News and Notes 3/12/13: Jack Parker, NESCAC hockey releases and basketball

Jack Parker Retirement 
As we talked about yesterday, Jack Parker officially announced his retirement, come the end of the season, after 40 years as the men's hockey coach at Boston University. The BU athletic website released a list of tweets on the retirement from colleagues, media and the hockey community. The list included this tweet, from former Parker assistant and current Colby head coach Blaise MacDonald.

Jack Parker is a gifted person who twice the person as he is a coach. Anytime I was at a crossroad he was a guiding light. Thanks Jack!!
— Blaise MacDonald (@MacDBlaise) March 12, 2013

As for the retirement presser itself, there were a couple of mentions of NESCAC coaches. At 9:45 into the video below, Brion O'Connor of ESPNBoston asks Coach Parker about what has changed in college hockey during his 40 year tenure as BU's bench boss. After railing against the cages on helmets ("The face mask ruined the game") and praising coaching ("attention to detail by all the coaches is much better"), Parker turned his attention to the players.

At 10:45 into the video, Parker talks about players today being older than they were when he first started coaching. He then mentions Bowdoin coach Terry Meagher, who Parker said discussed retiring from Bowdoin with his former college coach (but Parker didn't mention his retirement to Meagher). One of things that has "aggravated" Meagher, according to Parker, is how people used to return to Canada to play "senior" hockey after finishing juniors or college, but now college hockey is senior hockey.


Later on at about 18 minutes in, a reporter asks Jack if there will ever be another Jack Parker, in terms of longevity in coaching at one place. Parker comes up with Amherst coach Jack Arena, who he mistakenly says coaches bitter rival Williams, but Parker quickly corrects himself and apologizes to Jack. Arena took over the Lord Jeffs immediately after graduating from Amherst in 1983 and has been the head coach ever since. Thanks to BU's Student newspaper, The Daily Free Press, for the video.





NESCAC Official Releases
This week's official men's hockey release from the league office recaps Bowdoin's NCAA tournament win over U-Mass Dartmouth and loss to Utica, which ended NESCAC men's hockey for the 2012-13 season.

NESCAC women's hockey, however, lives on. The women's release chronicles Middlebury's come from behind 3-2 OT victory over rival Norwich in the NCAA Quarterfinals. Just three days after the men beat U-Mass Dartmouth in the NCAA tournament at the Sid, the Bowdoin women lost at home to Elmira, 4-0, in the quarterfinals of the tourney.

The Middlebury women now head to to Superior, Wisconsin to face off against Plattsburgh State on Friday, March 15th in the National Semifinals. The winner of that game will face the winner of Elmira/Gustavus Adolphus in the National Final.


Basketball 

Borat at the Salem Civic Center 

While the NESCAC men's hockey season is over, the 'Cac men are still very much alive in the NCAA D-III basketball tournament. Amherst, Williams and Middlebury have all made their way into the Sweet 16 round of the tournament, and will host games on Saturday, March 16th. Middlebury faces off against Ithaca College, Amherst welcomes Randolph-Macon and Williams takes on Wesleyan...Virginia-Wesleyan.

Since 1996, the D-III men's final four has been held at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, VA. The venue, however, may be best known for a  scene from "Borat."  Sacha Baron Cohen, posing as his Kazaki character, convinces the building's owners to allow him to sing the national anthem at a rodeo. After Borat illicits some homophobic remarks from the rodeo's producer, here's what happens next, as described by Salon.com (full article):
        

 "Before launching into the anthem, Borat shrieks, “We support your war of terror” — to thunderous  applause. The crowd’s enthusiasm tapers off as Borat voices his wish that “George W. Bush will drink the   blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq” and turns into all-out booing once Borat begins to sing the Kazakh national anthem — during which point a horse, apparently spooked by the crowd, freaks out and falls to the ground with his flag-waving rider."

Anyway, this year's final four schedule is a bit special for the NCAA's 75th Basketball Anniversary.  The quarterfinals and semis will be held in Salem on March 22nd and 23rd, but the finals will be held two weeks later on April 7th at Phillips Arena, home of the Atlanta Hawks. Both the D-II and D-III finals will occur at Phillips on that date, the day between the D-I semis and final held at the nearby Georgia Dome.

For the full D-III men's bracket, click here.