#16 over #1: Why Can't it Happen?

(photo courtesy BU Athletics)

This is the end - it all culminates today against the University of Kansas (yet they use the initials KU... wtf?). There will be no more games for BU after today.

At least, that's what we're told. The 16 seeds are 0-105 all time against the 1 seeds. All the articles about Kansas are talking about their path to the Final Four now that Louisville and Vanderbilt have been knocked off. And why shouldn't they? The first game for the 1 seeds are barely worth playing.

However, they do they play them. This is where the all the usual phrases come in, like the game isn't played on paper. Steve Buckley wrote a nice piece for the Boston Herald today on this very same subject - read it.

I'm proud to report that I'm one of the 0.9% of people who picked BU to beat Kansas in my bracket (which was the highest percentage out of all the 16 seeds, by the way). Do I really think they'll win? No, I don't.

But, a #16 has to defeat a #1 someday, right? Why couldn't it be our Terriers? It's a game - both teams play by the same set of rules. Anything can happen. If Darryl has one of his random games where he goes off for 30, and John can't miss and gets to the line, and Griff hits all his threes, and Pat Hazel doesnt get into foul trouble... who knows.

Unlikely but I'll be cheering like hell for Johnny H and the Terriers to pull off the impossible just the same. And America will be right there behind us.

Jayhawk Squawks Back

For this big occasion, I thought we'd reach out to see if any Jayhawk fans can clear a few things up for us in advance of the main event. We can all learn a thing or two from people who are from so far out in the middle of nowhere that there is absolutely nothing to do but concentrate on their basketball team.

Lifelong KU fan JayhawkLex, who "literally bleeeeeeeeeds crimson and blue," was nice enough to answer the call with some friendly trash talk.

BU Hoops Blog: You grew up in Lawrence and went to KU, obviously a huge Jayhawk fan. What are the coolest traditions about Kansas basketball?

JayhawkLex:
Our first coach literally invented the game.
Our opening video montage stars with Wilt Chamberlain.
Phog Allen's coaching pedigree -- Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith, and others.
The Rock Chalk Chant.
Allen Fieldhouse is literally a basketball mecca. And it gets loud as hell.
Pre-game foot fire exercise and floor dives during warm-ups
Shaking newspapers while opponents are announced and tearing them up into confetti when our players are announced.
Seniors start on senior night.
Mastering the claps to 'I'm a Jayhawk.'
The singing of -- and swaying to -- our alma mater song. Gives me goosebumps.
'Waving the wheat.'
Hating Mizzou (it literally dates back to violent raids during the Civil War).
The full and complete unity of Jayhawk Nation. We are EVERYWHERE, and we support our team members like they're family. Thomas Robinson: case-in-point.

...need more?

BU Hoops Blog: Rock Chalk Jayhawk... explain this string of seemingly nonsensical words.

JayhawkLex:
Traditional intimidation tactic :) And it rhymes.

But, in all seriousness, it actually came from a science professor in the late 1800s who wanted a chant to fire up his students. 'Rock chalk' comes from the deposits of chalk rock limestone in both western Kansas and on KU's campus (my dad is a geologist -- I know these words). The Jayhawk is a mythical beast, likewise rooted in history. (Jayhawkers were the Kansas abolitionists who fought to have Kansas entered as a free state.)

Now ask me why we hate Missouri so much :)

BU Hoops Blog: Kansas has a history of choking against BU's in the tournament (Bucknell, Bradley)... nervous?

JayhawkLex:
Nope. When was the last time a 1-seed lost to a 16-seed?

BU Hoops Blog: Predictions for the game --

JayhawkLex:

Will Kansas get to 20 before BU gets to 10?
Barely.
How close will the game be at halftime?
I'll bet you're down by 10 at half.
Who will win and by how much?
Kansas by 22.
How awesome would be if BU pulled off the shocking upset?
...do y'all even have a mascot?


Last words: Shout-out to @fakejoedooley.

Was Dorothy's Toto a Boston Terrier?

We found out last Sunday night that we'd be going to Tulsa to play against the Kansas University Jayhawks. I don't know why the guys were all cheering - the Terriers got robbed with this matchup!

I suppose we're lucky that we aren't in one of the play-in games. But Kansas is definitely one of the top 2 seeds overall - they should be playing the winner of a play-in. BU was clearly the best of the 16 seeds (if not better than one of the 15 seeds), so we should have gotten the worst of the 1 seeds - that would be Pitt in Washington, DC. In essence, Kansas got screwed too because they should not have gotten the best of the 16 seeds. Of course it won't matter for Kansas because they'll steamroll whoever.

For the record, Bill Self agrees with me:

“I was surprised they were on the 16 line to be honest,” Self said. “When I was in my mind going through the bracket, I didn’t have them as one of the teams on the 16 line.”

What do we know about Kansas? I'm sure some hayseed from Kansas will come on here and tell us all about them (and how much we suck, etc). But for the time being, we just need to know about their twin towers, Marcus and Markieff Morris. Pretty unstoppable.

But little do they know, we have a secret weapon: the long-lost third twin Dom Morris! Though only a freshman, and only averaging 5.6 points per game, and like 4 inches shorter, he just needs to reach within himself for that Morris DNA - no problem.

I Will Never, Ever Get Tired of This

I think I'll make this post my new homepage. And I don't really care that it takes up the entire space.

Nine Years of Waiting Ends - We're the Champs

Once I knew BU was hosting the AE championship, I knew I'd be sparing no expense to be there. I was in the house in 2002 (woo-hoo!) and 2003 (barf), and nothing short of a Lohan-style ankle bracelet was going to stop me from going this time.

So off I went -- with a quick stop at T's Pub for the pre-game tailgate where a couple of PBRs calmed the nerves. Being in The Greek for this game felt like an event. It wasn't sold out, but it felt like it. The crowd was buzzing, the bands and student sections were yelling back and forth, the bright ESPN lights were gleaming off the shiny hardwood floor. It felt like primetime.

I don't think I can adequately describe the game.

The first half made me want to cry. I think we had 3 points about 12 minutes into the game - something very sad like that. It picked up a little before the end of the half, but we still trailed 30-23 when the teams went into the locker rooms.

In need of a change of scenery and luck, I moved from my very adult-like seats halfway up the side at mid-court down to the rowdy students area behind the basket (no thanks to the fun-hating security guards who tried to stop me). For a while, nothing changed - Stony Brook went out to a 15 point lead and I sunk further into a Kafka-like depression.

Then he showed up.

John Holland -- 3-time AE First Teamer, AE Rookie of the Year, AE Player of the Year, future AE Tournament Most Outstanding Player, future BU Hall of Fame member, wearer of future BU Retired Number 23 -- decided it would be a good thing if we won the game and went to the Big Dance. He reeled of 14 points before anyone else on the court scored, over the course of about 6 minutes. I hope it goes down in BU lore as "The Six Minutes." They need to be remembered.

From there, it was a tight game, and Holland kept asserting himself. The last minute of the game, he drew a foul and sank two freebies to tie it up, forced a jump ball to give BU possession, then got fouled with 2.4 seconds left and sank two more. You know what happened next.

But going back to The Six Minutes. I have rewatched this section about 70,000 times on my DVR, and I get chills every time. Does anyone know how to upload a high-quality youtube of this - at least the 3 possessions in the middle that went three-pointer/ridiculous up-and-under/steal-and-breakaway?

.

John Holland wasn't going to be denied his trip to the Dance, and took it upon himself to carry the team on his back. In the process, he cemented his legacy at BU.

We Goin to the 'Chip

I wrote a long enjoyable blog post about the last day of the tourney on the plane just now. And then it got unceremoniously deleted. These were the highlights.

- It was a pleasure to watch Vermont lose. So many sad old people (their fans) reminded me of a nursing home.
- I praised Pat Hazel for ridiculous free throw shooting and general domination.
- Likewise, I praised Matt Griffin for his clutchness and declared his new nickname Matty Ice.
- I said I was so nervous watching BU beat Hartford that I shat out enough bricks to build the third Student Village tower.

That was the gist. So pumped for todays game against Stony Brook. The Greek will be rockin on The Deuce!

#Winning on Saturday (Duh)

The details of yesterday are a bit hazy after the tailgate. To paraphrase Rick James, four loko is a hell of a drug.

We missed the Albany-Stony Brook game, but the Binghamton-Vermont and Maine-Hartford were memorable and pretty good games. We spent the non-BU games vacillating between our neutral seats in the corner rooting for upsets, the beer garden for pretty reasonable $5 beers, standing in the bathroom lines, looking for outlets to charge cell phones, and inexplicably buying America East Tournament tshirts.

Our search for matches led us to ask pretty much everyone in the AE FanFest tent for matches. Nobody smokes anymore! But we were saved by a TV technician (I think) who went and got them from his truck, leading me to drunkenly tweet, "HOT DOGS FOR EVERYONE!" For those who care, we also ended up going on a late night Mohegan Sun run, wandering around the casino in our BU jerseys looking for the craps tables. (We broke even.)

The punctuation mark on the day was the Hartford fans storming the court after their upset of... Maine. Freaking Maine?! I spoke with Kyle from Midmajoritywho was wondering afterwardhow the UHa students would top this if they got a win in the semifinals.

Which brings us to tonight's game, of course, when BU will try to prevent another court-storming and who knows, maybe burning the arena to the ground. BU took care of bidness against UNH in one of my favorite types of games: it was exciting throughout but I was never really worried about losing. BU held a single-digit lead the whole time. I haven't seen box scores but apparently JH23 led the team in scoring, which was great considering we were so worried about his health. Matt Griffin, Darryl and DJ all hit some bigtime shots in the second half.

I was really impressed with the BU fan showing - loud and fairly numerous. Props to the kids with the "Partin the Interruption" and "DJ's got me falling in love again" signs.

I talked to John Holland's pops during halftime, who said he thought his soon looked good and pretty healthy (and I respect his expert opinion). Couldn't believe how calm he is though! I feel like I'm way more worried about hoping his son makes an NCAA tourney than he is! Maybe he knows something I don't...

Tonight we take on the homestanding host Hartford Hawks. In last year's quarterfinals, we won by 41 points. They did beat us this year in this building earlier this year. But that was before we were the team we are now. I watched that game at Cornwalls in Kenmore Sq with WildBoyz, and it was the one where we had a huge lead that we let evaporate over the last 5 minutes. Something tells me the Terriers won't let that happen again.

First order of business: resume rainy tailgating.
Second order of business: go inside to root against Vermont.
Third order of business: watch BU kick some ass.

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No Match (For BU or our Tailgate)

We're in the parking lot of Chase Arena in Hartford. We have an unbelievable spread laid out for our tailgate (the only damn one here at the tourney, dammit). We got brews, music, painted car, propane stove, hot dogs, all the makings of delicious egg mcmuffins... everything but one essential item: matches. KAHNNNNN!

As we scarf down our cold food, waiting to go in and check out Albany vs Stony Brook, I can't think about anything beside finding a place to pee in this parking lot. But I'm trying to think about today's BU-UNH matchup. Obviously the big variable is John Holland's ankle. If he goes, I think BU takes it easily - even if he's only 75%.

BU is a different team now than the one that lost to UNH in Durham (which was BU's last loss). We can actually play on the road now. Guys like DJ and Darryl have stepped up when John was out. The "Mildcats" are also playing like shit lately.

Dear Pat Hazel: please stuff Tyrone Conley every time he dares to drive into the lane.
Dear Dom Morris: don't be afraid to drive toward the bucket if you get it on the perimeter; we know you have the moves.
Dear Mike Terry Jr: do that offensive rebound/put-back thing you do.
Dear John Holland: please play and dominate.

OK. Need to go in and watch the end of this game. Matches never came. By the way - I still detest Vermont and their fans, but many of them walked by and were really nice. None had matches though.

Current drunk-score=7.5

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Terriers Clean Up at Awards Banquet (Not Literally, the Busboys Did That)

The "BU Hoops Mobile" (according to our drivers side rear window) made it into the Nutmeg State a little after midnight. That might be late for some, but not for the nocturnal Cousin Bob, in whose home we happen to be staying. So we settled in for a Bud Heavy or 3 to catch up on family business.

Today, the America East awards were released. BU did quite well:

- DJ Irving and Dom Morris made the All-Rookie team. I actually think DJ may have earned a shot at the Rookie of the Year award, which went to Vermont's Brian Voelkel (DJ played MUCH better in the two head-to-head games), but I was happy to see both DJ and Dom recognized.
- Pat Hazel made the All-Defensive squad, a very nice honor for the league's top shot-blocker who had a really slow start to the year.
- Darryl Partin made First Team All-AE, which came as quite a shock. But his offensive number show he deserves it, and he was really solid on the defensive end too.
- And finally, and most impressively, John Holland came away with First Team All-AE and the Conference Player of the Year award. He deserved it, we all know he deserved it, and nobody should have been pretending the entire year that anyone else might have taken it. If not for Marqus Blakely, he should have earned it twice or even three times. Congrats to John on a tremendous and well-earned honor.

I cant even think of a single award BU was even slightly shafted on - DJ may have had an outside shot at ROY, but it probably ended up right. Coach Chambers would probably be the Number 2 Coach of the Year choice behind UVM's Mike Lonergan. Overall a good take by the Terriers.

And now, to get some shut-eye. Long day of drinking, tailgating, basketball watching and drinking ahead of us.

Current drunk-scale=3

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The Road to H-Town

This year has sucked for BU basketball blogging. I shat the bed, the Hot Dog and Jesus folded up shop, and a few others dropped off as well. (Thank goodness for the Full Court Press.)

But that doesn't mean I can't rise like the phoenix to blog about Hartford 2011. I saw or heard every game this year, either in person, on TV at a bar, on internet video, on internet radio, or via an elaborate contraption I twice set up to record game audio when I wasn't home for the game. And frankly, what I've seen and heard has me EXTREMELY excited for single-elimination basketball this weekend.

The team, over the last month, has looked nothing short of great. John Holland took over the league. Darryl Partin helped him out. When John went down with an ankle, D.J. Irving stepped up and became an upperclassman out of thin air. The Terriers are the hottest team in the league and just beat Vermont without our best player.

We have a lot to look forward to this weekend. Watchable basketball. Beautiful, historic Hartford. Drunkenness. Hopefully a couple wins. Check back and I promise to update a few times.

Current drunk-scale=0

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