Home court advantage?

Tonight the Terriers take on the hated Vermont Catmounters (I am traveling though Jersey on my way to the game right now, and it stinks worse than I remember). Apparently, this is the first regular season America East game that is nationally televised -- so all 47 of you who get ESPNU, check your local listings.

And supposedly, this is a "home" game for us... in the brand-spanking new Agganis Arena a.k.a. The Greek. The only problem is, these Catamounts have almost as much experience playing in that building as we do. Two games a year and no practices does not equal a home court. Luckily, the majority of the crowd will be wearing Terrier scarlet, but the actual court itself is pretty foreign to our own team.

Consider the numbers. First of all, we are 2-7 in all games at The Greek, a far cry from the 194-84 record compiled at The Roof.

OK, maybe you'd bring up the fact that we play all our "marquee" (read: tougher) games in Agganis. I'll grant you that, but that doesn't explain our historically piss-poor shooting there. See for yourself:

02/12/05 Vermont 42%
02/20/05 Northeastern 33%
11/22/05 Michigan 35%
11/29/05 Rhode Island 28%

Data was not available for the rest of the games (actually I just got tired of looking them up) - but you can see a trend developing. Trust me, our shooting was just as shitty -- or shittier -- than the games listed above.

Anyway, hope we can pull this out tonight, we'll be front and center at the Greek

Boxlines

I was thinking of just doing a Boxline of the Weak, and putting up last nights box score, but that's pretty lame, so here we go:

Boxline of the Week:

Scott Brittain Vs. Stony Brook on 1/19/08

STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	FTM-A	OFF	REB	AST	PF	PTS
S. Brittain	37	4-12	7-9	5	10	4	2	15

This is what we need every game from Scott.



Boxline of the Weak:

Scott Brittain Vs. UMBC on 1/22/08

STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	FTM-A	OFF	REB	AST	PF	PTS
S. Brittain	20	0-4	0-1	1	5	1	5	0

This is what's unacceptable from Scott.

Which Scott Brittain will show up Friday? Show up and find out for yourself.

OK, We Suck

I've been putting off saying this for as long as possible, because I've been hoping that it just wasn't true, but we suck.

I should have noticed this last weekend when I was excited that we squeezed out a win against Stony Brook.

Let's take a look at the evidence from tonight's loss to UMBC:

Exibit A - 5 points in the first 12 minutes. We have GOT to stop doing this. We put ourselves in a hole from the outset of almost every game. Someone's not preparing our team for the start of the game (**cough**Wolff**cough**).

Exibit B - We had a stretch of over 10 minutes without a bucket. I forget that this is a sign of suckiness because it seems to happen once a game. Oh, and the final 7 minutes of the game, too.

Exibit C - Aside from a ball that went out of bounds off the hand of a UMBC player, we had Zero offensive rebounds in the first half. ZERO! That's pathetic. That means that every time we had the ball on offense, it was one shot, usually a miss, and UMBC got the ball back.

Exibit D - 5 second chance points, 10 points in the paint. These two figures show that we have no inside presence. Big problem.

Exibit E - The play by play guy for 1590 The Zone said it pretty well after Scott Brittain fouled out with no points: with Corey still out and Carlos held to 5 points, our three leading scorers tallied 5 points tonight.

Exibit F - Um... 25 % shooting percentage? Are you fucking kidding me?

Exibit G - We just had our asses pounded at home to UMBC.

I don't want to think about basketball until the Vermont game. See you at the Greek at 9PM on Friday, folks.

Retrieve This.

Tonight we have a critical game for our season, a must-win game. We will be taking on the Retrievers of UMBC at the Roof, and it's not going to be easy.

They average around 72 points a game, most in our conference, and we average around 62 points a game, least in our conference. Hodges, Barbosa, Proctor, and Johnson average 17.4, 15.7, 14.8, and 12.8, respectively.

But 4 of their 5 starters average well over 30 minutes a game, and you've got to think that they'll start to wear down. If not now, then at least by early March.

I wouldn't be surprised if we lost to UMBC in Maryland, but we need to beat them at home. Our record will take a serious blow, and we don't want to be 2-4 when we face Vermont on Friday.

Let's hope Corey is back in action tonight, Tyler plays as well as he did against Stony Brook, and we play tight defense on their big scorers. If we can do that, maybe we can pull this off.

Prediction: BU 69 - UMBC 66

Seawolves See Wolff

The scariest thing about Saturday's tilt with the mighty Seawolves of the Stony Brook, was that before the game BU and SBU sported identical 4-12 (1-3) records. Ugh, talk about depressing

FYI for those who don't know, according to the SBU website a seawolf is "a mythical sea creature and according to the legend of the Seawolf, anyone fortunate enough to view it was subject to good luck." However a quick search of Wikipedia found no listing for such a mythical creature, so maybe SBU would have been better off sticking with one of their previous nicknames, like Patriots (used from 1966-94) or Warriors (1960-66). Admittedly, the Stony Brook "Soundmen" (1957-60) was pretty lame.

Anyway, even though the High Roller stole some of my thunder on this, my recap of the game will consist only of the text message exchange between the HR and myself during the second half:

High Roller: i hope marques fouls out
Tall boy: we are terrible if matt wolff is the key to our comeback
High Roller: they didnt see it coming. not looking bad right now
Tall boy: remember that this is against stony brook
High Roller: right

BU's Role Players Step it Up

I was texting back and forth with Tall-boy concerning our come back late in Saturday's game against Stony Brook, and I was feeling pretty pumped that the Terriers stepped it up late. Tall-boy replied to me with "remember, this is Stony Brook."

Yes, it was Stony Brook, but a sharper-looking Stony Brook. Plus our two leading scorers failed to score a point. Corey was unavailable (not sure why) and Carlos went 0-6.

So I think it's fair to get excited when the rest of the team picks it up and powers through for a win. Tyler Morris found his rhythm today and netted 18 points. Matt Wolff finally found his rhythm too, scoring 13 and going 4-4 from behind the arc. His two three-pointers in a row were pretty much the foundation of our comeback from a 9 point deficit.

And Scott Brittain got a double-double, with 15 points and 10 boards (maybe he was inspired by Tall-boy's latest post).

So what can happen if we get all the pieces working together, and on a regular basis? Can we routinely score 75, 80 points a game? Can we get 30 boards a game and less than 10 turnovers? Can we keep our shooting percentage over 40%, and our free throw percent over 75%?

Can we blow out Vermont on Friday in front of 5000* people at the Greek?

Something like that could do great things for our team's confidence, as well as the fan base on campus.

*I know 5000 people is a stretch, but there's no harm in hoping.

Honey, can you pick up some Windex on your way home from work?

The Terriers need some serious help in the glass-cleaning department. In fact, the Case Gym glass is so filthy it seems like it hasn't been cleaned all year (at least not by BU).

Figure this: BU has 4 "big men" (although at times that seems like a stretch) - Scott Brittain, Vlad Sirutis, Max Gotzler and Ibe Konate. During the 9-point loss to Hartford on 1/12, that Fearsome Foursome gathered a grand total of THREE rebounds. Not three apiece, not an average of three between them... but THREE total. And all four of them got playing time! Kudos to Ibe for pulling down 33% of the group's rebounds in just 4 minutes of action.

The group responded to that performance with a FIVE rebound effort this past Wednesday against Albany (this time, Ibe didn't see any action). It was sad to watch that display, as the disparity on the boards was 38-20 in favor of Albany - missed shots seemed to head directly into the hands of our big men, then be promptly taken away by Albany and deposited into the basket.

These guys should be averaging 4 rebounds per game EACH, not as a group. Might this problem (ranked 8 out of 9 in rebounding margin) have a little to do with our losses this year?

Boxlines

It's a few days late, but here is the Boxline of the Week:


Corey Lowe, vs. Albany 1/16

FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN

6-19   5-12   3-4    0  1  1   4  20  4  3  1  3  40

Not all that impressive, I know, but according to BU's website, Corey played 40 minutes on Wednesday, so that's why his is the boxline of the week. Plus it wasn't that impressive a week on our side anyway.

And your Boxline of the Weak:

Valdas Sirutis, @ Hartford 1/12

FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  1  0  0  12

No points, no boards, no assists, not even a shot. Just one turnover. What the hell was he doing in there for 12 minutes? Discussing the best places to eat in Eastern Europe with Max Gotzler?

Oh, and here's a couple stats from last night's game that might make you puke:

Rebounds: BU 20 - Albany 38
Shooting %: BU 35.3 - Albany 54.5

I guess at the very least we can call it a breakout game for John Holland with 19 points.

Two frustrating games

BU games are becoming so demoralizing these days that I can only write them 2 at a time. Which is fine because the last two games made me feel exactly the same way. Both games were broadcast on NESN, and I made the mistake of watching both games.

BU is just extremely frustrating game to watch. When the outside shots arent falling, we are unable to do anything else. Tyler and Carlos aren't doing anything these days, so that leaves us with one scoring option - not enough.

The Hartford game from Saturday was bad... but I think the Albany game was worse. It's one thing to lose to a decent team on the road (and yes, Hartford is a decent team). It's another thing if BU can't even get up for a home game against the defending champs, with 1500 fans present. The crowd looked AMAZING on TV last night -- I wish I was there! -- but we still came out flat.

The worst part is, each game we got into a big deficit early, and then we came back to make it close, giving me hope!! And then of course, the hope is dashed, we lose by 7 or 9 - and I feel like feasting on the brains of the next poor soul who tries to talk to me.

Sorry to vent. Frustrated right now.

Basketball Logic

Saturday, we take on Hartford, who has turned a couple heads this year. The game will be on NESN at 6PM so make sure you catch it. Hartford freightens me slightly, because of a couple wins, but one in particular.

Hartford beat Binghamton, and Binghamton laid a beatdown on us. Now with perfect logic (which is unrealistic in Basketball, but just for the hell of it...), one would just assume that Hartford would beat us easily.

But hold the phone--BU just beat New Hampshire, who earlier in the year, beat Quinnipiac, who in turn beat Hartford. So now I don't know what to think.

Think that's weird? Well our pounding from Binghamton came just after UVM took the Bearcats to the cleaners. So UVM's pretty good, execpt they lost to UMBC. UMBC seems to be having a great year so far, except they lost earlier this year to Central-Connecticut State. The very same Central-Connecticut State that fell to UNH. That's right, the UNH that we just beat.

So tell me how the hell that makes sense??

Murmurs of Basketball Stuff

It was a relief to see BU remembered how to score points. They nearly reached their previous games total by half-time as they outplayed UNH to win 82-72. Corey Lowe ended up with thirty points after scoring the first 12 points for BU, all on threes. Carlos Strong had 14 points, and Max Gotzler had 11, a career high.

Jesus, where to being.

First of all, the starting line-up:

Max Gotzler, Matt Wolff, Valdus Sirutis, Tyler Morris, and John Holland.

Weird, right? But it somehow worked. I'm still trying to figure it out.

Corey Lowe took 22 shots. That's a hell of a lot but it seemed to work so I say keep doing it.

Ibe and Marques Johnson barely played. 12 Minutes between the two of them. I'm sure that had something to do with how well we played.

Tyler took a lot of shots, and missed a lot. But he's been trying to shoot his way out of his slump, and he will, as long as he keeps shooting. He still managed 10 points, with 8 from the free throw line. He's starting to get back into, and I like that Wolff isn't overworking him too soon.

John Holland had six steals, showing how much this kid hustles on every play. We need someone like him on the court as much as possible. He is sick on defense. Defensive Player of the Year in a couple years, I'm calling it right now.

As a team, we out-rebounded UNH, and I can't remember the last time we did that. 36!

And how 'bout that Max Gotzler? He played 35 minutes! And judging by the box score, he didn't do too badly either. But there's a reason he got so much playing time. Scott Britain didn't play today, and it's much worse than we could have thought possible:

BU, which now holds a 52-6 advantage over UNH in conference play, was playing without leading rebounder and third-leading scorer Scott Brittain, who pulled a gluteus muscle in practice Tuesday.

I quoted the recap from ESPN because I didn't want to have to think of a way to say that, but it sounds bad. I have no idea if this is a short-term or long-term injury, but if someone knows, or if anyone knows specifically what is going on with Scott, leave a comment.

Anyway, this was a big win for us. We needed it bad after four straight losses. We go hammered by SUNY (I started using SUNY when talking about Binghamton because it was getting too confusing with two BU's. Plus I think they hate the name SUNY), and we were in danger of starting conference play 0-2. It's good to see some life in them. I hope they keep this up.

And around the America East? What a strange couple of days.

Sunday:

BU took a serious beating from SUNY, who I had predicted only minutes earlier would finish 8th in the conference. That was a real wake up call.

After looking so sharp the entire game, Vermont loses in overtime to Albany by a point. What an exciting game that was.

Stony Brook totally hands it to Maine. Didn't think they had it in them.

Wednesday:

Down 7 at the half, Hartford rallies back with 48 points in the seconds half edge out Binghamton by one point.

UMBC crushes Vermont 78-60. Right after Vermont looked so sharp at Albany, too.

And the standings look incredibly odd right now. Everyone has at least one win, except Maine, and everyone has at least one loss, except Hartford, who only played one conference game, and UMBC, who is 3-0. I think I can honestly say that right now, it looks like almost anyone could win this conference.

And UMBC? Didn't see this coming. Hodges is having himself a great season, and he's got a great team around him. Yeah, it's early, but I can't recall UMBC ever having a decent season. Maybe this is the season they finally make some noise.

Too early to know too much, but we know this: this is going to be one ridiculous season.

BU's New Hampshire Primary

As thousands of journalists, political operatives and campaign volunteers scramble to get the hell out of New Hampshire today, so too do the Wildcats of UNH -- on their way to Case Gym to take on the Terriers tonight.

For Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain and others, New Hampshire stood as the second test in what will be a long and grueling campaign; and likewise, New Hampshire is the second test of BU's conference schedule, setting the tone until the presidential election in Vestal, NY, in March 2008.

And if nothing else, Hillary and McCain prove that even if you get blown out in Iowa (Binghamton), you can still come back and shock the world in New Hampshire.

So in that spirit, the Terriers need to get out there and do the equivalent of door-to-door canvassing and phone calls: boxing out, making free throws, playing gritty defense. If BU takes care of business and does all the little things, we can sit back and watch the victory come to us. Go BU!!

Oh yeah, and Kucinich is Stony Brook.

We're a nationally recognized school!!

Straight from the front page of ESPN.com's mens basketball page. Too bad the cover story was about UMass and we look like we are affraid of the ball in this picture. Still, bad publicity is still publicity.


Thought I'd try something new, so here is my Boxline of the Week:

## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT
22 Strong, Carlos...... f  6-10   5-9    1-1    0  5  5  
    
   PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
   1  18  6  1  0  0  38

And, here's my Boxline of the Weak:

## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT
01 Konate, Ibrahim.....    0-1    0-0    0-0    0  0  0  

   PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
   0   0  0  3  0  0   8

Both came in our Narrow loss to Holy Cross. Look for this everyweek, this is something that I'm going to try to keep going.

Not a Great Start

The Bearcats shots 60%, we shot 41%. That pretty much tells the story of today's game, but just for the hell of it,

BU BU (Binghamton)
Turnovers: 16 13
Rebounds: 19 24

I don't think anything else can be said except we didn't make our shots. When Scott Britain is our leading scorer with 11 points, it's not going to be good. Next up is New Hampshire. Let's hope we don't start conference play 0-2.

Now it REALLY starts

It wasn't BU's finest non-conference effort. Here is a quick recap:

BU was predicted by everyone from ESPN to Tiger Beat to win the AE... and then promptly put up a 3-9 OOC record.

Tyler Morris missed all but three of the games, and even when he came back, he wasn't the Tyler we know and love. Stress injuries like his take a long time to rehab, so he continues to improve. But we need him if we hope to win the conference as predicted. As others have said, even Tyler at 75% helps BU more than hurts them.

Marques Johnson and John Holland develop into solid role players. Finally given playing time, Marques has run an efficient offense by limiting his turnovers. And Holland has shown an explosiveness of offense and could turn into a star over the next 2 years.

Corey Lowe missed two games on the Redneck Roadtrip through West Virginia and western Pennsylvania, fueling rumors of his impending exodus to UMass (where else??), then "works out his issues" and starts putting up 20 points per game. What a roller-coaster ride. I sure hope he's with us next year (or even until the end of this year!). No denying he is a great player.

Our top-recruit, Will Creekmore, leaves the team and intends to transfer to Missouri State or TCU or somesuch. I and many others have said that his attitude was to blame, and would have hurt us more than his playing abilities could have helped. Meanwhile, poor Scott Brittain toils alone in the paint, and it's hard not to think of how much better we would be if he had some help in there.

This whirlwind has led to another round of Wolff detractors calling for his job. I still say no matter what, he still always gets the team ready for conference play. I say, let's see what happens this year. I am cautiously optimistic about this team's chances.

And you know what? None of those results so far mean a thing. It all starts today in Binghamton.

(P.S. thanks to the fine folks in Bing's athletic dept for their live streaming video)

Conference Prediction

I know conference play has already started, but I figure I'll let you guys know what I think's going to happen, because I know you all want to hear my opinion. These rankings are only for final conference record.

1. Vermont

I'm watching Vermont play Albany on TV right now, and it's clear to me that Vermont just plays better as a team. Marcus Blakely just stole the ball out of Hastings' hands in the backcourt and slammed it home. I hope that's youtubed.

2. Boston University

We actually have some big time-scorers on out team. We have to do well, right?

3. UMBC

I'm buying into the hype. Hodges, Barbosa, Proctor, and Johnson are scoring mad points.

4. Albany

They better figure out who their go-to guy is, and quick.

5. New Hampshire

Ended a 7 game losing streak by beating Albany, and they're neck and neck with UMBC right now. Who knows what that means, though.

6. Hartford

No real reason for chosing Hartford to finish sixth. It just feels right for me.

7. Maine

Should be able to end their 5 game losing streak when they start conference play against Stoney Brook. Should being the key word.

8 Binghamton

What a mess. Who knows what'll happen here, but it would be nice to see them make something out of this season. Wait, no it wouldn't.

9. Stoney Brook

You keep at it, Stony Brook.

This may hurt a bit

I said I'd post some highlights from our game to UMass, which seemed like it would be a blowout, but we came within 3 points, with 1:30 left. Couldn't really find any highlights, so here's a montage of UMass blocking a whole bunch of our shots. It was just an ugly game, with very few bright spots for us. Apologies all around in advance for the shaky camera work.