The Place To Meet?

Tall-boy has strongnly warned me against drunk posting, but this is actually relevant. I just had what some would call a "drunkerview" with one of the teams captains. Not more than ten minutes ago, I ran into Shawn Wynn at T's Pub, which has great prices from beer to nachos (no, I am not being paid by T's Pub), and I squeezed in a couple questions about the team.

I told him it was a tough loss, that night, and he said, "what are you gonna do", or something along those lines. But I also told him that the freshman class looked sharp and he totally agreed with me. I also told him that once we hit conference play, we'd hit our stride, and he totally agreed once again. But when I told him I'd see him once again at GW, his face lit up. Maybe it was the first time he'd heard that someone will be following the team to an away game more than 400 miles away, but maybe he was just excited to hear that the team had any support at all.

Yes, I will be following the team to D.C. And yes, I may be expecting too much of the team. But if it's too much to expect our team to give a top 25 team a run for their money, well then, maybe I'm in a league of my own. If that is indeed the case, then I'm not ashamed in the least. Give 'em hell boys, and I'll see you down in D.C. Two days till my flight.

Re-adjusting

The High Roller gave a pretty good recap of the disappointing loss tonight. I envisioned a lot of things about how the first month of the season would shake out, but 0-4 was not one of them. We knew before the season started that this would be a "down" year for BU basketball, but I think the strong showing against Duke made us adjust our expectations a bit. It might be time to re-adjust those expectations back to where they started.

I think we have a group of guys that will develop, by season's end, into a great team. At this point, I believe it's reasonable to hope to go 4-3 in the remaining out-of-conference games (against a MUCH weaker slate of teams than we have seen so far), and then step it up once conference games begin.

And as always, GO TERRIERS

Terriers get Rammed (not literally) 48-38

Holy Jesus, where do I begin? Unfortunately, the problems tonight agains URI went deeper than Wynn missing a wide open lay-up. When you have the choice of getting the good news or the bad news first, usually the good news makes up for the bad news. Not this time. I think I'll start with the bad and get it out of the way.

-Turnovers. Again. EVERY GAME. I don't know what will help this. Perhaps less movement around the perimeter, and more to the inside, which brings me to my next point.

-No inside game. We just could not get the ball inside. Or they didn't want to. Couldn't really tell. That and very few times did anyone drive. You can't score all your points from the outside.

-Defense on the perimeter. It's gotta be tighter. I don't know how many threes they dropped on us, but it was a lot.

-Defense in general. I'm still baffled by this one. Why did Wolff wait until 30 minutes into the game to use the press for the first time? That was the only part of the game where we seemed to have control. If we slow them down on their half of the court, they're a lot less likely to run down the court and drop a three within 5 seconds, which happened more than a few times.

-Wolff (the player, not the coach) went down early with a leg injury. No report on how he's doing, but he's a solid player with great fundamentals. I don't think I remember seeing him in the game after that. If it was, it wasn't much at all.

-This doesn't really relate to tonight's game, but a source says that Gaffney is suspened for the rest of the semester for academic reasons. Not a good thing to hear.


Good points

-We held them under 50. Not shabby for a pretty offensive team. And a loss by 10 isn't that bad. It's just depressing.

-Shooting. Sure we missed several shots, but a lot of them could have gone either way. By this i mean shots that rimmed out or bounced around for about a minute before being grabbed down by the other team. We had lots of good looks, the shots just weren't falling. That happens to every team.

-The Bench. We're still seeing a lot off that bench. Big O had a really good game, with lots of playing time. Coblyn, Wolff, and Sullivan were in there for limited minutes.


This was a game we should have won. Not much else to say.

BU vs. URI - Game Night Open Thread

Which game will we see tonight at Agganis? The thrashing we received in 2003-04 during the NIT, or the comfortable road win of 2004-05?

Which freshmen are stepping up to the plate tonight? We've seen Coblyn, Hassan, and Sullivan have breakout games thus far - I'd like to see Ibe drop about 20 on the Rams.

Terriers Ready to Ram-Page

Two seasons ago, after Stony Brook took a dump on our #1 America East seed and sent us to the NIT instead of the NCAA, my brother the High Roller and I took a snowy bus trip down to Rhode Island with about 3 other fans plus the cheerleaders and the women's basketball team. We got there just in time to see our Terriers get whomped by the Rams by like 30 points. Wolff had benched Chaz for fighting with a teammate (rumored to be Matt Turner), and none of the other guys could step it up.

One season ago, I made the lonely (but still snowy) car trip all by my lonesome to see BU knock off a diminished URI team that had been decimated by graduation and disciplinary absences from the previous year's team. That URI team was pretty bad, and we made them look the part. I made a few enemies that day in the upper deck of the beautiful Ryan Center that night, but made the 3.5-hour drive home happy.

This season, I won't be traveling anywhere near the game. BU is a little bit down from last year, and URI is a bit up from last year. This time, the game is played at an even newer arena than the Ryan Center, up the road at BU's Agganis Arena. And this time, URI runs into a talented Terrier team that is hungry for its first win. And a team that you can be damn sure Coach Wolff will have ready for this game.

Prediction: BU 64 URI 49

High Roller's Prediction

Gonna get this out of the way because I'll have no time tomorrow. This is a tough call for me. We beat Rhode Island last year, at Rhode Island I believe, which was pretty sweet revenge for their ass-kicking that they gave us in the NIT the previous year. I'm not sure if they've improved or have gotten worse, but I think that we can still muster a win here.

We're coming off a disappointing loss, one which we should have performed much better in, and Wolff will make sure that our boys are going to be ready for this game. We have the home court advantage, but what does that even mean here at BU? We'll have to see how many people show up after an impressive turnout witnessed a close game with Michigan.

My Prediction: BU-61 URI 58

See you there, tomorrow night.

The AE-Wonk

Kyle at the fantastic Mid-Majority site visits Agganis Arena for the Michigan game and does his best impression of the guy who runs the Big Ten Wonk blog. I'd like to think we're the closest thing to an actual America East Wonk, but really that's impossible since all we care about the rest of the AE is basically "don't ruin our RPI rating, see you in January."

Look At It This Way

The High Roller summed it up pretty well: Rider is no pushover, but this is a tough loss to take. He also followed through on his promise to create a clever title of his post by playing on the name Rider... so kudos on that. Rider is obviously going to be right there at the end of the year, judging by its games against what may be considered three of the most impressive mid-majors so far this year, if you count us (along with Bucknell and Drexel). Luckily we have a few more chances during the out-of-conference schedule to impress folks.

I was not able to watch or listen to the game, but let's do our best to draw a few positives from the game (any input from someone who actually listened or watched would also be greatly appreciated):

We didnt give up. Down 15 at halftime and 20 early in the second half, it's easy to throw in the towel - especially for a young team. But the Terriers used a series of runs to get within 5 points with 2 minutes left. Corey Hassan in particular did not want to let this game go. Says something.

Some impressive numbers from new guys. 14 from Macon, 14 from Hassan, and 15 from... Brendan Sullivan??? We've had a guy sitting on the bench the last two games who can drop 5 three's on Rider? The kid is 6'8" for Chrissakes! Get him some PT!

Macon showing improvement. For the first time, Brian Macon had more assists than turnovers. Hopefully that trend continues. Because of his performance, turnovers team-wide were all the way down to 9.

Omari was effective in limited minutes. He only played 9 minutes, but had 4 points, 2 boards and no fouls or turnovers. We'll do this thing in baby steps.

So while it was bad, it wasn't all bad. Hopefully we'll put together our 1st half against Duke and our 2nd half against Rider into a complete win over URI on Tuesday.

Not So Easy Rider

Well this sucks. What should have been a close game, and a hopeful win, turned into a devastating loss . I found out too late that you have to go to the BU Terriers home page to listen to the radio broadcast of the game, so I have no idea what went wrong during the game. According to online sources, we shot pretty poorly, with the exception of good performances by Corey Hassan, Brian Macon, and Brendan Sullivan. I was suprised to so us give up so many points to a team like Rider, although Rider played tough against both Drexel and Bucknell. It seems as though Rider will have a great season in the MAAC, having scored more points against us than both Duke and Michigan.

Sorry about the horribly inaccurate prediction. At least I got our score correct, even if I was off by 28 points for Rider. Let's pick up the pieces, again, and get ready for Tuesday's game. I can only say "this game doesn't matter, what counts is the AE games" so many times before it loses meaning.

High Roller's Prediction

My prediction: BU 64-Rider 48

It should be a close game for a while, but I have a feeling that BU will break away towards then end of the first half, and come out very strong in the second half. I checked out the WTBU site and they show no upcoming games, so I can only assume they will not be broadcasting. I'm not really surprised, after all it is still Thankgiving break.

I also checked out their men's basketball blog, and it's really sad. It has no posts, no comments, nothing. But that's why we're here.

The Hard Part's Over

Well, I wish I could say that the worse part about the Michigan game was that I saw five different people wearing BU hockey jerseys, but it wasn't. The worse part was of course the loss. It was a close game, and I'm proud of the players for that, but it was just so frustrating to watch. Every time we came within one two or three points, Michigan would go on another small run, widening the gap to about six or seven. I don't remember how many times this happened, but it was numerous. I was however impressed that so many people showed up for a game on the night of the last day of classes. I expected most people to have fled town before then.

We already know that Michigan and Duke are clearly the two toughest teams we will play all season. At least until the post-season (knock on wood). These games don't really mean that much anyway. We're not going to get an at-large bid anyway, considering by the time conference play comes around, nearly every team in the America East will have an RPI of over 150. So the best thing to do, in my opinion, is to use this seasons worth of games to work out the kinks and fine-tune our play so that when tournament time comes around, we don't have a repeat of the last two years.

Right now, let's focus on this Saturday's game. We're playing Rider, a should-win game. The game will be broadcast on WTBU, so if none of you want to make the trek to New Jersey, and I don't really blame you, you can still follow the game. And please, for God's sake, if you are going to listen in, don't be sitting at your desk wearing a BU hockey jersey. I know it's your own private quarters, but come on, have some decency.

BU vs. Michigan "Leftovers"

Some Thanksgiving leftovers about BU's loss to Michigan on Tuesday. First, KG played out of his mind in the first half. He attacked the basket, sank his shots, and was a BEAST on defense (those long volleyball arms blocked 4 against Michigan's big inside guys). But, as commenter ginzo pointed out, he was much less of a force in the second half - he was almost invisible. Part of that was Michigan concentrating more on him in the second half, part of it was his accumulating fouls. But he certainly showed why he's a leader on the team - such a hard worker out there on the floor.

The play of the freshman was overall pretty good, but much less effective than against Duke. Michigan had clearly studied the game tape. Coblyn was completely ineffective, scoring one point and racking up 4 fouls in his 8 minutes of play. Hassan was cold in the first half, but I like how he always seems to want to shoot - and he stuck with his shot long enough to hit three big treys in the second half. Konate played well, but I'd love for him to get more involved on offense. His alley-oops from Wynn were sick, and as my friend Nick said, he always seemed to be around the ball during a turnover. Every time the ball came loose, Ibe seemed to come up with it.

Both Macon and Geffen seemed to have trouble running the point. I like Macon - he's super-quick and cut down on his turnovers from the Duke game, and he hit a couple huge three-pointers. But he couldn't push the offense from half-court. Often he spent 20 seconds dribbling around near half-court, leaving little time to create a shot - same thing happened against Duke. Hopefully this will improve against lesser opponents. Something we might want to try in the future is letting Wynn run the point and give more time to Gaffney and Hassan. Wynn played a great game against Michigan, hitting a three and serving up 7 assists (and only 2 turnovers).

Overall, a game I would have loved to win, and I think that we could have with a few bounces our way. But this Michigan team is much improved from the one we beat the last two years. I'm glad we're past two of our toughest games, and hopefully the guys will take away some good experience for the conference season.

We Lost

So angry right now, we lost to Michigan 51-46. I happened to be in the front row behind the basket, and there was such a sense of disappointment. There were a couple points in the game where we seemed to be pulling even, just to be stuck behind by a few points.

When Macon sank a three to pull within 48-46 with 13 seconds left, and when Hassan sank a three with 2 minutes left to pull within 46-43, those were the two moments we felt we were within striking distance.

But we came up a bit short tonight.

BU-Michigan Game Thread

Anything to say about the game tonight? Which of the freshmen are stepping up? Is Wynn making Daniel Horton his own personal bitch?

Discuss the game here.

Hour Till Game-Time

Predictions:
Tall-boy: BU 65 Michigan 61.
Ephraim: BU 69 Mich 63
JoshT: Mich 70 BU 59
SamRo: BU 72 Mich 63
High Roller: BU 85 Mich 75

Word on the street is that Coblyn only has a slight sprain, and the boot is only precaution.

GO BU, BEAT BIG BLUE!

America East Craps the Bed Again

Another banner day for the AE yesterday:

Mount St. Mary's 62 Binghamton 53
Sacred Heart 63 Albany 61
Providence 87 Vermont 77

Two of what were supposed to be the best teams in the conference (Albany and Bing) losing to lowly Northeast Conference opponents. Albany is supposed to finish first in the AE, and Sacred Heart was supposed to finish last in the NEC!

I do think we will fare a little better in today's games: Stony Brook at Lehigh, UMBC at Towson, Maine hosting Maine-Fort Kent, and of course BU hosting Michigan. I think all four of these games are winnable for the AE (and remember, we need them to win to help our RPI ratings) - although if Maine loses to Division II Fort Kent, I'm advocating an immediate move up to the Atlantic 10 for BU!

The Rookies

There's a pretty good article in today's freep about the young players on the team. I'm not sure if it has been mentioned on this blog, but the new additions made to our team in the past year followed Wolff's game plan against Duke fairly well, which is why we weren't completely blown out of the water.

Tall-boy has made some comments on the genius of Coach Wolff, but the youngins (Macon, Hassan, Eeb, Coblyn, plus this years sophs- Geffen Wolff and Gaffney) must really be applauded for keeping it's composure, for the most part, throughout the game, and sticking to coaches strategies. It's pretty clear, just from watching one game, that this team is a well-disciplined team, and those are the teams that make it far.

It's going down tonight at Agganis, see you all there!

"Horton Hears An Insult"

If you needed any tidbits for verbally assailing the Michigan Wolverines at tonight's game, try this one: last year, point guard Daniel Horton was suspended for several games (including a loss to BU) for choking his girlfriend. Nice, don't kick him off the team or anything...

We Terriers don't stand for domestic violence. So tonight show Horton how badly he'll be "choking" running the point tonight.

Also, Abrams eats babies.

Michigan: Less Than 24 Hours Away

After a week-long absence, the BU Terriers will be back in action today at 7:00pm. Michigan will be on-hand to try and avenge their quite embarrassing losses two years in a row to the Terriers in Ann Arbor. Coming off the moral victory at Duke, the Terriers come into Agganis with a swagger that can only stem from a 17-point loss to the #1 team in America.

This year's Michigan Wolverines are not the Fab Five of Webber, King, Rose, Jackson, and Howard, but they aren't exactly the guys who haven't made the NCAA tournament in this millenium under clouds of NCAA sanctions. These guys are much improved from the last two seasons, and this year may be Top 25 quality.

They've got some solid players, like Lester Abrams, Daniel Horton, and Courtney Sims, who led the team with 20 points in their opening win over Central Michigan. But the guy who could be their best player, Brent Petway, is ineligible during this semester due to not studying (or cheating off the wrong guy). And these talented Wolverines have never seemed to play up to expectations for their hot-seat coach Tommy Amaker.

BU matches up well in this game, and despite spotty rumors of Ben Coblyn in a walking cast, they have a real good chance of finishing up a three-game sweep of mighty Michigan.

These could be the good old days...

This post is more personal than anything else, but still somewhat relevant to BU hoops. Last year was a fairly sad/lonely year for me as a specator. After freshman and sophmore years of going to games in huge groups of all my good friends, I went to several games by myself last year, just beause all my friends that I went to games with had moved away.

But tomorrow, yes, tomorrow, most of the old crew is back, and in style too. Though we're going to be missing a few key players (old school, jimbo), a lot of the old friends are back in town. Ephraim will be there (I am the best old man), with Sam and Bill, and the best news of all, Tall-Boy got his flight home changed so that he'll be at the game too. Watch for all of us, we'll be the ones in the front row, behind the hoop, yelling and screaming and taunting the other players until they can take it no more.

Heard it through the grape vine

This is very bad news if it's true. I only heard this from my friend, so I don't know if it is true, but he knows Ben Coblyn personally. I guess he's been in some classes with him. Anyway, he said he saw Ben last night with a big plastic boot on one of his feet. If he really is hurt, then so is our team. He played so well against Duke, and I could tell that he's gonna have a good year. Hopefully he's not hurt. See you all at the arena tomorrow night!

The Rankings

Just a quick post here, but if any of you took the time to check out the RPI (there's a link in the column on the right side of this page) you'll have seen that we're currently ranked 19! Actually yesterday we were 19, which is when I planned on writing this post. Right now, we're still 34. I know it's only because we played Duke, and haven't won a game yet, but still! I don't remember ever being so high, so this is pretty exciting.

And with our game this tuesday, if/when we win, our ranking will only go higher, maybe. Michigan is ranked around 115, so it may not help all that much, but a win is a win, and that's what we need. It's like Tall-boy said, by playing low-ranked teams, our ranking is just going to drop. But if one thing will make us happy right now, it's the fact that Vermont is at 192. That makes me happy anyway.

Around the League...

Last night was the first game for six America East teams, and the first action for any of the league members since BU's stunning effort against #1 Duke:

UMass 67 Hartford 62
Columbia 64 New Hampshire 61
Niagara 71 Binghamton 56
UMBC 75 UM Eastern Shore 65
Villanova 78 Stony Brook 35
William & Mary 89 Maine 55

Pretty much an all-around pathetic showing for our conference-mates. Congrats to UMBC on their win, Hartford's effort was respectable, and Villanova is #4 in the nation - but the other three have no excuse. As easy as it is to revel in the defeat of our rivals, their crappiness will reflect directly on our own RPI rankings by the end of the year. These teams need to get better or we will get shafted by the NCAA selection committee at the end of the year.

Pretty excited to see how far Vermont will drop though, and we'll find out today when they play Harvard. Looks like Albany might be BU's only real competition for the AE this year.

The Agganis Experience

I'm not sure if anyone remembers the last game at Agganis Arena, but I'm pretty sure it was that loss to Northeastern. I'm kind of mad that that's my most recent memory of that place. It's such an amazing place to play. I do remember the Vermont game. Now that was a hell of a time. Not only because the place was sold out and on it's feet, but because we ended up winning and completely shutting down their whole team except for Coppenrath. And later that week that game was shown on ESPN's "The Season", which followed Vermont's season. Pretty amazing stuff.

But anyway, that loss to NU was painful, and I still haven't gotten over it. NU went on a 17-5 run at the end of the game! Tuesday night will rectify the problem. I simply cannot wait. You better be there too.

So I finally got around to buying tickets for the Michigan game. According to the girl at the window, they've sold a ton of tickets already. I have a pretty good feeling that we will come very close to selling out. The buzz is definitely buzzing, as I've heard kids talking about the team that have never even mentioned the BU basketball team before. I really think that even though Tuesday's the last day before the break, we're still gonna have a pretty big crowd. Get there early if you plan on sitting in the floor seats behind the hoop. They'll fill up pretty quick.

Also, if you missed it, in the Freep today they had 7 questions with Corey Hassan. Not really an interesting interview, as they always ask dumb questions like "what's your favorite food?", but Hassan did sound confidence in his shooting, and his ability to create his own shot. That's what I like to hear.

Shaun Wynn's Role

I've got to take issue with something the High Roller wrote yesterday. He basically said his boss Tony proved he knew something about the team when he observed that "a certain veteran player hurts the team more than he helps it when he's on the floor." Granted, this was what Tony said, but the High Roller's tacit approval has me troubled.

I think Shaun Wynn will be really important for this year's team. Too often, we get caught up in gaudy numbers like field goal percentage and points per game. Even I am guilty of this, as earlier this year I referred to his play last year as "Wynn-consistent," even "Wynn-ferior" (by the way, notice how far off I was with the starting lineup prediction).

But I think commenter OldSchool nailed it in his response yesterday:

If you are thinking of the certain veteran that I'm thinking of, I feel like he could still be effective, if he passed more, solely attacked the basket, and focused on defending and rebounding.

Defense, passing, and leadership: those are Shaun Wynn's roles this year. We have the scoring to make up for what he lacks. Kid had 6 assists (game high) as opposed to 3 turnovers - and he wasn't even the point guard. He was tasked with guarding Preseason All-American JJ Redick, and held him to 19 points and ZERO three-pointers - bet Wake Forest would love to do that to Redick. And I think his vocal leadership helped BU come out fast in the early minutes.

He may not be the next America East scoring champ, but I don't think this year's team would be nearly as good without him.

Owning Up..

Well, in the comments sections, it seems we've been outed by BUHoopsFANatic and Ephraim the Hilarious Rabbit as the authors of a letter published in the Daily Free Press on Tuesday. We sent it in over the weekend, but I guess the editors wanted to see if we got our asses kicked against Duke before putting it in print (as if that should make a difference in whether to support your team or not!). Anyway, since technically it's our writing, here it is:

I couldn't help but laugh at Majid Ikhwan's bafflingly uninformed letter to the editor last Thursday ("BU men's basketball needs to get better," page 6, Nov. 10). I wonder if he has ever been to a Boston University basketball game. Because if he had, he would have seen one of the most successful programs in the nation over the last four years, having won 20 games and made it to postseason tournaments every year.

Beating Michigan in consecutive years apparently doesn't mean as much as it used to. To Mr. Ikhwan, if a team doesn't appear on ESPN every night, then the team sucks. This presumption about BU's expectations from year to year versus what they deliver is insulting to both the players and the coaches. Sadly though, I'm afraid a large portion of BU's student body has this mindset about our men's basketball team.

For Mr. Ikhwan's information, BU had nothing to do with the scheduling of the Duke University game (the game is part of a preseason tournament, and the games are scheduled by an independent committee). But had Coach Wolff the opportunity to schedule this game himself, he would have done so in a heartbeat. You get better by playing the best. And contrary to Mr. Ikhwan's assertion, this game will be tremendous exposure for potential BU recruits, since there are thousands of high school players who dream of playing Duke on national television. For our current players, this was one of the most exciting games of their careers, 17-point loss or not.

Finally, Mr. Ikhwan writes "BU men's basketball, of course, has never exactly been the pride of the school." For ourselves and a lot of other folks in the BU community, this team happens to be a source of great pride in our school. Perhaps if Mr. Ikhwan had spent less time caring about what the Cincinnati campus newspaper says and more time following his school's basketball team, he would realize there is a lot to be proud of.

Give 'em hell this year, Terriers.

For what it's worth, they changed "25-point loss or not" to "17-point loss or not" after the outcome of the game was known. Guess we weren't being confident enough!

I Told You So

As we all known, J.J. Redick only scored 19 points agains us, as opposed to the 30 before half-time that my boss Tony promised. So not only do I not have to write an apology letter to him, I got to give him the old "I told ya so" at work today. He admitted that he was wrong to jump to such a conclusion, and even went so far as to say they looked impressive. He also knew a lot more about the team, just by watching the game. So knowledgeable was he that he noticed that a certain veteran player hurts the team more than he helps it when he's on the floor.

So for you fans out there who feel it's too hard to convert the nay-sayers into fans of BU hoops, it can be done! They just need to watch a game or two, and they'll see what they have been missing. After that, you got 'em hooked and coming back for more.

Terrier (Sound) Bites

Duke G Sean Dockery: "You've got to give it to BU. They have a great coach and a great team."

Duke Coach Mike Krzyfkskjnd'[;fjnski: "You're not gonna blow this team out. They're going to win a lot of games."

BU F Tony Gaffney: "We kinda knew we weren't gonna get many calls and we were gonna have a lot called against us. It would have been nice to have a few more calls and a few less called against us."

Duke PG Greg Paulus: "They gave us some trouble. They did a great job of hanging on. They didn't quit. We kept trying to make runs at them, but they kept fighting back."

Coach Krzylkdjfj;dsfski again: "My hat's off to them. We would have lost if we didn't play hard and we didn't play well defensively."

BU G Shaun Wynn: "We've never been intimidated going into a game. Number one team, last-place team - we're gonna play the same way."


And the quote of the night, by the one and only Robb Dybas: "Tonight we bleed Terrier 'Red'-ick!"

The Maestro

Photo credit: Sarah Gatzke and dailyfreepress.com

Our players played undeniably well last night, but the obvious star of the game last night was Coach Dennis Wolff. Every pre-and post-game quote from Coach K and the Duke players was about how "well-coached" the Terriers are. The ESPN2 announcers, Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas and Bill Raftery, spent more time kissing Wolff's ass than JJ Redick's!!

And now you can see why. Wolff came into the game with a plan to keep a bunch of untested youngsters competitive with the #1 team in the country. And it worked for a while too. He's a defensive genius, but he had already proven that. What was even more impressive was how he got the team to score some early points, not be intimidated, and dictate the tempo of the game all night long. And despite some redonkulous fouls called against us and some redonkulous non-calls against Duke, they were able to compete.

There's no better coach in the America East, for sure, and it won't be long before Wolff moves on to bigger and better things (which I have mentioned before). I just hope he stays for a few more years and a few more AE championships.

Damn Impressive

I think I can safely speak for all the true fans of BU basketball that last night was not a national embarrassment, it was more of a sign of good things to come. We saw a little bit of everyone, and the team really did look sharp, considering they were playing Duke. Of course we're not going to have 25 turnovers against any team in the America East, which was a big problem for us last night.

This game is exactly what the team needed to start the season off. Now that this game is behind us, we can focus on more important games and work on the problems that we saw last night.

Very impressive play by Coblyn, Hassan, and Konate, as well as our senior captains. It was a great game all around which is what we need since we don't have a stand out scorer yet. But the way our defense played, I don't think we'll need one, considering Duke averaged 112 points in two exhibition games, and only scored 64 last night. Bring on Michigan, I say, because I think we're ready.

Duke squeaks by BU, 64-47

First impression: GREAT start to the season by the Terriers. Yes, we lost by 17. But our defense held the number one team in the country to under 65 points (they will probably average over 80). And we saw some flashes of our younger guys that make me very excited about BU basketball for the next 4 years.

Ibrahim Konate, Brian Macon, Corey Hassan and Ben Coblyn all showed why our new class is so highly regarded. Gardner and Wynn showed some of the leadership we're going to need. Obviously, we need to work on our turnovers and offensive flow, but nothing's gonna be perfect against #1.

First half was pretty exciting. Here at my place, Mary, Bobbie, Mark and I were jumping off the couch every time we hit a shot to keep our lead (well, Mark didn't arrive until halftime, and Bobbie was kind of stuck in the poppazon chair - but Mary and I definitely were jumping). The halftime deficit was kind of a bummer, but we played a great second half and we were more than pleased with the final score.

Bring on Michigan!

BU vs. Duke - Game Night Open Thread

The game is minutes away... think they guys are feelin the butterflies?

Vegas is giving BU 34 points - think they can beat the spread?

Talk about the game here... Who's playing well? How the heck will we score? How do the freshman look?

Tonights Starting Five

Sadly, the Freep didn't print our letter in response to that jackass whose name I can't pronounce, or any other letters in response to his illogical ramblings. On the bright side, there was a pretty good article concering tonights game against Duke, which let us in on tonights starting five.

Shawn Wynn and Kevin Gardner will of course be starting, as they have the most experience by far. Brian Macon will start at the point for the Terriers. Shooting guard and freshman Corey Hassan will also be starting, and I feel like everyone is excited to see what this kid can do. Ibrahim Konate will be starting at forward, which I assume is truly surpising to all fans who are following this team.

I think this is a good line up to have. It'll be tough to get the ball inside against Duke, so it seems like having three guards is a good idea. This should be a fun game to watch, even if we get blown out of the water, just because we get to see several players that none of us have seen play before. Tonights effort will be a fairly good indication as to how this season will play out.

In case you forgot, 7:30, ESPN2, tonight.

[UPDATE by Tall-boy] We're going to posting an open thread to discuss the game while it's going on, feel free to drop by and give us your thoughts on the game.

Coach Krzyzfgkjkncsbjdski Respects Wolff, Terriers

There are a few previews out for Monday's game, mostly focusing on Duke launching its national title ambitions. But this one from the Durham Herald-Sun does quite a good job of breaking down the game and giving some good background on our team. The author mentions Wolff's ACC ties (assistant coach at Virginia and Wake Forest) and the fact that he has knocked off former Duke assistant Tommy Amaker's Michigan Wolverines in each of the past two seasons. He also gets Coach K's thoughts on taking on the Terriers:

"Dennis has established a program there," Krzyzewski said. "They've probably won their league half the time. That's pretty good. In leagues around the country, when somebody does that, you have to say, 'Whoa, what's going on there?'

"They're well-coached, and he's always played a very good nonconference schedule, so I know they'll be well-prepared. They've been one of the nation's leaders in field goal-percentage defense and scoring defense. His kids know how to play."

Sure it's the basic lip service he would give to any low- or mid-major team he was about to play, but it's always nice to hear those things from one of the greatest coaches ever.

Oh, still think the outcome of tonight's game is a forgone conclusion? Not so fast, says Dukie Lee Melchionni. From the same article:

"Monday is big. If we lose, that's the end of the tournament, so we're excited and want to get after it. We're looking forward to getting started."

See that? That "IF" means anything is possible. Of course, it also means a 50-point blowout is possible.

Also, Duke Players Can Accumulate 7 Fouls Each

Apparently, the NCAA uses early season tournaments like the Preseason NIT to test out some of its "experimental rules" that it might be considering for future seasons. Normally, this would be fine -- except that in this case, the rules seem tailor-made to give Duke all sorts of advantages! As if they don't already have every advantage imaginable! Via the game notes on the BU website:

"The three-point line will be extended to 20'9", 12 inches longer than the standard 19'9"."
Well damn, why don't you just let J.J. Redick ride around on a moped? Of course, this new rule will benefit J.J. Redick and only J.J. Redick, the deepest-range 3-pt shooter in college basketball. Or rather, it won't as much benefit Redick as it will hinder everyone else.

"The free-throw lane will be extended by one foot on each side, increasing from 12' to a total of 14'."
I'm no expert on this one, but I would say this rule benefits taller and stronger players, giving them more room to maneuver for position after free-throws. Hmm, who do you think has the taller and stronger post players?

"A restricted arc will be in place extending as a 3' radius from under the basket. Defenders standing in this arc cannot draw charges."
I'll call this one a wash. It is obviously a detriment to defense-oriented teams like ours, but with the defensive beasts that Duke has down low, they will be hurt as well. However, Duke is more likely to aggressively drive to the basket than BU is, so we would likely have had more chances to draw the charge (also this is one of Kevin Gardner's specialties). So forget the wash, this is another one that goes against us.

So there you have it: the NCAA blatantly bending the rules to protect its most lucrative cash cow. Or, you could say that these rule changes have no bearing whatsoever, since Duke holds the advantage in nearly every category already.

Go Terriers!

1 More Day!

Well here it is, the eve of the start of the basketball season for the Terriers. I'm sure our boys are incredibly excited, especially considering they're playing #1 Duke, but I feel like I may be even more excited about than they are. I guess it's not really healthy to get that excited about something like this, but this is the last season I'll be around for every game.

I always hoped that we'd make the NCAA in one of the 4 years that I'll be at BU. Since we've failed to do that the last three years, it's going to have to be this year. As I have stated in previous posts, I really get the feeling that there's somethings special about the group of kids we have on the team right now. We can only wait and see what happens, but I seriously believe that this is the year we go dancin' again.

See you on T.V. tomorrow boys.

Burton in my Hand

Not sure if this counts as a BU b-ball sighting on campus, but this is the second time in 3 nights that I've seen former BU player Kevin Burton while out for the night. The first was at The Kells, the second was at Becketts. I guess it doesn't count as a sighting, since he was a walk-on in 2003, and never came back after that season. I also neglected to ask him any questions relevent to this years team or this season in general. I suppose I could have, but I figured he'd have nothing useful to say, and I didn't really feel like talking to the kid anyway. Call this a useless post if you must, I call it info-tainment.


2 Days.

Moron Writes Letter

I also wanted to weigh in on the ill-informed screed appearing in the Freep that the High Roller alluded to earlier, but we're currently putting together a scathing retort which will hopefully be published (but who knows). If it's not published, we'll publish our letter here. As I was saying to the High Roller, I'm finding it hard to respond to this jackass without resorting to profanity or personal attacks (the High Roller has apparently decided not to hold himself back on the personal attacks front!).

Here are some choice quotes:

"Most of the team averages about five points per game. [...] Multiply the five points per game by five players and you'll get the total number of points we can expect them to score against Coach K's team."

Yeah... since our top 3 scorers are gone, I'm sure everyone else will continue to score at exactly the same average...

"...the seeming lack of any recruiting effort for basketball is appalling. Part of the problem is the vicious cycle of poor results leading to poor recruiting which leads to even poorer results and so on."

There's so much wrong with this statement I don't even know where to start. He calls the last 4 years of BU basketball poor results??? And does he not realize we have just recruited one of the top 2 or 3 players in New Hampshire as a freshman this year (a national Top 200 player)? And finally...

"BU men's basketball, of course, has never exactly been the pride of the school."

Ahem, with all due respect, you can go screw yourself. For me and a lot of other people, this team is a source of great pride for this school. Hmm, maybe he does deserve those personal attacks and profanity...

The Audacity!

I'm not going to get into it now, because I don't have enough time to say everything that needs to be said, but if you read Thursday's letter in the Freep, you'll understand why Tall-Boy and I are so pissed off. It's clear that Majid Ikhwan has had his head up his own ass, or at least someone else's ass, for the last 3 years. That's the only logical explanation, otherwise he'd know that we've been floating around the top of our conference since we made it to the NCAA tournament in 2002.

He thinks that playing Duke in our first game is a huge joke. Would he rather we play Holy Cross or Canisius in a game that no one will notice? Because that would really improve our recruiting power. For him to say that anyone with even a crumb of talent will avoid BU after our game against Duke is both ridiculous and very insulting to the players on the team now. Majid Ikhwan, why don't you do all of us, and yourself, a favor by never attending a BU game, nor listening to one on the radio, nor writing to the Freep, nor even reading this blog again, because no one wants you or wants to hear what you have to say.

Tear it up Monday night, boys.

It's Bracket-Filling-Out Time!

Did everyone remember to fill out their NIT Season Tip-Off brackets? Hurry, the tourney starts on Monday!

I laid down my $10 in the office pool - I've got BU falling to Missouri in the 3rd round, and UCLA taking it all.

BU Athletics Again Using My Image To Promote Itself

It appears the BU Athletic Department is just begging for a lawsuit, using my picture in its promotional materials once again. This picture currently appears on the Men's Basketball portion of the Athletic Dept. website.

The administration is clearly trying to capitalize on my celebrity stemming from appearing on this blog and being the number 1 Terriers fan; this follows closely behind my [unauthorized] appearance in last year's basketball yearly program. At least in that one, they cut off the top half of my head and my eyes, in a slight nod to legal propriety. Once is a accident, two times is a trend, three times is a problem... I think you see where I'm headed here. This aggression will not stand, man.

Congrats

Just a quick tip of the hat to Albany's Jamar Wilson for his 1000th career point. Well done.

Sure He Can Dunk, But Can He Break Down the 3 Keys to the Game?

BU made a big deal on their website this summer of announcing our new (and old) radio announcer, Doug Brown. This is actually pretty cool news, since Doug is a BU alumnus who broadcasted BU basketball from 1981-95, and is currently a broadcaster for ESPNRadio and an anchor for the radio version of SportsCenter. Which sounds pretty impressive, but then if he's such a big-shot why is he coming back to broadcast Terrier basketball again? Either way, it's nice to have somebody who knows what they're doing, and a "name" behind the mike (even if I've never heard that name before!).

Yesterday, the High Roller passed along a little rumor, which as it turns out was slightly inaccurate but still close to the mark. Turns out that #1 Vermont Cheerleader Tom Brennan will be acting as the color commentator on the radio broadcasts for a couple of BU games, including the Duke game on Monday. All this means is that it'll be a little more difficult to tell if he's drunk while on the air.

But here's the big news: BU is bringing in former Terrier forward and all-around goofball Billy Collins as the color commentator for all of the Terriers' home games and a few of the road games! Let's see... that bio I linked to earlier lists him as an education major, he's spent the last few years bouncing around various low-level Euro leagues... what exactly qualifies him to be broadcasting BU's games (other than having showered with several of the current players)? I've met Billy a bunch of times - he's a nice guy and quite a talker... but we'll just have to wait and see if he's the second coming of Marv Albert or merely the next in a long line of Bill Waltons.

Ghosts of the Roof

So I got to thinking about the good old days of BU basketball, when we brought it to the NCAA tournament. Way back, well, way back before I was even in college. Rashad and Chaz were getting tons of playing time as freshman. Ryan Butt, Fitz, and J-Groch were there. Matt Turner may have still been hurt, but he was about to hit his prime. Billy Collins and Paul Seymour were also there, as Juniors I believe. These guys made up a special group in the few years they played together.

But what about the seniors that year? I can only remember two, really. Nacho Rodriguez and Stijn Dhont (I don't think I spelled that right). Where are these guys now, I wonder. If anyone can remember the rest of the seniors, or have any idea what these guys are up to, feel free to comment.

I can't help but feel sad, remembering these days, because BU basketball hit a peak, and we've slowly gone down hill. This is probably due in part to several kids quiting or transfering. Of the 4 or 5 (can't remember) kids drafted my freshman year, only Wynn and KG remain. The following years group, Pat Martin, Etienne, Kevin Burton, is completely gone.

We've had stellar years, no doubt about it, but since the crushing loss to Vermont in the Champioship three years ago, we've not been able to make it past the first round of the playoffs. I have a feeling, though, that with the crop of sophmores and freshmen we have now, BU basketball is soon to peak again, and it all starts only 3 days from now.

Better re-stock ESPN's mini-bar

Just a quick note in relation to my latest post, from about 30 minutes ago. This bad news is actually what I meant to write about before, but it slipped my mind. Now this hasn't been confirmed, but my inside source said that the BU-Duke game on ESPN2 will be broadcasted by Vermont's former coach, Coach Beernan. I mean Coach Brennan. That's his name, Coach Brennan.

I'm sure that he knows quite a lot about BU's team, as well as Duke's team, but one question still leaves me uncertain as to whether or not he'll be a good broadcaster. Does he actually know anything about the game of basketball? I only ask this because last year, whenever Vermont had a time-out, the players huddled around the assistant coach and listened to his game strategy, while Brennan, watching from outside the huddle, stood on his tippie-toes like a child trying to see what the adults were talking about.

4 Days.

Tip Off

Tuesday was the tip off dinner for the mens basketball team, and I'd have been there if it weren't a $100 a plate dinner. Luckily, I have some inside sources who attended. According to my source, Coach Wolff was giving Shawn Wynn quite a ribbing about not listening to him in practice and having an attitude, but I'm sure it was all in good fun.

Anyway, from the looks of it, my source said that Wolff was looking forward to a great season, as well as a great post-season.

4 Days.

The Season Begins (for Albany)

Well, it's officially here (for some teams). Syracuse got the ball rolling on Tuesday with a convincing win over Bethune-Cookman. More importantly for our purposes, the first America East team played last night.

Albany soundly defeated powerhouse Oakland University, 90-73. And no, we're not talking the Oak-town where MC Hammer is from, this one is some tiny town in Michigan. Anyway, they did make the NCAA tournament last year, but only because they play in the super-weak Mid-Continent Conference. As expected, their strong corps of guards carried the team with little help from the inside positions. Tonight, we can see how Albany will do against some real competition, as they move on to play the mighty University of Florida Gators

Since Albany's prospects this year are one of the huge question marks for the America East this season, these early games at least provide something to talk about while we are impatient for our season to start!!

A Few Weeks in the Future

Well the Freep has finally got the ball rolling, pun intended, as they had an unprecedented two articles in a row covering the mens baskeball team. Today's article was much more useful, and relevent, at least in terms of what their goals should be, and what our goals are, here at Doggy Style.

I don't know if it was the athletics department's plan to make the basketball team look foolish, but did they really have to schedule their home opener, in the spectacular Agganis Arena, at 7:oo PM, the last day of classes before Thanksgiving break? Let's not forget that we're playing Michigan, who's provided us with two of our best wins in the past two years.

My point is, with such an important game for our home opener, no one's going to be around to see it. Everyone will be bolting home for the break without even thinking twice about basketball. I'm guessing that Agganis will be less than half full, rather than more than half empty. I'm an optimist. Still, I hope I'm wrong about my guess. At least the writer for the Freep was encouraging support, and who knows, maybe if we can actually beat Duke, or at least come close, we can sell out against Michigan, which is much more important than the Duke game.

5 More Days!!

This Year's X-Factor

This year's teams will have its share of steady known quantities (KG and Wynn) and a healthy dose of talented but untested newcomers (Hassan, Coblyn, Sullivan). But there's a few veteran players who will dictate how far this BU team can go this year, based on whether or not they are ready to make "the leap" this year.

You could make a case for Matt Wolff or Brian Geffen to be the guy who needs to break out, but based on our biggest losses from last year (Etienne, Rashad), I think whoever steps up needs to be a forward. And the guys who could be the X-Factor this year are Omari and Tony Gaffney. Both showed flashes of brilliance at different times during last season, but both were very inconsistent.

If one (or both) of these two guys vaults into the stratosphere and ends up averaging double-digit points and double-digit rebounds (something I believe both are capable of), this becomes a whole different team. If, however, they show little to no progress made from last year, this team will wallow around the middle of the America East standings.

Early reports out of camp say good things about what Omari is doing, haven't heard as much about Gaffney. I think I'll do my part and find out what their favorite flavor of Powerade is and send a case over (figuratively of course, since I believe that would be against NCAA regulations).

Another Foolish Duke Guarantee

I'm with the High Roller on this one. I know Duke is #1, and I know there are even commenters on this very blog who would like to skip right ahead to November 15th and pretend the Duke game was never scheduled. But this is why I love college basketball - it's the only sport (besides maybe tennis) where #1 can play #213, and #213 has a chance of winning. And call me crazy, but I think the best field goal defense in the nation last year can keep BU in the game for at least a few minutes.

So I'm not here to promise to kiss the High Roller's boss Tony's ass (an unenviable feat), but here's my ill-conceived guarantee: Boston University will hold Duke to less points than Boston College will on February 2nd OR the margin of victory will be less for BU than for BC. And if I am wrong on both counts... well, I don't know. I'll throw myself into the COM fountain or something. Point is, let's keep this game competitive and turn some heads. Maybe we can peel away some of Duke's first-place votes in that AP poll.

Redick-ulous wager

Due to the poor internet connection in my house, I've been reduced to posting from the on campus computer lounges, but there is good news. The BU Free Press actually wrote an article about the basketball team! I know that our first game is still a week away (that's partially why our blog has slowed down. Once things start happening, the ball will really get rolling), but seriously, the paper could have done more, like an article on the freshman, preseason, predictions, anything. Hell, Tall-Boy and I have been posting almost every day for the past two weeks.

The gist of the article was basically what everyone is talking about. BU will get blown out by Duke, we will move on. What's really been pissing me off lately is listening to people who know nothing about the team talking about how BU will be destroyed, and that's that. My boss said that Redick will drop 30 points in the first half. Well, if Redick scores 30 points in the ENTIRE game, I will literally kiss my bosses ass. But that would be awkward so not literally. I will however post a formal letter on this blog apologizing to my boss, Tony, for ever doubting his ingenious college basketball knowledge.

6 Days.

Cover us, please!

I just spent 90 minutes searching around the internets to find a mainstream media article about the Terriers to make pithy comments about and generally ridicule. See, I've noticed that this is a good way for bloggers to make editorial comments about their team or to give a quick roundup of the world of college basketball. The master of this technique is Yoni over at yoco :: college basketball, whom I hope to God doesn't have a wife or kids to worry about, since I'm positive he spends the entirety of his waking hours reading/writing about basketball.

But you know what I found during this hour and a half of searching? That one Freep article that I referenced last Wednesday, and that was it. I was unlucky enough to stumble upon a lot of vomit-inducing garbage about BC's basketball team and their first season in the ACC, but nothing about a reloading Terriers squad hungry to overtake a reeling America East conference. Not even in BU's own newspaper!

And again, the question is: why not? To be fair, another Boston school which shall remain nameless also moved up a notch in the conference hierarchy, and we haven't read so much as a peep about that school's very exciting upcoming season (if it's possible to read a peep). The BU basketball Terriers are not receiving media attention in the major Boston newspapers or in its own school paper, because it's not the top dog (pun certainly intended) in the city (BC) OR even in the school (hockey). And you know what? That sucks. I'd love to read Dan Shaughnessy's take on our freshmen, or even that dude over at the Freep... you know, Captain whats-his-face.

It's a steady diet of BC and hockey. We're the Boston college hoops version of the Mets, White Sox, Clippers, and the Junior Olympics.

The Cardinal Rule of Heckling

Piggy-backing off of the High Roller's brilliant post yesterday, I wanted to take a moment to stress one of the cardinal rules of taunting the losers on the other team (this could become a running series throughout the season):

Do your research. Taunting someone hits a lot harder when they hear a specific and carefully-researched insult. "You suck" could apply to any player on the court; "hey how did that 16-year-old get into your hotel room in Pittsburgh" hits its target with personalized precision. Fans of the Univerity of Maryland are legendary for doing this - they routinely make Duke's J.J. Redick cry like a little schoolgirl.

Bottom line: if you know that Vermont's coach has a certain proclivity for the drinky-drink, or that Hartford's man-beast of a center was dismissed from Hofstra for as-yes-unknown reasons, or that one of Vermont's guards is Canadian -- these are weaknesses that should be exploited.

The High Roller's Tips for Enjoying a Basketball Game

You can tell by the energy buzzing around campus that the basketball season is only weeks away, but if you are not prepared, you might get lost in the confusion. Therefore, I have decided to provide some tips on how to get the full BU basketball experience, and not miss out on any of the fun.

Get to games early, before warm-ups. This is the best time to target the player you are going to heckle the entire game. The opposing team's cheerleaders are fair game, especially if they look like a 35 year old dead beat dad, but since we are not playing Northeastern this year, that one doesn't really apply.

It helps to start heckling your chosen player during warm-ups, when there are very few people in the stands. That way, the two of you can begin a type of relationship to build off throughout the game.

Red is the only appropriate color to wear to a BU basketball game, unless you are wearing a blood stained t-shirt. That is inappropriate.

If you decide to show school spirit by wearing a BU hockey jersey, you are going to look like a moron.

Keep an eye out for fans who look bored the whole game, only to jump up and show excitement when the guy with the cowbell starts the BC SUCKS chant. These are the fake fans, who only go to one game in order to get early beanpot tickets. Distance yourself from them if possible.

It is no longer clever to bring a giant cardboard "D" and a giant cardboard white picket fence to games.

While playing Vermont, it helps to remind their fans that their only entertainment is now going to suck because of the departure of a giant dirtball.

It also helps to point out that the 'Rath didn't get drafted, and that their old "coach" was more of an alcoholic cheerleader than a coach.

Be nice to Rhett. He is a human being too, you know.

No one should bother trying the half court shot, because it has been done, and it will not happen again.

Do not buy one of those little souvenier penants on a stick. What the hell are you going to do with a small penant on a stick?

Always cheer for the cheerleaders and the dance team. Note: your friends may find it funny if you cheer sarcastically for them, but everyone else thinks you are an asshole.

It is ok to cheer sarcastically for the other team's cheerleaders, should they happen to fall. Make sure she is not seriously hurt before you start hurting her feelings.

To get the full BU basketball experience, go to every home game, as many away games as possible, and bring all your friends with you.

10 Days.

Etienne, we hardly knew ye...

I first saw Etienne Brower in the GSU the year before he joined the Terriers during a recruiting trip. At the time, Billy Collins told me that the "kid's a baller." Well, Etienne played pretty well over his next two years, but never seemed to really click. He was used sparingly during his first year, and then really started to emerge in his second, showing occasional signs of brilliance. We hoped he would be the team's "rock" next year, after the departure of BU hoop gods Rashad and Chaz graduated. After all, he was the team's 3rd-leading scorer.

But he was lacking the fire. You could tell he was never going to be the leader of our team, or any team. In the end, something got in the middle of his relationship with Wolff - so much so that Etienne decided he could not finish his last two years at BU. Takes a real man to run away from a tough situation, right?

Etienne, we'll see you sitting in street clothes when BU visits UMass on 12/12. Enjoy the view, and hope it works out the way you planned.

Another Setback

My classes got out early today, so I thought I'd saunter down to Barnes and Noble. After searching for about ten minutes, I asked the girl at the register if they had any BU basketball jerseys. The girl told me that since they sold poorly last year (I didn't even know they sold them last year) they most likely wouldn't have any this year. But I guess B&N gots to make their monies. They'll think differently when i make my own jersey out of nylon, and cotton, and white stickers, and that's 80 bucks that the school could have gotten from me.

"We have tons of hockey jerseys if you want to buy one of those," the cashier said. I chuckled to myself, shook my head, and walked out.


11 Days.

The Coaching Carousel

We here at BU Hoops :: Doggy-style love Coach Dennis Wolff. He's been The Man at BU for 12 seasons and, despite a few blips along the way, usually finds a way to turn in a winning team. But you gotta wonder how much longer before he moves on to greener pastures. Every year, Wolffie is mentioned for this job or that job that has just opened up - Fordham, St. John's and LaSalle all took a sniff, and he's even mentioned as a possible replacement for Jim Calhoun at UConn someday (Wolff played his college ball at UConn). As a NYC native who always seems to have recruiting success there, he's a hot commodity in northeastern college hoops.

With names like Rick Pitino and Mike Jarvis coming through Babcock Street the last few decades, in addition to a long list of assistant coaches who have gone on to head coaching careers, Wolff is just the latest great coach that BU has produced.

BU is Wolff's first head coaching stint, and he's put up big numbers. He's the school's all-time winningest coach, with a record of 192-133. He also has his son Matt on the roster as a sophomore, so we can at least bet on Coach Wolff hanging around for 3 more years.

We think you're great, Coach, but stick around for a while.

Top 5 Things Likely to Give Coach Wolff a Brain Hemorrhage

There will be plenty of bright spots and highlights for the Terriers this year, but here's a few things that could be a snag:

1. J.J Redick's jump shot - Even AE Defensive Player of the Year 2003-04 Shaun Wynn won't be able to shrink this guy's range on Nov. 14th.

1(a). The Cameron Crazies of Duke University - Has BU ever played in such an uninviting atmosphere? I submit that they have not.

2. Tag-team Albany guard combo Lucious Jordan and Jamar Wilson - Albany's got a lot coming back, and these two are the cream of their crop. The late season matchup at Albany's "Big Purple Growl" could be huuuuuuuge.

3. Hartford monster Kenny Adeleke - He'll only be a Hawk for one year, but this transfer from Hofstra is a beast in the paint. Our inside game is already a bit suspect, and Adeleke could expose that hole in a big way.

4. Ex-Terrier Etienne Brower's new school, UMass - Let's just say E's departure from BU was less than amicable. Wolffie would love nothing more than to stick it in the face of his former player, but a loss to the Minutemen would be a bummer.

5. Harvard/Canisius/UNH/Rider/UMBC - If anything grinds Wolff's gears, it's losing to teams he knows they should beat. A loss to any of these teams will send Wolff straight to the emergency room (and the Terriers straight OUT of the NIT). Just don't get caught in the locker room after any of those games!

What the hell?

Well it looks like that bastard Tall-boy has already posted today, and his topic is basically what I was going to write about. I'm going to switch it up a little and give my predictions of personal performances. Without further ado:

MVP Offense- This is a tough one to start with, just because all our leading scorers are gone. Someone is going to have to step up though, and I have a feeling it's going to be Corey Hassan. Yes, indeed, it is possible for a rookie to win MVP. I just can't see anyone working the inside well enough to put up Rashad Bell type numbers. As for the rest of the guards, we saw a little shooting from Wolff and Geffen last year, but to be honest, it really could be anyone this year.

MVP Defense- Gotta stick with Shawn Wynn here. He's proven his defensive worth over and over again, but in a close second, in my opinion, is Tony Gaffney. Watch this kid, he's like a pterydactile with hands. I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong. Anyway, when the press is on, he's going to be in there.

Rookie of the Year- I think this one belongs to Corey Hassan as well, but it's tough to make and educated guess concerning this one, because we don't know who's going to get playing time and who won't. It's definitely going to be interesting to see who the big players will be from the freshman class, because it is around them and this years sophmore class that the future of BU's basketball program is being built.

Sportsmanship Award- The High Roller.


12 days.

Coaches Poll Out; BU picked 2nd

Here's how the coaches of the America East think the conference will finish:

1. Albany (5 first-place votes)
2. BU (3)
3. Maine (1)
4. Binghamton
5. Hartford
6. Vermont
7. Stony Brook
8. UMBC
9. UNH


BU lost its top 3 scorers from last year... and the coaches STILL think they can come in second?? Some of the coaches might be on crack if they don't think Albany should be #1. Albany lost nobody and gets some nice returns from injury and good freshmen. I still think (hope?) BU will finish first, but based on how much we lost and how much Binghamton, Albany, and Maine still have, I don't think 4th is an unreasonable prediction. As for the bottom 4 or 5, the coaches might as well have put their names on a mat and played Cow Bingo.

Dennis Wolff had the same reaction to BU's #2 ranking during the media conference call. Wolffie mentioned how it's an honor to be ranked so highly by his peers, and pointed out that no matter how talented his team is, the lack of experience might cause some growing pains.

One thing stands out as a feel-good item: Vermont is ALLLLL the way down at #6. Sorry, but I got a little sick of their national media darling status. Where's big bad Taylor Coppenrath now, huh Catamounts??

The Perfect Viewing Suggestion

My perfect viewing suggestion for BU Basketball game, off the top of my head, would be to fill a camelback with Southern Comfort, show up to the game an hour early, get front row floor seats (if the game is at Agganis), and scream your lungs out until the opposing team walks off the court depressed and embarrassed from a severe beating. But what if the game is away? Very far away, say at #1 Duke?

This suggestion comes straight from the mouth of Kevin Gardner, co-captain and starting forward(I can only assume). While running into KG at Becketts' off-da-hook reopening night, I told him good luck against Duke. He said the best way to enjoy the game is to get a keg, have all your friends over, get blasted, and watch the game on ESPN2 (Nov. 14th, 7:30). Personally, I have to agree with him. We here at BU Hoops :: Doggy Style have very high hopes for this game, but no one is speaking about what we're pretty sure will happen. Frankly, the best way to deal with this is just have some beers and enjoy the game, whether we win or lose.

13 Days.