Category: Fordham Ram Writing

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in May 2019.

Fordham Baseball has done something it hasn’t done since 1998: win the Atlantic 10 and go to the NCAA Tournament. With a 4-3, extra-inning win over Dayton on Saturday, the Rams will be moving on to the Morgantown Regional to face West Virginia on Friday night.

“It’s been pretty incredible,” Fordham head coach Kevin Leighton told Fordham Athletics. “It took a little while after the game for it to really sink in, but it was awesome.”

Hosting a conference tournament is undoubtedly an advantage for the home team. If the squad is able to make it, its players, coaches and staff don’t have to worry about travel arrangements or not sleeping in their own beds, both of which are just two of the reasons why playing on the road can be so difficult.

When Fordham officially clinched a berth in this year’s Atlantic 10 Conference tournament, the Rams knew they would get a chance to win it on their home turf. In a conference where the first through eighth-seeded teams were separated by just six games, making it to the tournament gave Fordham a legitimate chance to win it.

Fordham head coach Kevin Leighton’s team earned the fourth seed after taking two out of three games from Dayton University in the final series of the year. Their first game in the double-elimination tournament would be against Richmond, and it didn’t go according to plan. Senior starter Anthony DiMeglio – who pitched to a 2.61 ERA in 62 innings and 12 starts this season – got the quick hook after just 1.2 innings and two runs allowed. After freshman Cory Wall conceded three more runs in the top of the sixth, Fordham trailed 6-1. A loss would mean that Fordham would need to win five games in the next three days without a loss to triumph in the tournament.

It was at this point that the Rams kicked it into gear.

Two run-scoring hits from seniors Justin Bardwell and Nick Labella brought the lead down to three runs. After knocking Richmond starter Tim Miller out of the game, Fordham attacked the Spiders’ bullpen in the eighth. Junior Jake Baker drove in two more runs with an RBI double, and freshman Jason Coules – one of the breakout hitters in a talented lineup – hit a sacrifice fly to center to drive in junior Billy Godrick and tie the game at six. In the top of the ninth, Leighton yanked freshman reliever Gabe Karslo in the middle of an at-bat, a rare move for a head coach to make, but one that is less rare in the postseason. He brought in sophomore closer Kyle Martin, who struck out three of the four batters he faced in 1.1 electric innings.

In the bottom of the 10th, the Rams captured momentum in the tournament and stole game one from Richmond. Sophomore second baseman C.J. Vazquez – who finished the day four-for-five from the plate – advanced to second base after an errant throw by Richmond first baseman Justin Cook landed in the Fordham dugout. After Coules moved Vazquez to third on a groundout, sophomore second baseman Jake MacKenzie ended the night with a walk-off single to right field. MacKenzie, who was Fordham’s best hitter all year with a .313 batting average, had been held down all night before coming through in the 10th.

As it would turn out, the comeback win shifted momentum in Fordham’s direction for the whole tournament.

Leighton turned to sophomore ace John Stankiewicz on day two against top-seeded Virginia Commonwealth University. Stankiewicz was the Atlantic 10’s Pitcher of the Year after going 7-3 with a conference-best 1.20 ERA in the regular season. After allowing a first-inning run, he pitched to those numbers, giving up just two hits over his final six innings. With the score tied at one in the fourth inning, speedy junior Alvin Melendez came home on a throwing error to give Fordham a 2-1 lead. It remained that way until the ninth inning, when a cell of thunder, lightning and rain descended on the Bronx and delayed the game for an hour and 17 minutes. Martin had pitched a scoreless eighth inning before the delay, but nonetheless, he was entrusted with the bottom of the ninth and struck out pinch-hitter Logan Amiss to end the game and give Fordham the rest of Thursday off.

With the win, Fordham moved on to a Friday afternoon matchup against Dayton. DiMeglio got another chance and was much better, pitching seven innings and giving up two runs, only one of which was earned. Despite his strong performance, Fordham trailed 2-1 entering the seventh. The Rams turned to what has worked all season long: scrappy baseball and manufacturing of runs.

Melendez started the inning with a single and a steal of second. He moved over to third after a throwing error on a pickoff attempt. With runners on first and third with one out, Labella bunted and brought home Melendez to tie the game. In the next inning, Fordham’s small-ball prowess came through once more; Baker singled and Vazquez pushed him to second on a sacrifice. Coules came through in the clutch once more and drove in Baker on a double. Fordham came through with one more run in the ninth on a Labella RBI single, which came one batter after a sacrifice bunt from senior catcher Justin Bardwell.

With the Rams leading late, Leighton turned to dominant senior reliever Anthony Zimmerman to try to take some of the load off of Martin. Zimmerman, who gave up just three earned runs in 35.1 innings this season, was excellent, and his two scoreless innings helped push Fordham to Saturday afternoon’s championship game(s). Fordham would have to win just one of two games on Saturday to take home the A-10 crown and advance to the NCAA Tournament.

Their opponent: Dayton, again.

Fordham got off to a hot start when MacKenzie, the nation’s fourth-leading base stealer, swiped third and came home on a throwing error in the first inning. The Rams added two more runs on a bunt single by Vazquez in the fifth and an RBI single by Baker in the sixth. However, Dayton began closing the gap after sophomore lefty Matt Mikulski was removed after throwing 5.1 scoreless innings. Second baseman Takahiro Yamada scored on a throwing error by junior third baseman Matt Tarabek in the seventh. Dayton designated hitter Alex Brickman – more on him later – brought the Flyers within a run later in the inning with a sacrifice fly. The score would stay like that until the ninth inning. Martin had come in earlier in the seventh inning with the lead at two runs and the Rams not wanting to mess around with a chance to lock up the tournament.

Martin finished the seventh inning scoreless and allowed just a single in the eighth. A groundout by Connor Wilson and a strikeout of Marcos Pujols brought Fordham to within one out of their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1998.

That’s when the aforementioned Brickman had other ideas.

Martin hung a 1-0 pitch and Brickman bombed it over the left-center field wall at Houlihan Park to tie the game at three. A Dayton win would push both teams to a winner-take-all title game shortly after the conclusion of the first game. While the game was not make-or-break for Fordham, it felt like it was after the Rams were so close to putting the tournament away.

Leighton stuck with his closer after he allowed the home run, and the head coach’s trust was rewarded. Martin tossed scoreless frames in the 10th and 11th innings, but Fordham couldn’t cash in. After Wall threw a scoreless 12th, Fordham got a golden opportunity against Dayton reliever Cole Pletka. After giving up two hits and a walk to MacKenzie, Tarabek came up with a chance to end the game and the tournament. He struck out swinging, putting the onus on Bardwell with two men out and three men on. Pletka fell behind 3-1 and left a fastball high to Bardwell to end the game and send Fordham to its first NCAA Tournament in 21 years.

“It’s hard to throw two strikes in a row in that atmosphere,” Leighton told WFUV. “I wanted to make him do it. I had confidence in Justin getting a hit, but I felt like odds are one of these next two pitches will be a ball.”

With the conference championship under their belt, Fordham will head to Morgantown, W. Va. and the Morgantown Regional. The Rams will face 15th-ranked West Virginia on Friday night at 8 p.m., and depending on the result of that game, they will face either Duke or Texas A&M on Saturday; the regional, like the A-10 Tournament, is double elimination. Fordham faced Texas A&M the first weekend of the season and got swept, but the familiarity with the Aggies could help the Rams if the two are matched up.

“I think we had a bigger reaction [to seeing Texas A&M in our region] than actually finding out we were going to West Virginia,” DiMeglio told Fordham Athletics. “I think that’s gonna be really cool. It was a good time down there and I think a lot of guys are excited to see them again and hopefully give it to them a little bit.”

Fordham Baseball is in the NCAA Tournament, and the Rams got here with a scrappy style of play many teams are unable to replicate. They are the fourth seed in the Morgantown Regional, but they will be by no means an easy out.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in May 2019.

Despite an offseason of major departures and ostensibly devastating losses, Fordham Softball reached its ninth NCAA Tournament of the past decade. However, this year was different – Fordham reached the tournament after the Atlantic 10 championship game was cancelled on May 12 due to rain. Because Fordham had won the conference’s regular-season title, the Rams earned the tiebreaker over George Washington University and received the Atlantic 10’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

This bizarre end to the season made Fordham’s regular season all the more important. However, neither Fordham or George Washington got to earn the feeling of celebrating on the field after having won the conference’s crown.

“Now, it didn’t end necessarily the way that we wanted it to. It didn’t feel as good as we wanted it to,” senior outfielder Chelsea Skrepenak told Fordham Athletics. “But in terms of upholding the legacy and feeling like we earned something, this year out of all years really feels the best.”

This year’s team had to overcome key losses to get back to this point. After becoming the first player in Atlantic 10 history to be named to the first team at two positions, sophomore pitcher and infielder Paige Rauch followed head coach Bridget Orchard to Villanova. Skylar Johnston, one of the team’s leading power hitters in 2018, followed suit and went to NC State. The Rams also endured the graduations of infielder Madi Shaw and pitcher Lauren Quense, two senior leaders and key contributors to last year’s team. In spite of all that, Fordham won a seventh straight conference title, and, even though its NCAA Tournament berth came via a technicality, there was no doubting who the best team in the conference was all season.

“I am most proud of how every single year, no matter what obstacles were thrown our way, each team found a way to bounce back and win to keep the legacy alive,” Atlantic 10 first-team second baseman Jordy Storm said. “Whether it was losing a starter to injury or losing our coaching staff, we found a way to collectively step up and win.”

However, despite the best efforts of superstar junior and 2019 Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year Madie Aughinbaugh, Fordham couldn’t quite translate that success on a national stage.

The NCAA selection committee sent Fordham to the Seattle Regional, where the Rams would have to face Washington University, the third-best team in the country. Instead of bowing down to the challenge, Aughinbaugh rose to the occasion. A first-inning sacrifice fly and a third-inning RBI single – both off the bat of Washington’s Morganne Flores – were the only blemishes on an otherwise excellent outing for the junior. The problem for Fordham was getting any offense going.

Head coach Melissa Inouye’s team was held to just two hits against the dominance of Washington starter Gabbie Plain. 14 of the 21 outs Plain recorded on the night were strikeouts, and the Washington hurler allowed just five baserunners en route to her 20th win of the year. With the 2-0 defeat, Fordham would need to emerge from a winner-take-all game the next against against the University of Seattle. Once again, Inouye turned to her workshorse.

And once again, her workhorse did not disappoint.

Aughinbaugh and Seattle’s Andie Larkins dueled for seven scoreless innings on Saturday night. Aughinbaugh worked out of minor jams in the second, fourth and sixth innings and was able to keep the Red Hawks off the board through seven innings. But once more, a dominant performance on the other side kept Fordham’s bats dormant, as Larkin held the Rams to just five hits in eight innings. In the bottom of the eighth, Aughinbaugh finally buckled. Singles by Alyson Matriotti and Ally Choate put runners on first and third with just one out. In the next at-bat, Madison Cathcart flew out to right. Fordham senior and Atlantic 10 second-teamer Maria Trivelpiece’s throw home was late, allowing Matriotti to score and ending Fordham’s season.

With this, Fordham heads into an offseason of uncertainty. Storm ended her Fordham career on a high note, hitting .359 and mashing 10 home runs. Trivelpiece has also graduated, alongside outfield mates Deanna Burbridge and Chelsea Skrepenak. Fordham will feel the losses of all three harshly; Skrepenak and Trivelpiece both hit near .350 while Burbridge finished the season hot to hit nearly .300. All three started every game in 2019.

Also departing is catcher Molly Roark, who led the team with 16 home runs, and Kylie Michael, who started the final 24 games of the season and was once again instrumental in Fordham’s latest A-10 championship run. Fordham will need to find a way to replace all six of these players, both through recruiting new ones and developing those currently on the roster.

“The thing I will miss most are my teammates,” Storm said. “When we say we are a ‘ramily’ we truly mean it; everyone has each other’s back and truly wants to see everyone succeed. The wins and losses will be remembered but not as much as the memories I made with my teammates, whether it was singing on bus rides home or the silly nicknames we gave each other.”

All of this being said, Inouye deserves a world of credit for the job she did with this team. After leading the Rams to a regular season title, Inuoye was named the conference’s Coach of the Year, and rightfully so. She replaced one of the greatest and most accomplished coaches in the history of the school, and her team didn’t miss a beat. Now, she and her staff will be tasked with improving the current roster, both inside and out.

One very important piece will return – Madie Aughinbaugh. Despite the major losses behind her in the circle, her return should be enough to keep the Rams in contention for another conference crown.

Fordham has a lot of work to do this offseason to stay atop the A-10 and ward off up-and-coming programs like UMass, GW and St. Joseph’s. But if history has shown us anything, it’s this: betting against the Rams would be unwise.

Said Storm: “I can’t wait to see next year’s team keep the legacy going.”

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in May 2019.

Fordham Men’s Basketball just suffered a crippling blow to its attempt to climb back towards the top of the Atlantic 10.

Point guard Nick Honor, who led the team in scoring and assists last season, is leaving the program to play for Clemson. Honor will have to sit out next season due to the NCAA’s transfer rules, but he is a “one-and-done” for his Fordham career.

Honor was the author of several outstanding performances, particularly during the Rams’ out-of-conference season. His Fordham career will likely be best remembered for his 30-point performance in a nationally-televised upset victory over Rutgers University at the Rose Hill Gym last December. Honor played in and started every game for Fordham last season, and was positioned to be the leader of a potential Fordham rebuild under head coach Jeff Neubauer; despite rumors of his demise at the end of last season, Fordham Athletic Director Dave Roach announced that Neubauer would return for next season shortly after the last one ended. Now, Honor is off to the ACC and Fordham is once again looking for answers.

Honor is the latest in a string of high-profile Fordham players to leave the program in recent years. After being named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie team and playing his first three years at Fordham, Jon Severe transferred to Iona after the 2015-16 season. The next year, he led the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament. The same was the case for Eric Paschall, who left the Bronx after the previous season to play at Villanova. That journey, which started with him winning the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year in 2015, culminated in a national championship with the Wildcats in 2018.

After the 2016-17 season, one of that year’s leading scorers, redshirt junior Antwoine Anderson, jumped ship and played his final collegiate season at the University of Connecticut. The trend continued after the 2017-18 season, when rising senior Joe Chartouny decided to spend his final season of eligibility at Marquette University. Chartouny’s new team reached the NCAA Tournament this season but was bounced in the first round by Murray State. It remains to be seen what Honor can do at Clemson.

The common thread with all five aforementioned players is that they were all double-digit scorers and important components of Fordham’s teams over the past few years. The Rams’ latest defection will send head coach Jeff Neubauer and his staff back to the drawing board once more.

CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein initially reported Honor’s impending transfer on April 10. On Monday, Honor told the world that he was going to Clemson to be closer to his family after an “event occurred with [his] mom,” but it is unclear what Honor is referencing. In Monday afternoon’s statement, which Honor released on his Twitter account, he said he reached his decision “after much discussion and prayer” with his family.

Ironically, on the same day, Honor was named the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Rookie of the Year. It was a fitting reminder of the year Honor had in the Bronx, but it may have been an even more appropriate symbol of what could have been.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in May 2019.

Fordham Golf showed some signs of improvement throughout the spring season, and this was exemplified by a fifth-place finish at the Rhode Island Invitational two weeks ago.

However, at the Atlantic 10 Championships this past weekend, the team struggled to perform up to par and finished last among 11 teams at the Grand Cypress Golf Club in Orlando, Fla.

In fact, in addition to finishing at the bottom of the tournament, Fordham finished 39 strokes back of La Salle University, the 10th-place finishers. Even worse, the Rams put together just four rounds under 80 at the tournament; for reference, the tournament winners, Virginia Commonwealth University, did not post an individual round above 78.

The Rams got off on the wrong foot on Friday by posting a combined score of 332, 44 strokes over par. The only player below 80, and the only player to consistently perform for the Rams all weekend, was junior Tomas Nieves, who started the tournament with a 78. Aside from him, freshman Billy Harrison posted a 12-over 84, and seniors Tommy Hayes and Josh Madarang each shot an 85.

Things got significantly better on Saturday, and the positive news was not just limited to the on-course play. Head coach Paul Dillon, who just completed his 23rd season at the helm of Fordham Golf, was inducted into the Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame. Dillon could not be at 583 Park Avenue to accept the honor, so his sons, Paul, Jr., Matt and Kevin–who is best known for playing Johnny Drama on HBO’s “Entourage”– accepted the award on his behalf.

And with the head coach staying with his team in Florida, the Rams bounced back slightly. Nieves shot a 77 and Madarang rebounded impressively with a three-over 75, but Harrison and Hayes shot 80 and 85, respectively. On Sunday, Nieves continued his strong play, but the rest of the Rams could not keep up.

While the junior was one stroke away from even par at 73, no one else was able to stay below 80. Madarang shot 80 on the nose, Harrison had his worst round of the week with an 85 and Hayes did not do much better with an 82. While Fordham shot better on the final two days of the weekend than it did on the first, the Rams were still statistically the worst team on the course every day of the tournament. This was not the consistency Fordham was looking for. Also competing individually for Fordham was sophomore Anthony Wells, and his three rounds of 92-80-84 did not count against Fordham’s tally in the tournament. Nieves’ 12-over 228 was good for a tie for 29th on the individual leaderboard over the three days.

This offseason will be an interesting one for Hall of Famer Paul Dillon and his Rams. Hayes and Madarang are gone, but the rest of the team will likely return. Fordham will look to rally with better play and better performances in the 2019-20 season, and the Rams will look to put this season behind them as soon as possible.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in April 2019.

Two members of Fordham’s football team are making the leap to the National Football League.

Senior tight end Isaiah Searight and senior defensive back Dylan Mabin were both signed shortly after the NFL Draft’s conclusion on Saturday. Mabin was signed by the Oakland Raiders while Searight was picked up by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Searight was a three-time all-Patriot League selection in his time at Fordham. The 6’4”, 250-pound tight end had a career year last season, with nearly 500 receiving yards and four touchdowns on 42 catches. Searight was the team’s second-leading receiver to fellow senior Austin Longi, who hauled in 61 passes for 716 yards.

Searight will head into training camp as part of an organization in transition. Tampa Bay hired a new head coach — former Cardinals head coach and longtime NFL assistant Bruce Arians — and quarterback Jameis Winston is in the final year of his contract. Searight will also have to emerge from a crowd of talented tight ends; primary tight ends O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate combined for 11 touchdowns last season. Nonetheless, Searight’s athletic profile and ability to be a downfield threat — two skills he showcased throughout his Fordham career — could pay dividends as he tries to make the 53-man roster.

Mabin was also drafted for his athleticism, as he ran a 4.40 time in the 40-yard dash at his pro day. Mabin is an athletic corner who, at 6’1” and 190 pounds, also isn’t afraid to get physical. He was named to the Patriot League’s all-defensive first team for the second consecutive season in 2018; he did this in spite of missing two games after suffering a leg injury in the first game of the season against Charlotte.

If Mabin is unable to break through and see playing time in the defensive backfield, his tackling ability and athleticism could help him make the squad as a special teamer. Brian McLaughlin of HERO Sports reported on Saturday that Mabin chose the Raiders as his final destination, which means that he likely had other offers on the table, as well. Mabin will try to impress Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and the rest of the Raiders staff in his attempt to make the final roster for week one.

Ultimately, if you were to choose two players to make it to the NFL off of Fordham’s 2018 roster, these would be the two you would choose. Mabin and Searight were the team’s senior captains this season, and their abilities, combined with their leadership skills, were likely the main reasons for their respective acquisitions.

This is also somewhat of a bookend for a bygone era of Fordham football, as Mabin and Searight were part of the last recruiting class former head coach Joe Moorhead brought to Fordham. Moorhead is now the head coach at Mississippi State University after leaving Fordham to become the offensive coordinator at Penn State after the 2015 season.

As for Mabin and Searight, they will try to join their old teammate, Cardinals running back Chase Edmonds, as Fordham players on NFL rosters. For now, though, they will happily accept their status as undrafted signees.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in April 2019.

Fordham Golf finished fifth out of seven teams at this week’s Rhode Island Invitational, the team’s final tune-up for the Atlantic 10 Tournament next weekend.

The star for the Rams was junior Tomas Nieves, who came in third in the tournament after its three rounds finished. His best round was a two-under 70 to close out Monday. Following his two-over round of 74 on Tuesday, he completed the tournament just two strokes behind runner-up Joe Egan of Holy Cross College and three shots behind winner Dawson Jones of the University of Rhode Island. Par for the tournament was 216, meaning that Jones won the invite at even par.

Other Rams had a harder time getting going.

The next best player for Fordham at this tournament was sophomore Anthony Wells, who finished the tournament at +16. Like Nieves, he played his best golf in the second round on Monday with a 74, which he sandwiched between a five-over 77 and a nine-over 81.

Fordham’s overall performance in the Rhode Island Invitaitonal went similarly. Head coach Paul Dillon’s team started the tournament with a 17-over 305 and followed that up with a 15-over 303; these two performances put the Rams in a tie for fourth after day one. However, things went south in the final round as the team collectively limped to a 309 finish. A couple of other teams followed this pattern as well, but the URI squad avoided mistakes and emerged victorious after three rounds.

Senior Josh Madarang, in his last regular-season tournament as a Ram, started out well enough but could not sustain; after a first-round 76, he followed up with rounds of 79 and 82. Senior Tommy Hayes also had his struggles and went into the clubhouse on Tuesday after a 77-84-82 showing, while sophomore Dean Cerimido shot an 82, an 80 and another 82 for a +28 total performance. Finally, freshman Billy Harrison competed individually for the Rams and finished his tournament 28 strokes over par.

Fordham had an encouraging finish to its regular season, which included a career-best performance from one of its most important golfers. Now, the team will take a few days off before taking on its final test of the season, the A-10 Championships starting on Friday, April 26. The Rams will hope to carry over the positive momentum from their performances this week and leave the negatives back in New England.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in April 2019.

Over this holiday weekend, I had a particularly illuminating conversation with my grandmother.

On Easter Sunday, we were talking about professional sports gambler James Holzhauer, the man who has broken “Jeopardy!” to the tune of over a million dollars over the past 14 days. If you haven’t seen Holzhauer in action, just realize that he knows absolutely everything and isn’t afraid to wager accordingly. On his off nights, like the one he had last Friday, he still rakes in over $80,000. He is likely the greatest player the show has ever seen and yet, my grandmother can’t watch him because she hates him.

I then rebutted that we were in the presence of greatness and should enjoy his run, because we may never see anything like it again. Quickly though, I realized that was a hypocritical statement.

You see, I root for the Jets. It isn’t a fun thing to do, and I don’t love myself for doing it. All my life, I have held a burning hatred for the New England Patriots, with their evil emperor head coach Bill Belichick and cold-blooded quarterback Tom Brady. New England has won six Super Bowls in the last 17 seasons, and yet perhaps more amazingly, the Patriots manage to sell us on a “plucky underdog” narrative each season. But we have seen a level of dominance from the Patriots we will never see again, and that should be appreciated.

That being said, I have rooted for the Falcons, Eagles and Rams in the last three Super Bowls because the Patriots have been involved. This is partly because I need to have a rooting interest in the Super Bowl because I can always count on my team not being there, but the other part of it is because I really didn’t want the Patriots to win. Despite the hatred, which I am not alone in, one has to respect the franchise’s ability to reach or come close to the pinnacle of the sport year after year, with 31 other teams trying to do the same and often failing.

Another example I’ll cite when it comes to sports hatred in modern times is the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors lost the NBA Finals in 2016, after winning 73 games in the regular season and taking a 3-1 lead over LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers. After blowing their shot at a second straight title, the Warriors vowed to never let it happen again, and they ensured it wouldn’t by snatching the league’s second-best player, Kevin Durant, away from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Golden State did what it was supposed to do the next two seasons: win a championship. They did so as the most talented basketball team ever assembled, and the construction of their roster was a result of masterful salary cap navigation, combined with the willingness of superstars to take less money than they were worth.

Instead, most people you’ll ask will be rooting against the Warriors this spring in their attempt to become the first NBA team to three-peat since Kobe and Shaq’s Lakers. The Twitter Gospel says that Durant was a snake for leaving the Thunder and the Warriors are the abomination of the sports landscape, and while this has settled down with time, there is still a degree of anger from some fans, most of whom already know who’s going to win the title. While this near-predetermination is a problem for the NBA, the Warriors rose out of a system that allowed them to construct a Death Star roster after nailing first round picks and convincing the likes of Durant and DeMarcus Cousins to take major pay cuts. That should be celebrated, not derided. While I rooted for teams like the Rockets and Cavaliers to take them down in the playoffs the past couple of seasons, it’s hard to overstate how dominant the Warriors can be and how talented their roster is.

I’m not saying that you should immediately stop rooting for underdogs in sports. Perhaps the greatest quality of the games we watch is that anyone can win at any given time, and even the unlikeliest of teams can spring upsets that can shock an entire country. That being said, with salary caps and revenue sharing designed to give everyone an equal playing field, we should have a much greater appreciation of the teams that are still able to tilt that playing field in their favor.

After a few years, can it get boring to watch the same teams dominate a sport? For sure, but their supremacy only means that they were better at talent evaluation and manipulating their roster for maximum benefit than the other teams were.

So the next time you encounter a sports dynasty, celebrate it. Enjoy it. Appreciate it. Such a run of dominance is hard to conceive and even harder to sustain, and the energy you waste hating on it could be used more positively.

Anyway, the Warriors are about to vanquish another overmatched first-round opponent, and by the time this has article has been printed, Holzhauer will have vanquished another two overmatched “Jeopardy!” players. You can find me celebrating his true Daily Doubles and endless knowledge of everything, and I’ll try to apply that same mindset to the Warriors’ title defense.

You know why? Because things like these only come around once in a generation, and we should realize that before it’s too late.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in April 2019.

Fordham Golf started its spring with a slightly encouraging 14th-place finish at the Coca-Cola Lehigh Valley Invitational last weekend. However, the Rams were unable to build off that progress this week at the Wildcat Invitational, hosted by Villanova University.

Paul Dillon’s team finished 19th out of the 20 teams in Malvern, Pennsylvania on Monday and Tuesday, and the team’s second-round performance was particularly discouraging. After shooting 11-over as a team on Monday, Fordham cleared 300 on Tuesday to finish at 28-over and in second-to-last place. Drexel University ran away with the tournament, finishing nine strokes ahead of second-place Akron University at -17.

The Rams got a good performance out of sophomore Anthony Wells, who bounced back nicely from last weekend’s rounds of 83 and 81. Wells shot a three-over 145 over the two rounds, and started his tournament with an even-par round of 71; that finish had him tied at 33rd on the individual leaderboard. Senior Tommy Hayes also had a solid tournament, and after struggling with a 76 in round one, he shot a one-over 72 on Tuesday.
But aside from Hayes and Wells, there wasn’t much good news for the Rams in the tournament.

Junior Tomas Nieves, after setting a career-low two-round score of 148, shot a nine-over 151 for the Wildcat Invitational. Nieves shot a 77 on Tuesday after firing a 74 on Monday. The other two team competitors for Fordham, senior Josh Madarang and sophomore Dean Cerimido, found themselves near the bottom of the individual leaderboard. Madarang was +12 on his tournament, with a 76 and a 78. Cerimido fared even worse; after starting his tournament with a 74, he shot a 10-over 81 in the second and final round.

By the end of Tuesday, Fordham finished one stroke behind St. Bonaventure University for 18th place and 31 strokes ahead of Wagner College, who finished in a distant last place at 59-over.

Fordham has two more tournaments before the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship in the last weekend of April. The Yale Spring Invitational will take place on Saturday, and it will force Fordham to play the entire course twice in one day. Then, it’s off to the Rhode Island Invitational next Monday and Tuesday to close out the regular season.

The Rams need to figure it out in time for those tournaments. The time in the spring season is ticking.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in April 2019.

It was a great season for Fordham junior diver Molly Dunn and senior swimmer Tara Brunner, but the two weren’t done when the team’s season ended.

Dunn earned the right to compete at the NCAA Zone Diving Championship on March 12 an account of her career-best score of 273.15 in the one-meter diving event against Manhattan College all the way back in December, which she won. Dunn also finished in fourth place in the same event in February’s Atlantic 10 Conference Championship and came into the Tournament on a high.

At the Zone Diving Championship, which was held at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, Dunn put up a very respectable score of 204.40, which put her 51st out of 64 competitors. Dunn will be back next season and will look to build on this year’s strong performance. She was able to do the same thing from last year into this year, which included earning women’s Performer of the Week honors on Dec. 11.

While Dunn will be back with the Rams next season, senior Tara Brunner had one last chance to compete as a Fordham swimmer just days later.

Brunner qualified for the CSCAA National Invitational Championship in Cleveland, Ohio after medaling seven times at the Atlantic 10 Championship and becoming just the second Ram to ever do so. She started with a 28th-place showing in the 50-yard butterfly, but this would mark by far the worst finish of the invite for the Fordham standout.

Brunner qualified for the “A” final in the 50-yard freestyle and earned a sixth-place finish with a time of 23.04 seconds, which was 15 hundredths of a second faster than her preliminary time. She then reached the “B” final of the 100-yard butterfly competition, which she won with a time of 53.70 seconds, a personal best in her second-to-last collegiate event.

Amazingly, however, that was not her best performance of the championship.

Brunner was at her best when her best was required in the final event of her career, the 100-yard freestyle. She reached the “A” final with a time just under 50 seconds, and reached the podium in that event with a bronze-medal winning time of 50.09 seconds.

With the scintillating performances of Dunn and Brunner in the books, the 2018-19 Fordham Swimming season has concluded. The Rams will miss Brunner next season, but head coach Steve Potsklan and his staff will be thankful to have Dunn back for one last ride at Rose Hill.

This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in April 2019.

Fordham Golf had a rough fall. The Rams were unable to finish in the top ten of any of their events and Fordham profoundly felt the sting of losing Matt Schiller, Joseph Trim and James Mongey to graduation last year.

Unfortunately for head coach Paul Dillon’s team, it has picked up right where it left off in the fall.

Fordham finished 14th out of 20 teams at the Coca-Cola Lehigh Valley Invite this past Sunday and Monday. The Rams got off to a rough start on Sunday, as they limped into the clubhouse in a tie for 16th place after 18 holes. Senior Josh Madarang and junior Tomas Nieves, who missed the entire 2018 season, paced Fordham with rounds of 74 and 75, respectively. After those two standouts, though, it was tough sledding for the Rams. Senior Tommy Hayes shot a nine-over 81, while freshman Billy Harrison and sophomore Anthony Wells also struggled to the tune of an 82 and an 83.

The Rams dug themselves into a very deep hole on Sunday. They were unable to climb out of it in the second round on Monday.

Madarang led the charge for Fordham and came in a tie for sixth in individual scoring with his round of 70 on Monday. Nieves also continued his strong play and finished at +4 after shooting a 73 in the second round. However, the continued success of Madarang and the return of Nieves were the lone bright spots of the tournament for Fordham; Hayes finished at +15, Harrison was +19 after 36 holes and Wells’ final-round 81 left him near the bottom of the tournament leaderboard at +20.

Madarang says that it wasn’t all bad news for Fordham. “It was nice to see that guys don’t get too down on themselves when they play badly and can bounce back easily,” he said.

The Fordham senior was also encouraged by his individual performance, which left him just three strokes behind the tournament’s individual winner, Bucknell University’s Chris Tanabe. That being said, he still sees room for improvement, saying he needs to “stay focused” on his game to get better.

Dillon also submitted freshman Justin Pellegrino to compete as an individual, and he struggled, too. He did show some positive signs, though, and followed up his first-round 86 with a round of 82 to finish his tournament.

After their rough start to the spring slate, Fordham will travel to Malvern, Penn. to participate in the Wildcat Invitational next Monday and Tuesday.