Hockey in the South

• By Allan Lewis Alestle Sports Editor

It is hard for me to imagine a place where the NHL is not understood, or appreciated, but that is the case in many U.S. markets staking a claim in the league. Such is the case in Nashville, Tenn. a place I would characterize as a small big city, with deep southern roots.

The NHL came to Nasvhille in 1998, when Craig Leopold made a formal request to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman  to grant the city an expansion team after a failed attempt to lure the New Jersey Devils from their current home to play at the brand new Nashville Arena.

After Betteman received a heroes welcome from the Nashville faithful, the city was granted its team, as was another Southern counterpart in Atlanta, as well as two more traditional hockey markets, Columbus and Minnesota.

An interesting fact about the Predators: the logo pre-dates the team name. Leopold unveiled the logo, (which was inspired by a fossil found buried beneath downtown Nashville) at a ceremony, and later whittled down 75 possible nicknames for the franchise down to three: Ice Cats, Predators, and my all-time favorite: Fury and Attack! (Can anyone imagine a professional sports franchise named the Fury and Attack?! Talk about awesome.)

Nashville had to sell 12,000 season tickets before the inaugural puck-drop in 1998, to ensure the franchise would have an avid fan-base behind it from the beginning. This proved to be difficult in a market like Nashville, because hockey is such a foreign thing in the south. The closest NHL franchise to Nashville prior to the league’s 1998 expansion was the St. Louis Blues.

Despite four consecutive playoff seasons in the middle of the last decade, and a solid hold on a post-season birth this season, Nashville continues to struggle as a hockey market.

Now, nothing I am writing about has not been said before. It is a proven fact Nashville has not been a die-hard hockey community throughout the Predators 12 year existence. Despite their relative success, overall, Nashville has not become a hot-bed for the sport. There are a number of die-hard fans who support the team in droves, but it isn’t like what you will see in Canada, or even St. Louis for that matter.

Just last year, in an article I turned up on Google, a Colorado Avalanche beat writer said “It’s a tough thing to say, but it needs to be said. The Predators should get the heck out of the NHL. They’ve been a charity case team the last few years, needing revenue-sharing money from the rest of the league just to stay operable.”

In 2007, Jim Baisile, who was recently in the news trying to move the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario did the exact same thing in Nashville, and even had a deal in place to move the franchise. Betteman even let a potential Predators sale go as far as allowing Hamilton to start selling season-tickets for its soon to be hockey team. Leopold had reached a tentative agreement with the Hamilton group, and declared the 2007-2008 season safe for Nashville, but deemed the future of the franchise unclear. Balsille’s season-ticket drive in Canada reportedly angered NHL owners, and Betteman urged Leopold to back out of his deal with Balsille. Then, a group of Nashville buyers joined forces to solidify an ownership group, a season-ticket drive was held at the arena and Nashville made a strong case to keep its team, selling over 750 full-season-tickets and attracting more than 7,500 fans. Long story short, it’s 2010 and the Predators are still in Nashville.

I arrived in Nashville around 6:15 p.m. on Thursday night. The Predators were scheduled to face-off with the Los Angeles Kings at 7. Since I was going about this business-trip for the Ohio Valley Conference basketball tournament solo, I planned on purchasing a single-ticket (which are readily available, and in Nashville Thursday night’s are college nights, so $10 with a valid college ID gets you in) confusing the hell out of the person at the ticket window over where SIUe is, and going about my business of catching a hockey game. While waiting in line, a weird looking gentleman wearing a Predators jersey with a ponytail, approached me and asked if I just needed one ticket. I responded with something like  “yeah, I’m in town on business, decided to check out a hockey game,” (I feel really damn professional when I say I’m ‘in town on business’ as we all do, a certain amount of internal gratification comes with it.)

“Well, I have an extra one, it’s in the lower bowl, you can have it if you want it…only problem is you’ll have to sit next to me,” he said, showing me the ticket and game-day program.

“I’m a St. Louis Blues fan, I don’t know if that is a problem,” I joked with him.

“Hey, no problem, he said,” as he handed me the ticket and I became excited about saving $10 and not supporting a divisional franchise.

Once I had my ticket scanned and entered the concourse area, I tried to find a concession stand with Bud Light. The second great thing about these ‘college nights’ in Nashville, or really anything having to do with attending a sporting event in a struggling market is the promotional aspect. Through the end of the first period, 24 ounce draft beers were available for half-price, or $3.75. These same servings of ambrosia are sold for $9 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, so it was something I had to take considerable advantage of.

After getting my need for a frosty beverage satisfied (a 6 hour drive taking the scenic route through Tennessee will do that to ya) I located the section on my ticket, 102 and tried to spot row GG. When I think of row GG, I think it comes after A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,X,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z,AA,BB,CC,DD,EE and FF. It just automatically registers that way. So, I look around, wearing my Blues hat looking like an idiot, before I realize, Oh, ROW GG IS THE FIFTH ROW FROM THE FREAKIN’ ICE.

I like this. I like this a lot.

So I took my seat and got down to business with the characters around me, trying to figure out exactly what Nashville hockey is all about. The crowd at Bridestone Arena that night actually filled out quite nicely, something you can attribute to the team’s success this season, positioned in seventh place in the Western Conference, or their opponent, the Kings coming into the contest in the fifth spot.

Marshall, the pony-tail man said this was not a typical crowd for a Predators game, and accredited the success of the recent Olympics to the turnout, with Nashville skating two Olympians in Shea Weber of Team Canada and Ryan Suter from Team USA.

As the national anthem ended, I explained to him some of the traditions at St. Louis Blues games, how it felt weird to end the anthem with cheers instead of an echoing and resounding and the home of the ‘BLUUUUUUUUUUES,’ this already two double-beers deep.

Then with the starting lineups I became accustomed to my first Nashville tradition, well, one copied from previous and mainly college hockey civilizations, such as Cornell University.

(PA announcer) “For the Los Angeles Kings, starting at forward, number 23 Dustin Brown (crowd in unison) “SUCKS!”…and so on and so forth until we get to “coaching the Los Angeles Kings Terry Murray “HE SUCKS TOO!”

A little childish and boring, but that is what fans in Nashville do.

There is more suck to go around too. The Pred’s score a goal? HEY [Kings goalie Jonathon] QUICK! YOU SUCK!

It’s actually kind of impressive to get 13,000 people to go in on that.

This night for me was really about sharing hockey between two entirely different cultures of NHL fans. The experience in St. Louis and Nashville is completely paradox from one another.

The two people behind me were in on the season-tickets, and Marshall the dude with the ponytail goes with them all the time. They were joking a lot about “giving their tickets to a Blues fan,” but it was all in good fun. They knew someone who had just moved to Nashville from St. Louis, and sent him a picture message of my hat, to let him know a fellow Blues fan was invading Predator territory.

They are, however, two entirely different territories.

Power Plays.

Marshall and I agreed both our team’s power plays suck. We also both agreed we have equally stupid, yet awesome things our fans do to get fired up for the man-advantage. In Nashville it’s the fangs. I couldn’t find a video on youtube of it, but think of the “hook em horns” hand gesture with the horns positioned farther down and hands bobbing up and down.

In St. Louis, it’s the “ameren UE PowerPlay dance!” which I will assure you has made like the wave across the Scottrade Center since this video was posted.

So, after three or four beers, either one, I taught the Nashville fans our Powerplay dance and just for fun, did it myself. It couldn’t hurt them, being ranked 28th in the league on the advantage.

They really enjoyed it. Or so I like to believe.

The Predators won this game 4-2, and so indeed, the Kings did, suck. Hockey is still trying to become a part of the southern culture, and after 12 years, Nashville is still trying to do all it can do to introduce a sport on ice where SEC football reigns supreme. Will it happen? Maybe. It is all a matter of the town continuing its efforts to embrace one of its two professional sports franchises, the other being the Tennessee Titans. The team does have its die-hard supporters, in people like Marshall and big-name celebrities, such as Taylor Swift photographed in the media room celebrating Predator goals. It may be too late to say “it will be a matter of time” before Nashville becomes Smashville, but it is what it is. If hockey cannot make it in Nashville now, with the Olympics revitalizing the entire country’s appreciation for the game and a competitive team, it will not happen. The Predators, however remain an important part of the new NHL, and the cuture of Nashville.

Hello from Nashville

Allan Lewis – Alestle Sports Editor

For the past two days I have seen a lot in Nashville, Tenn., thinking towards the future and what is in store for SIUE at future Ohio Valley Conference Tournaments.

Three of the four semi-finals yesterday were close, Eastern Illinois and Austin Peay closed out their opponents in the second half to advance on the women’s side, while EIU gave Murray State the fight of their life in men’s basketball. Morehead State had no trouble whatsoever with Tennessee Tech, in a game where the off-the-court action was much more entertaining than the game itself.

I’ll break down that story for you. The Morehead State student section was located behind the baseline to my left. Right behind me, was a drunk (and when I mean drunk I mean HAMMERED NOT EVEN FUNNY DRUNK) Tennessee Tech fan. You can imagine this being pretty entertaining during the latter portion of a 30 point blow-out.

Morehead State is known nationally as sort of a laughingstock due to its name. Everyone acts 12 years old when they hear Morehead. Now what makes this even better is their students have the same dirty minds as the rest of us.

Take a look at this video I took.

It’s one thing to be like “Go Morehead” but “WE WANT…MORE HEAD!” is a little different.

Anyways, drunk TTSU fan was getting verbally destroyed by the Morehead fans and eventually started screaming I LOVE MORE HEAD! I WANT MORE HEAD! He had a little dance-off with Beaker.

Makes me wonder how I personally put up with SIUE blowouts, 30 points doesn’t seem like all that much when we play, but last night felt like a complete bloodbath.

The Murray State/Eastern Illinois game was one of the best basketball games I have ever seen. EIU came out with a purpose and nothing to lose, while Murray on the other hand, with their No. 303 strength of schedule, RPI over 60 and no eye-catching wins basically has to win this thing to get to the dance. Eastern, of course had to do the exact same thing, because at 19-12 there is no way in hell towards getting an automatic bid, but for Murray it was a little different. After the type of season they have had so far, they are the team EXPECTED to be in the NCAA tournament. The NIT resembles failure.

The crowd was 90 percent Murray fans, 5 percent neutral fans and 5 percent Eastern fans. It’s a little bit of a drive from Charleston, so its understandable.

The Panthers fought for 40 minutes. They were down by one at half-time and kept the game close throughout. They even led in the second half. The later the game moved along, the more and more I thought EIU would be able to pull the upset. It did not happen, but they have nowhere to hang their heads but high after the effort they gave against a really good ball-club.

The bracket’s are set, right now the pep bands are rocking and Austin Peay and Eastern Illinois’ women’s teams are on the court about ready to get this thing started. The EIU men’s team just walked into the gym as well and took a seat in the student section. That is really nice to see.

Tonight comes the epic showdown everyone has been anticipating since the beginning of the season. Morehead State and Murray State. the Eagles took down the Racers for their first OVC loss this season Feb. 25. Morehead, at 23-9 is essentially the only team in this conference capable of beating them on ANY given night. Last night, it was Maze Stallworth scoring 24 points and Kenneth Faried, quite possibly one of the best mid-major players on the planet with 10 points and nine rebounds to oust Tennessee Tech. Tonight they will be essential to getting Morehead State back to the dance. Remember, they were a 16 seed a year ago and have more tournament experience than this current group from Murray State. No doubt coach Donnie Tyndall will have them fired up for this one. I’m excited, are you excited?

ESPN2. 7:00.

So, Nashville is a pretty great town and all the people are nice. There is a certain southern twang in almost every locals voice, and that’s kind of disturbing, but other than that I am enjoying myself.

I came down a day early to catch the Predators game right here at Bridgestone Arena. While waiting in line for a ticket, a guy came up to me and asked if I just needed one, and I did. I ended up scoring a free ticket five rows from the ice. Beer was half-price too for ‘college night,’ so I took advantage of that.

Later on in the night, I went to a bar with a great live band. Seriously, if you are ever in Nashville there are some awesome cover bands. The one Thursday at a place called “The Stage” on Broadway played everything from Journey to Love and Theft. Today for lunch, I went to a place right across the street from the arena with a 3-piece cover band playing, the lead singer was actually originally from St. Louis, which was fun to note. A beer, a water a fish sandwich and off to right now.

So, about the truck stops…I didn’t want to get a hotel and spend $80 bucks to sleep for 2 nights. So, instead I enjoyed a two night stay in the luxurious Saturn Suite at the Pilot Hyatt, or so I like to call it. The one thing that sucks about truck stops is the weather. Here in Nashville, the days have been nice, but the nights have been chilly. I swore I was going to get hypothermia and by the time I woke up I was drenched in sweat because the sun was beating down on me. I came out alive, and hookers? just an urban legend.

Here is a photo from my pre-game shoot-around at Bridgestone Arena, I’m out for now, Women’s championship about to tip-off

The Wednesday Word 3/3/10

By Allan Lewis/Alestle Sports Editor

Allan Lewis, Alestle Sports Editor

Good morning Cougar nation! Welcome to today’s Word.

Working on no sleep today should get interesting, especially with Ashley Bey’s senior night over at the VC later on, but we should be able to make it through. Five hour energy rules.

Anyways, I am excited for tomorrow’s paper, the sports section is going to be HUGE with lots of variety. We even have tennis and golf in the mix!

Tomorrow is also exciting, because I will be heading down to Nashville to cover the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament for the online side of the Alestle. Looking forward to sleeping at truck stops and breathing college basketball for 48 hours. There may be a little bit of hockey mixed in as well, I am going to try to get down in time for the Predators game tomorrow to sit in the nosebleeds and talk to random people about hockey in the South, all the while wearing a St. Louis Blues hat. Hopefully they understand, not like we’re playing them.

What can you expect on alestlelive.com/the alestle sports blog/and twitter.com/allanjlewis?

Good question.

I will be writing recaps for all four games Friday, as well as the tournament finals Saturday on the main page, blogging about my experiences on the blog and tweeting scores and random tidbits on the old Twitter.

So, if you are so inclined, and want to read about basketball and give me a reason for driving 700 miles I would appreciate it! In all seriousness though, it should be fun.

The pairings for the neutral-court games in Nashville were decided last night, with all eight opening round games in the OVC taking place. (4 women, 4 men)

Here is a link to the men’s bracket.

Here is a link to the women’s bracket.

Here are the semi-final match-ups if you do not like clicking links.

OVC Women’s Semifinals

• No. 1 Eastern Illinois vs. No. 4 UT Martin (12:00)
• No. 3 Austin Peay vs. No. 2 Morehead State (2:00)

OVC Men’s Semifinals

• No. 1 Murray State vs. No. 4 Eastern Illinois (6:00 ESPNU)
• No. 6 Tennessee Tech vs. No. 2 Morehead State (8:00 ESPNU)

So, as far as the women go, the seeds stood up, and on the men’s side Tennessee Tech pulled the 68-65 upset over Austin Peay, while  Murray (84-51 over Tennessee State) and Morehead (87-54 over Jacksonville St.) won their quarterfinal match-ups handily, which was expected.

The women’s side is intriguing, mainly due to the fact that the league is flat out terrible. Whoever wins this thing is going to the NCAA tournament, regardless of what Eastern Illinois did in the regular season (it really wasn’t much.) The Panthers ended their season 22-9 (16-2 OVC) and are currently projected as a a No. 16 seed by ESPN women’s Bracketologist Charlie Creme. Undoubtedly, whoever wins this tournament will have to deal with the likes of UCONN, Tennessee, Nebraska, North Carolina or Stanford and get crushed. What a prize it is.

For Murray State on the men’s side, they really have no other choice but to win. The Racers were perfect in the OVC until Morehead edged them by three on Feb. 25. Murray comes in to the OVC tournament with what many “experts” are considering to be a less than qualified resume for an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament.

Here is what the selection committee will see two Sunday’s from now if Murray fails to take home the OVC crown.

• RPI: 69
• Strength of Schedule: 278 (what you get playing SIUE twice, sad, but true)
• Big Wins: None.
• Bad losses: 83-72 (Western Kentucky)
• Notable losses 70-75 (California)

Murray has not gotten any attention on the bubble, but earned two votes in the last coaches poll, and could go on to win 29 games while potentially missing out on the dance. If that happens, Murray could become one of the poster-children for a potential 96 team tournament expansion, which in my mind works to use mid-majors against their will. Teams like Murray should be opposed to expansion, because it would allow in more crappy big schools with .500 records to go along with them, but an appearance could save a coaching job down the line.

It has a good side and a bad side. It would be a shame if Murray missed out, but Morehead is tough and has been there before.

Keeping with the OVC theme, next year’s tournament format will be changed to give the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds a bye into the semi-finals (like the Horizon League and West Coast Conference do. Seriously, why try letting anyone beat Butler or Gonzaga? It aint’ happening.

Under the new format, the three and four seeds are placed in the semifinals, and the remaining qualifiers duke it out in an opening round.

Sure makes for a looooooooong road to the NCAA’s for the underdog, but it prevents those pesky 13-17 teams from making the dance and making Selection Sunday hell.

The new tournament is going to be at the Municipal Auditorium, rather than it’s current home, Bridgestone Arena (the Sommet Center randomly decided to change it’s name.)

For SIUE, men’s basketball season is over. It’s a faded memory. It’s incredibly sad. I don’t like this.

Following the Cougar’s final game at the VC, a sloppy 10 point win over an NAIA school, Lennox Forrester, Aamir McCleary, Stephen Jones and Mark Yelovich addressed the media in a very emotional press conference.

It was the most honest I have seen this team all season, and I applaud them for that. I know they worked hard and I know the transition is rough. We have a young team, perfection was not even a question with this group of guys, they just gave us something to talk about.

The first words out of Yelovich’s mouth were somewhere along the lines of: “We weren’t very good,” and his sentiment is one that was obvious, but something that made me think.

Transitioning to Division I is damn hard.

These guys go out, play the most unbalanced schedule in the country, against a number of over-matched teams and NEVER have the opportunity to play what is a meaningful game in the immediate picture we see.

They talked about motivation, they talked about traveling from Edwardsville to North Dakota to Minneapolis to Los Angeles to Fullerton to Fort friggin Wayne and back to Edwardsville. That is a 5,700 mile trip and some serious jet lag.

It is hard to stay focused on the main goal: which in SIUE’s case is to compete, or attempt to compete while trying to build towards a future they will not see as players. It is about pride and about the FOUNDATION.

I have seen the word ‘foundation’ tossed around all the time with this team, and it is defiantly relevant. We are building to the future. The wins/losses are not going to steer potential recruits away at this point. SIUE is in a decent place right now as far as moving forward with its current plan, and really, we are ahead of many past transitional schools.

Right now the record means nothing. We can’t do anything with it, so who cares. Winning is great, but right now SIUE just needs to compete and focus on the bigger picture, so we are capable of doing some damage down the road.

Just think about it in comparison to SIUC.

The Salukis were in the Sweet 16, then made a few more NCAA tournaments and tanked. Enrollment in Carbondale is down, as is the basketball team. I would even go as far to consider Evansville rebuilding with Marty Simmons to be a situation in the Missouri Valley with more upside.

Now look at SIUE. The trends in sports are going to start to mirror enrollment, and education. With St. Louis next door and the media attention the Cougars will receive (albeit as the fourth most popular D-I school in the market, which is BS considering Mizzou and U of I are like 3 hours a pop away) along with newer facilities and this ‘foundational vision,’ we have hope.

The recruits look good, and Forrester said we should be a little better next season.

Now, we have no idea how Mike Messer, Gerald Jones and super-human-playa Alex Brown will do fresh out of high school, but anything is possible.

Think about the wonders the weight room could do for LeShaun Murphy’s game.

I still HATE the word “transition” and still expect wins, but really, there are bigger and better things ahead than what we are seeing now.

As far as next year, Forrester divulged some schedule information, so I will share.

SIUE will play in the Las Vegas Invitational: opening with road games at two college hoops powers, in Indiana and Northern Iowa. From there, SIUE will go to Vegas for a few neutral court contests.

Other eye-opening road games include Iowa, Illinois State, Murray State and Morehead State.

The Cougars will host Murray and Morehead as well.

Time for some congratulations.

• Ashley Bey. The senior plays her final game tonight when the Cougars host Cal-State Bakersfield at the Vadalabene Center. Bey, one of the best basketball thief’s in the nation and an SIUE record-holder deserves your support, as does the entire team ending a long, winding season.
• Ben Bishop. The guy who throws heavy things went to nationals and placed 10th. Good job.
• SIUE wrestling. Eight guys are going to Nationals. That’s awesome.

And a head-scratcher.

• SIUE golf coach Kyle Viehl resigned. What makes this even worse is the timing. The golf team resumes with the spring portion of its schedule March 8.

That’ll do it, hope to get some feedback while I’m in Nashville!

This video may come in handy….