Monday, July 13, 2009

Rohrssen shows his stars and stripes

We're a little past the Fourth of July, but the New York Daily News decided to continue the patriotic feel of the summer months and run a feature on Manhattan head coach Barry Rohrssen, who recently returned from a nine-day stint in Iraq and Afghanistan with other Division-I coaches. The program, "Operation Hoop Talk", is one of many United Service Operations (USO) goodwill programs.

Among the others that attend: American's (another Fairfield opponent) Jeff Jones and South Carolina's David Odom.

Rohrssen always stuck me as an aloof, ominous-looking coach that lacked the charisma of Ed Cooley or the excitement of Jimmy Patsos. Tom Cleary and I used to always kid about his bizarre three-piece suits he would wear courtside during Jaspers games. Then again, maybe that's just his personality.

After reading the article, I can honestly say my opinion's changed. Good for Barry, and great publicity for Manhattan's program.

Enough of the summer siesta

It's been nearly three months since our last blog post. Three.

So, for the sake of sanity and to avoid any further laziness, I believe it's time to revive the engine and attempt a mid-summer comeback.

We'll keep it as general as possible for the summer months and try to get a nice variety of topics. Tom and I will mostly chime in on men's basketball and the goings on around campus as the fall sports begin to prepare for the upcoming season. As always, though, men's basketball will be the focal point in a season that is typically slow for news stories.

And, remember: feel free to chime in with suggestions.