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Monday, December 19, 2005
Two games on tap
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HOLY CROSS vs. Tennessee-Chattanooga, 12 noon: You might see Tennessee-Chattanooga's mascot and wonder what the heck does a bird in a railroader's outfit have to do with "Moccasins." The answer: not a thing. Like Lehigh, the school went through a mascot identity crisis in the 90s. Apparently back in the 1920s, Moccasins was a reference to the snake known as a Water Moccasin. That later morphed into what we used to call an Indian theme (now better known as Native American theme), which by the mid-90s was causing considerable hand-wringing by forward-thinking, politically correct administrators who could see the recent NCAA ban on such images looming on the horizon. Thus the company that designed Lehigh's (among many others) new look was brought in to help solve the perceived problem.

The solution did not involve changing names like it did at Lehigh, but the change was nearly as drastic:
Adopting the State Bird of Tennessee (the Mockingbird) as the core of the new identity, while incorporating the strong regional imagery of the “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” and Chattanooga’s vast railroad history, SME Design created a strong and very unique athletics identity for UTC.
Loosely translated that means, SME designed stuff that will helps us sell more T-shirts.

You might wonder why all this information in what is supposed to be a basketball game preview. Two reasons: We enjoy opportunities to poke fun at poilitical correctness and we are tired of writing about how banged up Holy Cross' roster is right now. You want to read about that, or get a scouting report on the Mocs, go to Coach Ralph's site, he already did that. NOTE: There will be no HC radio from the tournament. We have posted a link to the UT-C broadcast for today's game. Most of the other schools involved charge for their Webcasts, so unless HC meets Liberty along the way, you will need to fork over some cash to hear the other games from the San Juan Shootout.
HC notes | UT-Cnotes | USA Today matchup | UT-C radio

Haverford at BUCKNELL 7 p.m.: It is easy to poke at some schools when they schedule Division 3 teams. Given Bucknell's non-conference schedule this season, nobody will take any shots at the Bison for bringing the 3-4 Fords, who beat perennial D-3 power F&M in their last game before a nine-day break for finals.

Coming back from that kind of layoff is tough enough without having to do so against a team like Bucknell in a place like Sojka Pavilion with a roster that includes two guys over 6-5, only one of which sees many minutes.

The Fords are shooting 40 percent from the field as a team against D-3 opposition. It is almost scary to think how low that number could be tonight, though with Saint Joe's coming to Lewisburg Wednesday, Pat Flannery won't play his first 7 or 8 guys more than he has to. Expect the starters to break a sweat, then take a seat and watch some of the youngsters break their personal career bests.
Bucknell notes | Haverford Web site | USA Today matchup |Bucknell Radio

Dickinson at LAFAYETTE, TUESDAY - 7 p.m.: The league Web site says this game is tonight. Once again, the schedule on the league site is wrong.
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Published at 10:06 AM by Hoop Time.
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