A Few Non-Stories

There's a couple stories out there that people have talked about, but I haven't bothered to comment on. I suppose I should probably at least mention them though.

The NCAA changed the criteria for NCAA tournament selection. It's all a bunch of complicated math stuff, so I'll let the NCAA explain the net effect:

After working with the software developer of the RPI, the committee believes that the new formula can reduce the number of negative-impact games, while at the same time not change the order of teams in the RPI.

So basically it's change for the sake of change. This system wouldn't have really affected the tournament field last year, and probably won't this year.

And who would undertake the process of making such a pointless, mundane change? Marty Scarano, the athletic director at New Hampshire, who imfamously banned the song "Black Betty" at hockey games last year, because of an anonymous protest that the song was "theoretically racist".

Another sotry that got a lot of news was that Ty Gretzky, the son of Wayne, decided to enroll at Shattuck-St. Mary's and is playing hockey there this year. A lot of fans seemed willing to have their team's offer Gretzky a scholarship on the spot, ignoring the fact that he played JV hockey for his prep school in Phoenix last year. Gretzky was placed on Shattuck's Midget AA team, and while he's still young, it's not looking like he's going to be a superstar. Having good genes is one thing. But the experience of growing up as the son of a millionaire in California is a lot different than growing up in tiny Brantford, Ontario, where there isn't much else to do besides play hockey.

Finally, this should be a non-story, since it seems to happen so frequently, but St. Paul Pioneer Press "insider" Charley Walters was wrong again. Earlier this month, he said Nate Hagemo had been cleared to practice, but unfortunately, it seems that Shooter was wrong. Hagemo hasn't been skating with the Gophers, and hasn't been cleared for contact yet. It's expected that he will be cleared eventually, but this doesn't look good if he hasn't been cleared yet.