Broadus Interruptus: Bing Pulls Out

We're feeling pretty confident, pretty happy about our seeding situation and playing Binghamton this coming weekend at the tournament - after all, we just beat them by 40 points. But then....

...Binghamton finds a new way to embarrass itself. Just days before the tournament is set to begin, and after playing the entire regular season, they decide to sit out the tournament. WTF.

This is fine if Binghamton had finished 9th as expected. But they finished 5th, so it affects every single matchup this weekend! It eliminates the (Formerly) Stony Brook Invitational Play-In Game completely - am I getting a refund for the ticket package I bought that includes this game? Of course not.

The biggest swings of fortune happen to the BU and Vermont squads. Vermont should be playing #7 New Hampshire, a decent team that could get hot - instead, after Bing pulled their French military maneuver they'll play UMBC, the most hapless bunch of haps that ever happed. Meanwhile, instead of facing the team we just beat by 40, we play the team we lucked into a last second win over - and oh yeah, they happen to be the tournament's host team.

It's unfortunate, and I think the decision (whoever's it was - the league, the school, the state...) was wrong, especially for the players who stuck with the program. And BU came out on the bad end of it.

But at the end of the day, WE WILL PLAY WHOEVER STEPS ONTO THE COURT AT 2:30 ACROSS FROM US, dammit! We still have to win 3 games to survive.

On to the Little Dance

With a resounding 76-56 thumping of Maine, the Terriers ended the 2009-10 season on a high note. That makes 5 out of 6 wins in February, the only loss coming in the final seconds against Vermont. What made this win more notable than the others is that it was the first of the year over a top-3 opponent. That is a nice hump to get over, and such a convincing win gives hope going into the tournament.

We finish at 17-12 and 11-5 in the America East Conference, which is good for 4th place. How does that compare with the season that got Dennis Wolff fired last year? Well, last year we were 17-12 and 11-5 in the conference, which was good for 3rd place. Scott Brittain was out this year, but Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong missed most of last year, and this year the guys are a year more experienced.

So on the surface, it doesn't look like the coaching change made any tangible year over year difference. However, DWolff wasn't fired for going 17-12 or 11-5. He was fired for going 0-1.

Will Coach Pat Chambers make his mark on this portion of the record? If that's how we judged Wolff, it's only fair we judge Chambers by the same standards. I think it's fair to say that Chambers will be feeling some heavy expections from Mike Lynch et al as he heads to his first America East tournament.

So who do we play? Well right now, it's uncertain. We are supposed to play Binghamton, who finished 5th place despite some crazy obstacles. But one more obstacle may be put Bing's way, namely a voluntary or involuntary absence from this year's tournament in Hartford. NY Times reporter Pete Thamel tweeted that "The America East and Binghamton are deciding if Bearcats should play in conference tournament."

This would be bullshit for us, especially since we dominated Binghamton by 40 last week, and it would leave us with the host team Hartford. Meanwhile, Vermont would move from getting a tough UNH team to getting the hapless UMBC Retrievers. This may all be resolved by the time you read this post, so no use getting worked up about it now. I am sure that Chambers & Co. are doing everything they can to prepare the Terriers for whichever team shows up at 2:30 on Saturday.

More on the tournament to come this week.

My Terrier Pet Peeve: The Delaware Preview

A couple things. First, that Binghamton game was the greatest. It seemed like Every Single Thing went right for the Terriers. Shots were falling, and we played amazing defense. Tyler, John, Jake and Carlos all shined. It's true that Binghamton was finishing a 4 game road trip, but it's still a team that almost beat us a month earlier. A 42 point win is a 42 in though. In the seniors' last game ever at Agganis, they finally proved once and for all that they could score there. Just a joy to watch.

Now, with only one more conference game left, we're locked into the #3 or #4 seed for the tournament. The #3 is wayyyyy better because we wouldn't have to play Stony Brook in the semifinals. So we have to root for Maine to lose one of their next 2 games, and then beat them in our last game. BOOOOOOO to Maine.

Now, I've got to get something off my chest. I love the Terriers, and they play a fun brand of basketball this year. But one thing really sticks in my craw: when the other team makes a bucket, it takes forever to get the ball inbounds. I'm not talking about if the other team is guarding us, it's just that it seems like the guy who's supposed to inbound it seems to forget he's has to inbound and is already running down the court. Then the point guard has to call someone back to inbound it.

I know, it doesn't really matter, but I hate it! It interrupts the flow of the game for me. Look for it next time you watch the Terriers. So note to the inbounders: Don't run down the court and forget to inbound!!

About today: it's BRACKETBUSTER SATURDAY! Or fake bracketbuster Saturday. Instead of a crappy MAAC team we got a crappy CAA team. But it's cool because Delaware is within driving distance for me. So I'll be among a small group of visiting Terrier fans today.

This game, in reality, doesn't really matter at all. The big one is next week. But we can at least use it to keep our momentum going. We're playing well now, we just need to continue that into the tournament.

Pleasure Reading: The Binghamton Preview

For your reading pleasure:

A Cinderella Emerged, Then Quickly Lost Its Way New York Times
Report Faults Binghamton's Leaders in Scandal New York Times
Binghamton's Scandal New York Times
Report: Weak oversight of Binghamton athletics The Associated Press
BU an embarrassment Press & Sun-Bulletin
Binghamton athletics sharply criticized in investigative report USA Today
Hoop nightmares: Big-time basketball dreams brought Binghamton shame, not fame New York Daily News
BU gets failing grade Press & Sun-Bulletin
Basketball program spun out of control at Binghamton University Elmira Star-Gazette
Binghamton Hoops' Dirty Laundry Gets Aired Out Sporting News
Binghamton slammed in SUNY report Albany Times Union
SUNY should focus on books not balls Troy Record
Report slams BU for putting athletics ahead of academics News 10 Now
To Dance, Binghamton Basketball Sold its Soul The Big Lead
Skadden's Judith Kaye Slams Binghamton Hoops Program The Am Law Daily
The entry titled "A cautionary tale for colleges with big sports dreams." Austin American-Statesman
Foul on Binghamton All Over Albany
SUNY Binghamton athletics under fire Buffalo Business First
Bad News Binghamton Inside Higher Ed
Binghamton University academic reputation "compromised" by scandal Elmira Star-Gazette

And finally,
The Ugly Truth Binghamton University Pipe Dream


Enjoy the game.

...And now back to 5th place

The only good thing to come out of Saturday's Stony Brook game was that we unexpectedly got two of our injured Terriers back in uniform, Tyler Morris and Brendan Sullivan. It didn't help us on the court, where we looked pretty awful.

The Fighting Popoko's got out to a 13-0 start and never looked back. I don't think we got closer than 6 or 7 for the rest of the game. So frustrating to watch. Each of their guys took turns making shots they shouldn't be making.

On our side, John Holland had one of his worst games he's ever had, and Corey wasn't pretty either. Our three turnovers to start the game (leaving us without a shot 3 minutes into the game) really set the tone.

So my 6-2 prediction for the second half... not looking too pretty right now. We'd have to win our final 6 to make that happen. We're behind freakin Binghamton, and tied in the loss column with Hartford. Awful.

The only silver lining is that 5 of our last 6 are at home. I think we can win 5 of those 6 (counting Vermont at home as the loss), but of course nothing is guaranteed with this league and this team. One thing's for sure though, you can count us out of the race for the top seed -- I don't see Stony Brook losing 3 more games this year. That team is legit. I think #3 is probably our ceiling, though #4 more likely.

More depressing news is likely coming this afternoon when the Bracketbusters matchups are announced. Once again, we're not good enough to get a high-profile TV game (or even a medium-profile ESPN360 game!). There is little doubt that with our mediocre fortunes this year we'll be saddled with another terrible MAAC team. The only suspense left is which it will be.

I think we can rule out:
Iona (played them this year)
Marist (played them this year)
St. Peter's (previous Bracketbuster)
Manhattan (previous Bracketbuster)
Siena (too good and will get a TV game)
Fairfield (not a hosting team)
Niagara (not a hosting team)
Rider (not a hosting team)

This leaves the following possible schools:
Loyola
Canisius

Check back later to see which one of these fun opponents awaits.

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.

A Familiar First-Place Match-up: The Vermont Preview

We didn't beat the shit out of Binghamton. In fact they seemed pretty frisky. But we did win, and due to the a-hole fans that is always a tough place to win.

Once again, Corey Lowe... you can's say enough about how good he's been since league play began. He had 22 points in this game and pretty much had his way.

He's going to need to keep it up today if we want to win today. We play our old frenemies, Vermont, in a battle for first place on ESPNU. (Quick aside: The athletic departments like to claim this, but ESPNU does not count as nationally televised. NOBODY gets this channel. I get Big Ten Network, NHL Network, CSTV... yet no ESPNU. I hate ESPNU.)

Here is the top of the standings right now:

Vermont	3	0
Boston University	4	1
Stony Brook	3	2
Maine	2	1

This has been common over the years - BU and UVM in 1st and 2nd place. Today's game is only the latest in a long line of first-place battles. Unfortunately, Vermont has come out on the winning end of these lately, winning 6 of the last 7 matchups.

The key for Vermont is obviously the ridiculous Marqus Blakely - he's their only really good player. Vermont's interior is superior; BU's perimeter is far better. Can we contain Blakely? Can Vermont contain Lowe, Holland AND O'Brien?

Should be a great game to check out on ESPNU (if you're one of the dozens of Americans to get it).

Winning With Integrity: The Binghamton Preview

I'll admit it: I circled this game as a win as soon as Tiki Mayben, DJ Rivera and the rest of the Cailfornia Penal League got kicked off the team over the summer. Wouldn't you have? Those guys represented like 90 percent of their returning talent. Yes they won the championship, but everyone who got them there is now gone, including smarmy coach Kevin Broadus. Old friend Dennis Wolff said, "I'm not sure they can win a game this year."

And here we are, January 14, and Binghamton has 7 wins and is an OT loss away from being undefeated in the league.

I delighted in those losers getting booted, as well as the crying of their annoying fans afterward, as much as anybody. However, it's somewhat gratifying and even inspiring that this rag-tag group of underachievers, even if they play for Binghamton, is putting together a run on their grit alone. We can learn something from this group; it's better to lose a few games and keep your integrity, than to sacrifice your values for a few wins.

That all said... let go down there and beat the shit out of them tonight.

This team lost to BINGHAMTON: The Bucknell Preview

Coming off of the big loss to UConn, BU plays Bucknell today. Bucknell is coming of a loss to... uh, Binghamton. Seriously.

Binghamton beat a team.

And we play them now.

I don't care if we're missing Corey Lowe, I don't care if we're playing in Agganis Arena. If BU loses to the team that lost to Binghamton, I quit!

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.

Time to Crean House: The Indiana Preview

If there was ever a year to beat mighty Indiana University in basketball... well, it was last year when they only won 6 games. But this year is a close second.

So far, the Hoosiers have taken out two competitors below BU's level, and then looked overmatched last night against Ole Miss. Why are they so bad? Well, their old coach cheated. Something about illegal texting and cell phone calls (see below). That's not very Indiana-like.


It's sad to see such a once-proud program reduced to a Binghamton-like level. But like I've said about Binghamton, that's what happens when you take shortcuts.

This will essentially be a home game for Coach Tom Crean's Indiana. They had the most fans by far (although we didn't see the Villanova game). Maybe I can get one of them to explain on camera why it was so unfair that they got hit will all sorts of sanctions by the NCAA.

Bottom line: we can win this game. The Terriers looked better last night, and that was without Corey Lowe for half the game.

BU's schedule: This time with Latin Flavor!

Most of you have seen and pored over the BU non-conference schedule, which came out via Twitter a month ago. I tweeted some reaction at the time, but here it is all in one place:

11/13/09 at Iona
11/17/09 vs George Washington
11/19/09 vs Kansas State
11/20/09 Indiana/Mississippi
11/22/09 TBD
11/25/09 vs Northeastern
11/29/09 vs Harvard
12/02/09 vs Connecticut
12/06/09 vs Bucknell
12/12/09 at Marist
12/22/09 vs Mount St. Mary's
12/29/09 at Dayton
2/19/09 TBD

With a brand new coaching staff, you'd expect to see a few changes from the past few schedules. But... no, not really. This year's out-of-conference slate looks a lot like last years. (Maybe that's because the AD has a bigger hand in putting together these games.)

Our home opener is GW for the second straight year. This is a series of which I'm a big fan. Last year we took them to OT, this year we should be able to finally break through. Sad they won't be playing here in DC, but on the bright side I won't have nightmares from their mascots.

Iona and Marist are middling MAAC teams - at least we can't get them in the Bracketbuster, as we did Iona last year. FUN FACT: John Holland's pops played at Iona.

Harvard and Northeastern are there every year. Doesn't make me like them any better.

Mount St. Mary's and Bucknell are both very decent teams from other low-major conferences. We split them last year; with an improved squad we should take both this year.

Now it starts to get really interesting. We play against UConn at the big Hartford arena, then against Dayton in their intimidating building. Chances of taking either game are slim as both are great teams, but it's a good learning experience for the guys that'll make chumps like Bucknell seem like JV Girls.


Finally, the crown jewel is the Puerto Rico Tip-Off beginning with Kansas State, then Indiana or Ole Miss, then George Mason/Villanova/Georgia Tech/Dayton (again). All are great power conference teams (or close enough), and we'll be lucky to steal one. Indiana is probably our best chance, since they're the Big Ten version of Binghamton except not nearly as addicted to crack.

As soon as we know a little more about all of these teams, I'll come back with a prediction for each game. Until then, we wait (im)patiently for the conference schedule to come out!

I'm embarrassed to share our initials

It's almost October - and although you may not believe me due to lack of posts, I've been starting to think a lot about the start of BU basketball season!

I have dutifully been following Coach Chambers on Twitter, and on his blog Chambers Vision... and now even John Holland is blogging! That's one thing I can say pretty definitively, that John Holland wouldn't be blogging under a Coach Wolff regime. Chambers seems to think that the more people read and hear about the team, the more people will get interested in it. That's the main point behind a lot of blogs, including this one!

What really jumpstarted me into writing again, however, is the steaming shitpile emanating from the Southern Tier of NY. And for once, I'm not talking about Elmira.

Binghamton, of course, is making national headlines again. Tiki Mayben, their point guard who couldn't even make grades at UMASS(!), was arrested because he had a warrant out in lovely Troy, NY for selling crack cocaine, the result of a 3-month investigation. He went home to Troy "after class" last Wednesday, and got picked up -- and he had a bunch of coke on him when he was arrested too! Not only that, but he had been arrested like 12 days earlier on Binghamton's campus for pot possession. Stop me when you've heard all this.

Long story short, the city and state created a backlash against the Binghamton program and its leadership, going all the way up to the statewide chancellor. They had seen enough of the bullshit brought on by the shady Coach Kevin Broadus. Mayben is now off the team, along with 5 of the shadiest other dudes on the team. One happens to be Malik Alvin, a starter from last year, and one happens to be DJ Rivera, the so-called best player in the conference. All this is the name of cleaning up this "zoo" of a program (the athletic director's words, not mine).

Now this is a sad story. I feel bad for Tiki in a sense... he is a product of his environment to a degree... and especially bad for his kid. But this is a basketball blog.

Everybody else in the conference knew Broadus was taking shortcuts in building his program. So screw him. There's no being torn about how to treat Binghamton when we play them. These assholes are the defending champs. Their dirtbag coach brings in questionable character guys as a shortcut to win. And their fans were incredible d-bags about it. They loved Broadus when he was winning games with these guys. Now they reap what Broadus sowed. Frankly I'm embarrassed our school is associated with them. No mercy.

Their own fans are finally seeing what this strategy has brought. The alumni and community, especially, are turning away from the team. Here is a hilarious letter to the editor of the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin from the manager of the local zoo:

Comparison insults zoo
September 29, 2009

I am tired of hearing that blight on Binghamton University, the men's basketball team, being referred to as a "zoo." The Binghamton Zoo at Ross Park has just received re-accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the industry's governing authority. We achieved this status by being in the top 10 percent of all the zoos in the country.

Our animal care, safety, employees and educational and service standards are set high and met accordingly. Not one of our tigers has been arrested with cocaine. No otter knocks over old ladies to shoplift condoms. Our bear doesn't have temper tantrums and storm off his exhibit. You won't find any of our lemurs busted for smoking pot. So, please, stop insulting zoos by comparing those criminals to us.

Amanda J. Padwa
Business Manager
Binghamton Zoo

I usually shy away from writing about other teams in the conference. However, this thing couldn't be more huge for BU. I haven't gotten to see all the preseason previews, but most have Binghamton #1 and BU #2. Without all these guys, there is zero chance Binghamton finishes in the top half of the conference, or even out of the play-in game. Before any shot is taken, in the blink of an eye, the biggest obstacle to Coach Chambers' taking BU to the promised land just vanished.

BU has just become the clear favorite to win the America East.

Did DW get a raw deal?

Boston Globe writer Mark Blauschun is a friend of Dennis Wolff's, so he's a pretty good guy to go to for quotes when nobody else can get in touch with him. Yesterday he reported that Wolff was "surprised but not stunned" by the firing. Today, he bothered Wolff at home long enough to get some more info, if you're interested in the former head coach's state of mind:

Meanwhile, Wolff was at home in Walpole, absorbing the firing and pondering his future.

"I was up all night thinking about it," said Wolff, who had four years remaining on a 10-year contract, which could cost BU as much as $1.2 million. "I enjoyed my time at BU and this was clearly not the way I would have liked to see my relationship end. But they think that someone else can do a better job. I hope for the kids' sake that everything works out."

I'm excited that BU is trying to move the basketball program and I think this will be a good thing on the whole, but a large part of me thinks DW got a raw deal. He did win games and titles, and even though this timing will make hiring a new coach easier, you'd think he could have had one more shot at a winner with his heralded junior class. The team was on an upswing with the best record in 4 years and 3rd place in the conference, and nobody had transferred in like 2 or 3 years!

However, Lynch made clear that 3rd place isn't going to cut it for BU in the America East, and in the end, that's a good thing. BU should be dominating. And it's not like Dennis won't have 1,200,000 ways to console himself.

I'm grateful Dennis Wolff ran a clean, honorable program without taking shortcuts. He recruited good students with good character. I would rather have that and 3rd place this year than what is going on over at Binghamton these days.

Tourney Time: UMBC, we comin for you

The Terriers seemed to be ending the regular season on a high note, then almost a disastrous note, then finally on a relieved note. But eventually, BU finished off the spunky Hawks of Hartford in OT and did not put all of their fans on suicide watch.

The highlight of this game was, obviously, The Rod. We here at BU Hoops Blog have been clamoring for The Rod all season long and especially when the injuries hit, but DWolff went for a miniscule rotation instead of adding Sherrod to it. It's gotta hurt when your coach would risk severe exhaustion and burnout of his stars just so he doesn't have to put you in the game. But The Rod proved him wrong with stellar play, subbing for the quickly injured Matt Wolff.

The latest reports say Matt has recovered from his concussion and is back to practice, but will Sherrod still play a part in the Terriers' first round game? Luckily, we're playing the only team with less depth than us.

UMBC beat Albany on Sunday and earned a date with us. This worked out really well in a lot of ways:

• We get to miss the host school, Albany, who even though they suck will have tons of people rooting for them.
• UMBC's aforementioned depth troubles.
• BU handled them twice already this year, even if one of the games went to 2OT.
  
• We avoid Stony Brook, who beat us already and is my pick for a big-time tourney upset.

As the #3 seed, things work out well except that we meet up with Vermont in the semis. But, in order to be the best, you have to beat the best - and I'd rather get a crack at them in Albany in front of a semi-neutral setting. I'd feel more comfortable at Binghamton in a final than at Vermont.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I like the idea of knocking out the defending champs. Retrievers, you're up.

Not as bad as it seems: The Stony Brook Preview

That last game against Binghamton was a tough one, but after reflecting on it a bit I don't think it was too bad.

Corey had a rough game. He shot 2-for-15 and missed two chances to win the game with under 30 seconds. I bet he felt crummy about it afterward.

But Corey's not going to let that happen more than once or maybe twice in a season. He's too good. We lost to the first-place, supposedly "best," team in the conference by 1 point. Our two best players, who average 18 apiece, came up with 17 combined. This is not the norm.

And, after getting down big in the first half, the team showed a lot of grit in clawing all the way back to take the lead and had a chance to win. That kind of fortitude hasn't happened every time (i.e. both Vermont games) and I love to see it. Props to Scott Brittain for his best game of the year - one rebound short of a dub-dub and tying his career high for points.

Two strange things we saw in last game. Matt Wolff sat for most of the second half in favor Marques Johnson, and Wolff's focus on continually pushing the ball inside rather than taking outside shots. I'll be looking out to see if those trends continue tonight...

..against Stony Brook. Please God, our team cannot take another 60 minute game. Win or lose, let's have this one end at 40. At this point, we're almost assured of the #3 tournament seed and that extra rest might be more important than the W.

Stony Brook has been good and is threatening to bring its white jerseys to the AE tourney for the first time. They just took UVM to overtime, yes the same team that just beat us by 28.

If nothing else, this is our last road game of the year and it gets easier from here on out.

I Want a Win

Not just a win. I want us to beat the snot out of Stony Brook Wednesday night. I want Wolfie to cry (not our coach or #2 on our team, but SB's mascot). I want them to have a miserable 4.5 hour bus ride walk back to Long Island their dorm rooms.

It's not because of what they did to us in the first round of the 2004 tournament. I'm over that. Finally.

And it's not because Stony Brook is the birthplace of this living turd.
But it doesn't help.

No, I just want to beat the hell out of the Seawolves to take my mind off our last two games. The Vermont game made me queasy. The Binghamton game was worse because the final shot was one that Corey could have made.

It's time to get back on track, and who better to do that against than Stony Brook?

But hold on a second! This isn't the Stony Brook we've come to know. These ruffians are in 4th place, and have taken Vermont, Binghamton, and us into overtime. They lost all three overtime games, but very nearly beat the three teams in front of them in the standings.

They will be sure to bring it Wednesday night, so we've got to make sure to get on top, stay on top, crush their spirits, and not let up until it's over, for better or worse.

Just like my Saturday nights.

Let's try this again: The Binghamton Preview

Today marks our second straight contest fighting for the top spots in America East. After the Vermont disaster, we find ourselves out of the first place battle for now, but we play Fake BU today for second place.

Last time we played Binghamton, we were coming off a disaster against Vermont. Sound familiar? All the fans were feeling down, and we were pessimistic about our chances. And the Terriers came out and dominated on Binghamton's home court.

This time, we're at The Roof, where we tend to dominate. I like our chances.

The Terriers are going to be fighting fatigue from here on out, but they need to be careful not to hype themselves up too much. Sure the game is important, but we need to just get into our game and relax.

It's Valentine's Day. Feel the love, Terriers.

And then it all came crashing down..

You know, I could just delete everything I wrote in the 24 hours preceding the last game about BU being unstoppable, but that wouldn't really be sporting.

So, the Vermont game was a bust. A huge bust. The most ginormous bust. It was Phil Mickelson's bust. Vermont seems to be the one team we cannot beat right now. They were the last team to beat us before our winning streak, and they ended it.

The remarkable thing was how similar this game was to the last Vermont game. We got big early leads, let them back into a slight lead, struggled to keep it close for a while in the second half, Matt Wolff gets frustrated by fouls, then Vermont runs away with it.

The problem in this one was mental mindset. Just like last time, Matt lost his composure and started picking up stupid fouls. This time, John Holland got extremely frustrated too, so much so that Coach Wolff had to take him out of the game with several minutes left.

The Catmounters played hard aggressive defense, which was the reason for their win. It caused 21 Terrier turnovers. I'm surprised there weren't more fouls called, considering how much contact they were initiating on defense.

Bottom line is the we won't win the conference without being able to beat Vermont (nor would we deserve to). We'll hopefully have one more chance at that. For now, it's time to get Phil Mickelson's boobs out of our heads and concentrate on Binghamton.

The Rest of the Best

With 5 games left in the conference season, the cream has risen to the top of the standings. It appears to be a 3-horse race now, between BU, Binghamton and Vermont. Everyone else is below .500. So how good is each team really, and what does the rest of the season hold for them? This is a blog, so I thought I'd spout off some uneducated opinions and homerism.

Boston University

In my mind, we are clearly the best team in America East. We have shown steady improvement since the beginning of the conference season, with no hiccups at all. Now we're just blowing everybody out. Does that mean we're amazingly consistent, or amazingly due for a hiccup very soon? Over the last few years, every time BU puts together a run and starts doing well enough to be mentioned in Bracketologies and Mid-Major polls, we lose a game and come back down to reality. So as a BU fan I'm constantly on edge about this when we start doing really well. This group is playing so well it's got me remarkable calm now though.

Corey and Johnny haven't been letting anybody get off this train, and until I see otherwise, I've got to believe it will continue.

Vermont

All season long I thought of Vermont as the powerhouse frontrunner. Way before the season started too. They have so many weapons. But we're starting to see chinks in the armor. They have lost twice at home and double- and triple-teams seem to be starting to work on Blakely. And most importantly, they don't seem like they are able to effectively close out games. Everyone thinks about the horrific/embarrassing loss to Binghamton last week, but the same thing happened to a lesser degree against Hartford 2 days ago, and only won by 8. And if Hartford wasn't so terrible they might have come all the way back. It's a bad weakness, and it's the opposite of what BU has been doing to opponents.

Binghamton

They are so erratic. It means they could easily put together 3 hot games and win the tournament, but it also means they can't sustain it for the whole conference season. They went 0-fer three point range (twice!) earlier this season, or they can shoot the lights out. They can put up a gawdawful first half up in Vermont... or they can put up an amazing second half in Vermont. When it comes down to it, this team didn't impress me at all when BU destroyed them on the road earlier this year. We shut down their best player DJ Rivera, and they had nothing else. So until I see better (and they'll get a chance to prove it this Saturday), I don't think they have the horses (or the consistency) to finish in first place.