It's official

Well just thought I'd wish everyone a happy friday. Hope that I'm not the only one who is having the reality of the season ending kick in as it is Friday and I have no place I albsolutely HAVE to rush off to (and get there by 6:30 nonetheless). After 5 months it just feels weird. Oh well ....

Of course, even if we had beat UNH, we'd be going stir-crazy in this pre-Frozen-Four[TM] week off. But it is a lot harder to bear knowing that the only teams we'll get to see in the next 6+ months are Maine, UNH, Minnesota and Michigan.

And I would have been going completely crazy, ranting at the wind over the NCAA's inexplicable decision to play the first semifinal at 1:30 on a THURSDAY. Even though Cornell lost I am still infuriated at that decision.

Since when is the first semi not at 12:30pm?

Beeeej

Well, it's hardly news; the NCAAs have been played Thursday-Saturday for a number of years now. I assume it was originally to avoid conflicts with squeakball (the final used to be Saturday morning for this reason) but it's not clear what the motivation is now. I guess they want to leave the extra day for the Hobey presentation?

13:30 Eastern, 12:30 Central.

JTW's simultaneous post was a little faster than mine. Sorry.

They're trying to avoid having one semifinal played the night before the championship game, as was done in the early '70s--while still having a separate admission for each semifinal. Way back when, the winner of the Thursday night semifinal got a day of rest while the Friday winner got to play again the next night.

Ergo, Thursday afternoon and evening semifinals. So Friday becomes Hobey day to fill the time.

Presumably, they also want to avoid having the semis and finals on consecutive days, lest the winner of the late semi be at a disadvantage. Otherwise they could play the semis Saturday and the finals Sunday or some such.

If the tickets are sold as a championship package (correct me if I'm wrong about this), what's the point of having separate admission to the two semifinals?

This IS the NCAA....

Its about $$$$$$$$$ !!!!!!

They sell the three games as a package, but they give you three tickets with individual prices printed on them. Not sure how they make extra money on that, but it does let people re-sell them piecemeal if they like.

It avoids the appearance of charging $90 for the semifinal games.

John's point about reselling tickets for the "other" semi is a good one, also. With one admission and no pass-outs (like at the regionals), the arena might be half-filled for each semi, a la Worcester last Saturday.

If they are worried about that, they should do what basketball does - Saturday semis and a Monday night final.

What's keeping them from doing a 5PM/8PM doubleheader or something like that? 12:30 local time (1:30 our time) seems rather inconvenient from a spectator's point of view.

Actually it's not bad the way it is. You watch the first game, get to go out and get some real food, and watch the second game. I like it better than some of the doubleheaders such as LP. There the in-house food is, well, not great. At least at Worcester they had some decent food if you wanted.

As another "historical" aside, the switch to the two games on Thursday was well worth it. For a while, when they first started the semis on Thursday and Friday, the team that won on Thursday consistently won the finals. I don't remember who broke the pattern, BU?, but it was talked about for a number of years.

Wisconsin beat Denver in the 1973 championship game after winning the Friday semifinal--which featured Dean Talafous's infamous last second tying goal against Cornell. Bertrand was really spooked about having to play on Friday night, and his attempt to rest his top guns for Saturday aided the Wisconsin third period rally from 5-2 down.

At some point the NCAA might make a semifinal doubleheader work, but right now the fans of teams in game one seem to want to leave and not watch the second game, and vice versa. So better to have separate tickets which can be sold to fans of the teams in the other game, making for a full house. Would look pretty lousy on national television to have the rink half full for each semifinal game.

I've never been to the Frozen Four[TM] but the best between-game meal option has to be the HOCKEY-L dinner.

Thanks for reminding me, I guess. How could I forget that? Seeing and hearing the Wisconsin fans/band must be how others feel about us.

Is there a Hockey-L Dinner this year? I think I unsubbed from the list months ago, though I still get the occasional posting (I suppose I could still be subbed to Info-Hockey-L, the scores/standings-only version).

Anyway, I'm probably too late to sign up at this point. My only experience with the Hockey-L Dinner was in Anaheim in '99, where we supposedly had reserved an entire room and would have a buffet. But it was at the only restaurant within a half-mile of the Pond, so the entire tourney went there for food, and they were trying to pack forty of us into a table for twenty-five and serve us a platter of sandwiches on white bread. Luckily I had a media pass and the NCAA was serving lasagne.

Beeeej

Yes, there is a H-L dinner this year (no, I'm not going...)

Are you going to the Frozen Four?

Beeeej

No, no FF or H-L dinner. I should have said "No, I'm not going to St. Paul."

BTW - according to the list this morning, the H-L dinner is sold out (overbooked).

S'okay, I have to drive into Minneapolis to pick up my friend and host Uncle Mikey (yes, that Uncle Mikey, JTW) for the second semi anyway, so I wouldn't have the time.

Should be some good games. Dammit.

Beeeej

Hope the snow clears for you.