Way back when I arrived at The Trentonian news room 12 hours ago, I had the intention of adding some extra highlights from the MAAC conference call at some point in the afternoon. Then the sports section got in the way, but at 1:13 a.m. there are no more pages to do and I have a minute, so here it goes:

The comments section was full of folks weighing in on Tommy Dempsey's comments about the all-MAAC teams -- the topic of my story in today's paper.

Dempsey was annoyed that neither Harris Mansell nor Mike Ringgold was voted on to any of the all-MAAC teams. He wasn't positively irate, and he didn't go on and on and on about the injustice inflicted by his fellow coaches. But he was irritated enough that when I asked him to make an argument for Ryan Thompson as Player of the Year, he brought up Mansell and Ringgold.

"There’s certainly a case now considering that neither Harris Mansell nor Mike Ringgold made an all-league team," he said. "If they’re not worthy of being on an all-league team that must be a hell of a statement about how good people think Ryan is. To only have one all-league player in a year when we went 12-6 in the league, I was surprised, so I think that that being said, if he’s our only league player, that shows how special he is."

Then, the coach offered the bulk of his case for Thompson.

"He’s handled the move to the point guard very well," he said. "He’s been very unselfish. He only takes about 12 shots a game and shoots over 50 percent from the field. He’s second in the MAAC in 3-point field goal percentage, he’s won four games in the last 10 seconds. He’s just been a rock for us. If he has any selfishness at all he’d average 22 or 23 points a game, but that’s not what he’s comfortable with. I’m biased. I think he’s the best player in the league, but like Joe (Mihalich) said you could argue for any of those five."

The only other mention of a player getting snubbed was made by the coach of a DIFFERENT team than the one the player in question plays for.

That gripe came from Ed Cooley, who offered his endorsement of Ryan Rossiter and said he thought (though he didn't seem certain) that Rossiter was on the first team on his ballot.

"Interesting to see my man Rossiter from Siena, who I think is one of the best big men, not there but that’s for another discussion," Cooley said. "We’re excited to be there and see what we can do. "

A TV reporter from Albany asked Cooley why he thought Rossiter was omitted.

"I don’t know," Cooley said. " I know we voted for him. I think we put him first team, to be honest with you. I think he’s one of the most improved players in our league, which is a very talented league and a well-coached league, but I don’t know. I have no idea. I love the kid. I think he’s a tremendous player and a great asset to the MAAC."

Fran McCaffery, content with the four Siena players on the first and second teams, didn't make a fuss about Rossiter's omission.

“If you want to say he deserved to be on there, then you have to say someone shouldn’t be on there,” McCaffery said. “I don’t think you could say that. I don’t think it’s fair to the kids that were on it. Ryan Rossiter had a fabulous year. All the players that were on there also had great years.”

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I've been following sports for my entire life and have never heard a coach say of a potential opponent "Oh yeah, they stink. We'd love to play them." If UConn plays Princeton in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Jim Calhoun will rave about Doug Davis and say the Tigers are dangerous for this reason and that. A whole lot of the time, of course, coaches are simply being polite and trying to avoid giving their opponents bulletin-board material.

So every coach on the conference call had SOMETHING good to say about the opponents they're going to face Friday or Saturday.

But for the coach whose team won 23 games this year and is seeded second, Joe Mihalich had the pleasure of being able to praise BOTH of his potential quarterfinal opponents and actually tell the truth in doing so.

"For finishing second we’re rewarded with having to play either Iona or Marist," Mihalich said. " Iona beat us on our home court and Marist embarrassed us down there in Poughkeepsie. Two coaches that are rising stars in Chuckie Martin and Kevin Willard. Those are the guys who when the positions were filled and they were hired, you said ‘oh man,’ because they are rising stars in this profession. We finished second but when you look up and see who you’re going to play, it brings you right back down to earth. "

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Chuck Martin's evaluation of his first year as a head coach:

"I chose to look at the season as a great learning experience. I’m excited about the following season. I know we finished last place but we lost 13 games by six or less, four in overtime and we did it with nine guys and one walk-on. I think this league is a really really competitive league. I think there are good coaches in this league, some really talented kids in this league. I feel good that we had a chance to do some good things in this league. As time goes on we’ll have a chance to bring in some new players and our returning guys (will) return mature physically and mentally."

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A reader wrote in the comments section of my Sunday morning "post" that a post was deleted.

If a comment was deleted and it didn't contain foul language or some kind of threat, it was NOT intentionally deleted. If you wrote a comment and it was deleted, tell me and I'll include it in my next post. I don't recall deleting any comments in the past few months, and I know I haven't deleted any posts that I've written unless there was some kind of technical problem, in which case they're usually deleted within minutes and re-posted without the error.

So again, if someone can tell me what was deleted, I'll gladly re-post it.

Thanks to everyone who's commented lately. The more comments, the better the blog will be going forward.