Pat's Meaner Demeanor

Pat Hazel played an underrated role in BU's championship run last year.  He doesn't put up big offensive numbers, but over the last half of the season he became a force in the middle of the defense.  In the end, I guess he was accurately rated because he was awarded a spot on the AE All-Defensive Team.

But while Pat hasn't registered any blocks yet on the season, we've seen renewed vigor on the offensive side as he is scoring 7.5 points per game in the young season.  One thing I noticed during the Northeastern game was some really solid inside moves and nifty footwork by Pat when he got the ball.  This was against NU's very athletic and tall interior line.  If Pat can keep showing aggression and using these moves to get to the basket, he could make an impact on offense this year.

The key with Pat, as always, is making sure he stays clear enough from foul trouble to continue being a factor.

We still don't know if Dom Morris is going to get around to utilizing his size to get inside (instead of chucking up 3-pointers over and over and over...).  Cornell has some height on the interior, but they aren't athletic as the Northeastern or Texas front lines.  This game should be a good test of whether we can be successful scoring with our bigs.

OK Maybe the Sky is Falling: The Holy Cross Preview

I cautioned people not to overreact to the back-to-back Notre Dame and Delaware losses. Well, now it might be time to start worrying.

The 30-point shellacking at the hands of an Ivy League school, good as they may be, was upsetting. There were clearly defensive breakdowns very early, and once we got down by 28-5, there was no looking back. I do believe the team was trying hard to get back in the game, but that was an impossible deficit. And they had nobody in the middle to answer their 7-footer.

I salute the efforts of Matt Wolff, who has shown the most hustle during this winning streak, and Tyler Morris, who has been averaging over 10 points over the last 5 games. Jeff Pelage played his best game against Cornell with 8 points and 8 boards.

You gotta wonder about John Holland, who has been absent lately, and Scott Brittain, who is still a non-factor this season. Wolff even benched Holland in favor of Carlos, which didn't have the desired effect on either of them.

Holy Cross has owned us lately - and we've sucked at The Greek this year. Signs point to a rough game for the Terriers, but we'll see if they can put it back together.

Nerds Get Shut Out of NYC Hotspots: The Cornell Preview

Quick hockey story as we get ready for tonight's game against Cornell. I know, I know - this is a basketball blog. But it's a good story.

Last year, BU played Cornell in hockey at fabled Madison Square Garden. It was over Thanksgiving break but I couldn't make it for some reason. But the BU athletic department was really flogging this for a long time, to get the best attendance that they possibly could - after all, Cornell was an old school 1970's hockey rival of ours, so this was a big deal. And it worked: tons of BU students and alumni flocked to the worlds most famous arena for the game, which BU won in convincing fashion.

Before the game, friend-of-the-blog Dean Elmore found a bar near MSG that he thought would make a good meeting place for BU to get together after the game. He spoke to the manager and asked if it was ok to let people know about the bar, and the manager said it was fine.

Elmore does his thing at the game, and afterward the place is just overrun with jubilant Terriers fans. Place is straight PACKED - Boston jerseys from wall-to-wall. Come to find out, Cornell had booked and paid for the bar's basement private party room. But because of capacity, the bouncers wouldn't let any of the Cornell people into the bar. They couldn't give two shits that Cornell had already paid for the party room. Elmore's like, "Ummm... my bad."

Cornell administration is PISSSSSSED! Because of this whole thing, they threaten to never do the MSG thing with BU again! I'm not sure how the whole thing was resolved, but it's nice to hear about the high-and-mighty Ivy Leaguers crying and whining. Good for you, Dean Elmore.

Anyway, just a fun story about BU vs. Cornell - let's hope tonight's game makes them regret playing us in basketball too.

The 08-09 schedule is out... and I'm already excited about making Notre Dame jokes

Here's the list of teams we hope to belittle in this space after the Terriers beat them during this upcoming season:

11/14 - vs. George Washington
11/18 - @ Bucknell
11/22 - vs. St. Peter's
11/25 - @ Northeastern
11/29 - @ Mount St. Mary's
12/3 - @ Harvard
12/6 - vs. Marshall
12/10 - vs. Yale
12/13 - @ Notre Dame
12/21 - vs. Delaware
12/29 - @ Cornell
1/2 - vs. Holy Cross

It's an interesting list. Much weaker than last year's; we effectively swapped out St. Bonnie, St. Joe's and UMass in exchange for Mount St. Mary, Bucknell and Cornell. We replaced the A-10 with the NEC, Patriot and Ivy - significant downgrade in talent.

But you know what? It's fine with me. Last year we only won 3 out-of-conference games, and if this schedule helps us win more than that, I'm all for it. I was really excited about last season, and that losing streak at the beginning of the year was a real turd in the punchbowl. And there is probably only one game on that whole list that is a near-certain loss (ND). The rest are eminently winnable.