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.

#12 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: H.J. Gaskins leaves team

I don't know if we ever expected much if anything out of poor H.J. aka Henry.  He came to BU with his two talented "brothers" from the same high school team -- Dom Morris and Travis Robinson -- but unlike the others had to pay his own way.  Then he sat on the bench for the first half of the season, before disappearing completely from the bench, due to a need to focus on academics, according to Coach Chambers.

I think we all kind of wondered if Chambers promised to take on H.J. if it would get Dom and Travis to come aboard.  Which I love -- anything creative BU can offer to get talented guys to join is fine with me (within NCAA limits, of course).  It seems to have worked, but we don't yet know how much of a coup this was.  Dom had a very solid freshman year campaign, but T-Rob remains an unknown at this point.  If T-Rob busts, then it's like we took on TWO guys just to get the services of Dom.  If Dom becomes a First Teamer, then it would be worth it no matter how good Travis becomes.

In any event, H.J. was put out of his misery for good this summer, having been completely erased from the roster by either Coach Chambers or Coach Jones.  In order to give H.J. his due, I will now reprint the entirety of H.J.'s highlights from BU directly from the website:

AS A FRESHMAN IN 2010-11

Appeared for one minute each against Marist and Villanova.

I can honestly say life was better with a guy named H.J. around.  Best of luck on your studies.

Was Dorothy's Toto a Boston Terrier?

We found out last Sunday night that we'd be going to Tulsa to play against the Kansas University Jayhawks. I don't know why the guys were all cheering - the Terriers got robbed with this matchup!

I suppose we're lucky that we aren't in one of the play-in games. But Kansas is definitely one of the top 2 seeds overall - they should be playing the winner of a play-in. BU was clearly the best of the 16 seeds (if not better than one of the 15 seeds), so we should have gotten the worst of the 1 seeds - that would be Pitt in Washington, DC. In essence, Kansas got screwed too because they should not have gotten the best of the 16 seeds. Of course it won't matter for Kansas because they'll steamroll whoever.

For the record, Bill Self agrees with me:

“I was surprised they were on the 16 line to be honest,” Self said. “When I was in my mind going through the bracket, I didn’t have them as one of the teams on the 16 line.”

What do we know about Kansas? I'm sure some hayseed from Kansas will come on here and tell us all about them (and how much we suck, etc). But for the time being, we just need to know about their twin towers, Marcus and Markieff Morris. Pretty unstoppable.

But little do they know, we have a secret weapon: the long-lost third twin Dom Morris! Though only a freshman, and only averaging 5.6 points per game, and like 4 inches shorter, he just needs to reach within himself for that Morris DNA - no problem.

No Match (For BU or our Tailgate)

We're in the parking lot of Chase Arena in Hartford. We have an unbelievable spread laid out for our tailgate (the only damn one here at the tourney, dammit). We got brews, music, painted car, propane stove, hot dogs, all the makings of delicious egg mcmuffins... everything but one essential item: matches. KAHNNNNN!

As we scarf down our cold food, waiting to go in and check out Albany vs Stony Brook, I can't think about anything beside finding a place to pee in this parking lot. But I'm trying to think about today's BU-UNH matchup. Obviously the big variable is John Holland's ankle. If he goes, I think BU takes it easily - even if he's only 75%.

BU is a different team now than the one that lost to UNH in Durham (which was BU's last loss). We can actually play on the road now. Guys like DJ and Darryl have stepped up when John was out. The "Mildcats" are also playing like shit lately.

Dear Pat Hazel: please stuff Tyrone Conley every time he dares to drive into the lane.
Dear Dom Morris: don't be afraid to drive toward the bucket if you get it on the perimeter; we know you have the moves.
Dear Mike Terry Jr: do that offensive rebound/put-back thing you do.
Dear John Holland: please play and dominate.

OK. Need to go in and watch the end of this game. Matches never came. By the way - I still detest Vermont and their fans, but many of them walked by and were really nice. None had matches though.

Current drunk-score=7.5

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Terriers Clean Up at Awards Banquet (Not Literally, the Busboys Did That)

The "BU Hoops Mobile" (according to our drivers side rear window) made it into the Nutmeg State a little after midnight. That might be late for some, but not for the nocturnal Cousin Bob, in whose home we happen to be staying. So we settled in for a Bud Heavy or 3 to catch up on family business.

Today, the America East awards were released. BU did quite well:

- DJ Irving and Dom Morris made the All-Rookie team. I actually think DJ may have earned a shot at the Rookie of the Year award, which went to Vermont's Brian Voelkel (DJ played MUCH better in the two head-to-head games), but I was happy to see both DJ and Dom recognized.
- Pat Hazel made the All-Defensive squad, a very nice honor for the league's top shot-blocker who had a really slow start to the year.
- Darryl Partin made First Team All-AE, which came as quite a shock. But his offensive number show he deserves it, and he was really solid on the defensive end too.
- And finally, and most impressively, John Holland came away with First Team All-AE and the Conference Player of the Year award. He deserved it, we all know he deserved it, and nobody should have been pretending the entire year that anyone else might have taken it. If not for Marqus Blakely, he should have earned it twice or even three times. Congrats to John on a tremendous and well-earned honor.

I cant even think of a single award BU was even slightly shafted on - DJ may have had an outside shot at ROY, but it probably ended up right. Coach Chambers would probably be the Number 2 Coach of the Year choice behind UVM's Mike Lonergan. Overall a good take by the Terriers.

And now, to get some shut-eye. Long day of drinking, tailgating, basketball watching and drinking ahead of us.

Current drunk-scale=3

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