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It’s Official – Travis Taylor Leaves Monmouth for Boston College

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The folks over at ZagsBlog.com are reporting that Travis Taylor has officially left Monmouth University’s men’s basketball team to move to Boston College’s basketball program. Here is the report from ZagsBlog.com:

Former Monmouth forward Travis Taylor has opted to transfer to Boston College and play for former Cornell coach Steve Donahue. Taylor chose the Eagles over Seton Hall and Temple.

Taylor, a 6-foot-7 sophomore from Union, N.J., averaged 17.8 points and 7.6 rebounds last season

“This was an extremely tough choice for Travis and multiple factors played into his decision making process,” said Bill Diamond, the Taylor family adviser. “It was well thought out and he and his family asked all of the right questions. Travis loved the campus, the academic reputation and the coaching staff. He has an opportunity to earn immediate playing time in one of the best conferences in the country. Steve Donahue is a proven coach and will do a tremendous job in Travis’s maturation process on and off the court.”

Monmouth gave Taylor a conditional release, allowing him to move to schools not on the team’s 2010-11 schedule. Seton Hall is not on the schedule, while Rutgers is.

Taylor has not answered several calls to his cell phone.

He was suspended for seven games last season for “violating team rules” and the team went 2-5 during that span.

From my perspective, I’m really unsure about this move in terms of being a benefit for Taylor. In the NEC he stood out as clearly the best player on his team, but also as one of the best players in the league. Moving up north and into the Atlantic Coast Conference is a whole new world – I’m not sure how Taylor will be able to perform up there, but I guess all that anybody can do is wait and see, right?

Results and Pictures from My Recent Attendance at a TNA Wrestling House Show

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About a week ago I promised you all the match results and nearly 150 pictures from my recent attendance – along with my younger brother, roommate, and buddy – to a TNA Wrestling house show. Well, wait no longer. Below are the match results followed by about 150 pictures from the show. Some of the pictures are blurry, but I think that you’ll enjoy flipping through them to pass the time.

Some of you may know that I already posted this information on the wrestling website that I own at TNAStars.com. If you’ve seen this all already, then I apologize, but I wanted to share the pictures with all of my audience! Enjoy!

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Source: TNAStars.com

What’s up, everybody!? Most of the time, we scour the internet looking for the best set of house show results to share with you great fans. However, for the Asbury Park house show I was actually in attendance with my roommate, my buddy, and my younger brother (and about 1,200 other TNA fans) so here are some results and notes on the show directly from me!

Attendance: I’m not the best estimator of attendance at these types of shows, but I would suggest there might have been about 1,200 fans in attendance. When I went to the Asbury Park house show in 2008, there might have been half as many people there so to more than double the amount of attendees in two years shows tremendous progress in this fan’s eyes. When the official attendance numbers come out, I’ll report them here.

Excitement: While the action in the ring was mediocre at best (the house show two years ago had more exciting action), the fans seemed into almost every big move from the start of the show through its completion. I’ve been to two TNA house shows and a TNA pay-per-view thus far and I think that this crowd (comprised mostly of younger fans and their families) were the most “into” the show that I’ve seen for this company. Frankly, they were more into the show than the people at the iMPACT! Zone ever seem to be (and why is there always a high pitched girl screaming in the iMPACT! Zone? Somebody shut her up already!)…

Acoustics: Just like two years ago, I found the acoustics in Convention Hall completely over modulated and hard to understand. For some reason, all of the wrestlers and knockouts that opted to use the sound system also opted to yell into the microphone which, to my ears, resulted in an electronic muffled sound that had way too much reverberation on the output. No one normally writes about these things, but for me it was such a pronounced pain in the neck that I felt compelled to put it on here.

Pictures: Coming soon in another post – I’m going through them (I took over 300 pictures) and weeding out the crappy ones (about half). When I have the pictures weeded out and uploaded, I’ll place a link to them right here. Update: The pictures are available below this post!

Sightings: My buddy, roommate, and I met Jeff Hardy at The Beach Bar which is connected to Convention Hall and overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and Asbury Park’s southern beach. It was about as brief a meeting as you could imagine – he walked by, shook our hands, and went on his way. In my view, he was shorter than I thought he’d be; all of these online listings show him at 6′ 1″ or 6′ 2″ tall and I’d say he’s maybe 5′ 9″ or 5′ 10″ at most. Either that, or he was incredibly slouching when my buddy, roommate, and I met him (and I don’t think he was slouching).
 
 

Homicide vs. The Amazing Red vs. Brian Kendrick

This match was a pretty strong show opener and it got the crowd excited. I admit that I didn’t get a chance to really watch the full match because I was looking for my brother, roommate, and buddy during this match, but I did manage to see The Amazing Red jumping around like a crazy person. Brian Kendrick also had a few good moves, too. Red took the match in the end.
Winner: The Amazing Red
 

Angelina Love vs. Sara Del Rey (Jersey All Pro Wrestling Women’s Champion)

I’m pretty sure that Angelina Love took on Sara Del Rey in this match, though I didn’t catch her name and I can’t see facial features too well. The match wasn’t so bad and in my humble opinion I think that the action in this match (and the one following) was among the best on the entire show, period. Angelina Love was quick and smooth with her moves, as always, and Sara Del Rey certainly did the JAPW organization proud in her loss. The winner of this match was awarded with a title shot against Knockouts Champion Madison Rayne.
Winner: Angelina Love
 

Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne

As soon as Angelina Love beat Sara Del Rey, Madison Rayne came out and beat the hell out of her to begin their match. Apparently, the match was “supposed” to take place later in the night, but Madison Rayne took the opportunity to beat up on a weakened Angelina Love and eventually beat her in about 5 or 6 minutes. Overall, though, it was a good match and even though Angelina Love was fresh off of her match with Sara Del Rey, she did a good job fighting back against a fresh Madison Rayne.

Earl Hebner was the referee (he received a decent reaction when announced to the crowd) and this match ended with a spot where he happened to catch Madison Rayne in a swooning position and the crowd egged him on to kiss her (which he did). Then he did this weird dance that got the crowd going. Angelina Love was laughing at it until Earl went up to her and smacked a kiss on her, too. More dancing after the kiss, of course, Madison Rayne used the distraction to roll up Angelina Love for the win and Earl Hebner did a little more dancing out of the ring area.
Winner: Madison Rayne
 

Desmond Wolfe vs. Jay Lethal

Lots of “Woooooo!” hollers from the audience for Jay Lethal, who was way over with his home state crowd. I would say that next to the Knockouts, Jay Lethal was among one of the most “over” guys on the night’s card. Lots of good back and forth action in this match that ultimately saw Jay Lethal pick up the victory. Jay Lethal did some of his Ric Flair impressions by strutting a little bit on the ring apron before the match started and chopping Desmond Wolfe throughout the entire contest. I would have liked to see these guys fight for another five minutes or so.
Winner: Jay Lethal
 

Kurt Angle Promo

Kurt Angle came out and thanked the audience for coming to the show. He said that people in attendance may be WWE fans, but he’s here to tell everyone the truth – that TNA is better (mixed reaction from the fans, but mostly in agreement). He was holding a can of some type of energy drink in his hand during the entire promo, which he eventually tossed across the ring on his way out. Nothing major to report here.
 

Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy

The most annoying part of this match was that Jeff Hardy seemed to thank every single fan that had their hand out during his introduction. Seriously, his entrance might have lasted almost ten minutes – they had to restart his music. Abyss did a good job of playing the monster heel, which is a role that I think he is more naturally suited for than the Hulkamaniac shtick. Jeff Hardy brought some fan signs in the ring before the match started – not sure what they said but you can check them out after I post the pictures.

Not much to say about the match here. Both men did their signature moves and Jeff Hardy eventually won by hitting The Swanton. After the match, Jeff Hardy took one of the cameramen’s camera and went around ringside taping the fans (I assume this is for TNA Today on TNAWrestling.com and YouTube.com).
Winner: Jeff Hardy
 

Intermission

Before the Intermission began, Don West came out and hyped his brown bag special and his super duper exclusive Ric Flair t-shirt that “you can only get here tonight and nowhere else!” During the break, Angelina Love had a line for autographs that literally wrapped around the entire inside of the arena. My buddy said that they were going for $10 each, so TNA and Angelina Love definitely made some money off of her signing autographs. There were hundreds of people in line to meet her – it was pretty nuts. My group and I took the opportunity to get up and go to the other side of the arena during the intermission.
 

Ink, Inc. vs. Team 3D

Team 3D was extremely over with this crowd. After they were introduced, the “E-C-W” and “We Want Tables” chants were deafening. So… this match became a tables match. The action was crazy to start this one as Brother Ray beat the hell out of Jesse Neal in the ring and Brother Devon took it to Shannon Moore on the outside of the ring. At one point, Brother Ray ran into the back and came back with a shiny new steel garbage can, with which he promptly smacked Jesse Neal in the head. After some posing, Jesse Neal took the garbage can and cracked it over Brother Ray’s head completely bending and destroying the can.

Once the match got along a little bit, Team 3D hit their “What’s Up!” headbutt to the balls before the crowd yelled for Brother Devon to get the table, which he did. And once the table was set up in the ring, it wasn’t too long before Jesse Neal went directly through it and Team 3D picked up the win. Funny note from after the match – Brother Ray asked Brother Devon to get some kids to give pieces of the ring to and he went up on the stage to grab a kid, but the kid was horrified and grabbed his Dad. Brother Devon tried to tell him what was going on, but in the end settled for a different kid off of the stage and a kid from the front row. Team 3D posed for pictures and thanked the crowd as Brother Ray said he was heading to Bar Anticipation in Belmar to find some Jersey girl (he used other words) for the night.
Winner: Team 3D
 

A.J. Styles vs. Rob Van Dam

Rob Van Dam was easily the most over guy on the card tonight, thanks in part to his entrance theme which encourages the fans to chant and yell for him. Both of these men looked good during the match, but A.J. Styles may really be taking his new heel role too seriously since he stalled the beginning of the match by about ten minutes (which was probably longer than the entire action part of the match). It was a bit excessive.

The match came to a head when A.J. Styles missed his flying punch from the top rope and Rob Van Dam hit his Rolling Thunder which set him up for the Five Star Frog Splash. At some point, A.J. Styles went to hit his Pele Kick and I have to tell you – it didn’t look so good. Anyway, Rob Van Dam picks up the win and the show comes to an end.
Winner: Rob Van Dam
 

After the show was over, Rob Van Dam stayed around and posed with fans in the ring with the championship belt for $20 per each group. This is the same thing that Kurt Angle did after the Asbury Park house show two years ago.

A final comment – the interwebs sometimes say how TNA’s house shows are the most profitable part of their business. Well, after attending my second TNA house show I can clearly see why. These people (led by Don West) sell, sell, sell! They are selling t-shirts, DVDs, autographs, meetings with the wrestlers, etc. TNA shows really have a type of fan interaction that you don’t get at WWE shows, but it would admittedly be hard for WWE to pull off this type of interaction with 15,000+ people at their shows. Overall, I thought it was a fun show even if the action in the ring was mediocre at best.

What the Heck is Going on with Monmouth University’s Men’s Basketball Team?

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Before you read this entry, bear in mind that I write some of these things well in advance of when they actually appear on the site. In fact, I’m writing this entry on Sunday, June 20th in the evening and there is a good chance that some of the issues embedded in this story have changed. So there – that’s my disclaimer.

What the heck is going on with Monmouth University’s men’s basketball team? I ask this question after reading an excellent article posted by Steve Edelson from the Asbury Park Press wherein he asked a great question – why are the Hawks administrators taking a “bunker like” mentality when it comes to dealing with the press about the many issues facing this program? That’s a great question and as an alumnus of the university I can tell you that the administration over there is very insular. They are very slow to recognize obvious faults and make the changes needed to move programs in the right direction. For some God-awful reason, the university has created this internal mindset where students and their concerns are nothing more than four year events. In other words, if a student brings an issue to light that absolutely must be addressed immediately, the administration strings the kid along until he or she graduates and then guess what – problem solved! The student is gone and the administration (as well as the original problem) can return to the status quo.

I’ve seen this happen time and time again at Monmouth University, but the problem with the men’s basketball team is much, much different. This time, there is a $57 million building that is screaming for people from all over the Jersey Shore region and, really, all over the state of New Jersey to come and see what’s going on. In short, you can’t build an athletic center like the MAC Center and expect to keep the administrative mindset that you’re dealing with a small-time program and small-time people. Mr. Edelson wrote it perfectly in his article:

All the while, there’s a $57-million building devoid of any atmosphere and plenty of fence-mending to be done within the locker room and the department. This is a time to be laser-focused on solving the internal issues and turning the program around, without spending so much as a second on anything you can’t control.

But instead of strong leadership, there’s a bunker mentality.

There isn’t a Div. I hoops program in the nation that anyone gives a damn about that doesn’t have a blog where fans can express their opinions, or observers who voice their support or criticism.

I added the emphasis on that last line because I think it bears repeating and gets to the heart of the matter. Monmouth University wanted this attention. They literally built a $57 million building hoping to get this attention. Well, here it is – congratulations! You have the attention of the Northeast Conference as well as the local media – and you even have the attention of “fan” blogs like mine! My message to Monmouth – don’t go run and hide now that the spotlight is on the problems of your men’s basketball program. Do NOT do what you’ve always done and bunker down from investigative eyes – you aren’t allowed to do that any more and there fifty seven million reasons why you aren’t allowed to do that any more.

What happens when you have a failing basketball program with players and assistant coaches leaving? You get fan reaction like the comment below. I pulled this directly from the “comments” section on Mr. Edelson’s column:

For everyone’s sake, Coach Calloway should do the right thing and resign from the program. Monmouth made an enormous commitment to basketball by building the MAC. In order to do so, the University energized its constituencies with promises of great things to come. Now MU should now deliver. Loyalty? Calloway has already had 13 seasons to prove his worth. The bottom line is – he has a losing career won/loss record in a dreadful conference, low attendance at home games, players quitting and coaches walking. Oh, and about the drug problem that one player is alleged to have had (JackieB) – it is unlikely that any such drug problem originated at the University – that’s a recruiting problem squarely on the shoulders of the coach. Thanks to Steve Edelson, Tony Graham and the Park Press for publishing this story!

Hey Monmouth – this is the exact type of scrutiny that you asked for by building the MAC Center. Stop shunning the questions and start answering them.

For what it’s worth – an Asbury Park Press online poll asks whether fans agree, disagree, kinda agree, or kinda disagree with Mr. Edelson’s column. At the time of this writing, 230 votes have been registered with 201 votes saying that they agree and another 15 votes saying that they kinda agree.

It’s time, Monmouth. Do what’s right.

Another Monmouth Hawk – Justin Sofman – Leaves the Men’s Basketball Team

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Unbelievable! Just when fans are beginning to digest the news that Monmouth University’s best men’s basketball player Travis Taylor is leaving both the team and the school we get hit with the news that Justin Sofman is also leaving. In an entry on the Hawks Nest blog earlier this week it was reported that Sofman has basically lost his love and passion for the game of basketball. Here are some of Sofman’s quotes regarding leaving the team and the game of basketball:

Justin Sofman is the Latest to Leave
By the way, none of the Hawks pictured are returning

Sofman said he can no longer “take the culture of it, the negativity, the yelling and screaming (of the coaches) if my heart is not in the game.”

“Maybe if I felt different about the game of basketball I would buy into everything,” Sofman said.

“I’m 21 years old. I’m not going to tell him (Calloway) how to do his job. I’m a psychology major. I’m not a coaching major.”

“I’m not going to get into how to motivate players and how to coach because I don’t know.”

“Just because I disagree with something doesn’t mean anything. What I do know is I didn’t feel motivated personally.”

“I didn’t agree with a lot of things. But how are you going to agree when you get screamed at all day, every day.”

“I wasn’t looking forward to next year without Travis, sort of,” Sofman said. “(Without Travis) it made it easier maybe (to leave). I think it’s better for the team and myself I part ways.”

Sofman said Calloway is not out of the ordinary in how he handles players from any of his other coaches dating back to high school.

“I’ve had my share of negative screamers,” Sofman said. “I’ve had the worst ones on purpose to get me ready for the next level.”

“The only difference was I was naive then and wasn’t as adult as I am now. The fact is I could take it back then and now it drives me nuts.”

“You can’t talk to an adult like that and expect to get results.”

Sofman said he liked Calloway as a person. “We had a nice conversation today (Tuesday),” Sofman said. “It’s just a conflict of working for him.”

I have mixed feelings on Sofman leaving the team because I think that he is a good player and a great asset to the team on many fronts. However, as a former high school athlete (and a pretty damn good one, too), I absolutely understand that feeling of completely losing interest in a sport in which you were once a fierce competitor.

Story Time! When I was in high school I was a pretty good wrestler. I wasn’t state championship material by any means, but I was pretty damn good. However, somewhere in the middle of wrestling season during my senior year in high school I began to really not give a damn about the sport any more (which was pretty bad since I was Captain of the team). I definitely continued to compete at a high level, but I didn’t want to win for the good of the team or for my personal advancement; more than anything else I wanted to win matches for personal pride. I’m not sure what caused me to not give a damn any more, but over the years I’ve begun to accept the notions that 1) I saw no professional or semi-professional athletic future for myself and 2) I subconsciously didn’t buy the “hype” that our coaches sold to us on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.

From Sofman’s quotes above, it sounds like he was in the same situation. When I read Sofman saying that he can no longer take the “culture of it” and that if he “felt different about the game of basketball [he] would buy into everything,” the very same feelings conjure up in my head that I had during my senior year of high school wrestling. Specifically, it’s the idea that you have to “buy into everything” that really piques my interest. Anyone who has played a competitive sport under a good coach at a competitive high school or college knows that coaches all have their own unique motivation techniques. Some yell, some scream, some run you into the ground, some speak softly and carry a big stick – it’s part of their style as a coach. A good coach will tailor his or her motivation techniques to lead his or her athletes to a bigger picture, larger goal, or greater accomplishment.

It sounds like Sofman didn’t want to deal with Dave Calloway or his coaching staff’s motivation techniques because he no longer saw the bigger picture, wanted to attain a larger goal, or even believed that there was a greater accomplishment.

Again, if this is how Sofman really feels (and we have no reason to doubt him), then I can’t really blame the kid for making this decision. I remember how my wrestling coaches told me that if I wrestled 100 competitive matches (or more) during the off-season that I’d come back better than my competition. So… I did just that. I wrestled over 100 matches during each of my off-seasons. That’s 100+ matches after my Freshman year of wrestling, 100+ matches after my Sophomore year of wrestling, and 100+ matches after my Junior year of wrestling. Was I better than my competition? Ehhh… it’s debatable. There were certain guys that didn’t last 30 seconds wrestling against me and there were other guys that I never beat. At the end of the day and after more than a decade to consider some of these issues, I don’t think that I was any better off because of those 300+ matches that I wrestled in the off-season.

I don’t write this stuff as a bitter ex-athlete. Not at all, actually. In fact, I look back on my days as a high school athlete with very happy and exciting memories! But as Sofman says in his quotes above, I’m an adult now and I see the system that I went through for what it really was – a prolonged motivation technique that, for the vast majority of high school athletes, doesn’t help them truly excel beyond their competition. It seems that Sofman has come to this realization, too. In fact, when I read his quote of, “You can’t talk to an adult like that and expect to get results,” I pretty much know that he’s done with these motivation techniques to push him to a greater accomplishment. And I completely understand.

All of that said, I’d still encourage kids to get involved with competitive sports while in school. Competition builds a certain character and, while these athletes are young teenagers, the camaraderie of a team helps them to develop the necessary social skills that they’ll need in many aspects of their adult lives. However, when all is said and done I appreciate where Sofman is coming from because I appreciate that sometimes you have to know when to say when.

Travis Taylor to Transfer from Monmouth University Men’s Basketball Team

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Easily one of the best players, if not the best player, on the Monmouth University men’s basketball team is transferring out of West Long Branch next year. The Hawks Nest blog heard a rumor that Taylor might be going to Rutgers University up in New Brunswick. The Asbury Park Press and Monmouth University’s Athletics Department are reporting:

“Travis’ mother contacted me by phone and declared that they have decided that her son needed to move on to further enhance his chances of playing in the NBA,” [Dave] Calloway said.

“We are truly disappointed in Travis’ decision to leave Monmouth,” said Calloway. “His teammates stood by him this past season and were counting on him this upcoming year. “We wish Travis the best and truly hope he finds what he is looking for.”

Taylor is Leaving the MAC Center Next Year

Talk about a major loss for a young program that was trying to build themselves around Taylor’s athleticism and abilities. As a season ticket holder, supporter, and fan of the team, I can tell you that there were some games during Taylor’s seven game suspension last season that were almost too harsh to watch. As one of the comments on The Hawks Nest blog says, “If you took one of your polls with the question being ‘What would be the most devasting thing that could happen to the MU basketball program?’ I guarantee you that it would be ‘Travis Taylor transferring.’

Another one of the comments said that Taylor isn’t even close to being an NBA-caliber player and while most people will probably agree with that statement, I think that if the kid sees an opportunity to reach a higher level by moving somewhere else, then you can’t denigrate his choice. However, you have to start wondering just what the heck is going on over at Monmouth University in their men’s basketball program. Not only is Travis Taylor leaving the team (and the school), but both Dutch Gaitley and George Barbour have quit the team. Rumors suggest that these two have the equivalent of irreconcilable differences with Coach Dave Calloway. Lord only knows what type of stuff (drama?) is going on behind the scenes with the men’s basketball team…

No matter what happens, though, I’ll be back in my seats next season to enjoy some basketball at the MAC Center. I just didn’t think that I’d be watching a completely different team play when only one of this past season’s players (Whitney Coleman) was graduating!