Pioneer Pride Quick Hits I

It is time for the first installment of the Pioneer Pride’s Quick Picks!  Let’s begin…

• I’m excited to announce my inclusion into Big Apple Buckets Power Poll!  John Templon, the creator of nycbuckets.com, does a terrific job covering college basketball programs in the New York City area.  Every month on his website, he releases a Power Poll, which ranks all the teams in the tri-state area.  The NEC teams included in this poll are St. Francis (NY), Monmouth, Fairleigh Dickinson, Wagner, Long Island University and, of course, Sacred Heart.  I’ve been recently added as a voter of the poll, along with 13 other beat reporters and bloggers of different teams.  Time to study up before I cast my vote this Sunday night!

• It’s been a light week in college basketball – thanks to finals week – therefore I’ve caught up on some reading material.  In the past 2 weeks, there have been 3 features on individual Pioneer players.  William Paxton, of the Connecticut Post, wrote an excellent piece on SHU forward Femi Akinpetide, detailing his charitable work off the court.  Chris Elsberry, also of the Connecticut Post, featured junior forward Justin Swidowski, by illustrating the toxic losing atmosphere Swidowski was subjected at his prior school, Holy Family.  Reading this article is a must, because if you stick with it until the end, you’ll be rewarded with a Dave Bike fat joke!  And finally, a small piece on Phil Gaetano was penned yesterday by Record Journal writer John Petit.  It was evident in the article that Bike is expecting big things from his freshman guard.  Look for Gaetano's playing time to increase during the conference season if Evan Kelley continues to provide erratic minutes at the point.

• Tim Tebow is clearly God's quarterback.  But who is God's team in college basketball?  We are about to find out!  On Monday night, SHU will travel to South Bend to take on their second and final Big East opponent of the year, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  Notre Dame (7-4, RPI 228) has struggled out of the gate, thanks to senior Tim Abromaitis shredding his knee ligament, thus requiring season-ending surgery.  Without Abromatitis, Notre Dame has failed to defeat anyone in the RPI top 175 and now finds themselves only a couple RPI points ahead of SHU (6-6, RPI: 231).  So does SHU have a chance to end Notre Dame’s 26 game non-conference home winning streak?  Quite simply, no.

• David Wright apparently has it all.  A very good baseball player entering his prime, check.  Good looks and a boyish innocence, check.  A multi-million dollar contract, check.  But is he a dominant player in fantasy football??  David is currently part of a MLB players 12 team fantasy football league hosted by CBS Sports, and from the looks of it, he has one hell of a team.  Now if only David can hit the goddamn ball out of Citi Field every once in a while…

(Side note:  Ben Sheets evidently sucks at staying healthy and fantasy football)