High Roller's Tourney Recap

Well that went by fast. A blur. It went so fast, I didn't even get to put up any posts. So here are a bunch of random thoughts about this past weekends AE tournament:

-That better be the last tournament in Binghamton until 2015. We've been there 3 of the 4 last years, and enough is enough. The drive there sucked, the weather sucked, and everything about that town sucked. We went out to the bars Friday night because it was early yet and we were looking for a good night out. What we found was that strip of 4 or 5 bars, and a fooseball table covered in red vomit. We didn't bother going out Saturday night.

-The tides are slowly turning in the America East. Albany got knocked out first round, and so did binghamton. Vermont and BU didn't make it out of the weekend alive. The two teams in the final? UMBC and Hartford. Three years ago we all would have laughed at the idea. But it's good for the conference. It got pretty old seeing Vermont and Albany in the finals.

-It was good to see more bands and cheerleaders make the trip to the tournament. Especially cheerleaders. And dance teams. Especially UMBC's dance team. I wasn't sure how to react to UMBC's featured twirler. She was very skilled, and good-looking, but it was just odd, because it was just her by herself twirling a baton. And then I felt bad for her when she dropped. It's weird, I don't feel bad when cheerleaders fall.

-Getting back to the tournament itself, and the job that Binghamton did hosting it, I've got to say they dropped that ball. In other words, aside from cheerleaders, dance teams, and bands, it was boring. No promotions, no t-shirts being tossed into the stands, no half court shots or even and contests at all. Infact, in 7 twenty-minutes halftimes, 3 half hours between session games, and 56 media timeouts, not one fan stepped foot on the court. I usually don't care about this stuff, but a lot of fans like the chance to win things or take part in contests and such, and it's just something to watch while you're sitting around. And no, the America East Fun Zone, or whatever they called it, doesn't make up for this misstep.

-From a BU fan's point of view, the Albany game was amazing. It was the most excited BU win I've been at in a very long time (since last tournament, I guess). With more than a couple BU fans, we made some noise in that arena. Just knocking off the two time repeating champions was a thrill. Must have been a bummer for Lillis and Wilson, but, so it goes. Nice to see those idiots with the mohawks look like jackasses. And it was nice to show up Will Brown after two tough losses to them this year.

-The Hartford game was different. We had no energy, it seemed. But I won't use the excuse that there was too little time between our 8:30 PM game and the 12 AM game. We just missed a lot of shots. Too many threes just didn't fall(3-20). And it's not like they were bad shots, either. We got open looks, but the shots just rimmed out, and few fell. Tyler was 0-6 on threes, and Corey was 1-6. That killed us. Our defense was great, keeping Hartford under 60, but John Holland was almost non-existant on offense.

-The tailgating was probably the best part of the weekend for me. It was a challenge, but the pouring rain made it even better. We had a sweet set up, with a big tarp tied from the gate of my truck over another car. We had a propane grill set up for egg mcmuffins, but we didn't have time to heat up the chili that I brought. We also had a charcoal grill with a cover but used it for a woodfire to keep us warm, and it actually worked pretty well. And the people walking by were no doubt impressed by our moxy. One person even said he respected everything about us, which really makes you feel good inside. So we'll do it again next year.

Keep your eye out for my tournament all-stars, which I'll write up in the next couple days.

1 game down, 6 more to go

I'm not so sure how our plan of regular tourney updates is going to work. We've only been through 1 game so far and we're all ridiculously hungover.

The drives here were long but uneventful - car bingo, mad libs, the like. We took care of some Sparks in the parking lot and settled into the FRONT ROW to watch the scintillating Stony Brook vs. Maine matchup. The BU team ended up sitting right near us. The game was a close one, so at least it wasn't to boring. Maine's #22 (Mark Socoby) was hitting from everywhere, including a banked 3-pointer to send it to OT. Ovetime was all Stony Brook though. The High Roller caught some good (and hilarious) footage in his Handycam.

Corey Lowe confided in us that he wanted Stony Brook to win the game. He was also pretty jealous of the red BU headband one of us was wearing, but turned us down when we offered him one.

Aside from winning the game, Stony Brook kicked Maine's ass when it came to fan spirit. We had a fun time with Wolfie, but the band and dancers were kind of lame (better than this guy though).

Then we went to our temporary home and played drunken Rock Band all night and then went out to some OK bars. Ended up stumbling home after the High Roller got kicked out of a bar because he wouldn't stop videotaping this dancing old guy who looked like Ric Flair. If we ever get the video online, you will see exactly what I mean.

OK, time to head out into the rain for our big tailgate!

Holland Rewarded; Lowe Shafted

Good news and bad news from the just-released America East end-of-season awards.

JOHN HOLLAND has won Rookie of the Year for the conference. He also placed on the Third Team All-Conference.

Congrats to John!!!!

Meanwhile, COREY LOWE was awarded Second-Team All-Conference - a real travesty considering he was easily one of the best 3 players all year long. He definitely has an argument over Greene, Proctor and Zeglinski.

Congrats to Corey on his honor, but I hope he really sticks it to the coaches and becomes the tournament MVP.

Time to tame the Danes

So it comes down to this. We need to beat a team that we haven't beaten in 3 years, or the season is over.

Albany was one of the two teams (along with UMBC) that we didn't beat this year, and neither was really a close game. In the first game, Brian Lillis was everywhere on the court dumping 27 points on us, and we were severly out-rebounded on both ends of the court. In the second game, just 6 days ago, BU kept it close since Lillis had foul trouble, but contributions from young guys like Josh Martin and Al Turley put the Danes out front. Both were over 10-point losses.

But the tournament is a different animal. Luckily for us, Martin and Turley jinxed themselves by getting mohawks, along with Brett Gifford, the dumbest-looking kid alive. I can't wait to see these. They are going to regret doing this to themselves.

On the other side, you have BU. Coach Wolff undoubtedly has them focused on the task at hand. They aren't fazed by the prospect of beating a team that has already beaten them twice. In a year when seeds #1 through #7 don't matter much, this is a good year to be a #6. I have all the confidence in the world that Wolff can outcoach Will Brown and come up with a game-plan to win.

It's going to take big contributions from John Holland, Corey Lowe and Scott Brittain. Add to that the return of Tyler Morris, who has come back from injury and has been practicing like normal since Wednesday, and Carlos Strong, who will both need to put up some points.

These guys can do this.

A Tribute to Sparks

You make the day begin. You make it continue, when the first one of you starts to wear off. In your yellow/orange goodness, you give us that little extra kick, turning an ordinary night into an extra-ordinary night.

Like a Red Bull and vodka, you taste like candy, energize us, and get us drunk, and you ask nothing in return. Your older brother Sparks Ultra has 1% more alcohol, for those of us who dare to be great.

You make drinking in public easier, because you look like a run of the mill energy drink.

Most importantly, you will get me through roughly 10 hours of mediocre basketball on Saturday.

As well as my lunch break tomorrow.

Seriously folks, you haven't finished packing for the tournament this weekend unless you've picked up a 4 pack of Sparks, so get on it.

For Your Consideration: Corey Lowe and John Holland

It's been said before, but let me say it again: LoweHolland08.

The America East end of the season awards are announced at the tournament banquet tomorrow. BU has two players who, if they aren't awarded... well, they might make Ocean's 14 about that robbery. The coaches vote on this, so fellas - don't screw this up.

Corey Lowe... for First Team All-America East
For the first half of the season, Corey was all we had. He did everything he could to put the team on his back and carry them across the finish line. The frustration definitely showed at times - the road trip he missed, the transfer rumors. But in the end, Corey showed how important he is to the program. The emergence of Holland during the conference season may have lightened the load on Corey, but he responded by being even better than before - he kept putting up the points, but his assist numbers went way up. With Tyler having a tough season with injuries, he became a leader on the floor. We have no illusions here - nobody is knocking Marqus Blakely off the AE Player of the Year pedestal this year. But Corey is truly among the best three players in the conference, and deserving of this honor.

The facts:
18.5 points per game (#2 in the conference)
3.42 assists per game (#7 in the conference)
3.79 3-pointers per game (#1 in the conference)


John Holland... for America East Rookie of the Year AND Third Team All-America East
It wasn't until the conference season began that Johnny began getting major minutes on the floor. His accomplishments have been well documented here and elsewhere. He was the only freshman to prove that he can truly dominate a game, capped off by his otherworldly performance at "Senior" Night against Hartford. It was no coincidence that Johnny's emergence came right at the moment that BU started to win games, winning 8 of the final 10 games of the season. He just finished the regular season with the last 5 AE Rookie of the Week awards. His stats are WAY ahead of Blakely's during Blakely's freshman year last year. Marqus is clearly dominant now, but their games are similar... except Johnny's got a jump shot. John Holland is a force to be reckoned with in the next 3 years, and should easily become BU's second consecutive Rookie of the Year. In my mind he's also one of the best 15 players in the league, and deserves the coaches' votes for 3rd Team All-AE.

The facts:
11.5 points per game (#2 among rookies)... 15.5 in AE play (#1)
4.9 rebounds per game (#2 among rookies)... 6.8 in AE play (#1)
1.57 steals per game (#1 among rookies)... 2.13 in AE play (#1)

First look at the bracket matchups

Yes, the official bracket came out two days ago, and if you follow the America East enough to actually visit this blog, then this is probably not your "first look" at the bracket. But here it is anyway.


What you haven't seen yet is the BU Hoops Blog's thoughts on the first-round match-ups NOT involving BU (I know, it's outside of our area of expertise, but humor us). The parity in the league this year give this weekend the potential to be the most entertaining conference tournament in the nation.

The Stony Brook Invitational
#8 Stony Brook vs. #9 Maine

Jan. 6: @ Stony Brook 75, Maine 59
Feb. 23: Stony Brook 56, @ Maine 51

Stony Brook is wearing the home whites in the America East tournament, possibly for the first time ever. And they dominated Maine during the regular season, so things look good for the Mighty Seawolves. We make a point of driving to the Stony Brook Invitational Play-In Game every year to see what the Seawolves have in store for us. Last year, they rewarded us handsomely with buzzer-beating loss to Hartford after blowing a 20-point lead. Since the so-called "winner" of the SBIPIG goes on to get destroyed by #1 (except of course for that year when Stony Brook used their momentum from the game to beat one of the best BU squads ever...grrr), the REAL winner of the SBIPIG is whoever gets the drunkest. Let's see if we can defend our title.

Side note: This is the first tourney in 5 years we won't have the chance to heckle Popoko. Sad times indeed. Please read the High Roller's farewell letter to Popoko from last year's tournament. We will be on the lookout for new Stony Brook freshman who can fill Popoko's shoes for the next 4 years.

Quarterfinals
#1 UMBC vs. #8 Stony Brook/#9 Maine

Jan. 3: UMBC 76, @ Stony Brook 62
Feb. 6: @ UMBC 75, Stony Brook 63
OR
Jan. 12: Maine 77, @ UMBC 74
Feb. 28: UMBC 85, @ Maine 68

Based on regular season performance, we might expect to see Stony Brook sitting in this position, barely 12 hours removed from a SBIPIG victory. But it was MAINE that somehow beat UMBC at home this year! NASA scientists are still trying to figure that one out. You can bet that with all their weapons, UMBC will be ready for either one of them this time though.

Side note: I think it's kind of unfair that the winner of the SBIPIG has to face #1 so soon after that game. Let's break it down: The game ends at 9:00, and the next game starts at 12:00. That's 15 hours. You can take out:

30 mins getting dressed after the game.

1 hour traveling to and from the arena.

2 hours for dinner, breakfast and lunch.

45 mins for sex with team groupies.

1 hour for team showers (with or without groupies).

15 mins because someone is always late to the bus.

2 hours looking at film and preparing for a game against the toughest team in the league.

1.5 hours to warm up for the next game.
That leaves a grand total of six hours to rest and sleep and recover from a grueling 40 minute basketball game. I mean, I know #1 is supposed to get an advantage, but come on. I think it was Will Brown who was complaining last year about scheduling games too close together. Well, Willy B. never had to play with 6 hours of rest, did he?


#4 Vermont vs. #5 Binghamton

Jan. 3: @ Vermont 71, Binghamton 60
Feb. 6: Vermont 83, @ Binghamton 78

In my mind, this will be the most entertaining game of the day. On the Binghamton side, you've got coach Kevin Broadus coming off his hilarious 1-game suspension for fighting another coach - we'll see if he can keep his emotions in check. And on the Vermont side, you've got the best and most exciting player in the league in Marqus Blakely, who is more than happy to serve John Holland's only competition for the AE's best dunker. Unfortunately, Vermont is also the whiniest bunch of cry-babies since Jose Juan Barea. So get ready to see Mike Trimboli break out the water-works every time he gets called for a hand check on one of the Binghamton guards.

Side note: The cry-baby thing makes me thing of the game several years ago at The Roof when we bought a few packages of diapers and painted the No. 5 on them, and we waved them around and cried like babies every time Barea had a hissy-fit. Those were good times.

If the BU "Zoo" is reading this, you would be wise to take advantage of such a tactic. But please get rid of the pizza boxes. My god, those pizza boxes. Lame. Oh, and no storming the court on Saturday - you're in the #4/#5 game, and it's only the Quarterfinals.


#2 Hartford vs. #7 New Hampshire

Jan. 27: @ New Hampshire 74, Hartford 59
Feb. 17: @ Hartford 82, New Hampshire 63

This feels like a big opportunity for a nice upset. I kind of feel like Hartford is pretty weak for a #2 seed, and UNH has already shown that they can blow out the Hawks. Plus all the Albany and BU fans will be rooting for New Hampshire. Both of these teams will be chucking up 3's at an alarming rate - so depending on whether they go in the basket or not, this could be a really exciting game or an excruciating one.

Side note: It's hard to hate either one of these teams. Both have been hard luck losers for pretty much their entire time in the conference. They also always have among the least fans in attendance at the tournament (so get ready to hear a pin drop at this game). In past tournaments I have adopted these teams to root for since BU got knocked out so quickly. But I'm going to try my hardest to hate whichever one BU will face if we get by Albany.

We'll also get to see the 2nd and 3rd place finishers for Rookie of the Year (UNH's Alvin Abreu and Hartford's Morgan Sabia) face off, since John Holland wrapped up #1 last week with his fifth consecutive weekly award.

Just a Warm up game

That's how I choose to view this past Sunday's game. We didn't look like the team that won 8 of 9 down the stretch, and that's ok, so long as Coach Wolff is hard at work on a game plan on how to beat Albany.

It didn't seem like our heads were in the game. We made some mental mistakes, but made up for those with some great three point shooting. Problem was, we had no inside presence. We just couldn't get the ball inside.

Hopefully Wolff can fix our problems, especially since Albany did a pretty decent job in shutting down John Holland. You could tell their focus was on him, otherwise Corey and Carlos wouldn't have combined for 7 threes. Carlos looked great by the way.

And here's a little nugget of slight hope: Tyler Morris, who was in street clothes on Sunday, is rumored to be available on Saturday night. If that's the case, I like our chances a lot more.

It's a shame we couldn't pull out a win, since our matchup would be a lot more favorable. It was a tight battle for a huge portion of the game, then BU hit a scoring drought, and fell too far behind. On a neutral court, who knows what'll happen? Our guys have to be pumped about the chance to knock out the defending AE champs.

If that's not enough, I saw on the news today that three retards from the Albany team got mohawks for this weekend. How can you not be pumped about sending three idiots with mohawks packing?

Back to reality

I kind of knew it was too good to be true. The rise from 8th place to 2nd place within a matter of weeks was just too much to hope for, and Albany made sure of that by having their big dudes push our guys around and putting up a 12-point vic.

The injustice of it all is after that tireless climb to the near-top, one loss sends us tumbling ALL the way back down to the #6 seed. What kind of lesson are we teaching America's youth here? Try really hard, but if you mess up once it's all for nothing? The lesson here, as always: never try.

Actually, there were several points during this season (notably the "We Suck" portion) where I would have been plenty thrilled to be getting the #6, so I can't entirely complain. What I can complain about is a SECOND STRAIGHT matchup with Albany!

We'll have more on that matchup and everything else tourney-related throughout the week, so stay tuned here. Regardless of what seed they are, the Terriers take the floor 5 days from now with a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament - and that's a reason to get excited.

Finish strong

Back when BU was 2-5 in the conference (5-14 overall), the chances of BU going into the last game of the season guaranteed to end up with a winning record seemed right up there with my chances of shaking off this hangover anytime soon.

Today we play Albany for the chance to secure the #2 seed in the tournament (if Hartford loses to UMBC) and a date with UNH next Saturday.

With so much on the line, you can be sure the Albany fans will be out full force in their $9 fake leather purple jackets - it's cold out there! The High Roller will be there in person, so hopefully we'll get an accurate $9 jacket count.

[Update - 1:58 PM]
Via the America East site, here are the seeding possibilities for BU based on today's action:

Boston University
- Will be seeded second with a win and a Hartford loss
- Will be seeded third with a win and a Hartford win
- Will be seeded fifth with a loss AND a Vermont loss
- Will be seeded sixth with a loss AND a Vermont win

Vermont is beating Maine at the half right now, so unless we win it looks like we fall all the way to sixth.