Brown vs. Maine, Cumberland County Civic Center ----------------------------------------------- It didn't take long after sitting down in my Row 2 seat at the Cumberland County Civic Center Tuesday night that I realized I should have brought by books and studied. The sparse crowd of 2,842 barely made enough noise. I had the row all to myself in my section, and the row my sister's ticket was for was empty. At the end of the first period I told my sister the game was almost as exciting as watching a pick-up game. The public address system made the announcer sound like he was whispering. I'm still wondering why Maine's Blue Line Club and pep band decided to stay home. A Maine alumnus, my sister was not impressed by the lack of school spirit. I wonder why Maine's basketball and hockey teams continue traveling down to Portland once a year. Attendance has never been as good as it is at Alfond Arena. The Civic Center is nice, clean, and maintained well -- and it has superbly comfortable seats -- but it lacks the character and energy of Alfond. For those of you who are wondering, the Civic Center's capacity is more than 7,000, compared to Alfond's 5,200. When will Maine's athletics department learn to be kind to students? Originally scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start, the Brown-Maine game began at 7 p.m. instead. Student tickets were printed with the 7:30 game time; the general public's tickets were printed with the 7 o'clock game time. Tuesday's game time guffaw by Maine isn't the only Maine athletics department scheduling bungle. This weekend the Maine women's basketball team will host the Dead River The hockey team's Saturday game against Merrimack is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start. However, in a Wednesday Bangor Daily News ad for the basketball tournament, the starting time for the consolation (er, rather "consolidation" game according to the ad) is 5 p.m. Saturday with the championship game scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Maybe the 5 p.m. game IS going to be consolidated -- the consolation and championship games will be played at the same time at Alfond! But that would leave the arena crew with less than a half hour to cart away the court and sub-floor... Hm... Actually, the student tickets for the basketball tournament list the correct starting times, noon and 2 p.m. Governor's Cup -------------- Last Saturday's Vermont-Maine match lived up to its billing. However, it appears the tournament officials need to hone their skills. Which is it, "Governor's Cup" -- as the tickets said -- or "Governors' Cup" -- as the message board said? "The Maine Campus," Maine's campus newspaper, had another name for the tournament: "Governer's Cup." Ouch! (As if that were bad enough, the paper's Hockey East preview last month misspelled "governor," created a fictional "Dunham, N.H.," misspelled "Massachusetts" by having two S's instead of one, and misspelled "Amherst" as "Amhearst.") But getting back to the tournament, I wonder if its organizers decided beforehand what to do in case of a tie game. With about three minutes left in regulation in the Maine-Vermont game, the Catamounts and Black Bears were tied. Nonni Daly, the tournament head, was called to the scorer's box. When regulation ended with the teams still tied, the public address announcer told the crowd there would be a five-minute sudden death overtime followed by a shootout if need be. The crowd greeted the announcement of a possible shootout with a thunder of boos. Shortly after the five-minute overtime began, the announcer told the crowd there would be a change in the "formula." If neither team scored in the five-minute overtime, the ice would be resurfaced and a 20-minute sudden death overtime would follow. If the tournament's organizers didn't think about ties, shame on them big time! So, for next year's tournament, the organizers should one: figure out what the tournament's name is, and two: determine the overtime format before the games begin. _____________________________________________________________________ Ryan Robbins "Nothing in fine print is ever good news." University of Maine -- Andy Rooney _____________________________________________________________________ [log in to unmask] ____________________________________________ http://maine.maine.edu/~rrobbi32/____________________________________ HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.