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.