrick, not once but twice,” Adams said. “I think that I can document all that.” “I think that I can document all that.” ?  Who in the hell talks like that in a beat writer interview? The sad thing is that he probably did make an effort at the time to document it… just in case. Weiszer wrote a fair piece, which means what you’d expect.  But there is one uncontaminated bit of good news in it.  We get a vacation. Adams, who turned 65 in March on what he called his “Medicare birthday,” plans to take a year off from the university. He said he will spend time at his lake house and travel next year to Australia, New Zealand and California and may write books. Don’t feel any need to rush back on our account. Filed under: Georgia Football, Michael Adams Wants To Rule The World

In short, Georgia's absolute dominance of Vanderbilt was the most complete game I've seen the Dawgs play in a long time. While Vanderbilt came in talking about a "culture change," what they got was a lesson in the traditional culture of the SEC. What ostensibly began with a kerfuffle following the 2011 game resulted in a Georgia team that came out attacking in all phases of the game. Long passes, long runs, and a relentless pass rush resulted in an absolutely beautiful dismantling of the Commodores. Should you feel moved to do so, you should treat yourself to this display again and again: While the Georgia highlights from this game are almost too many to mention, Vanderbilt's highlights consisted of a few decent runs, a couple of long passes, and a 30 yard field goal just before halftime. That should really tell you all you need to know about this game, but for the sake of basking in the glow of this victory we'll go a little deeper. In the previous posts in this series, the Dawg Sports staff has given you a rundown of the back and forth of each game. But as there wasn't really any back and forth in this contest, I thought I'd just give you a scoring summary... plus, I really like how this turns out visually: GEORGIA - Gurley Run, Gurley, Murray Pass, Murray, Gurley, Muray, Gurley.... TD GEORGIA - Gurley, Gurley, Murray, Murray, Murray, Marshall Run, Marshall.... TD END OF Q1 GEORGIA - Gurley, Gurley, Murray, Gurley, Murray, Murray to King.... TD GEORGIA - Marshall, Marshall, Murray, Marshall, Marshall, Murray, Malcome Run, Murray, Malcome, Murray, Marshall, Murray Run.... TD VANDERBILT - Rodgers Pass, Rodgers, Rodgers, Rodgers, Rodgers, Rodgers, Rodgers.... FG HALFTIME -- UGA 27 VANDY 3 GEORGIA - Gurley, Mitchell Run, Gurley, Murray, Marshall, Murray, Gurley, Murray, Murray to Brown.... TD GEORGIA - Murray, Marshall, Marshall.... TD GEORGIA - Gurley, Murray, Gurley.... TD END OF Q3 END OF GAME -- UGA 48 VANDY 3 It has such a nice flow to it. So much variety! So much balance! But in a good way! Its almost as if Mike Bobo found his inner offensive coordinator. And that defense! My God, that defense! The offense could have hung more than 50 on them and I'm sure the defense would have preferred the shutout, but its hard to complain about the type of performance we're always clamoring for. And while the team performance was outstanding, there were certainly many individuals deserving of accolades. Unsurprisingly, Aaron Murray performed admirably against the Vanderbilt defense. Murray picked apart the secondary, completing his first 12 passes. On the stat sheet, Murray's performance isn't all that impressive by his standards (just 250 yards with 2 touchdowns through the air and another on the ground -- and isn't it nice to be able to say that this stat line isn't up to his normal performance?). But what set Murray apart in this game was his efficiency and command of the game as he completed 75% of his passes. The running game was nothing short of outstanding. Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall continued their progression toward becoming the hybrid beast "Gurshall," amassing over 300 yards on the ground (with a little help from Boo Malcome) to go with 4 touchdowns. Both backs averaged over 8 yards per carry and tore off some long runs with Marshall's 56 yard TD being the longest. But my favorite run of the night had to be Gurley driving the final nail into Vanderbilt's already nail-riddled coffin: Marlon Brown really deserves special recognition for this game as well. Throughout his career, Brown has faced a lot of ups and downs, but he really brought it against teams from his home state. Murray predictably spread the ball around, but Brown was certainly his favorite target against the Commodores. When it was all over, Brown had caught 5 passes for 114 yards, including a 58 yard reception. And while I don't think anything needs to be said about the defense (after all giving up 3 po

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