Massachusetts

For a girl who can't make decisions easily, picking a location for your wedding is extremely hard -- especially when you and your fiancé are transplants. I am from Massachusetts, as are most of my family members and friends. Andrew says he's "from the USA" because it is easier than explaining he grew up in Connecticut, California and Texas and has always summered on Cape Cod. Most of his family lives in the northeast. We have college friends along the entire east coast. There is no central location for everyone.

The signing of Terrell Vinson with Massachusetts in the spring of 2009 was celebrated as a significant recruiting coup for Derek Kellogg . After all, the then-first-year Minutemen basketball coach had just convinced ESPN.com's No. 46-ranked player in the 2009 class to join his rebuilding mid-major-plus program instead of several high-major teams, including Cincinnati, Georgetown and Louisville. Vinson, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound wing from St. Frances, said he couldn't have been more oblivious to the hype surrounding his arrival in Amherst.

The pool of candidates for the Tewaaraton Award has been trimmed to five, and Loyola's Mike Sawyer and Baltimore native and Loyola graduate Steele Stanwick are among the finalists. Sawyer leads the top-seeded Greyhounds in goals (45) and points (53), and his 3.0 goals-per-game average ranks third in Division I. The junior attackman is the first player in the program's history to be named a finalist for the Tewaaraton. Surprisingly, Sawyer wasn't named the Eastern College Athletic Conference's Offensive Player of the Year.

Tony Seaman compiled a record of 263-166 in 30 years as a head coach at Johns Hopkins, Towson, Penn and C.W. Post. In one of his many current roles, he serves to chair the selection committee tasked with filling out the 16-team field for the upcoming NCAA tournament. Seaman discussed the deliberations over the No. 1 seed, the rationale for Massachusetts not getting a top-four seed, and thought process behind inviting Princeton over Penn State. Loyola coach Charley Toomey, who is a member of the selection committee, said he recused himself for 40 minutes from Sunday's meeting before learning that the Greyhounds would be the No. 1 seed.

Towson accomplished its preseason objective of qualifying for the Colonial Athletic Association tournament. But as the No. 4 seed, the Tigers get the unenviable assignment of trying to upend top-seeded Massachusetts in Wednesday's semifinal round in Amherst, Mass. The Minutemen are the only remaining unbeaten team in Division I, going 13-0 overall and 6-0 in the conference. They routed Towson, 14-3, in Amherst on April 7. The odds would not appear to be in the Tigers' favor, but coach Shawn Nadelen predicted that the players would not be intimidated by the task before them.

Coaches don't like to discuss it, but injuries and conditioning can take a toll on the players and help shape a team's success. While pointedly noting that No. 3 Massachusetts overpowered Towson, 14-3, in a key Colonial Athletic Association contest for both sides Saturday, Tigers coach Shawn Nadelen conceded that rallying from a three-goal deficit in the fourth quarter of Wednesday night's 12-11 decision against UMBC did sap some of the energy...

Mitt Romney has been treated rather roughly, even unfairly, by the national media. Yes, in December he challenged Rick Perry to a $10,000 bet - an amount interpreted to indicate the kinds of absurd sums an out-of-touch man of Mr. Romney's wealth and status might actually bet with a friend or colleague - over a dispute about the former Massachusetts governor's position on the individual health care mandate. But clearly Mr. Romney didn't mean to actually make such a bet, or at least not for that real amount; he said it to indicate his confidence that Mr. Perry was lying about his record.

Greg Anderson, Massachusetts Senior, Ijamsville, defenseman In the Minutemen's 9-3 victory over Ohio State on Saturday, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound defenseman collected a team-high five ground balls and caused a turnover as the Buckeyes scored just one goal over the final three quarters. Anderson leads all defensemen with seven ground balls this season and is a key reason why opponents are averaging just seven goals per game. A three-year starter, Anderson ranked fourth on the team last season in caused turnovers with 12.

Edward Standish "Brad" Bradford Jr., a career educator who had been headmaster of Boys' Latin School during the early 1980s, died Thursday from complications after surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 83. The son of a businessman and a homemaker, Mr. Bradford was born and raised in Longmeadow, Mass. After graduating from Admiral Billard Academy in New London, Conn., he served in the Air Force during the Korean War. After being discharged from the service, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1956 from the University of Connecticut.