A Night at the Pelaggio

You know, I lied last night when I wrote that we really couldn't learn anything from the Maine game. We learned that Jeff Pelage is going to be a fun player to watch over the next 4 years.

I have to remind myself that this was against Maine, but JP (or "Busta" as the Burger Man calls him) put on a fine show last night. After he seemingly kept scoring 9 points and 8 rebounds every time he got decent minutes... he finally broke through to double digits in BOTH categories, resulting in his first career double-double: 10 pts, 12 rebounds. Not to be outdone, John Holland had a dub-dub with 20 and 10. Jake O'Brien had 18 and 9... falling obviously 1 board short. What's crazy is I specifically remember when Jake and John both had 9 rebounds, and one of the last defensive possessions they were in the game, a rebound came down and both grabbed it at the same time, but Jake was closer. I remember thinking, 'Nice, both freshman are gonna have double-doubles!' And then John just ripped the ball out of Jake's hands, and Jake kind of backed off. So John Holland literally took a double-double right out of JOB's hands. I guess that'll be a lesson to him about why he should be more aggressive on the boards.

But back to Pelage, and speaking of aggression on the boards... he was a lunatic out there when he saw a missed shot coming his way. On several occasions he knocked down other BU players when he grabbed a rebound. This happened to Scott Brittain and either Matt Wolff or JOB I think. It was awesome and hilarious. He would not be denied.

In all his interviews, DW says he just needs to work harder and it will just come to him. He could be a force inside if he puts his mind to it.

Just Don't Get More Hurt: The Maine Preview

The Terriers have got two games left, both at home, but we may not know any more about our team before the tourney than we do right now.

One reason for this is that these two games are against the two worst teams in the conference. Tonight is Maine, and Saturday is Hartford. We have blown out both of these teams. The only way we'll learn something from these games is if we lose one of them. Maine and Hartford will meet in two weeks in the Stony Brook Invitational, at which Stony Brook will be conspicuously absent.

Secondly, we're hearing a little bit from the injury fairy these days. These are the first injuries since TyLos went down. Corey Lowe turned his ankle in the nice win over Iona, and it looked really bad when he left the gym on crutches. But he made a "miraculous" recovery and will start tonight. However, JOB turned his ankle in practice and will be a game time decision.

So my hopes for this game is no more injuries, a win and a John Holland triple-double. In that order.

There's no place like home

There was yet another Freep column today about which building BU should play basketball inside of. The Hot Dog has established in the past that he is strictly in favor of Case Gym as the home for BU basketball. The guy who wrote yesterday's article, known to Freep.com readers only as "MEYER," is in favor of playing our home games at Harry Agganis Arena. I thought I'd weigh in.

First, the Hot Dog's case for Case stems mostly from the performance of the current and recent teams, in terms of winning percentage and shooting percentage. The reality is, those things are going to correct themselves back to the mean in time. There is no Agganis Curse, as Coach Wolff rightfully insists and I'm sure the HD knows this. But Hot Dog makes good points about practice time and comfort level on the Agganis floor that are valid - but I think those are things that will improve on their own over time as well. The Terriers won their fifth game at The Greek this year, and looked more comfortable than I have ever seen them play there in their win over Albany. They play the last game of the season there against Hartford, and I'm predicting the comfort level will continue to improve with each game.

I disagree with MEYER's original complaint that BU's "big deal" of a Bracketbuster game should have been played at Agganis; it would have been a big deal if it were a real Bracketbuster on TV, but it wasn't... and if we had gotten a TV game, I believe it would have been held at The Greek. But he/she makes good points about many teams having separate practice facilities, about The Roof being the smallest AE facility BY FAR, and about impressing recruits with our nice new arena.

Look, we are not filling up either gym. Attendance at Case is probably hovering somewhere around the 500 mark. While it's only marginally better at Agganis, it looks bad no matter where we play. Might as well give the fans a thrill by being lonely in a big-time arena.

And about the fans. Many fans are attached to The Roof, including me. They say it sounds louder in there because every is closer to the action. But they said the same thing when the hockey team moved from Walter Brown Arena to Agganis. And they were right to an extent, but I don't think anybody is complaining about it any more.

The bottom line is that if we have an A+ facility on campus, we should use it. Playing there more often should alleviate the comfort concerns of the players, and playing some lesser opponents there should get that winning percentage back on the right track. As far as attendance is concerned, it sucks right now no matter where we play. The only thing that can fix that is winning. And that has little to do with where we play the games.

Bracket Bluster: The Iona Preview

Today is BracketBuster Saturday. While Vermont is on The Deuce (do people still call it that?) playing in a real Bracketbuster against Buffalo, at the same time BU will be stuck inside Case Gym playing a sub-.500 team in a "Bracketbuster Pool game." Unfortunately this does not mean they're playing Marco Polo.

Back during our 8-game winning streak (R.I.P.) I got cocky and complained about the quality of our opponent, Iona College. Right now, Iona is 12-15, under .500 in conference play, and sitting in 6th place in the MAAC. Their RPI is languishing in the low 100's. Basically, they're not very good.

But let's get real, we're not busting anyone's bracket they way we're playing lately. I predicted before the season that we'd get stuck with some shitty MAAC team, and we are, just like usual.

What BU needs more than a better BB opponent is some wins and getting back to playing the way we were before. And some rest. The guys look tired.

Corey is mad from being benched against Stony Brook. We could have won the game if he played, but I'm pretty glad he got some rest anyway. I hope it lights a fire under his ass for the rest of the season. Last time he was benched, he came back to play the best ball of his life.

FCP says Wolff is planning to start Lowe against Iona, so everybody's back on good terms. Wolff also says he's planning to play all the starters their regular minutes. I suppose he wants to get them back into the flow of how we were playing before, but I can't say I wouldn't like to see quite a few minutes of Valdas, Pelage and --dare I say it?-- the Rod.

(Nah.... never happen)

Not as bad as it seems: The Stony Brook Preview

That last game against Binghamton was a tough one, but after reflecting on it a bit I don't think it was too bad.

Corey had a rough game. He shot 2-for-15 and missed two chances to win the game with under 30 seconds. I bet he felt crummy about it afterward.

But Corey's not going to let that happen more than once or maybe twice in a season. He's too good. We lost to the first-place, supposedly "best," team in the conference by 1 point. Our two best players, who average 18 apiece, came up with 17 combined. This is not the norm.

And, after getting down big in the first half, the team showed a lot of grit in clawing all the way back to take the lead and had a chance to win. That kind of fortitude hasn't happened every time (i.e. both Vermont games) and I love to see it. Props to Scott Brittain for his best game of the year - one rebound short of a dub-dub and tying his career high for points.

Two strange things we saw in last game. Matt Wolff sat for most of the second half in favor Marques Johnson, and Wolff's focus on continually pushing the ball inside rather than taking outside shots. I'll be looking out to see if those trends continue tonight...

..against Stony Brook. Please God, our team cannot take another 60 minute game. Win or lose, let's have this one end at 40. At this point, we're almost assured of the #3 tournament seed and that extra rest might be more important than the W.

Stony Brook has been good and is threatening to bring its white jerseys to the AE tourney for the first time. They just took UVM to overtime, yes the same team that just beat us by 28.

If nothing else, this is our last road game of the year and it gets easier from here on out.

I Want a Win

Not just a win. I want us to beat the snot out of Stony Brook Wednesday night. I want Wolfie to cry (not our coach or #2 on our team, but SB's mascot). I want them to have a miserable 4.5 hour bus ride walk back to Long Island their dorm rooms.

It's not because of what they did to us in the first round of the 2004 tournament. I'm over that. Finally.

And it's not because Stony Brook is the birthplace of this living turd.
But it doesn't help.

No, I just want to beat the hell out of the Seawolves to take my mind off our last two games. The Vermont game made me queasy. The Binghamton game was worse because the final shot was one that Corey could have made.

It's time to get back on track, and who better to do that against than Stony Brook?

But hold on a second! This isn't the Stony Brook we've come to know. These ruffians are in 4th place, and have taken Vermont, Binghamton, and us into overtime. They lost all three overtime games, but very nearly beat the three teams in front of them in the standings.

They will be sure to bring it Wednesday night, so we've got to make sure to get on top, stay on top, crush their spirits, and not let up until it's over, for better or worse.

Just like my Saturday nights.

Let's try this again: The Binghamton Preview

Today marks our second straight contest fighting for the top spots in America East. After the Vermont disaster, we find ourselves out of the first place battle for now, but we play Fake BU today for second place.

Last time we played Binghamton, we were coming off a disaster against Vermont. Sound familiar? All the fans were feeling down, and we were pessimistic about our chances. And the Terriers came out and dominated on Binghamton's home court.

This time, we're at The Roof, where we tend to dominate. I like our chances.

The Terriers are going to be fighting fatigue from here on out, but they need to be careful not to hype themselves up too much. Sure the game is important, but we need to just get into our game and relax.

It's Valentine's Day. Feel the love, Terriers.

And then it all came crashing down..

You know, I could just delete everything I wrote in the 24 hours preceding the last game about BU being unstoppable, but that wouldn't really be sporting.

So, the Vermont game was a bust. A huge bust. The most ginormous bust. It was Phil Mickelson's bust. Vermont seems to be the one team we cannot beat right now. They were the last team to beat us before our winning streak, and they ended it.

The remarkable thing was how similar this game was to the last Vermont game. We got big early leads, let them back into a slight lead, struggled to keep it close for a while in the second half, Matt Wolff gets frustrated by fouls, then Vermont runs away with it.

The problem in this one was mental mindset. Just like last time, Matt lost his composure and started picking up stupid fouls. This time, John Holland got extremely frustrated too, so much so that Coach Wolff had to take him out of the game with several minutes left.

The Catmounters played hard aggressive defense, which was the reason for their win. It caused 21 Terrier turnovers. I'm surprised there weren't more fouls called, considering how much contact they were initiating on defense.

Bottom line is the we won't win the conference without being able to beat Vermont (nor would we deserve to). We'll hopefully have one more chance at that. For now, it's time to get Phil Mickelson's boobs out of our heads and concentrate on Binghamton.

This is what #1 looks like

BU may have lost First Place in the America East standings last night, but we gained First Place on Sportscenter's Top Plays. In case you missed it last night (now with worse quality again):

Biggest game of the year?: The Vermont Preview

Here it is, the Big One - how this game isn't the Mid-Majority Game! Of! The! Night!, I have no idea. Seems like every year the "Biggest Game of the Year" playing up in Burlington in February. Just once, I want Vermont to finish in last so we have a different Biggest Game of the Year.

So this is our chance to finish in 1st place - if we lose this one, we'll lose all the tie-breakers and we'll have to hope Bing and Vermont lose to the lower echelon... which ain't happening.

Vermont beat us at home earlier this year, yes it's true. We were winning throughout the entire first half, then fell apart or ran out of gas in the second half. Vermont used a full-court press the whole game, and since Corey was brand new to running the point, it affected us. We had 14 turnovers in the game, and we haven't been coming close to that lately. You can also chalk a few of our misses up to the unfamiliar rims at The Greek.


I think tonight's game is different. Nobody is rolling like BU right now. Vermont is having some trouble at home, especially late in the game. Corey is far more used to running the show now - he's become a great facilitator and making great decisions about when to keep it himself. Holland and O'Brien are scoring like it's prom night.


Even Coach Wolff can't control his excitement. For several games now, he's been saying Corey has been playing as good as he's ever seen. And the Freep reported that after yesterday's practice, Wolff said John Holland looked like an NBA player during the workout. High praise from a man from whom praise is normally issued in teacups, not buckets.

The Rest of the Best

With 5 games left in the conference season, the cream has risen to the top of the standings. It appears to be a 3-horse race now, between BU, Binghamton and Vermont. Everyone else is below .500. So how good is each team really, and what does the rest of the season hold for them? This is a blog, so I thought I'd spout off some uneducated opinions and homerism.

Boston University

In my mind, we are clearly the best team in America East. We have shown steady improvement since the beginning of the conference season, with no hiccups at all. Now we're just blowing everybody out. Does that mean we're amazingly consistent, or amazingly due for a hiccup very soon? Over the last few years, every time BU puts together a run and starts doing well enough to be mentioned in Bracketologies and Mid-Major polls, we lose a game and come back down to reality. So as a BU fan I'm constantly on edge about this when we start doing really well. This group is playing so well it's got me remarkable calm now though.

Corey and Johnny haven't been letting anybody get off this train, and until I see otherwise, I've got to believe it will continue.

Vermont

All season long I thought of Vermont as the powerhouse frontrunner. Way before the season started too. They have so many weapons. But we're starting to see chinks in the armor. They have lost twice at home and double- and triple-teams seem to be starting to work on Blakely. And most importantly, they don't seem like they are able to effectively close out games. Everyone thinks about the horrific/embarrassing loss to Binghamton last week, but the same thing happened to a lesser degree against Hartford 2 days ago, and only won by 8. And if Hartford wasn't so terrible they might have come all the way back. It's a bad weakness, and it's the opposite of what BU has been doing to opponents.

Binghamton

They are so erratic. It means they could easily put together 3 hot games and win the tournament, but it also means they can't sustain it for the whole conference season. They went 0-fer three point range (twice!) earlier this season, or they can shoot the lights out. They can put up a gawdawful first half up in Vermont... or they can put up an amazing second half in Vermont. When it comes down to it, this team didn't impress me at all when BU destroyed them on the road earlier this year. We shut down their best player DJ Rivera, and they had nothing else. So until I see better (and they'll get a chance to prove it this Saturday), I don't think they have the horses (or the consistency) to finish in first place.

No rest for the weary: The New Hampshire Preview

See? What curse? BU took care of bidness Thursday night against Albany in Agganis, proving it once and for all that we can win there. Nine regular season games in a row is a nasty streak, but it ain't no curse. Ask the Cubbies.

How much more can be said about the way the team is playing. Seven games in a row, and they're not even letting them stay close any more. I guess all we can ask for is for the team not to overlook today's UNH matchup while looking forward to The Big One against Vermont on Wednesday.

The Albany win + the loss by Vermont means we're alone in first place by a full game for the first time in a long time. It's been said that we now control our own destiny - meaning if we win all the rest of our games, we lock up the #1 seed. But everyone forgets there's another team that controls its own destiny, and it's Vermont. If the Crapamounts win all the rest of THEIR games, they get the #1. And they get us at home. So I still wouldn't put us in the driver's seat.

That's what makes all the other games so important, starting today in Durham. And we're playing for the 4th time in 8 days, 3 of them on the road. We absolutely destroyed the Wildcats at home for our first conference win. I think UNH will do a little better this time so we can't sleep on them.

Let's enjoy first place while we still can: The Albany Preview

Fascinating game tonight! We take on Albany at The Greek, playing for the first time this season as the first place team, thanks to Vermont's choke-fest last night.

First, let's get it out of the way. We have lost 9 straight reg season games at Agganis. You probably know that I don't buy the curse argument, but apparently some of the players do, so it might be a factor for that reason alone. Some believe our struggles are due to shooting against a different background - but we have scored well there this year. We put up 80 against Marshall, and Corey had a great game that day. So what wins out: 9 game Agganis losing streak, or 6 game current winning streak?

Today's matchup against Albany is a rematch of our first AE game, and the first without TyLos, AND Corey was benched. BU fans were getting the razorblades ready. But the Terriers played tough thanks to John Holland and Marques Johnson, only lost by one and we backed off the ledge thankfully. Would having Corey Lowe on the floor that night have made the difference for us? Maybe we'll find out tonight.

We have four players averaging in double figs during conference play! BU, normally known for dominating defense, is winning games with their efficient offense these days.

Bottom line for tonight:
Terriers win... BU will be alone in first place by a full game.
Terriers lose... BU will fall back into a first place tie with Vermont, Binghamton and Albany.

Cock punch: The UMBC Review

I got to see my second in-person BU game of the season, and it was a good one -- not as good as the 2OT UMBC game from two weeks ago, but that's probably a good thing.

Considering this game was directly up against BU's Beanpot game, I figure there were exactly 6 BU fans who saw this game... and they were all in the stands at the RAC (I don't think Comcast SportsNet or MASN got the BU audience they were hoping for). It was our group of 3, plus Corey Lowe's uncle and his ladyfriend and two other BU fans, one of whom was wearing a hockey jersey. Now, we all know my feelings on this, but I appreciate his dedication. But if you're out there reading this dude, can you just explain it to me: you're obviously a huge BU hockey fan, huge enough to wear a hockey jersey to a bball game... and the BEANPOT was going on! I'm baffled.

C_Lowe's uncle is The Man. We recognized each other from when we met at past BU-UMBC games, since he lives in Maryland somewhere. After the game I tried to talk him into going to Albany for the conference tournament, I may have even offered him a ride, I can't remember.

Anyway, the game was highly entertaining. BU was wearing the home whites, since UMBC was doing a "Blackout the RAC" dealio and wore their black unis. When we got to the game a little late due to the famous DC traffic snarls, BU was losing 16-6. We sat down directly behind the BU bench, and the team immediately went on a 19-0 run. Obviously we were the spark that the team needed. Well, either us or Jake O'Brien, who had a career high 25 points.

UMBC kept it close for most of the second half, until we pulled away nicely at the end. UMBC happens to play even less guys than we do, so foul trouble was a factor. The turning point, and the most exciting part of the game, is when with about 4 minutes left UMBC frosh Chauncey Gilliam punched Matt Wolff in the nuts. For realz. They were lined up next to each other for a free throw, and in the process of "boxing out" Gilliam threw a left fist behind him directly into Matt's pills. Problem was, nobody in the arena saw any of this, including the refs, we just saw Matt writhing around holding about a pound of Aunt Betty's nut butter. Then Matt got fired up, Orlando Vandross got fired up, and the refs went to to video tape. Indeed, they said, Gilliam sent Matt on a trip to Bangkok, and so they ejected him. I couldn't see any of this, but we just heard massive booing from the student section. Unless they were saying Booo-urns. Anyway, I Tivo'd the game and checked out the reply, and they made the right call - it was a really bad cheap shot.

The crowd got so fired up that Matt missed his first free throw, which made them even more fired up. I was slightly worried about our 7 point lead. But then Johnny Holland came through with back-to-back 3-pointers, complete with shushing motions to the crowd, and everyone on UMBC except for Darryl Proctor lost the will to keep playing. It was a blowout after that.

Nice win on the road for our boys.

A Six-Pack of Wins

It shouldn't be a surprise that our biggest winning streak came during conference play, but considering the turn our season took in the first week of January, when we lost Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong. Let's take a look at these wins.

1/17/09 @ Binghamton 81-64

The game that got us going. Never did I think, after our losses to Albany and Vermont, that we would go to Binghamton and blow them out. This team has some heart, I think, to not give up on a season when you lose a couple pieces. They showed it in the Albany game too, even though they lost in the final minute.

1/19/09 vs. Stony Brook 99-97 4OT

Normal this game is a breeze, but not this year. This year, the Seawolves have some spunk, and forced us to battle them for sixty minutes, and nearly put it into a fifth OT. Let's hope Wolff has a better game plan when we play in their house in a couple weeks.

1/22/09 vs. UMBC 80-77 2OT

Only took us two OT's to win this game. UMBC is clearly down from where they were last year, with only 3 conference wins. They're better than this, though, so don't be fooled.

1/25/09 @ Maine 73-62

I nearly turned this game off after 10 minutes of listening, when we were down 18 early in the first half. It was an amazing game to listen to, and really made my Saturday morning. Jake O'Brien had a career high 24 points.

1/31/09 @ Hartford 72-47

We kind of beat the crap out of the Zeglinsky-less Hawks, but I don't think it would have been close even if he had played. Weren't the Hawks supposed to be better this year?

2/2/09 @ UMBC 82-65

Jake O'Brien bumps up his career high to 25 and Matt Wolff takes a shot to the groin to the amusement of nearly every reader of this blog.

A few stats from this stretch:

-Over these six games, John Holland averaged a ridiculous 23.5 points per game. He's making his case for Player of the Year in a big way.

-Matt Wolff has averaged a ridiculous 5 points per game in the last six games. He's making his case for sportsmanship award (it usually goes to the son of the coach anyway). Just kidding though, Matt's been playing hard and putting forth the effort, even if his numbers don't show it.

-Vermont also hasn't lost a game since we've last lost, meaning next weeks match-up will be a clash of mediocre titans.

We've got some tough games ahead of us, so things won't get any easier, but this team looks sharp right now. We've got a big game at the Greek tomorrow night against Albany, let's hope we can fill it at least half way up, because this is a win we'd really like to have.

Mascot issues

Lots of pixels lately on the interwebs about the America East mascots for some reason. America Least decided to do a Mascot Bracketology, and the Hot Dog wrote up his own rankings of the mascots. Hot Dog obviously placed Rhett the Terriers as the #1 mascot, and the America Least brackets have yet to play out.

But as big a fan as I am, I have a bone to pick with Rhett. I attended my one and only BU home game a couple weeks ago (you may remember it... it went 4 overtimes). I had a young lady with me who may not be the biggest basketball fan but is a huge fan of mascots. And Rhett the Terrier decided not to show up for that Monday night home game at the Roof!! All she wanted was a picture with Rhett. While I would have felt pity for the poor soul who had to endure four overtimes in that stuffy suit, it would have been nice to have a little entertainment in between periods for those of us who were excited to see Rhett.

We did a little investigating, and found out that the reason for Rhett's absence was that the athletic department for some reason didn't have access to the Rhett suit that night. Huh???

We were told that it was locked up in some inaccessible part of Agganis because of the hockey game TWO NIGHTS EARLIER or something. That's not even the worst part, get this: there are TWO different Rhett suits, and they couldn't get the other one either! The story on that is apparently it was somewhere in East Campus and nobody bothered to go get it. What was it doing in East Campus you might ask? Hell if I know, maybe walking around Myles dining hall or some other such non-athletic activity. Come on BU, these are really sad reasons not to have your mascot at a home basketball game.

The mascot impropriety doesn't stop there, however. Two days ago, BU had a game on ESPNU, and since we're not often on national TV, they bused down to Hartford with the cheerleaders, band and some fans, plus our lovable Rhett. Cool idea, right? Yeah, cool idea -- except I'm watching on TV and I almost spit out my Miller Lite:

RHETT THE TERRIER IS WALKING AROUND THE HARTFORD GYM IN A HOCKEY JERSEY.

What the shit? This is an outrage. This is worse than Rhett not showing up to a home game. Would Rhett ever prance around at a home BU hockey game dressed in a basketball jersey? No, he'd be laughed off the ice. BU fans who go to basketball games dressed in their hockey jersey have a special place in hell reserved for them. And not only does our mascot do that, but he does it at an AWAY game, on NATIONAL TV, for everyone else to see how pathetic it is.

Ugh. Come on, Rhett. Time to step up your game. The team needs you. The fans need you. I need you.

At least we know the BU Dance Team is still on top of things: