Yet, here we are, in Hartford. The reason: the dreaded Hiawatha Hurl. The "Hiawatha" in the aforementioned affliction represents the name of the elementary school both of my kids currently attend. The "Hurl" stands for the projectile emission from a child's mouth when the immune system decides it's too crowded on the inside. I presume no further explanation is necessary, but apparently the condition was sweeping through the school in the days leading up to senior day. It was not until about 3:00 a.m. on the morning of the game that it surfaced for our son. We had heard rumors that the bug's life expectancy was real short, no more than 12 hours. That gave us until 3:00 p.m., for a 1:00 p.m. tip-off. We're troopers, so we actually left the house around 12:15 with thoughts of "we'll just keep a close eye on him." But when the hurl hit en route from garage door to car door, we could fight responsible parenting no longer.

My wife drew the short straw, largely on the strength of my argument that I had "willed" the game for @midmajority and couldn't let my legions of fans down (Game 623: Made in Vermont). Nonetheless, I was quick to recognize that the unfortunate sequence of events had deprived my wife of necessary closure, and suggested that perhaps we depart from tradition and make the trek to the conference tournament. When the schedule revealed that Vermont was slotted for an evening game on Saturday, we determined we could see two more Catamount games with a one-night stay in Hartford, and the person most impacted would be me on Monday morning.

The regret began to set in about midway through the first half, as second-seeded Vermont came out of the gate hitting two of its first 68 shots (approximately) against the seventh-seeded Maine Black Bears. Maine was a team the Vermont had handled well in the two regular season meetings, and isn't regarded as a particularly stout defensive team. The effort was there tonight for Maine, but the cold start had as much to do with Vermont's inaccuracy as it did with Maine's tenacity. The halftime score was an embarrassing 22-14 deficit for Vermont, with most Catamount fans counting on the law of averages to get the team back in the game. The more cynical fans knew this sobering fact: Vermont trailed at halftime in three league games this season, and lost all three. In fact, they were the only conference games they lost. Further, this didn't have the feel of a "don't worry, we'll be fine" type of game; it was more of a "what the **** is going on," similar to UVM's loss to Bing . . . (sorry, still not able to accept it).

The first fourteen or so minutes of the second half was much of the same; some shots were halfway down before rimming out, while others never really had a chance. The only good news was that Maine was suffering a similar fate, keeping the game unnecessarily close until Vermont could make a run. Well, more like a quick sprint. In a game with so few points scored, all it took was Vermont stringing together a few buckets late (too late, in the opinion of many), keeping Maine off the scoreboard, and ultimately "gutting" out a ten-point win, 50-40. It's perhaps unfair to say that it was an ugly performance; the defense certainly stepped up when the offense was misfiring and, unlike Vermont, Maine was unable to take advantage. But it sure wasn't pretty.

The post-game emotion was more relief than elation, and it's hard to imagine Vermont getting through the semifinals with a similar offensive performance. Regardless of what happens in the semis, we now know we'll get our closure. We'd just prefer it arrive sometime after tomorrow. It would make the late-night trip back to Burlington so much more enjoyable.

SI.com Twitter 100 - 2011 & 2012

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