The Beast : Signing Day party recap, etc.

Signing Day was great, besides the solid class Al Golden and his staff brought in.

Our Inaugural allCanes/InsideTheU.com Signing Day Party at The Titanic was an overwhelming success. We had a great enthusiastic crowd, lots of great guests, and any time Uncle Luke is in the house, that’s always going to make for a great party.

Thanks to Chris, David, Rudy and everyone at InsideTheU.com for helping us put this thing together and a big thanks to Kevin, Eric and everyone at The Titanic who once again outdid themselves by providing a great spot for us to host a party.

For obvious reasons, the biggest thanks for the day though goes to Mr. allCanes, Harry Rothwell, who made it all go. Without Harry, we wouldn’t be the well-oiled machine that we are. Oh, and big props to our good buddy Neal Bendesky who helped us out securing the 189,402 bagels and 34,950 pounds of cream cheese, on hand to keep all of you well-nourished throughout the morning. Can’t wait till next year when we really take it to the next level. (Circus elephants anyone?)

As to the signing class, hoorah. I mean what else do you want me to say. I don’t look at stars. I don’t look at class rankings. I haven’t seen most of these guys play. I’m not a scout. They are simply names on the paper and three-minute YouTube clips.

We had the pleasure of talking to Anthony Chickillo and Denzel Perryman on Signing Day and if their personalities, attitude, and aptitude are any indicator of the way they’ll perform on the field, then this class is a keeper.

However, how do we really know now? Ed Reed was named the best Cane of all time. You can agree or disagree with that, but for now let’s agree for the moment. His only other offer coming out of high school in Louisiana was from Tulane. Yes, Tulane, best known for producing Shaun King, Patrick Ramsey, JP Losman, and Mewelde Moore. All really good college players, but no two-zero E-Reed.

So do what I did on Signing Day; fill yourselves with optimism because at least now we can say that the “Golden Era” has officially started. Don’t get caught up in RivalsScout247ESPNSI.com rankings. Let’s talk in about three years and we’ll decide then if this recruiting class is any good.

Listening to the radio down here (which I try not to do too often), things have been surprisingly good the past few days. Chris Freet and his staff have really taken the bull by the horns and made sure that Hurricane Nation heard from Coach Golden and his assistants.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Brennan Carroll in his office on Signing Day (click here for the interview) and you could see the lack of sleep in his eyes. But that grin on his face made it all good.

New-old offensive line coach Art Kehoe has done every radio show (except ours) from here to Anchorage and things are officially getting back to how they used to be – and it’s much, much, much, much appreciated.

The lone negative the past few days was when I tuned into the Canes’ flagship station the morning after Signing Day. The show was broadcast live from BankUnited Center on campus, so you expected your fair share of feel-good media, but that wasn’t the case. Instead it was non-stop ‘bash Randy Shannon radio’ and everyone was piling on.

Everyone in Hurricane Nation could go on for days talking about and trying to make sense of Coach Shannon’s time as head coach at ‘The U’ – but again, timing-wise it was off. It’s the day after Signing Day and instead of fan smiling and high-fiving about the future, they’re still complaining about the past.

It’s supposed to be about looking forward, not back and I don’t care if Randy took a match to a UM flag on ESPN U on Wednesday, his tenure shouldn’t have been the focus the day after sixteen new Canes were welcomed to the U Family.

There’s a time and place for everything and I was really let down by what I heard over that two-hour span – especially on the Canes’ flagship station, where I’d expect the best insight, not immature name-calling.

IN OTHER NEWS : Hoops, Hoops, Hoops, Hoops, Hoops. I remember back in the 2000/2001 basketball season, the Canes were in the middle of a losing streak and I was sitting down and talking to then play by play announcer Marc Vandermeer.

Marc, who had done play by play for UMASS’ run with Marcus Camby back in the 90’s, was really frustrated. Actually I find it ironic that Marc always considered hoops his first love over football – and now he’s got one of thirty-two of the best jobs in the country as play by play man for the Houston Texans. But I digress.

So the Canes are in the middle of a losing streak, and Marc looks me straight in the eyes and says “Beast, I NEED GOOD HOOPS.”

It got me thinking about the impact of winning and losing basketball games. Basketball is so different than football in the emotional impact. If you lose a football game on Saturday, it hurts on Sunday and maybe Monday. But, normally, by the time you get to Tuesday and Wednesday, you are so caught up in what ever you got going on, you’re too busy to let it bother you the rest of the week.

With hoops, when they play up to three games a week, you keep getting bombarded with emotions. The men’s team lost four games in 11 days. That’s always going to take a lot out of you and illicit a big emotional response. They got a win last night and it wasn’t pretty.

The way they failed to handle the press and their inability to consistently keep a lead does more than bother me. However, they have another good chance to get a win this weekend as they host Virginia.

There’s no hiding the fact that this team’s chances of making the NCAA Tournament, or any post-season tournament are dwindling, but if they can just get a few wins, I can at least make it through a week with out shaking my head at the thought of losing basketball games. Because like Marc, I too need good hoops.

Thanks again to all of you that came out to our big Signing Day party. We had such a good time and I hope you’ll be back next year when we do it all over again.

I don’t want to pat myself on the back too much, but I’m being serious when I say this week’s allCanes Radio really was a must listen for Canes’ fans. So if you have some time over the weekend, take a listen, or at least download the show to your iPod / iPhone / iPad and listen when you have a chance. I think you’ll thank me later. Be well. Go Canes!!!

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