Adam Hyncik has barely seen the court in his career at Lehigh, and probably will not get many meaningful minutes this season (Billy Taylor did not even mention him in our interview for the Blue Ribbon preview). But that has not stopped his Mountain Hawk teammates from electing the senior walk-on as one of the team's tri-captains.

Obviously it was not just because Hyncik is a senior. Jason Mgebroff is a senior, too, but he did not get voted a share of the captaincy (the other two are Jose Olivero and Kyle Neptune).

Read the story about Hyncik in the Lehigh student paper and you will understand the perseverance that won his teammates respect.
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Talk to most fans about Colgate and the NBA and the name Adonal Foyle is sure to come up. Foyle was the first, and, after the Spurs' release of Bucknell's Charles Lee, is the only Patriot League player now playing in the league.

But Foyle is not the only alum of a league school in the NBA. Tad Brown, who was captain of the then Red Raiders for three seasons in the mid-80s, also draws a paycheck from a league team. Matter of fact, Brown probably even signs the paychecks for the Houston Rockets after being named the new CEO of the team and its parent Clutch City Sports & Entertainment.

Brown lettered four seasons for Colgate (1983, 84, 85 and 86), and served as the team's captain his sophomore and junior seasons before sharing those duties as a tri-captain his senior season.

Colgate did not have a lot to cheer about during his days as a Raider. They won only 14 games in Brown's four seasons, going 1-24 his senior year.

Brown, though, was a bright spot. He was pretty much a 40 minute man his entire career, with school records for average minutes per game in both a single season (39.8 per game in 1982-83) and career (38.7 per game). Heading into last season (this year's media guide, with records updates is not out yet), Brown ranked sixth in career steals and was 12th on the school's career assists list. His 884 career points tied for No. 28 on the school's all-time scoring list.
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Don't know how excited the general population of New York's capital region is about the Albany Great Danes, but the Albany paper, the Times-Union sure seems to be. Or at least their Danes beat writer is.

They have been doing a tremendous job previewing the upcoming season, which continues today with a story about a Brett Gifford, freshman center recruit who might get thrown right into the fire:

Gifford, who is 6-11 and 258 pounds, will be tested right away. He faces UMass center Rashaun Freeman, an all-Atlantic 10 senior from Schenectady, in a closed scrimmage at UAlbany on Saturday. When the Great Danes open the season against Bucknell on Nov.11, Gifford will see action against the Bison's Chris McNaughton, possibly the best Division I mid-major center in the country.

Not sure where the T-U finds the time, or the staff, for all this preseason coverage. Most of the Patriot League beat guys I have spoken to are anxioous to get going, but still consumed with other stuff, like high school and college football.

Corky Blake, of the Express-Times, has been helping put the finishing touches on a special section being prepared to commemorate the 100th playing of the Easton, Pa. - Phillipsburg, N.J. football rivalry, a game that draws Lehigh-Lafayette size crowds to Lafayette's Fisher Field every Thanksgiving.

I feel their pain. In addition to the regular duties covering the news over at the day job, I have just signed on for a two-week run blogging the Pa. Governor's race. Politics junkies are invited to check it out.
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The preseason USA Today-ESPN Coaches poll is out today. As usual, little respect for the mid-majors in the preseason.

Creighton (MVC) and Nevada (WAC) check in at 23 and 25, respectively. Bucknell is down at the end of the "others receiving" with a single vote, most likely cast by its own coach. No other Patriot League teams get a mention.
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Last season's Patriot League Player of the Year, Bucknell grad Charles Lee, was cut yesterday by the San Antonio Spurs, ending, for now, his hopes of playing in the NBA.

The Spurs cut three players, dropping their roster to 14, one below the league maximum. According to the San Antonio Express-News, the team has decided to wait and see who becomes available as teams make their final cuts before deciding whther or not to fill that open roster spot.

Previous reports from beat writer Johnny Ludden had indicated Lee's chances of sticking with the Spurs this season were slim. But Ludden has expressed optimism that Lee will eventually play in the league. Ludden said scouts think Lee, at 6-3, is too small to play the wing in the NBA and needs to learn to play the point.
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From the Albany Times-Union today, a look at the Danes' injury woes. Bucknell will meet Albany in its season opener Nov. 11 in a matchup of two NCAA Tournament teams from last season.

For more on Albany, check the links on the left side of the story.
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Didn't order your Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook yet?

Here is a little of what you are missing, courtesy of ESPN.com, which today posted the entire Bucknell preview we wrote for Blue Ribbon.
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Buried at the bottom of a Newsday report about a Long Island player verballing to Notre Dame comes word that another, Chaminade point guard Andrew Beinert, has chosen Holy Cross over the likes of Stony Brook, St. John's and Davidson.

This no doubt is not news to reecruitnix. The folks at Scout.com reported it back in September. That story said Beinert played off guard last year in high school, but ran the point for his AAU team.
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Bucknell grad Charles Lee, in camp with the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA, got a long look in Sunday night's 93-72 loss to the Houston Rockets. Lee's box score line: 5 points on 1-4 shooting from the field, 1-1 from the 3-point arc, 2-4 from the foul line, 5 rebounds (1 offensive), 4 assists, 2 fouls, 2 turnovers in 21:09 of action.

San Antonio's final exhibition game will be Friday night on ESPN against the Mavericks. After that, the team has six days off before opening the regular season at Dallas.

Sometime between now and then, San Antonio needs to cut at least two players to get to the NBA maximum of 15 on its roster. Lee is thought to be battling with two others for one open spot on that final roster.
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Here's Bucknell grad Charles Lee's boxscore line from Saturday's San Antonio Spurs win over the Miami Heat: 1-2 from the field, 1 reb., 1 assist, 1 foul, 2 turnovers, 2 points in 7:20 of action.
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One problem with the Annapolis Capital is that the p.m. paper never updates its Web site until mid-afternoon.

That is why we didn't include Bill Wagner's look at the Navy Midshipmen in the morning media day readaround.

That is OK, it is still worth a read.
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The San Antonio Spurs cut three players after last night's exhibition loss to the Chicago Bulls. Bucknell grad Charles Lee was not one of them.

Lee, who now even has his own photo gallery on Yahoo!, struggled with his shot against the Bulls, going 1 for 5 from the field after having not missed (on just three shots) in the Spurs' first three exhibitions. Lee did have an assist an a steal in his 11 minutes of action.

The Spurs now have 17 guys on the roster. They will need to cut two to reach the NBA maximum of 15. San Antonio's next exhibition is Saturday against Miami.
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Holy Cross fans looking to keep tabs on Kevin Hamilton's career in Poland can bookmark this page. It's Hamilton's personal stats page on the Polish league's site. No English, but stats are pretty easy to translate.

After two games with Polpak S.A., Hamilton is averaging 10. 5 points and 5.5 assists. His assists rank second in the league.

Martzloff hangs it up: Word Thursday afternoon out of Rochester on theretirement of Holy Cross alum Scott Martzloff.

What is that you say? Didn't know Martzloff was even playing pro ball?

You are probably not alone. The 7-1 center played for the Rochester RazorSharks of the American Basketball Association, a fledgling league that is realy more semi-pro (at best) than professional. Martzloff, who has a masters in education, actually makes his living as Director of Operations at Edison Tech High School in Rochester.

Martzloff averaged 3.4 points and 2.8 rebounds last season in leading the expansion RazorSharks to the ABA title.

Best we can tell, Martzloff's retirement leaves Neil Fingleton as the only HC alum playing in the ABA. Fingleton, who previously played for the Boston Frezy, was the marquee signing of the expansion Las Vegas Venom.
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Some additional takes on Thursday's media day festivities:

Tom Housenick of the Daily Item takes a break from his weekly college football column to serve up a good overview of the Patriot League. (Note: Tom has the injuires to Holy Cross' Torey Thomas and Pat Doherty mixed up slightly. Thomas had knee surgery; Doherty has a foot problem.)

A hearty Hoop Time welcome to the Baltimore Examiner, a relatively new publication that is new to the league beat. Its Craig Stouffer profiles Lehigh's Army brat Jose Olivero this morning. With Examiners in DC and Baltimore, let's hope this bodes well for more coverage of American and Navy this season.

Stephen Miller of the Morning Call was also on hand for media day. Here is his take.

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Moving the league's media day festivities to the ESPN Zone in Baltimore paid off with a bigger media contingent that managed to make it to Manhattan for last year's gathering at the CSTV studios.

Credit a more central location and the interest of the Washington D.C. area media for the increased showing. As one league official pointed out, last season's event drew no local media. Of course with no team in metro New York City, why would it?

With Navy and American both located close to Baltimore, it was a natural improvement.

The only downside was the presence of just five players, including two -- Abe Badmus and Donald Brown -- from Bucknell. Also on hand were Jose Olivero of Lehigh, Navy's Greg Sprink and Lafayette's Kerry Kenny, who was probably on hand more due to his being the league's representative on the NCAA Student Athlete Advisory Committee than his basketball prowess.

A walk-on, former team manager, Kenny's highlight line in the sheet handed out by league mentioned his 71.4 percent free throw shooting in 14 games last season. There is not a whole lot more on Kenny's stat sheet to write about. Since making the team as a sophomore, he has played a grand total of 73 minutes, and despite his being one of the Leopards three senior tri-captains, he won't likely get much of a chance to pad his numbers this season.

At some point this season, Kenny's walk-on odyssey should make for an interesting feature story. You have to respect a kid willing to work that hard, just to be a part of a team.

At media day, though, a guy that doesn't play on a team that is not expected to contend is not exactly what the writers on hand are looking for. But that is the way things go in the Patriot League. Coaches often pick a player to bring along based on their class schedule, not their stat sheet. Last year Bucknell's Pat Flannery brought then-junior Chris McNaughton along, leaving his senior co-captains, Kevin Bettencourt and Charles Lee, in Lewisburg. The reason: McNaughton did not have any classes on Thursdays first semester last year.

No doubt similar reasons explained why no players were on hand from American, Army and Colgate.

It would be easy for media members to complain about the lack of the league's star attractions. But to do so would be to admit you just don't get what this league is all about. There will be plenty of chances to talk to the players during the season, and they will miss enough classes while traveling for games.

We spent our time talking with Olivero and Sprink. Look for features on both in the not-to-distant future. We didn't spend much time at all with coaches, since not much has changed since we interviewed them all for Blue Ribbon. We will borrow from those interviews, and/or catch up with them closer to the opening of the season for our team-by-team previews.

Here are a few notes from the morning's festivities:

Official picks: The official league prognostications were announced at media day this morning in Baltimore. Here's how the voting by the league's coaches and sports information directors sees the league shaking out this season:

1. Bucknell 96 total points (12 first place votes)
2.Holy Cross 86 (3)
3.American 70 (1)'
4.Lehigh 64
5.Colgate 48
6.Lafayette 35
7.Navy 31
8.Army 18

Player honors: In voting by the same folks:
Preseason Player of the Year: Chris McNaughton, Bucknell

Preseason All-League:
Keith Simmons, Holy Cross
Jose Olivero, Lehigh
Torey Thomas, Holy Cross
Andre Ingram, American
McNaughton

Holy Cross' health: Chatted up Ralph Willard for a quick update on the Crusaders injury situation. Here's the skinny on some of HC's walking wounded:

Keith Simmons: Simmons is still having some cramping issues, but nowhere near as severe as last season. The preseason all-league pick is no longer suffering from the full body cramps that plagued him last season and thus far in the preseason, his cramp problems have been "manageable."

Pat Doherty: Willard said Doherty, who missed almost all of last season with foot problems, is currently around 80 percent, but he is able to play.

Lawrence Dixon: The sophomore's asthma was an issue last season. This season it is a bad knee. Dixon had surgery two weeks ago to repair a torn meniscus and is doubtful for the start of the season. Dixon is still doing basic rehab, like leg extensions and has not run on it yet. Willard hopes to have him back in practice in two weeks and back in the rotation by Thanksgiving.

Hamilton update: Former HC star Kevin Hamilton is playing professionally in Poland after spending time on the Boston Celtics summer league squad. Willard said Hamilton's injuries last season kept him from doing as much work in the weight room as he would have liked. NBA folks have told Willard that Hamilton might be able to play in the league down the road if he adds some strength.

Willard said that was the biggest difference between Hamilton and Bucknell grad Charles Lee, who is currently in the San Antonio Spurs training camp.

Tournament troubles: In talking about the league's men's tournament being played all on campus sites this season, league executive director Carolyn Schlie Femovich said a big reason was the league's inability "to identify a neutral site that works for the league."

After the success of the Baltimore location for media day, maybe Schlie Femovich should have walked over to the 1st Mariner Arena for a look-see. The 11,000-seat arena could probably find an opening in the Baltimore Blast's indoor soccer schedule to accommodate the league, and Baltimore would be a great destination for the league's fans.

Just a suggestion.

More from Carolyn: Schlie Femovich also announced all league games will be video Webcast on the Internet this season.

We will try to get more details on how that is going to work.

MIA: Army coach Jim Crews was the only head coach not present. Assistant Clay Nunley filled in admirably for Crews, who was attending a memorial for an individual Nunley described as "close to the program."

Check back later (or in the morning) for a few coaches' quotes and observations.

RELATED LINK: AP: Bucknell relishes role as Patriot League favorite

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As reported here back in August, the Patriot League has reached a deal to showcase league games on ESPNU.

We will add more details after tomorrow's media day event, which not coincidentally, will be held at the ESPN Zone in Baltimore (last season it as at the CSTV studios in Manhattan).

Here is a slightly edited version of the release sent out today by the home office in Center Valley:

Patriot League Announces 2007 Basketball Schedule on ESPNU
Eleven regular-season and one tournament game to be aired.

Center Valley, Pa. – The Patriot League announced Wednesday that 11 regular-season basketball games and the Patriot League Women’s Basketball Championship game will air on ESPNU during the 2006-2007 campaign.

Overall, nine men and two women’s Patriot League regular-season games will be shown on ESPNU. All eight of the Patriot League men’s basketball teams will gain exposure on ESPNU, while four women’s teams will be highlighted during the regular-season. A full schedule of games can be found below.

Two-time defending Patriot League champions Bucknell and Holy Cross will each host two ESPNU men’s games, while American, Colgate, Lafayette and Navy will each host one contest on ESPNU. The package also features two Patriot League rivalries -- Navy at Army and Lehigh at Lafayette.

The women will take over the spotlight on Sunday, Jan. 21 with Navy at defending Patriot League titlist Army and on Friday, Feb. 9 with Holy Cross at Bucknell. The Patriot League Women’s Basketball Championship game will air on ESPNU on Wednesday, March 7 from the site of the highest-remaining seed.

Calling the action for Patriot League men’s hoops this year are Bob Socci (play-by-play) and John Feinstein (color analyst).

2006-07 Patriot League ESPNU Men's Schedule

Friday, January 12
Bucknell at Holy Cross 7 p.m.

Saturday, January 20
Colgate at Bucknell 2 p.m.

Sunday, January 21
Navy at Army Noon

Friday, January 26
Lehigh at Holy Cross 9 p.m.

Friday, February 2
Bucknell at Navy 9 p.m.

Friday, February 9
Holy Cross at Bucknell 7 p.m.

Sunday, February 11
American at Colgate 1 p.m.

Sunday, February 18
Lehigh at Lafayette Noon

Friday, February 23
Lafayette at American 9 p.m.

All times Eastern.
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With the San Antonio Spurs facing cuts by the end of the week, Bucknell grad Charles Lee will be looking for another solid performance Thursday night when the Spurs meet the Bulls.

Reports out of San Antonio say the former Patriot League Player of the Year looked good in the Spurs' most recent exhibition, a 92-87 loss against Orlando. In eight minutes of play, Lee was 2-2 from the field, 1-1 at the line for 5 points with three rebounds, an assist and a turnover.

Lee is one of a handful of players copeting for one open spot on San Antonio's roster.
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The new Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook is out and even if we had not written the Patriot League section, we'd insist it remains the top preview publication going. Ours arrived in the mailbox yesterday; 384 pages of facts, figures and information. No filler. No advertisements.

You can order yours now by going to the Blue Ribbon Web site. While there, you might want to bookmark BR Editor Chris Dortch's new BasketBlog page. Not much there now, but Chris promises a top notch effort and if the Yearbook is any indication, we are sure it will be.

Along with co-conspirators Kyle and Ken, Blue Ribbon will also be launching its own power rankings this season. They also are planning a return of their popular NCAA Tournament Guide come spring.

Obviously we are not going to post the stories we wrote for Blue RIbbon here. But we will offer a quicky, capsule preview version in hopes of whetting your appetite.

Here is our early preseason predicted order of finish, along with an excerpt from each team's previews that should help explain our reasoning:

1. BUCKNELL:

Until somebody knocks them off, Bucknell is still the team to beat,” said Colgate coach Emmett Davis.

Davis’ reasoning is simple.

“With (Chris) McNaughton inside, they will still be a very good team,” Davis said

2. HOLY CROSS:

With four of five starters from that team returning, there is plenty of reason for optimism in Worcester. . . . A healthy Holy Cross will contend for the league title.

3. COLGATE:

On paper, the Raiders look like a challenger for the league title. But that was the case last year, too, which makes it tough to predict big things for this year’s squad. . . . Simply put, the quality of the team as a whole last season was far less than the sum of its parts.

4. AMERICAN:

There are too many ifs for AU to project the Eagles as title contenders this season. But, if (there is that word again) things fall into place, it could be a big season in D.C. . . . The ingredients are there, potentially: depth, size, scoring, experience.

5. LEHIGH:

. . . depth is a big question. . . . With the experienced rosters that are back for a lot of other schools in the league, it is tough to see Lehigh contending for the title. A more realistic goal for the Mountain Hawks might be earning a home tournament game by finishing in the top four of the eight-team league.

6. NAVY:

When Navy was a power in the Patriot League during the mid-90s, they won games by coming at you in waves. Lange is developing that kind of depth in the backcourt. With guys like Sprink, Johnson and Kina, the Mids backcourt could be very special . . . in 2007. . . . At that point, Lange’s team could surprise some people. Navy is clearly an improved program over Lange’s first two seasons.

7. ARMY:

While Army is in good shape on the perimeter, the paint might be a different story. . . . If the inside game develops to compliment the perimeter attack, Army might be able to climb out of the cellar.

8. LAFAYETTE:

(Fran)O’Hanlon’s contract at Lafayette runs through 2014. By the time it ends, expect the Leopards program to be back near the top of the league year in and year out. . . . Just don’t expect it this year. With the question marks surrounding this year’s squad, and a challenging schedule that starts with a preseason NIT date with Indiana, matching last season’s 11 wins would be a realistic, and demanding, goal.

Our preseason all-league team? We won't give away names, but it includes four guards and a center (unlike our annual post-season All-Hoop Time team, this five is purely the guys we felt are the best five players in the league).

The actual entire section runs seven pages of fairly small type, so obviously this is a small sampling. You'll need to buy the book to read the rest.
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Bucknell fans, want tickets for the Bison's Nov. 21 visit to Penn State? PSU puts individual tickets on sale at 10 a.m. today. Visit GoPSUsports.com or call the Nits' ticket office at 814-865-5555.

Bison fans can also catch a preview of opening night foe Albany here. Story centers on the Danes' 6-5 point guard Brian Lillis.

Since e-mailer John filled us in on Bucknell apparently withdrawing its offer to Germantown Academy guard Kyle Griffin, new he has comitted to LaSalle has little Patriot relevance. But since dad played at Lehigh, we'll link anyhow.

Mike Farrell's hometown paper in Daytona Beach checks in with a story on the Lafayette grad's transition to becoming an assistant coach with the Leopards.

Word yesterday that the Womens Basketball Coaches Association will name an award after later Army coach Maggie Dixon makes us wonder why the Patriot League has no honor named after Jack Bruen.

As John's e-mail, referenced above, points out, you never know how hard a school actually went after a player. Just because they tell a press conference a school was on their final list does not mean the school was still recruiting the player. We offer that caveat with this link to a report of a Canadian point guard choosing Old Dominion over Holy Cross and two other U.S. schools.

In Part III of his 65 Things You Need TO Know series, CSTV.com's Bryan Armen Graham offers a Holy Cross history lesson, but makes no mention of the modern day Crusaders. Surely some of Matt B.'s buddies on the the CrosSports board will use this as basis for another argument that HC should leave the Patriot League.

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In today's USA Today, Bucknell is mentioned as one of McPaper's "Unsung teams worthy of attention".

We don't have a problem with that, or with the writer's analysis, which argues Bucknell's emphasis on defense should give the Bison a chance at another banner season.

But then the guy (or gal, we found no byline) tries getting cute by writing:

Once a regular resident of the Patriot League basement, Bucknell has had consecutive 20-plus win seasons in addition to consecutive first-round victories in the NCAA tournament (Kansas in 2005 and Arkansas in 2006).

Where do they get these ideas? It reminds us of a writer we encountered while covering the Amish shootings last week, who datelined their stories as coming from Paradise.

When it was pointed out that Paradise was actually a town about 6 miles away, the writer said, "That is O.K. Death in Paradise sounds better."

Yeah, but it is not true. Neither is the fairy tale about Bucknell rising from the depths of the league. In 16 years of Patriot League play, Bucknell has never finished in the Patriot League basement. Not once.

In fact, the Bison, who have won more Patriot League games than any other school, boast the best winning percentage in conference play of any school still in the conference. Bucknell has experienced only two losing seasons in conference play and has seven first or second place finishes over that span.

Bonus links Lots of previews today of George Mason, which has both Bucknell and Holy Cross on its schedule this season.

The Examiner

USA Today

Washington Times

Washington Post

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More than a few folks figured Bucknell grad Charles lee was just camp fodder when he was invited to the San Antonio Spurs preseason camp. But San Antonio Express-News beat writer Johnny Ludden thinks last season's Patriot Player of the Year has a legitimate shot at an NBA career. Writes Ludden:

The former Bucknell guard is tough and aggressive, the type of hard-nosed player Popovich usually loves. But because he’s listed as 6-foot-3, some scouts think he’s going to have to make the transition to full-time point guard. In NBA parlance, saying someone can play two positions may also mean he doesn’t have a true position.

Adds Ludden, "I think Lee will eventually draw a regular NBA paycheck."
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Tune in tonight at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN to watch Bucknell grad J.R. Holden and his CSKA Moscow team take on the Philadelphia 76ers in an exhibition game.

The telecast is a delayed showing of the final of the NBA Europe Live Tournament. Holden scored 10 points against the Sixers, but CKSA fell 85-71 NOTE: Typo in score corrected Thursday at 7:45 p.m. Thanks Manny for the catch.
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john, who gave no last name, writes:

It's not exactly correct that Griffin canceled his visit. After Bucknell landed Boon last week, the offer to Griffin was off the table. They have one spot left and the priority is for one of the centers they're recruiting.

Thanks John, for that update. For all we know, you are probably correct.

As we have pointed out many times, we are not really into the whole recruiting scene. Don't research it. Don't do the Rivals and Scout stuff. Really have very limited interest.

We post the things we run across in the normal course of surfing the Web for PL news, but we don't seek it out.

Matter of fact, we have no idea who Boon is, but if someone wants to e-mail us some info or a link, we'll be glad to post it.

We'd also be willing to provide links or space to someone who wants to serve as our recruiting expert. Just use the feedback form on the right side of the site to "apply."
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According to today's Philadelphia Daily News, it appears Bucknell is no longer in the running for Germantown Academy star Kyle Griffin.

Griffin is set to announce his college choice (believed to be LaSalle) Thursday. According to the Daily News, he recently canceled a visit to Bucknell.
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Yeah, I know. You didn't even know Colgate games were on the radio. Nonetheless, the Raiders will be looking for a new voice. The old voice, Brad Heller, has been hired to do South Carolina women's basketball.

Can you believe it? The witching hour is almost upon us. Midnight Madness and the opening of official practice is Friday night. Almsot forgot it was this soon until we read this early report on Albany, Bucknell's season-opening opponent.

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You might have seen this woman on television this week if your were watching coverage of the Amish school shootings.

Her name is Rita Rhoads.

She is a media whore.

Rita is a Mennonite midwife who helped deliver many of the Amish children who were in the school when they were born. I first encountered her just an hour or two after the shootings. We both arrived at a police checkpoint near the school at the same time, and both got directions from the same state trooper to get around the the other side of the school where the media were gathering to await briefings.

That first day, as outside media poured into the little village of Nickel Mines, reporters scrambled after any passersby wearing a straw hat while photographers and cameramen shot pictures of every horse and buggy they could find.

I encountered Rita again inside the auction house where the Amish who ran the business had graciously opened their doors to allow the press to use their bathrooms, and later, to find someplace to plop down their laptops to file stories. Rita's husband and I struck up a conversation. They were from nearby Quarryville, and I knew a couple folks there from some previous business endeavors.

I had planned to interview Rita at some point, having heard her mention to the state troopers back at the checkpoint how she had delivered many of the children. Then I noticed the notebook her husband was carrying and heard him tell a TV reporter they could do an interview with him at 2:30. The husband was acting like an agent. The notebook was her interviews appointment calendar.

Since I was assigned to write the main "crime" story the day of the shootings, I decided the Rita angle would have to wait. Later that day, I pointed her out to two colleagues and suggested one of them talk to her.

Nothing she had to say that day fit into our coverage. Located in nearby Harrisburg, we did not find it necessary to write a lot of "meet the Amish" stories that the out of town and national media did. To our readers, those horse drawn buggies are not scenic and quaint. They are impediments to traffic that chew up roads with steel buggy wheels and drop roadapples in their wake.

By the second day, we made a conscious decision to avoid Rita Rhoades and her traveling 15-minutes of fame entourage. She could bask in someone else's spotlight, we were more interested in talking to actual local Amish (Mennonites, though oft confused by outsiders as Amish, especially in areas like Snyder and Union Counties near Bucknell, where the horse and buggy population is all Mennonite, not Amish, are not the same).

Rita's routine didn't really bother me until Thursday, when I started seeing stories move on the wire quoting her about details of what went on inside the homes during some of the viewings for the dead girls. She was one of two non-Amish welcomed into the home for that very private ceremony. And as quick as she could get back to the media encampment, which had by then been moved from the auction house to a church parking lot a few miles away in order to give the Amish more privacy, she began telling reporters every detail she could remember.

Had she limited her comments to things that could have been as easily found by researching Amish customs -- the color of the dress, the shape of the coffin -- it might have been O.K. Not Rita, though; She was on a roll, and so were the cameras. Rita told how one by one the siblings were invited to the casket to touch their dead sister's cold arm. She even described the bandage covering the evident head wound that killed the girl. Intimate details from a very private ceremony at which she was a guest.

She was back the next day, talking about the funerals and telling how one of the slain girls, according to a recovering shooting victim, had volunteered to be shot first in hopes of saving the others.

To me, she betrayed the trust and privacy of those families who invited her in. But Rita was getting attention. More than she has ever gotten before. More than she will ever get again. Her 15 minutes of fame was more important than the families privacy.

Rita was not the only media whore in Nickel Creek this week. Out in front of the auction house, a man who drives buggies for a tourist buggy ride concession, held court for the media, handing out buggy ride pamphlets while doing interviews with a gathered horde of reporters, all of whom were too ignorant of Amish custom to realize that a real Amish man would not allow television cameras to film an interview.

Sam Fisher, the Amish guy who runs the auction got wind of what was going on and chased the man off the property. Later Sam told me the buggy driver was a member of a sect known as the River Brethren, who have some similarities with the Amish, including a plain style of dress that, while similar, is distinct from the Amish.

"I'm not even sure he is actually a River Brethren. I think he was excommunicated because he divorced his wife," Sam told me.

Then there was the assistant coroner who told the Washington Post (and others) that one of the victims had over 20 gunshot wounds, calling into question police accounts that said the gunman fired 13 or 14 rounds from a handgun and three or four from a shotgun.

It is highly unusual for an assistant in a coroner's office to be talking to the media, especially in a big case like this. In fact, the coroner himself was not even making statements, allowing the state police to serve as the official spokespersons. If he was even in his office, the coroner was not taking phone calls there.

One of my colleagues, who used to work at the Lancaster paper, had the coroner's cell phone number and passed it along to me. After he got over the surprise that I had gotten his cell number, he proceeded to tell me that A) he could not believe any of his staff would have talked to the Post and B) the staff member in question lacked the experience or expertise to distinguish between the entry wounds caused by the double-0 buck shot in the shotgun shells and the bullets in the handgun (a magnum shell of double-0 contains 12 pellets, which accounted for the large number of entry wounds).

That lack of expertise didn't stop the assistant from appearing on Nightline.

The media itself was certainly not without its disgraceful moments. Sam's son John told me the day of the viewings, he and some other Amish men had to chase off several media members who snuck on to the farms where the families and neighbors had gathered, somehow bypassing the fire police providing "security" at the farm's lanes.

"We chased one guy off three times, Finally we had to forcibly remove him," said John.

That is as close to fighting words as you will get from the Amish.

There were unconfirmed reports that some media types had been caught Tuesday night trying to sneak through fields to get closer to the school. At least one photographer apparently hiked a long way through other fields to get pictures of graves being dug at the cemetery where the funerals were held. The road that led to the cemetery had been closed to outsider traffic.

As a journalist, I am ashamed of the ones who did that stuff, and the ones who went knocking on the doors of families who had kids in the school, despite those families attempts to remain unknown and away from the media. But I am also proud that those scoundrels were few in number and in no way reflected the behavior of the vast majority of the media covering the story.

As the auction house press operation wound down Wednesday, a steady stream of media folks sought out Sam and thanked him for his hospitality. Despite the expressed wishes of the Nickel Mines Amish community to be left alone by media outsiders, Sam told me the experience had changed the way he viewed the media.

Prior to this, his perception was based on occasional glimpses of televised news reports. "I'd be somewhere, and I'd see the reporters all gathered on the courtroom step, pushing and shoving, rudely shouting questions. I would think 'If it were me, I'd probably bop them one,'" Sam said.

After playing host to the horde for two-and-a-half days, Sam said he had a newfound respect for the journalism profession. "By and large they were very kind and very considerate," he said.

I know my colleagues who covered the story and I tried very hard to be just that. Not just to Sam, to whom I cannot give enough thanks for letting us set up a "Nickel Mines Bureau" in the middle of his business, but to the community as a whole.

The afternoon of the shootings we came to know of a family that had three boys and a girl in the school. They were neighbors of an Amish man named Jake King we met, and with whom we were able to build a rapport. Jake's wife had talked to families of some of the girls. He was willing to tell us what she told him, but also appreciated our desire to hear it from her, instead of third hand. Jake sent us up the road to visit his farm and told us to tell her he had sent us.

His wife was not there when we arrived, but Jake's teen-aged daughter, who was past school age for Amish children (they stop at eighth grade), came over from next door to greet us. She was babysitting the rest of the neighbor's children while the parents were gathered with other parents awaiting word on their children.

We learned a few things from our conversation with her that might have made for some "juicier" details in the story. Standard protocol is for a source to tell you ahead of time that a conversation is off the record. We did not stand on that protocl in this case, though. When she expressed reservations about us putting things she had confided in the paper, we decided we would not use them.

Nothing she told us was close to the details Rita the midwife dished out. It was little more than the number of children the neighbors had, how many went to the school, how many were male or female and the fact that the family had moved next door a few years ago and elected to keep the children in the West Nickel Mines school, rather than switch to East Nickel Mines, which was a little closer.

The young lady was concerned she would be violating the neighbor's privacy of we wrote any of that. Lucky for those folks they lived next to Jake and his family, and not next to Rita the midwife.
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Spent yesterday covering the Amish Columbine for the day job, and I am headed back to Lancaster County for follow-ups today.

It is by far the biggest story I have ever covered. It dwarfs the NCAA Tournament, or any sporting event.

It is not the first tragedy I have covered. I have written about a soldier who died in her husband's arms in Iraq and soldiers who never made it back to those they loved. I have covered domestic shootings and a Cub Scout killed by a tree falling on his tent.

Every time it makes me long for the days when the worst news I reported was a blown-out knee.

Every time it reminds me that life is too short under the best of circumstances.

Hug your kids today. Hug them every day.

Kiss the wife as often as you can get away with it.

If you are a spiritual person, meditate or say a prayer.

As my colleague Terry Burger wrote today (in a column I cannot find a link to), don't just pray for the dead Amish girls, or the five still in the hospital.

Pray for all of us.
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