Good morning!
The UMass men’s basketball team took it on the chin against St. Joe’s on Tuesday night, losing 78-77. Seventeen turnovers were enough for the Hawks to eke out a one point road victory despite trailing by 13 with 10 minutes left. “Once they got back in the game it was a rock fight to the end,” UMass coach Frank Martin said in the post game press conference.

A week earlier the Minutemen lost at Loyola Chicago, 79-78, but Tuesday the heartbreaker was at home for 3,210 fans in the Mullins Center fans to see live and in person.

Asked what he told the players afterward, Martin said, “I wasn’t in the mood to have a conversation.” His motto the rest of the way should be ‘Finish or be finished.’

Much is made of the fact that Martin’s making $1.6 million but that’s half of what he was earning at South Carolina. UMass got him on the cheap compared to coaches in the SEC, and unlike his predecessor he’s earned his keep.

The team’s 81-67 win over George Washington three days earlier may have been his finest moment. Jack Leaman’s widow Rita and daughter Laurie were in the house, and former UMass greats Harper Williams, Will Herndon and John Tate were introduced at halftime and sat behind the UMass bench.

GHS AD Mike Kuchieski was there with his wife Angie and their children Madyson and Trevor, using tickets Tim Farrell had donated for a GHS fundraiser. “We won the raffle,” said Kuchieski, a hero of local sports together with countless others like Gary Mullins at Turners Falls High School, Doug McCloud at Mohawk, Joe Gamache at Tech and Scott Thayer at Pioneer.

Other Franklin County regulars included Todd and Mike Currie, Fred Range, Matt Sheridan and plenty more. Win or lose it’s good basketball, and the 6-foot-5, 275-pound Martin can be a show in itself watching Mr. Clean with his arms crossed, glaring at whoever’s irking him. 

Off court he’s the philosopher king; on it he’s Attila the Hun: “What the hell you looking at me for, pass the ball!”

When he was at Kansas State someone produced a video montage of him putting up Christmas lights outside his home and spliced it with clips of his volatile sideline rants. At South Carolina he was suspended for a game for yelling at a player. The school called it “inappropriate verbal communication.”

“There’s 12 seconds of the day that something comes out that shouldn’t,” Martin said after his suspension. “I’ve gotta work on those 12 seconds.”

Martin took South Carolina to the Final Four in 2017 and was named Big 12 coach of the year at Kansas State. But he is conflicted. He’s made millions but he’s worked for it. He had Covid twice at South Carolina and had a fever that nearly killed him when he was an assistant coach under Bob Huggins at Cincinnati.

“There’s a rite of passage that comes with putting in the time,” Martin said after Tuesday’s loss. “It’s not like going to 7/11 and buying lottery tickets.”

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Navy SEAL Christopher Chambers, who died trying to save a teammate who’d fallen into the Arabian Sea was a 50-yard freestyle state champion his senior year at Westfield High School. The swim team recognized him during a moment of silence on Tuesday, but at this writing the city had yet to finalize plans to honor its fallen soldier. 

“Our veterans service agent Julie Barnes has contacted the executive office of veterans affairs to make those arrangements,” said Amy Tosi, executive assistant to Mayor Michael McCabe. “We’ll announce them as soon as we have them.”

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Each week sports host Dan Patrick and his Danettes liked to guess who’d be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. One of SI’s most popular features was Faces in the Crowd with mug shots of coaches and athletes whose feats were worthy of recognition.

No one on the college level was better at getting his nominees into the magazine than Williams College SID Dick Quinn. “An editor at SI confirmed that the 47 folks I've placed in SI's Faces in the Crowd is the most of any college or university,” Quinn confirmed via email.

Meanwhile, pity the prep school kids who no longer have those Zowie, it’s Maui! swimsuit issues to while away the winter term.

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TRIVIA: Name the four catchers who won at least two World Series with the New York Yankees. (Answer in Squibbers)

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SQUIBBERS: Former UMass hockey captain Kevin Czepiel has led the Berkshire School to a 13-6 record. Czepiel left NMH last year after seven seasons and a 104-58-16 record. Berkshire hosted the Hoggers on Jan. 10 and beat them 7-0. … Dan Shaughnssey in the Boston Globe: “I hear more stuff almost every day about what a menace Alex Verdugo was in the Red Sox clubhouse.” …  Dallas forward Derrick Jones Jr. is called “Airplane Mode” for how he flies to the rim. … If it’s true that Bill Belichick wanted Baker Mayfield in the offseason and the Krafts insisted on sticking with Mac Jones, then Patriot fans can only wonder, ‘What if.’ … Couldn’t help thinking during Packers-Niners last week of Mark Chmura’s touchdown catch from Brett Favre that helped beat George Seifert and Steve Young, 27-17. … Don’t watch “The Bear” if you’re on a diet, but do watch “Das Boot” to see what it was like to be on a submarine in WWII.  … Trivia Answer: Yogi Berra (9), Bill Dickey (7), Jorge Posada (4) and Thurman Munson (2). … Honk if you remember Deadly Nightshade at the Rusty Nail. … Adrian Beltre signed with the Red Sox for one year in 2010 because Boston didn’t want to risk signing him to a long term deal, and the rest is history. … Future first overall pick Cole Eiserman of Newburyport is BU bound next season. The 17-year-old Eiserman has 16 goals in 13 games for the U.S. National Development team but was left off the World Juniors team that won the gold in Sweden. … Happy Trails to Ben Pike who’s retiring from Franklin County Tech after teaching his kids that feasting on wild game is a culinary art. … Jerod Mayo’s going to take some getting used to. Imagine Bill Belichick saying the Patriots “are ready to burn some cash.”

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com