A look on the bright side

Maya Moore and her 21-0 UConn team might take your mind off the Patriots' loss. (Bob Child/Associated Press)

ALL IS NOT LOST, Chowderheads, as you join us rotting Cheeseheads in the dumpster, piled up on top of the wailing fans in Tampa Bay and Dallas. There are still plenty of athletes to cheer for, and I do not mean the Red Sox or the Celtics. As a form of perspective, therapy, and air freshener for the stench of the Patriots' Super Bowl defeat to the Giants, I offer praise for New England teams that do not choke either on the field or in the classroom.

These are teams that I do not get to write about in my annual Graduation Gap Bowl, which focuses on the horrible graduation rates of many of the major powers in big-time college football and basketball. The Patriots may no longer be undefeated, but we still have two unbeaten and nationally top-ranked basketball teams in our midst, the Division 1 University of Connecticut women and the Division II Bentley College men.

Best of all, the 21-0 UConn women, led by Maya Moore, Tina Charles, and Renee Montgomery, play for a team that has a Graduation Success Rate of 92 percent. The 20-0 Bentley men, led by Lew Finnegan, Jason Westrol, and Yusuf Abdul-Ali, play for a program that has an Academic Success Rate of 86 percent. Bentley's latest victory came with a basket from Abdul-Ali with 1.6 seconds to play to beat Bryant University, which has an ASR of 100 percent.

The Graduation Success Rate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association is a four-year average for scholarship athletes who entered college from 1997 to 2000 and graduated within six years. The Academic Success Rate for Division II covers the same time span, but includes recruited non-scholarship athletes and midyear transfers.

More proof that the student-athlete ideal is not dead comes from the Holy Cross women's basketball team. Led by Briana McFadden, Bethany O'Dell, and Laura Aloisi, the team is tied for the Patriot League lead, with a GSR of 100 percent. Proof also comes from the Holy Cross men's soccer team, led by Andreas Andrews and Kyle Miller, which had a 4-0-3 regular season record in the Patriot League and had a GSR of 100 percent.

Brains are clearly evident in Division II women's basketball. Assumption, Stonehill, Bentley, and Bryant occupy four of the top six spots in the division's Northeast Region poll, all with ASRs of 100 percent. Among Assumption's stars are Charde Floyd and Bethany Plasski. Stonehill is led by Kelsey Simonds and Erika Stupinski. Bentley has Kristy McLean and Kim Brennan, while Bryant depends on Kelsey O'Keefe and Lynne-Ann Kokoski.

UMass-Lowell and Stonehill sent both their women's and men's cross country teams to the Division II nationals this fall. The UMass-Lowell's men's team of Ruben Sanca, Angus MacDonald, Jason DeDonato, Tim Guerin, and Jack Kilcommons represented a cross country/track and field program that has an 81 percent ASR. The UMass-Lowell women's team of Christina DaLomba, Lyra Clark, Amanda Sousa, Sarah Bonomo, and Emily Thomas ran for a program that has a 75 percent ASR.

Stonehill's Kelly O'Toole, Lesley Clunie, Kristina Coriaty, Jenny Gardynski, and Jackie Oates represented a women's cross country and track program that owns a 100 percent ASR. Stonehill's men's program has a 95 percent ASR, and were represented in the nationals by David Metzger, Kevin Gill, Joe Ryan, and Keith Gill.

Division III does not yet have the kind of graduation data of Division I or II, as many of those schools do not issue scholarships. But based on general graduation rates, congratulations go out to Amherst College, which won the Division III national women's cross-country title for a school with a female graduation rate of 96 percent. Women's team members were Heather Wilson, Elise Tropiano, Kim Partee, Caitlin McDermott-Murphy, Sophia Galleher, Nicole Anderson, and Margaret Ray.

Amherst's men's team finished 12th at their nationals with Daniel Murner, Carlyle Eubank, Florian Reichert, Eric Holaday, William Yochum, Ben Mears, and Mike Harbus. The male graduation rate at Amherst is also 96 percent.

Last but not least for this therapeutic column, and fitting since this began with football sadness, there is the University of New Hampshire football team. Led by All-America and Hula Bowl quarterback Ricky Santos, UNH made the NCAA subdivision playoffs for the fourth straight year. Under coach Sean McDonnell, the UNH program - unlike the retrograde Ohio States, Louisiana States, and Georgias - has a Graduation Success Rate of 85 percent, including 100 percent for its African-American players.

That's something to take heart in, even as the Giants stole the hearts of both you and me on Sunday.

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.