Halfway Home: The Maine Preview

How exciting is this! We're halfway through our conference schedule, and tonight we're playing for first place. Something odd though - the game isn't against Vermont, and it isn't against Albany or Binghamton. It's against Maine. That's right... terrible, basement-dwelling, joke of a team Maine. I know, I can't believe it either.

But right now, let's focus on the halfway through part. How did the first half go?

Well, we're playing for first place, so not too badly. We cleaned up against the crap teams, and we crapped the bed against the good ones. But in the words of the immortal Brian Johnson, 6-2 ain't a bad place to be.

The Story of the First Half: Coping With Injuries

Already without Scott Brittain and BJ Bailey, we lost Tyler Morris after the first AE game. At that point, many BU fans labeled the season a lost cause and were ready to write the season off. I publicly wondered who would run the point for BU.

Since then, the Terriers starters have pulled together and stepped up their game. And I've got two of them in mind in particular, and that's Corey Lowe and Carlos Strong. 'Los has really stepped up rebounding and on the defensive side of the ball, while still shooting 47% from 3 point range. And Corey has been all-around ridiculous; upping his points and assist numbers, while becoming a real leader on the floor.

The bench has been a problem all year, mainly because of those injury problems. But we're finally beginning to see a glimmer of hope (aka production) there, and from the unlikeliest of sources: Sherrod Smith (7 rebounds against UMBC!!!), Brendan Sullivan (5 rebounds against Binghamton!!), Tunde Agboola (shooting 67% for the year!!!) and yes even Mikey Schulze (a big '2' in the scoring column against UMBC).

What Can We Expect the Rest of the Year?

That all depends on how long our 4 main guys can keep up this pace. They are going to get TIRED. However, 5 of our final 9 are at home, so that helps.

It depends on whether the bench can continue to improve.

It depends on how good Tyler is, and to a lesser extent Brendan Sullivan, coming back from injury.

And it depends on how bad these 9 seniors want to finish out their careers on a good note.

My Prediction: Another 6-2, for a grand total of 14-4 and 2nd place.

I think the tired legs will make an impact at some point. But the experience and talent of the team will get it most of the way there.

It starts tonight in Maine. This is a team that is somehow good. They have a player, Gerald McLemore, who is maybe the next Corey Lowe in this league. And they've got some beefy guys who can patrol the paint. I'm hoping we can hold this one down, and be able to stand on top of the AE mountain for a few days.

FML: The UNH Preview

Tyler Morris broke his hand Tuesday in practice, Scott Brittain is basically out for the entire year, and BJ Bailey just transferred out.

Who is going to play for us!??!

Now, Corey Lowe is our ONLY ballhandler! What happens when Corey is in foul trouble or needs a breather? Nevermind that Corey is most effective off the ball - nobody else can bring it up. Is Mike Schultz going to get significant minutes? Will Carlos and John Holland bring up the ball? Tunde???

I'm not even sure we'll be able to finish .500 now. UNH tonight on the road will be a good barometer. They are not a bad team, but not top tier. Our core of Holland, Lowe and O'Brien is still better than any other in the league, but ZERO bench is ridiculous.

Poor Tyler Morris. This is the 4th major injury of his BU career. I'm sure he feels like shit right now, just wanting to play, and I feel bad for him. Here's hoping he can come back in a month (or less!) and contribute mightily to the stretch run and the tournament. And hoping we can stay afloat in the meantime.

Aberration, or is this who we are?

Not a great start to the conference season for the Terriers. First, credit is due to Stony Brook: Tommy Brenton was the negative polarity to the positive charge of the basketball on the boards, and Bryan Dougher just could not miss from 3-point land. I watched at a local bar and the bartender thought this guy was Larry Bird or something - we just knew it was going in every time he went up for a shot.

But BU was bad in this game. Thirty-seven 3-pointer attempts, a school record, highlights a team that is unable or unwilling to take the ball to the hoop by dribble or by pass. We need to get tough and bring the ball to the hoop! Corey Lowe couldn't hit a thing, and that's the risk when all we do is take threes. A few games ago, there was a real effort to get the ball to Jeff Pelage against Marist - yes he had 5 turnovers on traveling violations, but he also had 8 points and 10 rebounds. That's production we need; his footwork will improve. JOB was our best player against Stony Brook with 27 points, but even Coach Chambers said, "Jake played great from 3-point land, but I’d like to see him get in there and mix it up a little bit more."

We can all agree that the Chambers Era is not off to the rosy start we all envisioned. There has been a very interesting discussion on the subject in the comments section of the last post. I think an adjustment period is expected and understandable. The players will eventually get used to the system and playbook if they haven't already. But much of our trouble this year stems from our complete lack of a bench, and I put some of the blame for this on Chambers' shoulders. BJ Bailey's departure isn't his fault, and neither is Scott Brittain's injury. But Chambers gambled by taking 3 transfers (who need to sit out a year) instead of a JuCo or 2 (who could play right away). Our problems right now prove that he lost that gamble.

My own take is that we lost a tough game to a decent opponent due somewhat to an inordinately bad performance by one of our better players. I think we'll be better by next game and in first or second place by the end of the year. But hey, I'm an optimist by nature!

House of Pain: The Dayton Preview

The Terriers walk into their 11th and final non-conference game tonight on a three-game winning streak (a first!) and missing another body on their ever-shortening bench (sadly, not a first).

Against Mount St. Mary's, BU was shooting a hot rock at 56 percent. The main beneficiaries were John Holland, who threw down some of his patented slams, and Jake O'Brien, who earned the America East Player of the Week for the effort. Not to be overlooked were Corey Lowe's 9 assists. To me and many around us, though, the story of the game was the ridiculously quick whistles of the zebras. Both teams were called for fouls on seemingly every possession, which prevented the game from having any sort of flow at all. Refs, let 'em play!

But during the game, I noticed that BJ Bailey, our lone freshman, was not among the few in uniform on the bench nor the many in suits on the bench. His departure from the team was confirmed by some BU folks at halftime.

The highlight of the game was clearly this guy's hair:


Tonight, we catch Dayton, a team picked first in the Atlantic 14 conference and one that we saw play in Puerto Rico. They were damn good, despite the fact that they lost 2 games just like we did. Thing is, they beat Georgia Tech (which ended up pasting us in our last game). At least both teams' losses to K-State were comparable. They have one young man in particular, Chris Wright, who is quite good at basketball.


Even more impressive than Dayton's basketball players are its basketball fans. They were the biggest group of fans in San Juan, and I thought they were loud there; I can't imagine what it'll be like inside University of Dayton Arena tonight.

This is our last chance to make a splash in the non-conference and improve our RPI, but it's a tall order tonight.

I wonder if Snooki will be there!!: The Marist Preview

BU was able to take care of bidness against Bucknell last weekend, which I'm quite grateful for. But I have a bone to pick with the BU Athletic Dept.

I was unable to watch the game live, so I waited until late Sunday night to watch the video archive of the game. I even avoided the outcome of the game all day. Problem was, every time I tried to play the game, I got "The media you have selected is currently unavailable." This was maddening, since the whole reason I knew it was OK to miss the game was because they put up archives of all the home game broadcasts.

I tried again at work the next day. "The media you have selected is currently unavailable."

I tried AGAIN at work on Tuesday, still avoiding knowing if BU won or lost: "The media you have selected is currently unavailable."

WTF, I'm paying for this service, am I not? I am a subscriber to BU All-Access. I have an All-Access Pass, dammit! This is like going to an Alice Cooper concert with a backstage pass, only to be denied before Alice ever has a chance to explain what Milli-wauke means.

Even now, the archive is still "currently unavailable," so I had to rely on written accounts and the box score. Sounds like JOB had a great game, Corey played pretty well coming off the bench, Holland had an off-night, and Carlos and BJ had some clutch points down the stretch.

After a week off, we play again today, and then have another long layoff for finals before the next game. These breaks come at a good time. Our short bench means guys are tired, and maybe this will allow some players like Valdas and Corey to get healthy.

The Terriers travel to Poughkeepsie, NY, to visit the Marist Red Foxes. Some of you may also know that Poughkeepsie is also home to "Snooki" a.k.a. "Snickers" from newest awful/great show on MTV, Jersey Shore. This is one of those car wreck TV shows where you know you should look away but you just can't. Snooki is an annoying, loud, overtanned shrimp of a girl who gets obnoxiously drunk the first night, and while doesn't deserve what she gets later in the season, this may be one of the most gratifying images ever:


OK, back to basketball. Today's game is against Marist, another team which we cannot lose to. Marist is currently 0-6, including a 14-point loss to UNH and a 37-point loss to Hartford. I repeat, we cannot lose this game to Marist.

There Will Be Blood: The UConn Preview

In between last week's Northeastern game and today's UConn game was a game against Harvard that occurred precisely in the middle my holiday travel, hence the lack of preview/wrap-up. Yes, as a devoted fan of BU hoops I demanded of a very understanding girlfriend that we pull the car off the highway and find a bar with free WiFi, but the game was also precisely in the middle of my other favorite team, the Tennessee Titans, producing one of the more improbable comebacks in NFL history.

So, in the middle of The Office Beer Bar & Grill in Morristown, NJ, I had one eye (but no ears) on the Terriers's game against the Smarties. First the Titans were up and the Terriers were down big in the first half. Then the Titans gave up the lead but BU streaked to a double-digit lead in the second half. Finally, as the Titans made history BU ran out of gas and left Case Gym with an uninspiring 78-70 loss to an admittedly decent Harvard Crimson squadron.

It's harder than you think to watch your two favorite teams at once, but I did pick up a few things about the Terriers game. One was that Corey had a rough game - not only did he go 0-7 but had bad turnovers on two consecutive possessions in the final minutes that led to fast break dunks and thwarted any possibly comeback. Real daggers in the heart.

Another thing that I noticed is we are really hurting for bodies. BJ and Valdas were not playing due to various ailments. Tunde even got into the game, and made a nice steal and basket before the end of the first half.

This is going to be the big story going into tonight's matchup against UConn. In addition to those two guys plus Scott Brittain, the Hot Dog says Corey will now be sidelined with an injury.

Are you kidding me??? We will barely have enough guys to field a starting five. Forget that this is on TV against the #13 team in the country... we couldn't beat Binghamton with this many injuries.

OK, that isn't true. But this will be a slaughter. I am afraid to admit that I am hosting a BU Alumni in DC Club game-watch at a bar tonight. There are casual BU alums who are almost never exposed to BU basketball and will be turned off from the team because of tonight! We lost to #21 Georgia Tech by 18... we'll be lucky to lose to UConn by twice that.

Adding Insult to NU's Injury

It's always fun to beat our rivals from the dirty part of the city. For the second year in a row, we did just that - this time in overtime, and on our home floor. There were no BU students in attendance to start a "Where's your football" chant, but we knew it was in the minds of their fans.

The Hussies are picked to finish 2nd in the Colonial Athletic Association behind Old Dominion this year, which makes this win arguably even better than our victory over Indiana.

It was a game of runs. NU got an early 10 point lead, which BU erased by halftime. BU jumped out to big lead in the second half, which was erased by the end of the game. Fortunately, BU ended up on top at the end of 45 minutes.

With John Holland having an off night, we needed someone to step up - and Jake O'Brien did, just like last year's game at Northeastern. Corey Lowe also stepped up, despite his 7 turnovers, and made a gutsy shot near the end of regulation, with the shot clock buzzer sounding, to tie the game and send it to overtime. B.J. Bailey played his best game so far with over 20 minutes, and he looks to be getting more comfortable with every step onto the court.

I was there and captured the final moments of regulation and the overtime period - Corey's big shot and Northeastern's last gasp.

A Big Win in Puerto Rico!

My expectations for the Puerto Rico Tip-Off were not high before coming down here. I thought we could compete, but with such a stacked field I did not think we'd win a game.

By now you've heard that the Terriers did just that, staging a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the storied Indiana Hoosiers. Maybe you listened on the radio stream, or even followed along with my fevered series of tweets down the stretch. But this was a game that made the trip to Puerto Rico well worth its while. We didn't just travel here for the fun of watching the Terriers, we came here and witnessed something great.

BU was behind the whole game, due to another pretty poor shooting performance, but always remained within striking distance. In the first half, we got in a hole and clawed our way back to within 2 points just before halftime... unfortunately, IU hit a buzzer-beating 3 to make that deficit 5 again. They had held Corey Lowe scoreless in the first half, but rebounding kept us in the game.

In the second half, we hung around and made our move in the final minutes thanks to huge 3-pointers by Lowe, Carlos Strong, Tyler Morris and John Holland. Jake O'Brien, with a double-double, and Jeff Pelage led BU to a 52-32 rebounding advantage over the Hoosiers. Strong's only bucket of the game, a 3 that tied the game for the first time at 63, made the BU fans go bonkers. Clutch free throws by JOB and Corey kept us up until a lay-in by Jake with a minute remaining (off a pretty feed from Tyler) put us up by 4. Indiana couldn't hit any desperation shots after that, and the rest is history.


The keys to the win were certainly REBOUNDING, the lack of FOUL TROUBLE and Indiana's refusal and/or inability to institute a full court PRESS. That press had been utilized by the 3 teams that already beat us to take us out of our offensive rhythm, and it worked. Maybe Indiana just didn't have the athletic horses to take such a tack.

Sherrod Smith and Valdas Sirutis played meaningful minutes, and BJ Bailey played his first collegiate minutes, even scoring on a lovely fast break. He looked good out there.

Coach Chambers has that monkey off his back, and got his first head coaching win. He's got the team excited and disciplined, and as the team made their way off the court he led them in a simultaneous salute to the BU fans in attendance. Awesome moment.

As for the High Roller and I, we found a cool little hole-in-the-wall pub to celebrate in Old San Juan (we've gotten pretty good at ordering beers in Spanish). We get to spend today regaining our voices before taking on #21 ranked Georgia Tech on Sunday.

But this win over Indiana, our first over a BCS conference team since Michigan in 2004, is one we'll remember for a long time!

Buckle up, everybody: The Iona Preview

Tonight we arrive, as KW so eloquently put it, at Milepost 0. First game, beginning of the journey that is the 09-10 BU Terriers season.

The Terriers are not making it easy on themselves. Already, Scott Brittain and BJ Bailey are out with concussions. That means were going to have a VERY thin bench for the next few days. More importantly, our youngest Terrier is off to a bumpy and painful start, and any more concussions for one of our senior captains could bring his long-term health into question. I don't even know if Trent Green had 3 concussions. Be safe, Scotty.

On paper, BU should dominate Iona College tonight, right? We won in last year's Bracketbuster, we didn't graduate any of our big scorers, they lost 2 out of their top 3 scorers and they are picked 9th out of 10 in the MAAC. My expectations would normally be for a win of blowout proportions.

But then you account for the injuries on our side (Iona is a little banged up too, but not as bad). And that we're on the road. And it's our guys' first game under Coach Pat Chambers' new system. And they have a lot of tall men.

It'll be a good first test, and a nice tune-up for the GW home opener. And hopefully a win!

Media Day: Everybody Loves the Terriers!

For the third year in a row, the America East coaches have UNANIMOUSLY picked BU to finish #1 overall in the Preseason:

1. Boston U
2. Vermont
3. Albany
4. Stony Brook
5. New Hampshire
6t. Hartford
6t. UMBC
8. Maine
9. Binghamton

And we were well represented on the Preseason All-Conference Team:

Tim Ambrose, Jr., Albany
Marqus Blakely, Sr., Vermont
Muhammad El-Amin, Sr., Stony Brook
John Holland, Jr., Boston U.
Corey Lowe, Sr., Boston U.

Pat Chambers was "sick" (no really, Coach, we believe you...) and missed his first America East Media Day, so right-hand man Orlando Vandross ably stepped in to give soundbites of things we mostly knew already. Among them:

Chambers will bring a more exciting, Villanova style of play to BU

Carlos Strong and Tyler Morris are healthy and ready to go

BJ Bailey should emerge as a regular part of the rotation by conference play

It was mighty nice of the coaches to vote us #1, but we don't care

"There is a genuine excitement about our basketball program. We need to harness it."

The Stamp: Comings and Goings and Stayings

Let me first say that our absence from this blog since Coach Chambers took over has ZERO reflection of how excited we are about the team. In fact, I can't remember being as pumped about BU basketball as I am right now (in the off-season, anyway).

There's lots to talk about these days, starting with the changes to the roster that we'll see next year. Every one of these has been impacted by the new coach's arrival, which shows just how quickly he's managed to put his own stamp on the program.


~~~ COMING ~~~

G BJ Bailey

Bailey isn't really coming to BU because of Chambers, he's coming despite Dennis Wolff's firing. As a Wolff recruit, Bailey was said to be "distraught," but as we reported in March, decided to honor his commitment to BU. I'm excited about it. I followed BJ's run to his high school title game and watched a lot of video of him. He's tall and athletic, and at BU I think he will fall somewhere between Carlos Strong and Corey Lowe. I'm hoping he chooses 5. Btw, the nickname possibilities for BJ are extensive - I'm leaning toward Beetle. Better ideas?

G Darryl Partin

Partin comes to us as a transfer from the A-10's LaSalle, and will be welcomed at opposing AE arenas to the sweet serenade of "Daaaaaaaarryl, Daaaaaaarryl." He didn't light up the stat sheet most of the time but has enough talent to shine -- in his 28 games (3 starts) as a soph, he had 27 "ehhhhh" games and 1 amazing game, an impressive win over UMass in which he scored 30 points. Darryl will have 2 years at BU to fulfill the promise he showed but never quite achieved at LaSalle.

F Patrick Hazel

Another junior transfer, Hazel is coming to us from Marquette from the B-EAST. Pat's another guy who never put up the numbers he was expected to, and will try to turn that around at BU. Our two recent Big East incoming transfers -- the Big O, Omari Peterkin, from Notre Dame and Billy Collins from Rutgers -- came under similar circumstances and they worked out pretty damn well for us. Patrick went to Marquette with some fanfare, but left without making much of an impact. John Borneman of the Marquette newspaper wrote an angry, scornful article about Hazel after he announced he was transferring in which the author comes off as particularly dick-ish. To sum up Hazel's career with the Golden Eagles, he features a quote from coach Buzz Williams: "I've stopped practice more times as it relates to Pat Hazel's mistakes, maybe, than the rest of the team combined."

Well, I don't care. I've got a reply for John Borneman: STFU. Nobody cares what you think. Way to trash a guy who's already out the door. Obviously Marquette wasn't a good fit for him and he's a Terrier now. Welcome to Boston, Pat - we look forward to seeing what you contribute for us.

G Gary Correia

Gary was released from his commitment at UMass and told Coach Chambers he was coming to BU. This was cool because normally the pipeline of transfers goes from BU to UMass, not the other way around. Gary has had an undistinguished career so far at UMass, being stuck behind a few other players at the guard position. But I won't spend too much time writing about Gary because...

~~~ GOING ~~~

G Gary Correia

Nice knowing ya, Gary. He was a Terrier for all of a month. At first we were hearing that he simply was returning to UMass because incoming Minuteman transfer from UConn Doug Wiggins got kicket off the team, which would leave plenty of unclaimed minutes and assuage Correia's playing time concerns. But it seems there is a little more to the story. According to a story from the Springfield Republican (MA), Correia said, "I had (verbally) committed to Boston University. If everything had gone the way it should have, I'd be there. But some of the information given me ... it didn't go the way I had expected." Huh?? Was he recruited over, maybe by Partin? Was it a run-in with a current Terrier, or Coach Chambers' first conflict with one of his players? Either way, by the time Wiggins was given the heave-ho, the article states, Correia "was already souring on BU." We probably won't find out what really happened, but in general I don't like incoming recruits souring on the program before they even get here.

PG Danny Munoz

Munoz was a prototypical Dennis Wolff point guard in the Kevin Fitzgerald/Brian Macon/Marques Johnson mold: very headsmart player, good passer, good floor leader, but limited physical traits and scoring ability. He was perfect for the system Wolff ran, and was an early commit to BU. After Wolff was canned, it was easy to see that Munoz wouldn't get the same opportunities under another coach and de-committed. It's probably a good turn of events for both parties. Munoz landed on his feet and we'll see him next year at American University.

F Jake O'Brien

Ahh, as if the soap opera of BU's off-season couldn't get any more compelling, Jake O'Brien annouced after Dennis Wolff was fired that he wanted to transfer out of BU. His stated reasons for leaving included something about the "different goals" of Wolff and Chambers, even though there were rumblings of his exit even before Chambers was hired, leading some (like me) to believe that he just wanted a bigger stage than BU. Now, there's a difference between wanting more of a challenge and thinking you're too good for a team or a league. I don't know where Jake's thoughts fell on that spectrum, but I do know that he wasn't "dominating" the AE and that there were significant holes in his game that would have come out at a higher level. We heard about flirtations with Providence and BC and others, and read about visits to Xavier and St. Joe's. But just two days ago, we learned that...

~~~ STAYING ~~~

F Jake O'Brien

Jake decided to come back to BU. I have no idea why. Maybe it was all the hard work that Chambers was no doubt putting in to get Jake to stay -- and if so, well done Coach. But he obviously had options - the Rookie of the Year could easily find a good landing spot. And announcing your desire to play elsewhere is certain to cause friction with teammates and fans.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to have Jake back on the team. He's a very good player, with a chance to be a great one. But I hope he didn't expect to spend the whole spring acting like he wanted to play anywhere but here, and then come back like it never even happened. As fellow fans, are you convinced that Jake won't try this again after his sophomore year if he puts up even bigger numbers? I know I'm not. BU fans (and teammates) may never be totally comfortable with Jake's commitment to BU until he's being celebrated on his Senior Day.

I suspect this will not be the last time we hear about or talk about this issue.

BJ Bailey is still coming to BU

Great news out of New Jersey, as BU star recruit BJ Bailey has decided to honor his commitment to BU despite the firing of head coach Dennis Wolff. Michael McGarry of the Press of Atlantic City says it had a lot to do with 1) BU's academic rep and 2) Orlando Vandross.

The [firing] caused Bailey to rethink his decision. He decided to stay with Boston University primarily because of the school's excellent academic record, Spirit coach Jamie Gillespie said in an email Friday night.

Bailey also was happy that Terrier assistant Orlando Vandross has been offered the associate head coaching position on the new staff, according to Gillespie. Vandross was the Boston University coach that had the most contact with Bailey during the recruiting process.

Thank goodness for O. The article says he has been asked to remain as associate head coach on the new staff, and not just during the transition period -- new information? I wonder if that will make it harder to attract the best coaching candidate.

Anyway, this confirmation by one of our future stars can only be taken as good news. Now, we just hope that none of our current stars decide to hit the old dusty trail.

Wolff Fallout: Will "distraught" BJ Bailey still come to BU?

I don't write much about recruiting, but I do know that BU had signed a nice 6'4" guard out of New Jersey for next year by the name of BJ Bailey. Kid can light it up, leading his team to the South Jersey finals with 17.6 ppg. But now that the man who signed him has been fired (the same day as his HS career ended), BJ is reportedly "distraught" and rethinking his options:

"B.J. was pretty distraught (Wednesday night)," Gillespie said Thursday afternoon. "He was more or less wondering, 'What do I do.' We're just kind of evaluating things and seeing how it all shakes out."

Gillespie said the school has offered to allow Bailey out of his letter of intent, leaving him free to choose another college.

"If he's not going to be happy, (Boston University) doesn't want him going there," Gillespie said.

I couldn't find anything about Dan Munoz, our other announced signee, and his reaction to the Wolff firing.

Truthfully, I'm not optimistic. At this point, my first concern is keeping all of our current guys at BU. But Bailey was supposed to be a big part of our future as well, and losing him would hurt. If he decides to go elsewhere, the new coach will have almost no time to find new recruits for next year.