Hey NCAA, do you know how to spell our college’s name? #LetsGoBlue

Yesterday, I put on my Hamilton College sweatshirt, sat in front of my computer, and simultaneously watched the Hamilton College women’s ice hockey team play Colby in the semifinals of the NESCAC Championships – and flipped back and forth to watch the Hamilton men’s basketball team face off against Montclair State for the first round of the NCAA Men’s Division III basketball tournament.

Hey, don’t give me grief about this. 40 years ago our school wasn’t allowed to participate in any postseason tournament that began seven days after that sport’s final regular season contest. And women’s ice hockey in the 1980’s was a club sport, not a varsity operation. So forgive me a tad if I go Rock Chalk Al Ham Hawk now.

First off … whoever was doing the announcing for the ice hockey game … would it kill you to read Hamilton’s roster and match up the jersey numbers? I mean, they are big enough that I could see them on the livestream, but the guy behind the microphone kept calling the wrong name for the wrong player, and then just brushed it off by saying it was an early game and he hadn’t woke up yet. Dude, get yourself a couple of Red Bulls and wake the hell up.

Still, Hamilton fought back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits, as senior Nancy Loh powered a hat trick en route to a 4-3 Hamilton victory and our first women’s ice hockey NESCAC finals, where we play against Amherst tonight at 7:30. We got this. For sure.

Meanwhile, I’m flipping back and forth, and Hamilton is in a tight one-possession battle all game with Montclair State. The Continentals are using up as much clock as possible, while Montclair State is going run-and-gun throughout. But in the second half, Connor Rood finished off with 22 points and helped Hamilton advance with an 84-75 victory to face (and beat) Johns Hopkins today at 6:00 p.m. We beat a state school, now we’re going to take out the med school. Ha.

Which gets me to my next point. To be in the NCAA means you are a student-athlete. STUDENT-Athlete. That means you should at least grasp the concept of education. Maybe even spelling. Look, I get it. Some schools have quirky spellings in their names. I understand – It’s not “John Hopkins,” it’s not “John’s Hopkins,” apparently the school was founded by a bequest from a Quaker philanthropist named Johns Hopkins. You know, the same way our school was originally seeded by some guy named Alexander Hamilton. I think there’s a Broadway play of his life.

That being said … who the hell was operating the on-screen graphics yesterday?

Look carefully. This was the start of the broadcast.

Wait … Hamiliton?

Hamilition? Is that supposed to rhyme with “Prohibition” or “Intuition” or “Abolition” or “Munition?”

Okay. Simple typo. They’ll have it fixed soon. Someone out there must know how to operate a chyron machine.

Then came the halftime stats.

Oh great. “Hamiliton” is still leading by three points at the half. You know … if someone did an NCAA Division I broadcast and put “Gonzoga” or “Michican State” on the graphics, heads would roll. The NCAA would hold an investigation. You know … the same thing they DON’T do when one of their athletes is assaulted by a coach, while the assistant coach looks the other way on his journey to the House of Representatives, right Gym Jordan? Just sayin’ is all.

Okay. Two typos. This has to get fixed by now. Come on, it’s the big time here. We’re dancing in the tournament, and we’re going to beat Montclair State all the way back to Noo Joyzee. And in the end, we won 84-75. Just look at the proof.

Oh for crying out loud. For crying out loud. This is the kind of respect you show a qualified and credited house of higher learning? A school that’s one of the oldest in New York? A school that has produced Nobel Peace Prize winners and poet laureates and CEO’s and senators and me?

Ugh.

All I can say is … you’d better have this fixed before tonight’s game. Because when we beat Johns Hopkins – and I said WHEN we beat Johns Hopkins – the NCAA needs to put some damn respect on our name.

Trust me. We are Hamilton College. And we don’t forget personal slights like this.

Carissima, bitches. 😀

UPDATE: Hamilton did not advance past the second round, losing to Johns Hopkins in the men’s basketball tournament Saturday, losing 81-71. Over on the women’s side, Hamilton lost in the finals to Amherst, 5-0. Nuts.

But on the positive, at least they spelled our name right THIS TIME.