Packed to the Gills: The Northeastern Review

Let's get this out of the way.  We lost to one of our main rivals, in overtime.  It sucked.  Moving on...

This needs to be said: I've never seen the Roof packed like that in my life - and I've been to two America East Championship games there.  Every seat was filled, and people kept streaming in.  Kids were filling every aisle, stuffing every corner of the gym and basically hanging off the rafters.  I'm not sure how many standing room tickets were sold, but I'm damn glad the fire marshal didn't show up tonight.  Terriers, PLEASE keep this up!

The BU student section was phenomenal, the best I've ever seen it.  It was huge, it was loud, and it was on its feet the whole game.  Northeastern brought a nice little contingent as well, which made for a REALLY fun college basketball atmosphere.  Chants back and forth, screaming no matter who was scoring or had momentum.  I must admit I questioned the NU students' decision to remove all their shirts during the overtime period, considering their various physiques (flabby/manboobs or scrawny nicole ritchie types)... but hey they won the game so maybe that was the right play.

As for the basketball itself, BU showed some flashes but we have a ways to go before we're a really good team. Lots of dumb mistakes tonight - holding onto the ball after a rebound, free-throws, inbounding???  It was pretty obviously the first game of the season, because things looked rusty.

But I saw good things too.  DJ Irving and Darryl Partin showed the type of scoring versatility that we'll need from them this year.  I thought Pat Hazel was very solid, on offense and defense, when he wasn't picking up fouls.  Mattt Griffin came up with some huge 3-pointers in the last couple minutes.  The freshmen Chionuma and Kennedy showed glimpses of why they're so highly touted in the few minutes of action they got. 

And that comeback from 11 points down with 3 or 4 minutes to go??  Very gutsy.  That alley-oop tip-in to Hazel with 1.1 seconds left was INCHES from ending that game.

I like this team.  They'll get better and make some noise this year, count on it.