Starting Lineup Prediction #2

A few minutes ago, you were treated to the High Roller's interpretation of how the starting lineup will shake out. See, here's the great thing about our blog and its having two proprietors: double the analysis, double the insight.... and double the starting lineup projections! So here's my take on how the Terriers will look on November 14th.

Point Guard - Brian Macon. Macon comes with a boatload of experience from junior college. He's got great ballhandling skillZ, and he's definitely the fastest/quickest Terrier. He'll have to prove his ability to score and dish, but he has already shown himself to be a good floor leader. Geffen showed some flashes last year and will back him up, but I don't think he's ready to run the show himself yet. He's a PG in the mold of K-Fitz: pass first, second, third, and fourth, shoot fifth.

Shooting Guard - Shaun Wynn. Back during his sophomore year, we used to say Shaun Wynn was "Wynn-credible." Then, during his junior year, he was "Wynn-consistent", "Wynn-ferior" and "Wynn-excusable." Some would even go so far as to say his play was "Wynn-sulting." That said, he's the unquestioned vocal leader of this team, and probably the best defender in the America East. Basically we need the senior's leadership out on the floor. But without that offense, we're going to need Corey Hassan and Matt Wolff to jump off the bench for a spark. My guess is that Hassan will find his way into the starting lineup by the end of the year one way or another.

Small Forward - Tony Gaffney. Kid's got talent and potential to be a star in the America East. That and the biggest damn wingspan I've ever seen. Nobody else is as disruptive on the full-court press as Gaffney. Wolff used him off the bench for that kind of defensive spark last year, but I think with an improved shot this year he will be one of the teams scoring leaders as well. And backing him up will hopefully be the I-Man, Ibrahim Konate. They say that when he's healthy, he's a real dangerous scorer. Let's hope he comes back from that leg injury OK and puts on a little bulk (kid's a flagpole right now!).

Power Forward - Kevin Gardner. KG's the other senior leader who absolutely needs to be on the floor. He's the only guy on this year's team who I have no questions about how he will perform. He's been so consistent through his first three years in terms of rebounding and banging bodies inside that he needs to just keep doin what he's doin. And when KG needs a break, we should be able to give promising freshman Brendan Sullivan some time to get his legs. Billed as the next Ryan Butt (by me), Sully stands to learn a lot by playing in the shadow of Gardner and will hopefully be ready to step up next year.

Center - Omari Peterkin. Big O was raw last year, but he played well in enough games (at Northeastern, AE playoffs vs Maine) to give us hope for this year. Everybody's saying it, everyone knows it, but O needs to just get more aggressive and throw that big body around. If Peterkin should falter, Ben Coblyn will have a chance to prove himself after sitting out last year. Wolff seems to be pretty high on Cobber's potential for improvement, which is why he redshirted him in 04-05.

So that's how I see things shaking out, based on what we saw last year, what we read about the new guys, and what the High Roller hears from his sources with the team. There could be a deviation if Wolff decides to go with a small lineup, forgoing the center position to add another guard. In that case, I think the starting five would be Macon, Wynn, Hassan, Gaffney and Gardner. Hopefully we'll hear more in the next week or so about how Wolff plans to organize his depth chart.

If I were in Coach Wolffs' shoes...

...I wouldn't have to go to school and live in a tiny basement room with no windows. But, more importantly, I'd be able to decide the starting five for our first game. Even though the sad reality is that I'll never occupy Wolff's shoes, I'll go ahead and give you my ideal starting line-up, or basically just a prediction of what it will be.

Center- Gotta go with my man KG on this one. He's the only one that I've seen who can play that position. But since Rashad was there every game last year, we didn't get to see much. I think KG will have a great season.

Forward- I believe Tony Gaffney will start i most of the games. He got some playing time towards the end of last year. With arms that stretch out to next week, he brings momentum to their side with a press that often results in a turnover. This kids the not so immediate future of BU basketball. As in next year.

Forward- This, I still haven't decided. For me, it's between Big O (Omari) and Ben Coblyn. I remember Big O saying something like that during the summer. It's hard to judge because Coblyn played only a few minutes last year, and Omari didn't play that much either. Omari needs to play much more aggressively. And according to him, there's a very hardworking, aggressive freshman forward who may give him some competition.

Guard- Shawn Wynn deserves to be out there, for if nothing else, his experience. He's a great defender, but on offense, he needs to focus on his strengths, such as moving the ball and making cuts to the hoop. It hurts the team every time his stats for a game are 2 points, 0-4 from the arc.

Guard- According to Tall-boy, Corey Hassan is a pretty hyped freshman who is a great shooting guard. I know nothing about him, especially if he is able to run the point. If he can manage the ball well, we could be in good shape. I do think it is good idea to throw the kid out there from the start, see how he adapts. I'd rather he run the point than Wynn. If he adapts well, he could be our Sorrentein, or Barea, or our new Chaz Carr. If he can't handle the pressure, well, those of you who remember Pat Martin will know what to expect. Pat Martin got so nervous every time he got the ball, he just wasn't effective, and he's off the team now. I say give the new kid a chance, if he can't handle it, give it to Bryan Geffen.


Those are my predictions, take them for what you want. Feel free to leave your own predictions.



15 days.

New Roster Out!

BU released the 2005-2006 men's basketball roster yesterday, an annual tradition where we find out how inflated they make everyone's stats/height look and we get to laugh at all their goofy yearbook photos.

First impression: HEAVY dose of the guards, very light on the inside men. The only newcomer over 6'4" is Brendan Sullivan, who is a 6'8" power forward (and looks suspiciously like one of the Brady Bunch kids). Everyone else, including 5'8" (!) transfer from Miami-Dade CC Brian Macon, plays at the 1 or the 2 (we'll have to ask Mr. Macon what he thinks about moving north when his nipples freeze off in mid-January). Kind of curious, since I thought an inside presence was one thing we lacked last year. Wolff must have faith in the progress of guys like Omari, EEB, and Ben Coblyn, since they will be needed in case KG goes down with a pulled hammy or a toothache or something

Bottom line, we're still going to be young and defense oriented, but I think our crop of new guys, especially Macon and 6'4" shooter Corey Hassan will give us a chance to compete for the league title.

More breakdown of the roster coming soon...

Come December

Well I'm pretty excited, I just bought my plane ticket down to DC for the George Washington game on December 2nd. Tall-boy is organizing a group event for the BU alumni in Washington to go to the game, and I figured it was as good enough an excuse to get the hell out of Boston for a weekend. Should be a pretty good game. It'll be fun to go to an away game with a fanbase of more than just me, my brother, and my brothers unemployable friend who lives at home.


Not much else can really be said right now, because that's a month away. At this point, I'd explain how these two teams match up, but no one has played any games yet, and I don't care to research George Washington's Basketball team right now Give it a few weeks into the season and we'll figure out a game plan. Besides, we've got more important things to worry about right now. For example, will that girl I'm trying to get with, who looks like Brooke Burns, be at our party tonight? And if so, will she be drunk?

16 days.

This year...

There are 11 seconds left on the clock. Chaz Carr makes one free throw, then the other, giving us a one point lead over Maine in the quarter-final round of the America East Tournament. Maine takes the ball up the court, our defenders get switched, and they make a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left. We inbound the ball to the only man I'd want taking the final shot: Chaz Carr. He hustles down the court, puts one up from the arc, and.....(this is the part where the ball hangs in mid-air for about 10 seconds) .....CLANK!

That's how our season ended last year. Although we made the NIT, the season ended right there for me. In actuality, it ended after the hotel party with the cheerleaders. Once we woke up and found out our "roomies" missed their bus, we realized that our season had come to a dead stop(the impact really doesn't hit you if you've been drinking all day, into the night, and the next morning). All there was to do then was pick up the pieces, dust them off, and reassemble them into a team that is going to kick some serious ass.

The parts are all there. We lost some people and we gained some people. We're not going to know how good we are until we start playing games, but if your season ended like the one I described, would you spend all off-season moping? Or would you spend it working hard to make sure it doesn't happen again?

17 days.

Filling the Agganis Gap

One day, hopefully not too far in the future, the BU Terriers will draw 5,000+ fans at home games, instead of the 1,363 they averaged during the 04-05 season.

What keeps the attendance numbers hovering around the year they signed the Magna Carta? As a major obstacle holding back the BU program, I'm sure this will emerge as a running theme on this blog. A few different reasons for poor attendance pop into my mind right away, none of which are very convincing: the absence of a winning basketball tradition, the looming shadow of the hockey program, lackluster conference opponents, an apathetic student body, the distractions of the big city, lame facilities, and a hundred more. I could debunk all these one by one, but it's not necessary; all of them have proven (here and elsewhere) they can be overcome, and some are just plain wrong. None are good enough reasons why only 1,300 people at a 30,000 student school can go see a Division I basketball team which has spent the last 4 years in the post-season with 20-win records.

One thing I do think can be drastically improved is the way the team is marketed to the student body and the local community. The Sports Marketing department, God bless 'em, needs to move beyond free t-shirts and pizza dashes to get butts in the seats. One suggestion would be packaging the experience in some way with BU's other big-time commodity, the hockey team. But in order to be considered a big-time program, it needs to be portrayed that way by its marketing efforts... and it ain't done with layup contests and performances by Phunk Phenomenon alone.

Thankfully, part of maintaining that big-time atmosphere has already been addressed: the opening of the 7,200-seat orgasm known as Agganis Arena. Make no mistake: that place was built for hockey, but it's the basketball palace that the BU men's basketball team deserves. And Agganis deserves a big-time college hoops program, and ours is ripe to make that leap. In the meantime, let's see what can be done to fill that 5,837-person gap.

Welcome-Yet Again

Hey Terriers fans, thought I'd get my first post out of the way as well, by welcoming you to another season of big wins, big plays, and big basketball related hangovers. It's still early, but we can already tell this year is going to be BIG.

How big, you ask? Well, our first game is against Duke, ranked #1 in ESPN's preseason poll. It's going to be a tough game, no doubt about it, but I think our boys are up to the challege. After that it's all uphill. Or downhill. No I think it's uphill. Either way, things should get easier. Oh, by the way, November 14th, 7:30 PM, ESPN2. Watch it.

Introducing BU Hoops :: doggy-style

Welcome to probably the only blog dedicated to the men's basketball team of Boston University. OK, definitely the only blog dedicated to the men's basketball team of Boston University.

We hope to provide you, the Terrier-loving (or -hating) audience, with informational insights and up-close-and-personal anecdotes about the players that you won't find anywhere else. Also we may post the game schedule.

So strap yourselves in and hold on for the wild Terriers season of 2005-2006, and begin placing your bets on whether this blog will last more than a month. Thanks for reading.