Hartford 2010: Rolling 7's and 11's All Weekend

I've attended the quarterfinals and semifinals of 9 America East tournaments in a row. Not since the second one have I come home feeling happy.

Of course that streak stopped this year when we demolished the host team Hartford 87-46 and then upset the top-seed Stony Brook 70-63 in a tense and amazing game. Corey Lowe looked like the player we always thought he might be, scoring 26 in the first game and 24 in the second, while contributing great defense and being a floor leader. He was the unquestioned MVP of the first two rounds of the tournament. Now, we have a date with the Catmounters for a trip to the Dance.

So how did it all go down? You really should have been there to see for yourself. But if you weren't...

Friday

Due to late starts from work, the weekend got off to a rough start. Traffic and a 6+ hour drive from DC to CT will put anyone in a bad mood, even those embarking on a hoops pilgrimmage. Sadly, but somewhat fortunately for our situation, the Binghamton situation and the combined men's and women's tournament at the same location meant we didn't have to get up there in time for the Stony Brook Memorial Play-In Game. We were sapped by the time we got to CT at 1:30am, so we called it a night so we could be at full strength the next day.

Saturday

Breakfast was delicious at the lakehouse courtesy of our amazing hosts. Of course, we all had the America East Special - two eggs over easy with cheese plus bacon and a sliced bagel.

We got to UH's Parking Lot N early to begin the annual tailgate. I wonder why nobody else tailgates at the America East Tournament. The weather was gorgeous and the Hartford parking cops were very cool in casting a blind eye toward the Miller Lites. Last year, the Albany Times-Union asked us about it:

A few cars over, recent Boston University alumni Chip Weiskotten and Mark Bassotti, natives now living in Washington, D.C., had set up shop with a BU flag, a grill and a crockpot filled with chili.

Both were such fervent basketball fans that, when they arrived back home this weekend, their respective moms had cut out various newspaper clippings on the championships for them to read.

"I'll root for Albany," Bassotti said, "unless they're playing B.U."

With the car painted with "Go BU" slogans and AC/DC blaring from the speakers, we let the sweet aura of Miller overtake us. We chatted with whichever Vermont fans wanted to come over and say hi. And the folks from Cabot Cheese loved us because we chanted, "Cheddar! Cheddar!" every time we saw them. And boy did they deliver.

Eventually, we did get inside to watch some basketball. We saw Stony Brook TCB against last place Albany. Finally, it was show-time and BU took the floor against Hartford. Unfortunately, Hartford never really seemed to take the floor against BU. This was absolute annihilation.

Poor Hartford - the hometown fans never got a chance to cheer for much this weekend, other than their women's team. J.O.B. and Corey shone brightest for BU, with 28 and 26 points. We happily went off to find some dinner downtown and were delighted to find some nice microbrew at City Steam Brewery.

We did end up going back to the arena for about half of the other two games... but they left a bit to be desired. Neither was close, and Maine (who we wanted to win due to Maine being the home state of the lady) was clearly going to lose. Plus, we wanted to check out Mohegan Sun.

The Sun was farther away than anticipated. We got there sometime around midnight. But we finally made it and were determined to play a few rounds at the craps table before we had to leave. We wanted to teach Honorary BU Alum Britt the basics of craps, so four of us put in $20 each and decided to play until the first shooter crapped out. Shouldn't take too long, right?

Cut to 45 minutes later, and the same dude is still freaking shooting! This guy couldn't miss -- a lot like BU earlier in the day against Hartford! Finally, he rolls a 7 and craps out. So we leave the table and drive home at 1:30... a combined $1,000 richer!!!

As someone mentioned on our way out, "I think this might be BU's weekend..."

Sunday - To be continued...

To Be the Best You Gotta Beat the Best: The Vermont Preview

Tonight is a huge game for our Terriers. The last two wins... they were nice. It's important to take out the UNH's and the Albany's that are near the bottom of the conference.

But tonight, Vermont comes to town. This is a different story, because BU is 0-4 against the best 3 teams (Vermont, Maine, Stony Brook).

If we fail to pick off any of these teams, we're going to be stuck finishing in the middle of the pack. Depending on how we do over these last 4 games, we end the season as high as #2 or as low as #5.

Vermont killed us in the first matchup this year. We kept Blakely under wraps, but the rest of their guys were hitting every shot they took. Luckily, we are MONEY at The Greek lately. Five of the last six games there have been wins.

Should be a great game - and it's on TV! That means I'm braving the snow to make it to the bar! Go Terriers!

Last Road Game: The Albany Preview

BU athletics marketing came up with the perfect giveaway for Thursday's game against UNH - camouflage shirts. They were a huge hit... when I watched on TV I could hardly see any fans in the stands.

Ba-dum-ching.

BU gave the fans who were there reason to cheer. After a lackluster first half, we dominated the Wildcats in the second. Our shots were falling and theirs weren't, simple as that. Tyler had his first great game back from his injury, John and Jake both shined and Corey had 7 assists to 1 turnover.

Some good trends continued in this game:

• UNH still hasn't beaten us in Boston since 1994
• BU has won 5 out of its last 6 games in The Greek

Tonight we will play in Albany. Despite their last place standing, they will put our crowd to shame, which is kind of depressing. Still, I think we kick some more ass tonight and put some more pressure on the teams ahead of us not to screw up.

Get Excited: The New Hampshire Preview

New Hampshire Wildcats basketball, coming to an Agganis Arena near you... CAN YOU FEEL THE EXCITEMENT??

I know part of the plan to build excitement around the BU basketball team was to hold more games in The Greek, but I'm not sure that's working anymore. We barely had 1,000 for the Albany game, and they were giving away JERSEYS! Methinks the luster of having normal games in Agganis (as a gimmick to get more people to games) may be wearing off.

When it comes down to it, a game against UNH just isn't exciting to the normal student, even if it's at The Greek. That's because it's not so much of a big event anymore, especially when we're playing higher-profile opponents like Vermont and GW there this year.

My friends, prepare for the first sub-1,000 Agganis crowd ever (aside from an ill-fated Creed performance). I don't think the camou tshirts are going to save us, cool as they may be.

And this sucks, because we're finally getting good at playing there. Last time out, the Terriers sank a school-record 16 3-pointers (6 from Los!) en route to demolishing Albany. We have a winning record there this year.

When we played UNH earlier this year, we played OK but were lucky to escape with a win when their best player that day, Tyrone Conley, got hurt in the second half. UNH has never played in The Greek, so I'm hoping they suffer whatever befell the Terriers the first 5 years they played there. The Wildcats do not always set the nets on fire anyway, so that's my prediction for the game: UNH has shooting woes, BU wins by 10.

The strangest BU basketball career ever

The Terriers had a fantastic night at The Greek last Tuesday - everything was working against Albany. Three-pointers were falling like whoa - a school record of 16! Johnny Holland had 21, Los had 18, JOB had 18. And Corey Lowe, despite only scoring 12 points, had another fantastic game with 5 steals, 6 assists and only 1 turnover!

The one negative coming out of the game was that we had another injury. And if I had told you at the beginning of the year that we would lose Brendan Sullivan to a separated shoulder and it would matter, I wouldn't have believed you. Actually, I would have said... Brendan Sullivan is back on the team? But this is just the latest chapter in the weirdest career of any BU athlete ever. Consider:

• Sullivan joins the 2005-06 Terrier squad as a highly touted freshman
• He doesn't make much of an impact, except for one an early season game against Rider in which he explodes for 15 points, all on 3-pointers.
• He messes up somehow and Wolff suspends him for the final regular season game and the AE tourney.
• He quits the team after the season.
• He stays at BU and spends the next 2 years playing pick-up hoops and presumably lounging around at the GSU
• He's announced at Terrier Tip-Off 08-09 as having rejoined the team as a walk-on, but only sees 4 mins of action all year
• Sully again quits the team, or is not asked to return, when Chambers takes over at the beginning of 09-10
• He is begged to return as a walk-on when it's clear we have a shortage of big men
• Sully then gains more and more PT until finally he's averaging over 15 mins in conference play this year
• And then, of course, Sully separates his shoulder and we're again short on big men.

We anxiously await Sully's return to the lineup.

Boy I'm glad I paid 40 bucks for my jersey: The Albany Preview

We got thrashed on Sunday, early and often. And for once, it wasn't man-beast Marqus Blakely doing the damage, since he ended up with only 11 points and 3 rebounds. We couldn't hit a damn thing for the first half of the game, and after that it didn't matter.

It was a disheartening loss and an embarrassing one, as I had a bunch of people come over and watch it in my apartment building's lounge. This included having get there and stake a claim on the main TV to ward off Cowboys fans. However, I don't think the loss was truly a reflection of our team. Consider:

1) We were coming off 4 games in a week, 3 of which were road games. Vermont came off a week of smoking doobies in the dorm rooms.

2) The Terriers actually showed some fight in the second half, playing hard until the final buzzer and keeping it a respectable 20-point loss (respectable, in that it could have easily been 30 or 35 points).

I don't think this was as bad as it looked. We're still 4-2 in the league, our stars still (eventually) shined and it represents the hardest our schedule gets all year and the most tired our team will be all year.

Well, up until tonight. We end this horrific stretch against Albany at The Greek tonight. It will be the 5th game in 10 days. I mean, come on. Will we have anything left in the tank?

I'm hoping a large crowd greets our weary warriors. They better show up, since the Athletic Department is springing for 1,000 BU basketball jerseys to give out. This is a fantastic thing! This blows every other giveaway they've ever done out of the water. If they gave out stuff like this all the time, people would actually show up... I mean it would bankrupt the Athletic Dept, but whatever.

Best of all, this could hopefully stem the tide of the most outrageous of Terrier fan faux-pas.... of course I'm speaking of the hockey jersey-wearing basketball fan. This phenomenon angers me like nothing this side of genocide, and it's an epidemic at BU. I want to knock these people out on sight. It's a basketball game, wear a basketball jersey or at worst a red t-shirt. If you wear a hockey jersey to basketball, you're not a real fan.

Now, thanks to this giveaway, nobody who calls themselves a BU basketball fan will have any good excuse. It's a FREE freakin jersey. Take one, wear it with pride, and save the hockey sweater for the next loss to UMass-Lowell.*

*Disclaimer: I do like the BU hockey team a lot, just not the people who wear the jersey to other sports.

30 for 30

The depleted Terriers took care of bidness against lowly Hartford on Saturday, 84-70.

Most notable about the game was the 30-point performances from Corey Lowe and John Holland. Yeah, in the same game! We've never done that before. These two superstars scored exactly three-quarters of our total output. Relying so much on two guys is never a great idea, but thanks to our bench situation it may be necessary this year. We won't need 30 from both of them every time, but we'll need to have good performances.

Before the Hartford game, I did some research that said winning the game meant we should be cleaning up in the AE Tournament this year. I'll admit, it's a bit of a stretch. But check this out. Corey Lowe won the AE Player of the Week for his 28- and 31-point games this week, giving BU a total of three winners of the award so far this year (Jake O'Brien and Holland have already won it). The AE did this research on the other teams this decade that had three different players win AE Player of the Week in the same year:

Boston University (2009-10)
John Holland, Corey Lowe, Jake O'Brien

UMBC (2007-08)
Ray Barbosa, Jay Greene, Cavell Johnson, Darryl Proctor

Albany (2006-07)
Jason Siggers, Brent Wilson, Jamar Wilson

Albany (2005-06)
Lucious Jordan, Jason Siggers, Jamar Wilson, Kirsten Zoellner

Boston University (2001-02)
Chaz Carr, Jason Grochowalski, Matt Turner

Hofstra (2000-01)
Rick Apodaca, Roberto Gittens, Jason Hernandez, Norman Richardson

Every single one of those teams (except this year's BU Terriers, of course) won the America East that year and went to the Big Dance. OK come on, surely that has got to mean something, RIGHT??

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.

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.

Thanks for joining us, Mr. Brittain

BU's new look offense necessarily runs through the paint a lot more than the old one did. When you lose two of your best shooting guards, that's what happens.

That's why the re-emergence of Scott Brittain from the brink of obscurity couldn't have been timed more perfectly.


Scott had been a complete non-factor all season, after he started with his head injury. He scored a high of 3 points in the team's first 12 games. He played 7 minutes each in the humiliating losses to Delaware and Cornell. He didn't even get into the game during the humiliating loss to Holy Cross! Not only did the concussion slow him down from the start, but Coach wasn't happy with his effort/progress in practice which is why he wasn't getting any minutes. Coach said before the season that he was going to hardest on Scott out of anyone - he said that by the end of the season, he was going to either turn him into an All-Conference player, he was going to hate his coach's guts. For the first half of the season, I'm sure it was the latter.

But when TyLos went down, Scott was asked to step up out of necessity, and he responded. He played 26 minutes against Albany, scoring 10 points with 7 rebounds. He followed that with 15 points in the blowout of UNH. Maybe he's scoring more just because there are less options on the floor -- but he's looked a lot better out there... more agressive, less tentative.

How has this happened? Modern medicine still doesn't know everything about concussions. Although Scott was medically cleared to play after two games, he hasn't looked "right" until now. Maybe it just took him a full couple of months to clear his head. Or maybe Wolff's yelling at him in practice finally got through to him. Maybe he saw two of his teammates go down, see how bad they wish they were on the court, and realize he needs to make the most of his opportunity to be out there since he's able to play.

Whatever it is, keep it up Scotty!

Debut of the New Look Terriers: The Albany Preview

I was planning to do a recap review of the entire out-of-conference season, but any games played before today hardly even seem relevant anymore.

I know that the BU Athletic Dept still hasn't confirmed any injuries, or the fact that Corey won't play tonight, but I'm taking the Hot Dog at his word. The kid once transported a t-shirt 350 miles for me, for crying out loud. So assuming he's right, how do the events of *Black Thursday* change this team?

Short answer is: Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck... A slightly longer answer is: it will change the team a lot.

BU's bread-and-butter (when we were still making bread and butter at the beginning of the season) was always the perimeter game. Big time 3-point shooters. That's what opposing defenses focused on. Now, Corey Lowe is our only 3-point shooting guard. Yes, JH23 and JOB can go long-range, but they're are forwards, so they have other responsibilities too (ahem, rebounding, ahem...). And Corey isn't even playing tonight!!

Marques Johnson will be running the point from now on. Marques cannot shoot 3's with any regularity. Who else is there tonight? Sherrod Smith, Tunde, Sam Tully and Michael Schulze have a combined 2 career 3-pointers, both by Sherrod (who sports a .111 3FG%). Brendan Sullivan, not a guard but another walkon, at least has 5 in his career, albeit all during one magical night at Rider. Bottom line: We are not getting production from the 1 or the 2 positions tonight, unless one of the traditional starters (Holland or Matt Wolff) shifts over.

Probable starters, I'm guessing:
G Johnson
F Wolff
F Holland
F O'Brien
F Brittain (maybe Pelage?)

That's a big lineup - 4 forwards, 1 guard. This completely changes the offense into a post-oriented one. The emergence of JOB and Jeff Pelage, along with the leftover talent that we know Scott Brittain has (need ya know, buddy), makes that the strength of this team. Do we even have plays designed to get the ball into the post?!?!

For those wanting to see D'Wolff gone from the sideline, you'll get to see what kind of coaching mind he has tonight... for better or worse.


The High Roller is stuck at work and cannot blog, but weighed in on today's occurrences via text message. A few choice nuggets of wisdom:

• First off, im excited 2 c the rod get some decent time. I always like seeing him play
• I cant think of ne more positives. Thir is a horrible situation all around
• I still dont get why hes benching corey. If hes trying to make a point its not working
• Also I think marquez wil5 be a disaster

So there you have it. The High Roller has a knack for seeing the big picture, spelling errors or not.

And you know what? I'm so burnt out by all this stuff that I can't even thing about our opponent tonight, Albany. So no scouting report or anything. Just know that they lost their 3 or 4 best players from last year when we KNOCKED THEM OFF IN OVERTIME IN THE TOURNAMENT and so they've got a lot of new contributors. None of which I know much or anything about. Read what this guy has to say.

Anyway, it's still my job to root for the Terriers, so GO BU, and.... this should be interesting.

"No, the season didn't die... it just went to go live with a nice farm family"

Thanks to a scoop from the Hot Dog, we now know that:

A) I was wrong about Corey - he's BENCHED for the Albany game
B) Tyler Morris is OUT FOR THE YEAR with a torn ACL.
C) Carlos Strong is OUT FOR THE YEAR with a torn meniscus.

Fuck.

First, I feel for the guys who got hurt, especially Tyler. Ever since he got to BU, the kid can't stay healthy long enough to tie his shoelaces. He was the heart and soul of the team during his Rookie of the Year season, and it killed him last year when he wasn't able to contribute -- this is going to be even worse on him.

This team was going to have a hard enough road getting back to its old form... now it has to try it without two of our best players. For a season that started with so much promise and potential... this is a real shame.

Neither Carlos nor Tyler had been playing up to his potential yet this year - but they are important players that contribute a lot to this team. Suddenly, our backcourt -- which was the supposed strength of the Terriers -- is now missing two of its best shooters.

Marques Johnson will now play the point position for about 38 minutes per game. Before this happened, I was going to suggest getting Marques more minutes on the floor as a way to help the offense flow a little better - now we'll be getting it whether we like it or not.

But suppose Marques or Corey needs a break, or gets into foul trouble, or God-forbid gets injured... who comes into the game? Of the remaining guards on the roster, Sherrod Smith leads in minutes played with... 2. Total. For the season. And even he's more of a wing player. Could this be the emergence of the mythical, rarely-seen but never-verified Sam Tully, or --dare I say it-- Tunde??

Oh man, we're in trouble...

Wolff might sit Corey against Albany... but I don't believe it

The Albany Times-Union is reporting (via Albany message board Big Purple Fans) that Coach Wolff is considering benching Corey in tomorrow's game at Albany:

It will be a “game-time decision” whether Boston University junior guard Corey Lowe will play at the University at Albany on Thursday night, according to BU assistant sports information director Scott Ellis.

Boston U. head coach Dennis Wolff is thinking about sitting Lowe, the team’s leading scorer at 17.6 points per game, because he was ejected from the Terriers’ 19-point loss to Holy Cross last Friday. Lowe received two technicals, one for shoving a Holy Cross player and one for arguing with an official.

Couple things - I thought both fouls were for talking to the refs after questionable foul calls, not shoving anybody. And I don't think he was ejected, he just racked up 5 fouls including the T's, so he fouled out. Some conferences have a rule that if a player accumulates 2 technicals in a game, he must sit out the next game -- however, the America East does not have this rule.

I highly doubt Wolff will sit his best player for this very important game. The main reason for this is that I don't think he was that mad about it! After the second technical, which was given for almost nothing done on Corey's part, Wolff didn't even look mad - I think he was happy one of his players cared enough to get fired up. And after the first technical, Wolff was so ripshit about the call that he HIMSELF got T'd up for arguing it.

Here's what's going on: Opponents have been focusing on tightly defending Corey Lowe on the perimeter over the last few games, which is a big reason why he's been off his game and our 3-pt shooting has suffered. If Wolff can plant the seed of doubt that Corey might not play, that forces Albany's Coach Will Brown to create a whole new defensive gameplan, instead of devoting all their practice/scouting toward stopping Lowe. Why else would he have his S.I.D. just deliver that information to an Albany journalist?? I'm thinking Dennis is engaging in a little gamesmanship here.

Wolff has benched players before, so it's possible - but count me surprised if Corey doesn't play tomorrow.

The Better Belding

When it comes to the America East conference schedule, which came out yesterday, I think of it like Mr. Belding. Do you remember when he wanted to take the gang on their Senior Class Trip to Yosemite for a lovely, but slightly boring and predictable, nature outing? But then his brother the substitute teacher, Rod Belding, swooped in with the more exciting prospect of whitewater rafting, leaving Mr. Belding to sadly toss his Yosemite brochures in the trash.

Every year, the non-conference schedule swoops in, tempting us with fun exciting games like Notre Dame and UMass and GW. But where's that non-conference schedule gonna be when the end of the year comes and BU wants to try to make the Big Dance? That's right: taking off with some stewardess who's only in town for the weekend.

And that's when we'll realize who's been there with us the whole time - the predictable and slightly boring games with Maine, Binghamton and Stony Brook. The long, flowing golden locks of GW and the chiseled jaw of Marshall are not taking us whitewater rafting to the postseason... it's going to be the balding, paunchy Hartford's and Albany's.

To paraphrase, it may not be the most exciting schedule, but yesterday we got the better schedule.

Thu 1/8 - @ Albany
Sun 1/11 - vs. New Hampshire
Wed 1/14 - vs. Vermont
Sat 1/17 - @ Binghamton
Mon 1/19 - vs. Stony Brook
Thu 1/22 - vs. UMBC
Sun 1/25 - @ Maine
Sat 1/31 - @ Hartford
Mon 2/2 - @ UMBC
Thu 2/5 - vs. Albany
Sat 2/7 - @ New Hampshire
Wed 2/11 - @ Vermont
Sat 2/14 - vs. Binghamton
Wed 2/18 - @ Stony Brook
Sat 2/21 - vs. Bracketbuster TBA
Thu 2/26 - vs. Maine
Sun 3/1 - vs. Hartford

We found out which AE games are going to be held in The Greek too: Vermont on 1/14, Albany on 2/5, and Hartford on 3/1 (along with GW, Marshall, Holy Cross and the Bracketbuster). Vermont and Albany are no-brainers, as the dominant forces in the conference over the past few years. To me, Hartford is a mild upset - I thought they would give UMBC some respect for winning it all last year. But it'll be cool because the Hartford game is Senior Night - hopefully a starting lineup consisting of Matt Wolff, Marques Johnson and someone named Sam Tully can fill the Arena.

Time to tame the Danes

So it comes down to this. We need to beat a team that we haven't beaten in 3 years, or the season is over.

Albany was one of the two teams (along with UMBC) that we didn't beat this year, and neither was really a close game. In the first game, Brian Lillis was everywhere on the court dumping 27 points on us, and we were severly out-rebounded on both ends of the court. In the second game, just 6 days ago, BU kept it close since Lillis had foul trouble, but contributions from young guys like Josh Martin and Al Turley put the Danes out front. Both were over 10-point losses.

But the tournament is a different animal. Luckily for us, Martin and Turley jinxed themselves by getting mohawks, along with Brett Gifford, the dumbest-looking kid alive. I can't wait to see these. They are going to regret doing this to themselves.

On the other side, you have BU. Coach Wolff undoubtedly has them focused on the task at hand. They aren't fazed by the prospect of beating a team that has already beaten them twice. In a year when seeds #1 through #7 don't matter much, this is a good year to be a #6. I have all the confidence in the world that Wolff can outcoach Will Brown and come up with a game-plan to win.

It's going to take big contributions from John Holland, Corey Lowe and Scott Brittain. Add to that the return of Tyler Morris, who has come back from injury and has been practicing like normal since Wednesday, and Carlos Strong, who will both need to put up some points.

These guys can do this.

First look at the bracket matchups

Yes, the official bracket came out two days ago, and if you follow the America East enough to actually visit this blog, then this is probably not your "first look" at the bracket. But here it is anyway.


What you haven't seen yet is the BU Hoops Blog's thoughts on the first-round match-ups NOT involving BU (I know, it's outside of our area of expertise, but humor us). The parity in the league this year give this weekend the potential to be the most entertaining conference tournament in the nation.

The Stony Brook Invitational
#8 Stony Brook vs. #9 Maine

Jan. 6: @ Stony Brook 75, Maine 59
Feb. 23: Stony Brook 56, @ Maine 51

Stony Brook is wearing the home whites in the America East tournament, possibly for the first time ever. And they dominated Maine during the regular season, so things look good for the Mighty Seawolves. We make a point of driving to the Stony Brook Invitational Play-In Game every year to see what the Seawolves have in store for us. Last year, they rewarded us handsomely with buzzer-beating loss to Hartford after blowing a 20-point lead. Since the so-called "winner" of the SBIPIG goes on to get destroyed by #1 (except of course for that year when Stony Brook used their momentum from the game to beat one of the best BU squads ever...grrr), the REAL winner of the SBIPIG is whoever gets the drunkest. Let's see if we can defend our title.

Side note: This is the first tourney in 5 years we won't have the chance to heckle Popoko. Sad times indeed. Please read the High Roller's farewell letter to Popoko from last year's tournament. We will be on the lookout for new Stony Brook freshman who can fill Popoko's shoes for the next 4 years.

Quarterfinals
#1 UMBC vs. #8 Stony Brook/#9 Maine

Jan. 3: UMBC 76, @ Stony Brook 62
Feb. 6: @ UMBC 75, Stony Brook 63
OR
Jan. 12: Maine 77, @ UMBC 74
Feb. 28: UMBC 85, @ Maine 68

Based on regular season performance, we might expect to see Stony Brook sitting in this position, barely 12 hours removed from a SBIPIG victory. But it was MAINE that somehow beat UMBC at home this year! NASA scientists are still trying to figure that one out. You can bet that with all their weapons, UMBC will be ready for either one of them this time though.

Side note: I think it's kind of unfair that the winner of the SBIPIG has to face #1 so soon after that game. Let's break it down: The game ends at 9:00, and the next game starts at 12:00. That's 15 hours. You can take out:

30 mins getting dressed after the game.

1 hour traveling to and from the arena.

2 hours for dinner, breakfast and lunch.

45 mins for sex with team groupies.

1 hour for team showers (with or without groupies).

15 mins because someone is always late to the bus.

2 hours looking at film and preparing for a game against the toughest team in the league.

1.5 hours to warm up for the next game.
That leaves a grand total of six hours to rest and sleep and recover from a grueling 40 minute basketball game. I mean, I know #1 is supposed to get an advantage, but come on. I think it was Will Brown who was complaining last year about scheduling games too close together. Well, Willy B. never had to play with 6 hours of rest, did he?


#4 Vermont vs. #5 Binghamton

Jan. 3: @ Vermont 71, Binghamton 60
Feb. 6: Vermont 83, @ Binghamton 78

In my mind, this will be the most entertaining game of the day. On the Binghamton side, you've got coach Kevin Broadus coming off his hilarious 1-game suspension for fighting another coach - we'll see if he can keep his emotions in check. And on the Vermont side, you've got the best and most exciting player in the league in Marqus Blakely, who is more than happy to serve John Holland's only competition for the AE's best dunker. Unfortunately, Vermont is also the whiniest bunch of cry-babies since Jose Juan Barea. So get ready to see Mike Trimboli break out the water-works every time he gets called for a hand check on one of the Binghamton guards.

Side note: The cry-baby thing makes me thing of the game several years ago at The Roof when we bought a few packages of diapers and painted the No. 5 on them, and we waved them around and cried like babies every time Barea had a hissy-fit. Those were good times.

If the BU "Zoo" is reading this, you would be wise to take advantage of such a tactic. But please get rid of the pizza boxes. My god, those pizza boxes. Lame. Oh, and no storming the court on Saturday - you're in the #4/#5 game, and it's only the Quarterfinals.


#2 Hartford vs. #7 New Hampshire

Jan. 27: @ New Hampshire 74, Hartford 59
Feb. 17: @ Hartford 82, New Hampshire 63

This feels like a big opportunity for a nice upset. I kind of feel like Hartford is pretty weak for a #2 seed, and UNH has already shown that they can blow out the Hawks. Plus all the Albany and BU fans will be rooting for New Hampshire. Both of these teams will be chucking up 3's at an alarming rate - so depending on whether they go in the basket or not, this could be a really exciting game or an excruciating one.

Side note: It's hard to hate either one of these teams. Both have been hard luck losers for pretty much their entire time in the conference. They also always have among the least fans in attendance at the tournament (so get ready to hear a pin drop at this game). In past tournaments I have adopted these teams to root for since BU got knocked out so quickly. But I'm going to try my hardest to hate whichever one BU will face if we get by Albany.

We'll also get to see the 2nd and 3rd place finishers for Rookie of the Year (UNH's Alvin Abreu and Hartford's Morgan Sabia) face off, since John Holland wrapped up #1 last week with his fifth consecutive weekly award.

Back to reality

I kind of knew it was too good to be true. The rise from 8th place to 2nd place within a matter of weeks was just too much to hope for, and Albany made sure of that by having their big dudes push our guys around and putting up a 12-point vic.

The injustice of it all is after that tireless climb to the near-top, one loss sends us tumbling ALL the way back down to the #6 seed. What kind of lesson are we teaching America's youth here? Try really hard, but if you mess up once it's all for nothing? The lesson here, as always: never try.

Actually, there were several points during this season (notably the "We Suck" portion) where I would have been plenty thrilled to be getting the #6, so I can't entirely complain. What I can complain about is a SECOND STRAIGHT matchup with Albany!

We'll have more on that matchup and everything else tourney-related throughout the week, so stay tuned here. Regardless of what seed they are, the Terriers take the floor 5 days from now with a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament - and that's a reason to get excited.

Finish strong

Back when BU was 2-5 in the conference (5-14 overall), the chances of BU going into the last game of the season guaranteed to end up with a winning record seemed right up there with my chances of shaking off this hangover anytime soon.

Today we play Albany for the chance to secure the #2 seed in the tournament (if Hartford loses to UMBC) and a date with UNH next Saturday.

With so much on the line, you can be sure the Albany fans will be out full force in their $9 fake leather purple jackets - it's cold out there! The High Roller will be there in person, so hopefully we'll get an accurate $9 jacket count.

[Update - 1:58 PM]
Via the America East site, here are the seeding possibilities for BU based on today's action:

Boston University
- Will be seeded second with a win and a Hartford loss
- Will be seeded third with a win and a Hartford win
- Will be seeded fifth with a loss AND a Vermont loss
- Will be seeded sixth with a loss AND a Vermont win

Vermont is beating Maine at the half right now, so unless we win it looks like we fall all the way to sixth.

The Race for #2

As this America East conference season winds down, one team (UMBC) has distinguished itself as the clear leader, and three teams (UNH, Maine, Stony Brook) have distinguished themselves as trailing the pack. What remains in the middle is a muddled mess of teams fighting it out for the 2-6 seeds.

A quick look to the right sidebar reveals standings that look like this (as of 2/26):

2. Hartford (9-5)
3. Boston University (8-6)
4. Albany (8-6)
5. Binghamton (8-6)
6. Vermont (8-6)

The big prize for any of these teams is the #2 spot. Landing in this position means a date with the significantly less scary UNH, and more importantly avoids and of the other 2-6 teams until the Semi-Finals. For BU, the coveted #2 spot is still within reach, but they need some help.

BU will not sweep any of the teams in the top 6, so winning a tie-breaker is unlikely (and even if it weren't, who the hell knows what tie-breakers the AE has set up). So winning the spot outright is BU's best chance. Here's how it could happen (only meaningful games are listed):

Wed, Feb 27
Alb at Bing

Thu, Feb 28
Hart at BU
UVM at UNH

Sat, Mar 1
Bing at SBU

Sun, Mar 2
BU at Alb
Maine at UVM
UMBC at Hart

None of that seems terribly unreasonable - and it would only require one win by UNH/Maine/Stony Brook (either UNH or Maine beating Vermont... and UNH always plays Vermont tough at home). Those game results would create this final standing:

2. Boston University (10-6)
3. Hartford (9-7)
4. Albany (9-7)
5. Binghamton (9-7)
6. Vermont (9-7)

Not bad. We can't control what any of those other teams do, but it all starts with takin' care of bidness ourselves, and that means putting a whuppin on UHa tomorrow night.