Terriers head to the land of cheese steaks

Let's turn the clock back to the year 2003, when the Terriers and the Saint Joseph's Hawks last met. It is the last time I can remember any ranked team coming to play at BU, as St. Joe's was #13 at the time on their way to that magical undefeated regular season (the season, however, did not end so magically for the Hawks, with early exits from the A-10 and NCAA tournaments).

Although we lost that match-up by 15 points, we all enjoyed heckling the St. Joseph's mascot, who looked about ready to commit suicide since he is not allowed to stop flapping his wings, and future Naismith and Wooden Award winner Jameer Nelson, which led to this exchange with my friend Nick:

Me: Nelson, you're a second-rounder and you know it!
Nick: Yeah, have fun playing for the Raptors!

Well, Jameer ended up playing for the Orlando Magic, which is almost as bad. But in that game, it was future Boston Celtic Delonte West who killed us, dropping 20 on the Terriers.

This year's Hawks are certainly not the same as the 2003/04 version, but they're pretty good. However, they are just coming off of a loss to lowly Penn State, who earlier lost to the even lowlier Stony Brook, our America East colleague. St. Joe's is the first of 4 games in a row against Atlantic 10 opponents, a stretch in which I would be thrilled to come away with 2 victories.

So that being said, I don't expect a win from our young Terriers tonight, but I wouldn't put it out of the question. If Corey Lowe and Tyler Morris continue stepping up for BU, and Omari continues his solid play, we could surprise the Hawks.