Zanor column: Tournament time is here, plus a glorious night for Celtics fans

Just thought I’d empty out my reporter’s notebook while hoping the Patriots secondary can feast on a number of errant throws from the Jets’ Aaron Rodgers on Sunday …

Tournament time

The Eastern Connecticut Conference and Connecticut Technical Conference fall postseason tournaments are underway and we’re wishing all of our local teams the best of luck as they compete for a coveted league championship banner.

One team has already made it to a final. The Norwich Tech girls soccer team rolled past Wolcott Tech, 6-0, in the CTC semifinals on Thursday. Mckenzye Savaria powered the Warriors offense with a hat trick, while Aniya Gibbons added two goals and Maya Stimson had a goal and an assist.

The Warriors’ defensive trio of Destiny Burditt, Tessa Lambert, and Lily Doak simply shut down Wolcott en route to a shutout.

Norwich Tech will be huge underdogs on Saturday night when they meet Windham Tech for the CTC championship at Cheney Tech in Manchester. Game time is at 6 p.m. Windham Tech, who defeated the Warriors twice during the regular season, will be vying for their fourth consecutive CTC title.

The glorious Celts

Every once in a while I’m reminded how lucky I was to have grown up a few miles from the Boston Garden and became a Celtics fan at a very young age.

Watching Tuesday night’s season opener on television was one of those times.

Here were the Celtics, the most decorated franchise in NBA history, getting their championship rings and raising another banner into the hallowed rafters. Here were the video highlights of the Celtics winning numerous championships in the 1960s and all the way to last June’s triumph over the Dallas Mavericks. Tearjerker alert!  Here came Bob Cousy in a wheelchair! (If you don’t think the Cooz, a six-time NBA champion and league MVP, isn’t one of the top five point guards in NBA history, well … you know nothing about basketball).

Then the modern day Celtics go out in front of a raucous sold-out crowd and rout the New York Knickerbockers with a clinic on 3-point shooting.

Is it possible the Celtics are playing with a chip on their shoulder even after winning the NBA title last season? We can thank Olympic coach Steve Kerr for that.

From shooting hoops with John Havlicek as a young, wide-eyed camper at his basketball school to a CYO trip to the Boston Garden on Larry Bird's birthday; from being there with BC High teammate Billy O'Donnell when Havlicek raised his number to the rafters to Dave Cowens showing up and playing in my late brother’s memorial scholarship basketball game (Cowens won it with a buzzer-beater!), the Celtics have always held a special place in my heart.

Clark Mania

Here’s a few more eye-opening statistics from season one of the greatest show on television, “Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever.”

Since 2008, no WNBA game drew a million TV viewers. This season, 23 games reached or surpassed the one-million mark. Caitlin Clark played in 20 of those games. Clark also played in all 15 of the most-watched games. The Fever also led the league in attendance, both home and away.

I’m starting to believe that if the Chicago Sky and Washington Mystics were playing on ABC on a Tuesday night, while Caitlin Clark and a bunch of her high school teammates were playing a pick-up game at the local YMCA in Des Moines that was being televised on CBS, the Nielsen ratings would show a huge win for CBS.

More: Zanor column: NFA names softball coach

WNBA shenanigans

I did not see Game 5 of the WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx. The National League championship between the Mets and Dodgers was up for grabs on another channel, as well as an NFL game. (In full transparency, I probably would have also watched an NHL game or a college baseball game on ESPN+ instead of the Liberty-Lynx.)

I did, however, see the highlights of Breanna Stewart traveling with the ball, creating contact, throwing up a brick off the backboard while not getting fouled, and then getting a late whistle from the referee who somehow called a foul on the Lynx. And I thought the phantom foul call on Bill Laimbeer against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Game 6 of the 1988 NBA Finals, with the Detroit Pistons 25 seconds away from winning the NBA title, was bad.

Of course, Stewart went to the line, sank both freebies to tie the game, and the Liberty went on to win their first WNBA championship.

I didn’t think much about the game. The New York Liberty, with their superstar starting five, were one of the favorites to win the title from the beginning of the season. After, however, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said that the championship was “stolen” away from her team, so I had to take a look at the box score.

The Liberty outrebounded the Lynx, 44-33. The Lynx had 16 turnovers, while the Liberty had 12.

The Liberty shot 22-of-72 (30 percent) from the field. The Lynx were a little better at 37 percent (26-of-70).

The Liberty were 2-for-23 from beyond the 3-point line. The Lynx were 3-for-19. Abysmal shooting. There are women in my old neighborhood in Everett, Massachusetts, who can make 5-of-42 blind-folded!

Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu shot 1-of-19 from the field, including 1-for-10 on three-pointers. (If Caitlin Clark put up those numbers in a winner-take-all game, the internet and social media trolls would have a field day).

Liberty forward Breanna Stewart shot 4-for-15 from the field, including 0-for-3 on three-pointers. You’re not supposed to win the game when your two best players shoot 5-for-34 from the field and 1-for-13 from beyond the arc.

Here’s where it gets criminal. The Liberty went 21-of-25 from the charity stripe. The Lynx went to the free-throw line eight times and made seven.

Holy moly! Those referees should never see the inside of a WNBA arena again.

More: Fall notebook: Norwich Tech girls capture CTC cross country banner

Mora’s Dilemma

The UConn football team hosts Rice on Saturday at Rentschler Field in what I’m dubbing the Yankee Conference-Southwest Conference Bowl.

I like Jim Mora. He’s a great football coach. I met him before he even coached one game at UConn. He had just been hired to coach the Huskies and he showed up at the New London-NFA Thanksgiving Day football game. He watched the first half on the sidelines with me and a couple of other reporters. I loved his enthusiasm and vision for the UConn football program. I even invited him back to my house to have some turkey and watch the Cowboys. (He already had plans with the UConn president.)

But after last week’s loss against Wake Forest, the Huskies fell to 2-26 against power conference teams since 2012 and unless millions of dollars are heading to Storrs from a new conference affiliation or NIL benefactors, the Huskies can never become a Division I football power.

Yankee Conference update

The battle for the mythical 2024 Yankee Football Conference championship continues Here are my updated Yankee Football Conference standings:

Delaware 7-0

Rhode Island 6-1

New Hampshire 4-3

UConn 4-3

Maine 4-3

UMass 1-6

Delaware hosts former NFA star Gage Hinkley and the Rhode Island Rams on Nov. 9.

STUCK IN THE 70s

On October 24, 1975, the Boston Celtics opened the 1975-76 season with a 109-94 victory over the Houston Rockets before 13,082 fans at the Boston Garden. John Havlicek poured in 24 points, Jo Jo White scored 21 points, and Dave Cowens collected 14 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists to lead the Celts.

Rudy Tomjanovich led the Rockets with 24 points, while Norwalk High star Calvin Murphy added 17 points and eight assists.

Eight months later, the Celtics captured the franchise's 13th NBA championship.

Jimmy Zanor is a sportswriter for the Norwich Bulletin and can be reached at jzanor@norwichbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @jzanorNB .

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Zanor column: Tournament time is here, plus a glorious night for Celtics fans