The Time Has Come for Changes

As many of you know, I Drake Tungsten will be leaving this blog relatively soon. I asked for people who felt up to the task to help keep this blog afloat and many answered the call, few were selected by me. You now, will meet these people.

First, we have Mr. Ben Masur. A 2008 graduate of Binghamton University, Ben arrived in Vestal as a freshman who did not even know what the America East Conference was. In fact, he thought it was a rather self-righteous name, mostly because it contained America within it's name. Once he gained knowledge of this wonderful conference, Ben would then go on to cover the Bearcats for the Binghamton Pipe Dream for four seasons. He is even on Wikipedia, unintentional of course. He is thoroughly appalled that America Least is not on Wikipedia, and that it is not the first thing that pops up when you search "america least." He aims to change that. As a man who played high school ball against Marqus Blakely (he did not specify if he was rejected/dunked on by Blakely), Masur is a man of good humor and high hopes. He will do a nice job helping out here. He is even using his real name too, so that just proves, he has a hell of a lot more balls than I do. Probably because he isn't afraid of getting fired.

Secondly, we one Lyle Underbay, the underachieving third cousin of the Toronto Blue Jays first baseman, Lyle Overbay. As a Vermont Catamounts fan, he began following the team like any good fan does: through video games. UVM officially arrived in his book the day they were finally featured, along with every other D1 program at the time in the March Madness series by EA Sports. Soon enough, he would begin uses what we call the internet, to find all things UVM basketball. He was hooked, but nobody else was. David Hehn hit his ridiculous shot against BU to go to the NCAA Tournament for the first time, and the people around Lyle didn't even know UVM was a Division I program. He attends UVM games, and will even watch the video feeds of other AE teams to see how they play. That's dedication homes. As a fellow younger Vermont fan realist, he knows that a Vermont victory is never guaranteed until the final horn, also, when he looks around, he notices sometimes, he is the youngest person in his section by about 35 years. As a technical guy, Lyle Underbay will help move the blog forward in that regard, perhaps making it a little bit more aesthetically pleasing.

While Vermont fans might be old, it doesn't mean the older ones don't have something good to say. That is where America Least's newest man of rants and raves pretaining to America East basketball comes in to play. Simply known as Oscar, not Oscar the Grouch, think Oscar Wilde, minus the gay par, the blog's new elder statesman will use his wide array of experiences and love of the game of basketball (which he admittedly loves more than his team) to bring to the table. Oscar can freely admit that Will Brown owns Mike Lonergan, and that UVM fans are old and arrogant, and that he respects BU, Albany and Binghamton as educational institutions. He was on Jeopardy! before too. He promises to gore every pig and make sure that after you read him you feel something, be it a laugh, or the urge to write him a terribly nasty email about how much he offended you. I know that his views and opinions will be unique, fresh and provocative, all in a good way. This blog is very fortunate to have him, and the others on board.

Finally, we have a man. He fancies himself as a Tyler Durden type, though he is indecisive on what to call himself. Anyways, or resident Fight Club lover will contribute his piece when he needs to, but he will serve as our main recruiting guru. Recruiting is about leaving no stone unturned, trying to find the diamond in the rough, and that is basically what our Durden-esque character will be doing with recruiting stories for your enjoyment. He also will offer his own views from a fanbase that isn't so large and popular, but good enough to be in the 4-5 game. It will be refreshing to have someone around who isn't part of the "big three fanbases" (Vermont, Albany, Binghamton), sometimes they are afforded the luxury of sitting back and being able to say "man, that guy on the other team is really good at this or that" because sometimes their team is playing well, rather poorly. That and someone needs to speak up for the little guys in the conference too!

So join me in giving a warm welcome to these four new team members of the America Least blog. I have the fullest confidence that they will be able to step in and keep up the good work and not miss a beat. They stood out the most and embody what this blog is all about. They start whenever the hell they feel like it. Gets me out the door quicker!