Nerds Get Shut Out of NYC Hotspots: The Cornell Preview

Quick hockey story as we get ready for tonight's game against Cornell. I know, I know - this is a basketball blog. But it's a good story.

Last year, BU played Cornell in hockey at fabled Madison Square Garden. It was over Thanksgiving break but I couldn't make it for some reason. But the BU athletic department was really flogging this for a long time, to get the best attendance that they possibly could - after all, Cornell was an old school 1970's hockey rival of ours, so this was a big deal. And it worked: tons of BU students and alumni flocked to the worlds most famous arena for the game, which BU won in convincing fashion.

Before the game, friend-of-the-blog Dean Elmore found a bar near MSG that he thought would make a good meeting place for BU to get together after the game. He spoke to the manager and asked if it was ok to let people know about the bar, and the manager said it was fine.

Elmore does his thing at the game, and afterward the place is just overrun with jubilant Terriers fans. Place is straight PACKED - Boston jerseys from wall-to-wall. Come to find out, Cornell had booked and paid for the bar's basement private party room. But because of capacity, the bouncers wouldn't let any of the Cornell people into the bar. They couldn't give two shits that Cornell had already paid for the party room. Elmore's like, "Ummm... my bad."

Cornell administration is PISSSSSSED! Because of this whole thing, they threaten to never do the MSG thing with BU again! I'm not sure how the whole thing was resolved, but it's nice to hear about the high-and-mighty Ivy Leaguers crying and whining. Good for you, Dean Elmore.

Anyway, just a fun story about BU vs. Cornell - let's hope tonight's game makes them regret playing us in basketball too.

The sky is not falling

BU is coming off two pretty disappointing losses, but for VASTLY different reasons - and neither one gets me too depressed about how the season is going.

Notre Dame - we lead the #12 team in the nation, who hasn't lost in their building in like 4 years, for 37 out of 40 possible minutes. Basically all but the ones that count. This was one of the most exciting games I've watched BU play in a long time. I was fist-pumping and ninja-kicking all over the room, every time we scored a big deep three to answer an Irish run. In the end, we just ran out of gas and the shots stopped falling. McAlarney started hitting some of his normal shots, and Harangody just decided he wasn't going to allow a loss to Boston University.

But the Terriers showed how they are capable of playing.

Delaware - this game pissed me off just because I TiVo'ed it (for some reason it was televised on cable here in the DC area) and also had the BU All-Access as a back-up. I went to great lengths to avoid seeing the score before watching the game, since the Titans game was on at the exact same time. So I pull up BU All-Access (via the Men's Hockey page, so as to not see the game headline on the homepage) and right on the top of the video player is the headline: "Delaware trey sinks BU, 70-68." Well, that really makes you want to watch a whole game, right?

I did my best to watch as much as I could - I did fast forward through a lot of free throws and stoppages. From what I gathered, we did not play our best basketball but put ourselves in position to win the game at the end. On an off night, that's all we can hope for. I do think we are a better team than Delaware, and we led for the entire game - but they hit the shots when it mattered. It's a game we should have won but didn't.

So there they are - two losses for different reasons, neither of which spells doom for the season despite the Chicken Littles out there. A record of 5-5 is not where I, or Coach Wolff, or anyone else really hoped the team would be after 10 games. But there have been good things to go along with some very tough losses so far. Certainly enough to build on as conference play approaches.

On Hold For the NFL: The Delaware Preview

Today's Delaware game is going to be a good barometer game. Have the Terriers truly improved since last year? This will be a good way to find out.

One year ago, the High Roller and myself, along with the Hot Dog and Jesus and maybe 3 other BU fans, suffered through a tough game in Delaware where the Terriers got straight out-played. The High Roller had almost as much trouble finding the arena, searching for a good hour in confusing Newark, DE, as BU did on the court.

But this year, the Blue Hens have already lost to Vermont by 15. The don't seem to be the same team they were last year, and luckily neither to we, since this was right about the time we were having major injury issues.

Let's hope those friendly Case Gym rims do their job today. Looking for a big one for Holland today - he needs to get back on track!

Not getting on track, in my opinion, will be BU home attendance. Who could sit in Case when there's some serious NFL games on tap today (including my Titans!)? Hey schedulers, how bout no more Sunday afternoon games until NFL season is over?! So even I'll be watching the online feed a little later today. Nobody tell me what happens!

The Hack-and-Spray Defense: The Notre Dame Preview

Everyone hates Notre Dame football, even despite everyone loving Rudy. It might be the pompousness of refusing to join a conference. Or maybe it's just a reaction to them being so good for so long.

I'm not sure if that hate carries over to the Notre Dame basketball game - but I don't see why it shouldn't. Either way, BU finds its way to South Bend, Indiana tonight for its chance to shock the world tonight.

And what a shock it would be. Notre Dame comes into the game at #13. Alongside their sharpshooter Kyle McAlarney, the frightening big man (and reigning Big East player of the year) Luke Harangody comes back from pneumonia.

BU comes off its best defensive effort, but that was against Yale, not a Big East team. A good defensive strategy tonight would be inducing Harangody into a pneumonia relapse, maybe by spraying him with cold water outside before the game and then blocking his entrance to the arena. Combine that with taking a hacksaw to McAlarney's wrists, and we may keep that duo from single-handedly destroying us.

Overall, hopefully BU comes out of this game with some good experience playing against superior players and a respectable score. And -- here's what I really want -- a chance at an ESPN dunk by Johnny Holland!

Extra Sloppy

This was all I could think of when watching Wednesday's game against Yale. It could have been a prettier game if they played on a hockey rink with a watermelon instead of a basketball. Make no mistake, this was some bad basketball. 39 total turnovers. 39 total fouls. Neither team shot higher than 40% from the floor.

But we won, so I'll take it. Still, we've got work to do.

20 turnovers were ours. We gave away too many second chance points. We took a lot of bad shots. There were a surprisingly high number of ill-advised cross-court passes, many of which were picked off.

The bright spot was the defense. We were in their faces and did not give them easy shots.

We've been playing pretty well so far this season, so I'm going to chalk this up to over-confidence on the part of the Terriers. You know Coach Wolff wasn't happy with this win, and it's going to be a rough couple of days of practice leading up to the Notre Dame game.

Thundering Turd

When BU loses a close game or a game it should have won, your humble writers tend to go into hibernation and not write about it for like 4 days. Maybe we're just pretending it didn't happen. Whatever. It's not very professional of us, but I don't care. It's therapeutic.

Anyway, we're back and ready to beat up on another lowly Ivy. Just a couple leftover notes from the Marshall game:

• Corey is amazing. That is all. He scored 36, plus 20 against Harvard... and didn't event get the Player of the Week?? Some d-bag from Binghamton got it, who averaged a mere 20 ppg last week.
• Why does Marshall put their nickname "Thundering Herd" on the front of their jerseys? That just looks dumb, especially on the road. Who do they think they are, the Baltimore Orioles?
• BU has not trailed with 5 mins left in any game this year
• Marshall went to the free throw line 30 times in the second half alone - and made 25 of them. Big difference in the game.
  
• The Terriers are now #4 in the nation with 11 3-pointers made per game.

Man, I wish we coulda beaten a Conference USA team. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it would have been our first win over a BCS team since Michigan .

Taking on the Yalies: The Yale Preview

Tonight, as we take on Yale, the most important thing is a win. That's the deal with every game.

But if Corey Lowe gets 22 points, he'll become BU's latest member of the 1000 point club. And talk about getting there fast, too. Only a handful of games into his junior season, and he's just about there.

I'm hoping he gets it done tonight, in front of a home crowd, even though I'm guessing the Skull & Bones will do everything they can to prevent it. They control the whole country, right?

As far as the game goes, I don't know what to expect. The Yale Bulldogs beat Pac-10 punching bag Oregon State, held tough against Stanford, and got blown out by Vermont.

They have, what seems to be, an incredibly deep roster, with 14 players getting time this year, but the bulk of their scoring comes from Alex Zampier and Ross Morin. I'm thinking we put Holland on Zampier and O'Brien on Morin, and that should take care of things.

As far as our offense goes, keep shooting the 3, as long as they're falling. I'd like to see Brittain and JOB work together inside a lot more, so I'm gonna keep an eye out for that.

They game is at the Roof at 7, so make sure to be there. I'm guessing attendance for this game will be in the 600-650 range. Prove me wrong.

Oh, and for a score prediction: BU 80 Yale 66

Boxlines of the Week

The High Roller's computer is on the fritz these days, so I'm taking on his running segment this week.

Boxline of the Week

Tyler Morris - 12/6/08 (vs. Marshall)

 Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
Morris, Tyler....... g  3-4    3-4    4-5    0  3  3   3  13  5  3  0  0  37
It would have been very easy to just plug in Corey Lowe's 36
points against Marshall... too easy. But honestly, I think Tyler's breakout game
shooting-wise is a much more important development for the team. He sank a
couple tough three's to get going, and then after that he was butta cause he was
on a roll. A healthy, productive Tyler Morris means everything to the success of
the team. Having him (along with Carlos Strong) as a solid secondary scorer
behind the three-headed monster. Plus Tyler deserves this after two straight
Boxlines of the Weak from the High Roller. 

Boxline of the Weak
 

Scott Brittain - 12/3/08 (@ Harvard)

 Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
Brittain, Scott.....    0-2    0-0    1-2    1  1  2   4   1  1  0  0  2   9

I know that it's mostly not Scotty's fault. But at what point do we begin wondering 

if last year's 3rd Team All-AE, 10 ppg Scott is coming back for his sophomore year. 

He has been back from his concussion for 5 games now, and it hasn't gotten much 

better than this game against Harvard. Some of it has to do with JOB's emergence. 

How much of it has to do with what Wolff calls his lack of aggression out there?

Be Perfect, BU: The Marshall Preview

I tried to watch We Are Marshall last night, to get inspired for this afternoon's game against the real Marshall. But the video store was out of it, and the closest thing I had was Friday Night Lights which I had never seen.

Truly inspirational. And you can picture Coach Wolff in that locker room motivating the Terriers to victory just the way Billy Bob Thornton did. Well, maybe not exactly the same.



The game today will be played at lovely Agganis Arena. A lot's been said this week about whether BU should be playing more of their games at The Greek or if they shouldn't play any at all. I've written about this before, and I'm firmly of the mind that BU should be playing games there - in fact I love this half-and-half arrangement they have now. The shooting percentage numbers are lower there, for sure - but I believe that's caused by the quality of the opponent we host there.

A week and a half ago, these same Terriers shot 55% in a win in Northeastern's Matthews Arena. The general shittiness of Matthews aside, it's a pretty similar setup to Agganis: it's located on top of a hockey rink; there's seats behind the baskets. And I don't think the Terriers have been coming over to practice in Matthews Arena on their off days. So the idea that BU is unable to shoot well in Agganis for those reasons simply doesn't hold water.

However, I love that the term "curse" is thrown around now. Here's D-Wolff:

“I vehemently disagree with the idea that there’s any curse at Agganis,” BU coach Dennis Wolff said. “Agganis is a state-of-the-art building. It’s one of our home courts. It’s great to play in there and that’s how we have to look at it.”

And if there's a team to break the "curse" against, it's Marshall. This is not the same team that destroyed us 70-47 last year. And we're not the same team either - that was when Tyler was still hurt, Johnny H. was still coming off the bench, and C-Lowe was on his mental health vacation.

This year's Marshall Thundering Herd come into The Greek at 1-4, with losses already to Wisconsin-Green Bay, Morgan State and East Tennessee State. Not lighting the world on fire quite yet.

This is BU's second chance (out of 3) this year to lay the smack down on a major conference opponent, since Marshall's coming from the Conference USA. Make it happen.

Two Things

1. Props to JOB
It hasn't been mentioned yet, but props to Jake O'Brien for taking Rookie of the Week honors this week. He's been a monster, lately. Had a helluva game on Wednesday, and if he plays just as well tomorrow, he could make it two weeks in a row.


2. It's fun beating on privileged kids
Just ask Corey Lowe, John Holland, and Jake O'Brien. These three went to town on Harvard Wednesday night, but it wasn't just them. The entire team functioned like a fairly-well-oiled machine. I thought we could have reached 90 points, if not for a big drought towards the end of the game. Still, we won convincingly over what I've heard is a pretty good Harvard team.


Up Next: Marshall, Saturday, 3 PM, at the Greek. Be there.

BU claims the Territory of Allston

There was a lot to feel good about in tonight's big blowout win over Harvard! As I mentioned before, the Crimson are not a bad team this year and will win a lot of games by the time this year is over. That said, BU played their second-best game of the season and Harvard had no chance.


It seems like we have a new three-headed monster on campus, and its name is Jakney O'Hollowe. Corey goes off for 20 points... Again. Holland sleepwalks to 17. JOB cruises to 18 points, and this time adds 8 boards. These guys playing this well together makes a potent offensive attack, and real matchup problems for any opponent.

We had a team effort and did the little things. Like making 75% of our free throws and outrebounding a bigger team with hustle - those are two things we failed miserable against the Mount. And winning the turnover battle. Overall, BU shot 48% from the field, which only sank below 50% because of the scoring drought over the last 8 minutes of the game, when the outcome was already decided.

Props to two guys in particular today. Vlad Sirutis got his first significant playing time of the year after Scotty B and JOB picked up some early fouls. He knocked down his first shot of the year, a money 3-pointer in the first half, and played solid defense. And Tyler Morris played his best game of the year so far, despite only netting 7 points. He hustled for 6 rebounds and dished out 6 assists (we'll let the 6 turnovers slide tonight). His shots still weren't falling, but he's figuring out how to contribute.

The guys most LOVE these road games that they could probably walk to. They seem relaxed, and and quite a few of our fans make the short trip over (you guys were LOUD on the radio broadcast - well done!!). Too bad BC refuses to play us, the pussies.

Where Amaker Buys His Apples: The Harvard Preview

I'm ready to get over this one.

At exactly 8:51pm on Saturday, November 29, I turned off the BU vs. Mount St. Mary's game, drove to airport and boarded a Delta 737 that took me directly (via layover in Cincinnati and Houston) to the Le Blanc Spa & Resort in Cancun, Mexico to partake in some relaxation, refreshment and rejuvenation for my mind, body and spirit. I was in a knot after that game, and a Shiatsu massage, seaweed body wrap and a 50-minute Steam-Vichy Rain Journey were just what the doctored ordered to calm my hoop-rage.

Or, not. I couldn't drop the 3 grand it would take for rejuvenating therapy, so I had to rely on the old fashioned Frank Costanza method:



It was a frustrating game - to listen/watch, to play in, and to coach. Mount St. Mary's is a good team, and they played well enough to win on Saturday - but I don't think they are necessarily the better team. I think the teams were evenly-matched to the point that whoever was the home team would win. MSM jumped out to a big early lead, but BU was able to grind it down throughout the entire 2nd half to tie the game with 5 minutes left.

Much of the trouble in this one came from FREE THROWS and REBOUNDING. We were dominated in both aspects. I think that's where much of the frustration came from. Plus that one really frickin fast guy they have.

It appears as though D. Wolff blew a gasket in this one. The refs blew a shot clock violation on MSM with about a minute to go that could have altered the outcome of the game, and the refs basically admitted they blew it by not T-ing up Wolff during his ranting. The players got fired up too, with news coming that the two teams nearly erupted in fisticuffs near the locker rooms after the game.

But it's time to forget about that now, and I can only hope that much of that fire carries over to tonight's game against Harvard. This is another team that is easy to underestimate but not very easy to beat. BU has pwned the smart kids lately, winning 14 of the last 15. And Tommy Amaker has nightmares about the Terriers, dating back to his back-to-back home losses to BU back at Michigan.

He's starting to bring some good players to the Crimson though, and it's showing in the standings. Harvard is going to challenge for the top couple spots in the Ivy League by the end of the year.

There are plenty of reasons to hate them though:

1. New York Times exposes dirty recruiting by Harvard

"In a New Era at Harvard, New Questions of Standards"
The New York Times
By Pete Thamel
March 2, 2008

"It is also because Harvard is willing to consider players with a lower academic standing than previous staff members said they were allowed to. Harvard has also adopted aggressive recruiting tactics that skirt or, in some cases, may even violate National Collegiate Athletic Association rules [...] In the race to become competitive in basketball, Harvard’s new approach could tarnish the university’s sterling reputation."

And this is funny...

"In another case, Amaker approached the parents of an athlete in a grocery store and urged that their son visit Harvard..."

See ya in the produce aisle, Tommy!

2. Harvard encroaching on BU's territory

"Residents mobilize against Harvard"
Allston-Brighton Tab
By Karen Elowitt
February 15, 2007

Allston may be smelly and disgusting, but this side of the river is ours, bitches!

3. Apples

Boxlines of the Week

A day late, but here you go:

Boxline of the Week

Corey Lowe - 11/25/08 (@Northeastern)

 Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
 Lowe, C.  10-15   4-8    3-3    0  4  4   2  27  6  2  0  1  39

Corey lit it up against the Huskies. It seemed like every shot he took was going to fall. He did more than just shoot. He spread the ball around, got 6 assists, 4 boards and a steal. Overall, a pretty good night for Corey.

Boxline of the Weak

Tyler Morris - 11/29/08 (@Mount St. Mary's)

 Player Name  FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
 Morris, T.  0-1    0-0    1-4    0  1  1   3   1  1  1  0  0  13

I know I promised no more boxlines of the "weak" for Tyler, but our point guard needs to be playing more than 13 minutes in a game. I'm not sure if he was hurt, or whatever his deal was. He had the chance to tie the game with two free throws that came from a technical foul, and he missed them both. Something's up with him.