#1 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: Joe Jones enters

We have finally made it to the last important story of the summer that I did not write about, and it's led me to two conclusions:  1) I'm never doing this again -- writing 12 blog posts on big stories in 3 days is a shit ton of work, and 2) I never want to see the word "egregiously" anywhere near my blog again, ever.

After the shock and disappointment of Pat Chambers' departure, the summer got more interesting -- we needed a new coach.  Someone who could keep the incredible momentum of the brief Chambers reign going and build on it.  I honestly don't want to get into who interviewed, who was rumored for the job, or anything like that -- because to be honest who knows how much of that stuff was correct?  Suffice it to say, Joe Jones got the job.

Who is he?  Well, we had no idea - we just knew he came from BC.  (So far, off to a bad start.)  But picking a complete unknown worked last time, so why not.

It turns out Coach Jones has a lot in common with Chambers -- both learned under Villanova's Jay Wright and both have the extremely outgoing (non-Wolff) personality.  But Coach Jones has 4 times the experience as an assistant, as well as a (somewhat) successful head coaching stint at Columbia, which he took from god-awful to just merely not very good.

It's clear from interviews that Jones has a Chambers-like ability to connect with players (none of Chambers' recruits bailed on us) and fans:

Only one question really remains:  is he a spy from BC who has been sent over to sabotage us?  It's a fair question, and we can really just wait-and-see.  Until we know, I'm on 100% board with Coach Jones and can't wait to see what he can do this year.

#9 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: 2011-12 Schedule released

Every year, we wait patiently to see what kind of goodies the OOC-Fairy has left in our Schedule Basket.  And this year, after many years of waiting, she has left us a particularly tasty morsel:  a date with our ugly step-sister up the road, the Eagles of Boston College (sucks!).

In real life, a date with a maiden this hideous would be the stuff nightmares are made of... she shows up late, her breath smells of garlic and funyuns, she has a zit the size of North Dakota on the old honker, she won't STFU about her lame-ass job, and to top if off she won't even let you get to second base in the backseat of your Honda on the way home.  In short, she sucks.

But in college basketball world, this is our dream date.  Our Terriers have wanted a piece of these Beagles since BC cut off the series in 2004 after a too-close-for-comfort 6-point victory at home.  And whether this change of heart is due to their new head coach or just a much-needed sack enlargement procedure, we're glad it's happening this year.  Why?  Because they are going to SUCK even more than usual!!  In the traditional sense, of losing games.  On their web site's front page alone, it trumpets the news of 1) being picked 12th a.k.a. LAST in their conference-- and 2) squeaking out their exhibition game by 4 points over something called American International College.  I don't want to get ahead of myself, but this could be a real fun year to face Chestnut Hill University.

The schedule also provides other delights.  We travel down to Austin to play Texas on the Longhorn Network, cause of much chagrin amongst Texas A&M, the Pac-12 and other parties. For some reason we travel to Philly THREE SEPARATE TIMES, to play at Villanova, St. Joe's and LaSalle - here's hoping the boys don't gorge themselves on cheesesteaks.  We play a very solid slate of good mid-major programs, highlighted by the 3-day Legends Classic against Rhode Island, Hofstra and Cleveland State - I will be personally lobbying hard for a road trip to that one.  And of course, we open against our rivals from the dirty side of Boston.

Here is the out-of-conference schedule in its entirety:

11/11/11 vs. Northeastern
11/13/11 at Texas
11/20/11 at Cornell
11/25/11 vs. Cleveland State
11/26/11 at Rhode Island
11/27/11 vs. Hofstra
11/30/11 vs. Delaware
12/03/11 at Boston College
12/07/11 at Saint Joseph's
12/10/11 vs. Harvard
12/13/11 at Villanova
12/22/11 vs. Bucknell
12/29/11 at La Salle
12/31/11 at Quinnipiac

#11 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: BU AD Mike Lynch joins twitter

Big news from the world of social media, as BU's reclusive chieftain of sport Mike Lynch has joined the ranks of such luminaries as @KourtneyKardash, @charliesheen, and @shitmydadsays.

I'm impressed to note that the tweets appear to be authentic and written by Mr. Lynch himself -- however, the page lacks the "Verified Account" badge as yet so I'll reserve final judgment on that.

You can follow him here:  http://twitter.com/#!/BU_AD_MLynch

While the AD's tweets so far have mainly trumpeted the achievements of the various BU athletic teams (and there's certainly nothing wrong with that!), I'm hoping his account will consist of more than PR pablum and we get to see an insiders view of the department and its day-to-day vision and strategy.  This is something the fans desperately want.  We need more than the date and time of the next basketball game... we need our leaders' true feelings on the outcome, what he ate at the game, what he thought of a clever fan chant, or whether the refs screwed us.  I'd also love to know if the AD at Boston College has been a dick about scheduling a basketball game at The Greek, or if the AD feels the same way about Northeastern as the rest of us do.

One disappointment so far:  As of this writing, nothing from Mr. Lynch as to the failure of BU to be swept up in the conference realignment madness.  Looking forward to his thoughts about how the trickle down could aid BU's rise to collegiate athletic dominance.

BU claims the Territory of Allston

There was a lot to feel good about in tonight's big blowout win over Harvard! As I mentioned before, the Crimson are not a bad team this year and will win a lot of games by the time this year is over. That said, BU played their second-best game of the season and Harvard had no chance.


It seems like we have a new three-headed monster on campus, and its name is Jakney O'Hollowe. Corey goes off for 20 points... Again. Holland sleepwalks to 17. JOB cruises to 18 points, and this time adds 8 boards. These guys playing this well together makes a potent offensive attack, and real matchup problems for any opponent.

We had a team effort and did the little things. Like making 75% of our free throws and outrebounding a bigger team with hustle - those are two things we failed miserable against the Mount. And winning the turnover battle. Overall, BU shot 48% from the field, which only sank below 50% because of the scoring drought over the last 8 minutes of the game, when the outcome was already decided.

Props to two guys in particular today. Vlad Sirutis got his first significant playing time of the year after Scotty B and JOB picked up some early fouls. He knocked down his first shot of the year, a money 3-pointer in the first half, and played solid defense. And Tyler Morris played his best game of the year so far, despite only netting 7 points. He hustled for 6 rebounds and dished out 6 assists (we'll let the 6 turnovers slide tonight). His shots still weren't falling, but he's figuring out how to contribute.

The guys most LOVE these road games that they could probably walk to. They seem relaxed, and and quite a few of our fans make the short trip over (you guys were LOUD on the radio broadcast - well done!!). Too bad BC refuses to play us, the pussies.

The n00bs

Coach Dennis Wolff has added two large men to the team this year, and I think it's only appropriate that we talk about them before they start playing for us.

One of last year's new large men was totally lame. Will Creekmore, some turd-flinger from Kansas, came in with gaudy numbers. Turned out those numbers were so gaudy because he was playing against high schoolers in Kansas. Once he came into contact with real men (aka Coach Dennis Wolff) he decided to retreat back to the midwest like some 6'8" Frenchman. The other, Matt Killen, never found the court much last year but at least he's balls enough to stick it out and work harder. He looked badass in the Terrier Tip-off dunk competition and frankly I don't think he got a fair shot. I asked Coach Wolff specifically about Matt this summer and he responded, "I KNOW Matt Killen is gonna be a player here, and a good one... I just don't know when." We're waitin for ya, Matty, no more Killen time. (har har... sigh)

While Killen will seem like a n00b since we saw so little of him last year, these other guys truly have never set foot on the Case Gym floor. The first is Jeff Pelage, who hails from Pompano Beach, FL - one assumes he did not make his recruiting visit to Boston during the months of October - May, otherwise what the hell is he doing up here? Bring some longjohns, pal.

Wolff describes Jeff as a "physical"post player, and I've read in multiple places that he's a "back-to-the-basket" center. From this I surmise that Jeff can't really shoot and will spend this season coming into the game, missing most of his shots, averaging more fouls than minutes and fouling out of every game. But you know what? We need one of those guys, and we haven't had one since Matt Czaplinski, so I say bring it on Jeff.

Our other large freshman is Jake O'Brien. By all accounts, everyone seems to be hyping JOB (new nickname a la "GOB" from Arrested Development). I don't want people to go overboard because of last time, but we're hearing good things. Jake tore it up in high school and was a state champ, just like C-Lowe. Not only that, but Wolff hasn't stopped fluttering since Jake stepped on campus. This summer, he told me that "no other freshman during my time here has made such a smooth adjustment to the college game," and that Jake "will be able to contribute immediately." This coming from a man who does not bestow compliments like that to unproven players willy-nilly. We need a down-low counterpart to Scott Brittain, and Jake would do nicely. Wolff himself says he brings a great ability to step out and hit the 3-ball with regularity, something we haven't had since Ryan Butt strode the pathways of West Campus. When Wolff breaks out the Butt analogy, you know we're in business. And, from a personal standpoint, this unveils a whole second era of Butt jokes.

One thing's holding me back from a full-on, JOB endorsement though. Jake spent his formative high school years at a place called BC High. Yeah, as in Chestnut Hill University High School. I know, I just gagged too. The "Eaglets," as they're known, grow up in the shadow of an Abercrombie-covered monument of sameness that would make me want to gouge my eyes out. Was he brainwashed while at BC High to hate everything about BU? Will he wait until the most important point in the season to suddenly sabotage the team? I kind of feel we should have a really crazy background check/loyalty test, kind of like they might have for the CIA. I guess time will tell on Jake's allegiances. For now, I'm giving JOB the benefit of the doubt, that he saw the superiority of BU from atop his perch at the other end of Comm Ave, and escaped to seek sweet refuge there.

The whole thing makes me wonder though if anybody has ever graduated from BU Academy and gone on to play basketball for Boston College.