February 3, 2024 – Lowell, Massachusetts
UMass-Lowell vs New Hampshire
Men’s Basketball
A week ago I was driving home from a wrestling show with my daughter. We go to wrestling pretty regularly. Everyone loves her and she loves them. It’s a wonderful community.
It’s dark. It’s cold. I’m riding around the city waiting to pick up my wife from her shift at the hospital. Claire is snoozing in the backseat, bottle between her legs. She’ll drink herself to sleep in the carseat. It’s adorable.
It was during the drive that I realized that this was the good old days. When parents talk about wanting to go back to when their kid was a little one, when they were precious little cherubs cackling at anything, this was one of those moments.
And realizing it was almost worse than taking a nostalgia trip in a decade. Feeling like I was in it made me want to take in every sense, every second of it. I felt like I was picking up handfuls of sand and trying to keep every grain in my fingers, getting a bit more anxious as each one fell through them.
We only get this time once with the little one. The big moments will get the attention they deserve, but it’s the quiet little moments that mean even more to me. Just me and my wife and Claire, in some form, together going through the day to day. So much of society is mundane and derivative, but time with your kid is the realest thing we have. And I know some days I’m exhausted and just plop her down in her playpen and doze in the same recliner I’m writing this blog in.
When I’m there, and at my best, I want to give everything I can to her even when she’s sound asleep. I’m starting a new job soon in a new professional field. I’m scared and nervous, but I’m excited to be able to provide for this little one and give her a good future.
No matter what I provide, no matter how much money I make, none of it is real. The only true thing I have with her is time. The world has always been beautiful and horrifying, and it’ll affect her like it has affected us all at some point. My job is to keep the light in her eye burning bright and the engine deep inside fueled and driving forward, no matter the direction.
I love this one so much. Hopefully many more drives together are in our future.
Claire is my light. However, there is a four-legger that has my heart as well. Here’s a moment with Bella.
The Good Eats
Lowell is one of my favorite New England cities. In fact, I’ve already been here once before. Yes, I grew up in a border town, but I just love mill towns on a river, and Lowell is probably the most prominent one of those.
It’s the fifth biggest city in the state with 115,000 people and is as diverse as it comes. Even in as diverse a region as the Merrimack Valley, Lowell stands out thanks to its Cambodian-American population.
12.5 percent of the city’s population has Cambodian ancestry, and the culture has embedded itself in the city in myriad ways through organizations like the Angkor Dance Troupe and events like the Southeast Asian Water Festival held each summer. It’s one of only three cities with a Cambodian consulate in the country, and by far the smallest, with the other two being Long Beach and Seattle.
And, of course, there is the food. On the recommendation of a friend who is a student at UMass-Lowell I dropped into Peephuptmei for lunch.
Located right on a street corner, and with barely any parking, it’s the kind of place where the food is either going to get you sick or knock your socks off. This was emphatically in the latter camp.
Inside it was moderately sized with some art on walls. Nothing special, but I don’t go to restaurants for fancy furniture.
The menu was sizable without being crazy. My friend had recommended the Loc Lac so I went with that. One of the best restaurant decisions I’ve ever made.
For starters, that’s the biggest damn fried egg I’ve ever seen, and it was so crispy around the edges. The fried rice wasn’t cloyingly salty. It was light in a way American Chinese fried rice is not. Also, it had corn. Corn is good.
But that beef was the absolute, unabashed star. Soft. Tender. Succulent. Perfectly seasoned. This is how you fucking cook beef.
And it was served atop a salad of raw onion, tomato, and lettuce. The heat of the meat wilted the veggies just enough. The drippings seasoned the veggies just enough. The tomatoes provided just enough of an acidic bite to balance everything. Just wow. This was a total star of a meal. I cannot wait to get back here with my friend and pick up his meal as a thank you for bringing Peephuptmei into my life.
Important Cultural Activities
No other city in New England looks and feels like Lowell. I love it.
From the mills to the campus to the cobblestone roads, it is a breathing city where past and present connect.
You could say it has the type of warmth and charm that wraps you up like a blanket which is a perfect segue for…
A quilt museum? Really? Damn right, really. What a delightful little spot. Located at corner of Middle and Shattuck Streets, this museum is small but mighty. Founded in 1987, the museum focuses on the work of artists in New England but features quilts dating back to the 19th century. I went in thinking “ok cool, it’ll be some moderately interesting patterns and stuff.”
I could not have been more wrong.
You start on the lower level in an expansive gift shop and check-in area. Wares of many types are sold as well as quilting materials and tools.
There’s also this wild mixed-media piece by the stairs.
Upstairs there are a series of galleries and all are small and easily manageable. You could take your sweet time going through the museum and it still wouldn’t be more than 75 minutes or so. And the level of talent on display was immense, as was the variety of styles.
The first quilt I saw set the tone for the rest of the museum. It was Tafi Brown’s B.W. & Company on Pratt Road. It was made with cyanotype photograms. I had never seen, or heard of that technique before, but it made for a vivid and dynamic piece.
Almost all of her work featured cyanotypes, which was explained in one of the galleries dedicated to her work.
Brown had, without question the best named piece of the whole museum: Marine Iguana Dream.
It was for sale as well, but I didn’t have the necessary $3,400 in funds to make it my own. One day.
There were many old quilts on show made from multiple textiles. These were more just patterns, but some were absolutely huge. I love how people’s drive to create can take them in so many directions. For me, it’s writing blogs like this. For others, past and present, there is quilting. Or, as I read on the wall, the fiber arts.
My favorite quilter though, far and away, had to be Jo Diggs. Her work, whether a landscape or more rambunctious, was bright and vibrant with clean lines throughout.
Diggs passed in 2022 at the age of 86. I’m grateful that her work, niche as it was, has an opportunity to be appreciated and showcased after her death.
There was a special gallery dedicated to the work of Marge Tucker which was a great change of pace. Amid rooms of massive landscapes, big scenes, and Brown’s cyanotypes, Tucker cut against the grain. Her quilts went into the direction of modernism, bordering on abstraction. The colors were bright and bold which made the designs pop even more against the rest of the museum.
One of her works had the colors of my alma mater, URI, and I’d be remissed if I didn’t show it off.
And, tucked around a gallery entryway was, without question, the best quilt there.
For a $9 admission price, this little gem of a museum can’t be beat. You can learn more here.
The Venue
Tsongas Center has long been a home for me. I went to one of my first hockey games there back in 1999 in second grade and I’ve been back ever since. I’ve been there as a fan. I’ve been there as a reporter. I’ve been there for basketball. I’ve been there for curling. I was even an extra in The Fighter there. It’s one of the most important buildings to what formed me as a sports fan.
Located on the banks of the Merrimack River, the building was owned by the city when it opened in 1998 before being sold to UMass-Lowell in 2010. The arena is named for Paul Tsongas, a former congressman and senator from the city. Tsongas ran for president in 1992, and even won seven primaries before finishing third in the race to Bill Clinton.
Tsongas died as a result of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and pneumonia in 1997 at the age of 55.
A statue and museum-like exhibit to Tsongas is on display in the arena’s lobby.
The lobby itself was buzzing with games, a merch shop, and people coming in to pick up tickets.
Up on the third floor you’ll find a wide concourse with many food options, large bathrooms, and many displays to previous Lowell triumphs as well as the hall of fame.
The arena is a midsize venue. When fully open, it sits around 6,500 people. However, for basketball, a curtain is put up at one end which lowers capacity to around 4,500 or so. A crowd of 3,583 would pile in for this one.
The band, one of the best in New England, was keeping the energy up all night long. Unlike a lot of other venues I’ve been to, the band was mic’ed up and pumped throughout the arena which was great.
There were no media/staff meals, so I had to buy dinner on this night. I went with the tender/fry combo and a souvenir cup. You can never have too many souvenir cups.
Pregame the anthem was sung by Al St. Louis. I’ve mentioned him before. He’s a lovely man and someone I always catch up with when I see him at a game.
Aside from his on-brand outfit, which he has worn for every anthem I’ve seen him sing, he’s the world record holder for most national anthems sung. On this night it was #5,312. He holds the record for most in a year with 500. Being from Southern New Hampshire he’s all over the region from college and high school games to veterans events and parades.
It’s just a passion and keeps him out and about in the community. It’s the kind of thing I think everyone should have. You don’t need to be a record holder, but anything that keeps you connected to your region and community is a big win. Always a pleasure Al. See ya down the road.
The Game
New Hampshire and Lowell is always a fun matchup. The schools are located just over an hour apart from each other. Tonight was a big game for both as UNH was trying to stay in the hunt to host a conference playoff game, and the Riverhawks were trying to stay close to Vermont in their quest for a league title.
And early on both teams played with the urgency you’d expect.
Neither team could get ahead by more than four for the majority of the first half as the pace felt like it would be a race to 100.
Something that’s abundantly clear when you’re this close to the court is how fast the game is. Sure, this isn’t the Big 12 or ACC but these guys are among the top 1 percent of all basketball players on earth. It really illustrate how unfathomably talented you need to be to make it in the NBA when guys of this skill level and speed are in a one-bid league.
Let’s talk about Clarence Daniels. If ever there was a star performance, it was what he did in this game for New Hampshire. You’ll see his talent here. We’ll get back to him. Just know that these were two of the 18 points he had. In the first half.
As the pace continued to quicken toward halftime, the grit was on full display both ways.
Jaxson Baker’s three broke the four-point barrier and put UNH up five. His free throws down the stretch gave UNH a seven-point lead at halftime.
Things changed after halftime. The final 20 minutes saw UNH spend every single second of it telling their border rival “stop hitting yourself.”
Led by Daniels and Baker, and keyed by nine assists from Ahmed Robinson, the Wildcats ran roughshod over Lowell.
That AND1 by Baker put the Wildcats up 13.
Watching Daniels work in the paint on both ends of the court was a treat for this basketball fan. He was so smooth on both ends, and his hoops IQ was on full display.
And even with Daniels cooking, there was Baker to drop dagger after dagger from deep.
It’s rare that a 28-point performance on 9-17 shooting with seven rebounds wouldn’t get player of the game. That was a testament to how excellent and efficient Daniels was. It was a master class performance by both him and the Wildcats to never let Lowell get closer than the seven points they were down coming out of halftime.
And here’s Baker sending us home.
New Hampshire 89, UMass-Lowell 73. Final.
Player of the Game – Clarence Daniels (UNH) – 32 points, 13-21 shooting, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals
Time of Game – 1:38:14 (fastest D1 game of THP so far)
I love things being full circle. You can never go home again, but you can always go to a version of home. Tsongas isn’t what it was when I was a kid. There have been renovations, new suites, new logos, all that jazz. But the memories I have there are still very real to me. I have my youth UML hockey jersey still hanging in my closet to this day.
So many wonderful times have been had in this building, and this will always be a time capsule to a version of it. It’s yet another version of a home. When I come back with my daughter it’ll be different for me, but it’ll be the home for her that’ll stay with her in her mind’s eye forever.
This was an excellent Saturday afternoon. Looking forward to many more here in the future.
And with that, here’s one for the road…
Through the Curtain 
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