Let's enjoy first place while we still can: The Albany Preview

Fascinating game tonight! We take on Albany at The Greek, playing for the first time this season as the first place team, thanks to Vermont's choke-fest last night.

First, let's get it out of the way. We have lost 9 straight reg season games at Agganis. You probably know that I don't buy the curse argument, but apparently some of the players do, so it might be a factor for that reason alone. Some believe our struggles are due to shooting against a different background - but we have scored well there this year. We put up 80 against Marshall, and Corey had a great game that day. So what wins out: 9 game Agganis losing streak, or 6 game current winning streak?

Today's matchup against Albany is a rematch of our first AE game, and the first without TyLos, AND Corey was benched. BU fans were getting the razorblades ready. But the Terriers played tough thanks to John Holland and Marques Johnson, only lost by one and we backed off the ledge thankfully. Would having Corey Lowe on the floor that night have made the difference for us? Maybe we'll find out tonight.

We have four players averaging in double figs during conference play! BU, normally known for dominating defense, is winning games with their efficient offense these days.

Bottom line for tonight:
Terriers win... BU will be alone in first place by a full game.
Terriers lose... BU will fall back into a first place tie with Vermont, Binghamton and Albany.

Thundering Turd

When BU loses a close game or a game it should have won, your humble writers tend to go into hibernation and not write about it for like 4 days. Maybe we're just pretending it didn't happen. Whatever. It's not very professional of us, but I don't care. It's therapeutic.

Anyway, we're back and ready to beat up on another lowly Ivy. Just a couple leftover notes from the Marshall game:

• Corey is amazing. That is all. He scored 36, plus 20 against Harvard... and didn't event get the Player of the Week?? Some d-bag from Binghamton got it, who averaged a mere 20 ppg last week.
• Why does Marshall put their nickname "Thundering Herd" on the front of their jerseys? That just looks dumb, especially on the road. Who do they think they are, the Baltimore Orioles?
• BU has not trailed with 5 mins left in any game this year
• Marshall went to the free throw line 30 times in the second half alone - and made 25 of them. Big difference in the game.
  
• The Terriers are now #4 in the nation with 11 3-pointers made per game.

Man, I wish we coulda beaten a Conference USA team. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it would have been our first win over a BCS team since Michigan .

Boxlines of the Week

The High Roller's computer is on the fritz these days, so I'm taking on his running segment this week.

Boxline of the Week

Tyler Morris - 12/6/08 (vs. Marshall)

 Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
Morris, Tyler....... g  3-4    3-4    4-5    0  3  3   3  13  5  3  0  0  37
It would have been very easy to just plug in Corey Lowe's 36
points against Marshall... too easy. But honestly, I think Tyler's breakout game
shooting-wise is a much more important development for the team. He sank a
couple tough three's to get going, and then after that he was butta cause he was
on a roll. A healthy, productive Tyler Morris means everything to the success of
the team. Having him (along with Carlos Strong) as a solid secondary scorer
behind the three-headed monster. Plus Tyler deserves this after two straight
Boxlines of the Weak from the High Roller. 

Boxline of the Weak
 

Scott Brittain - 12/3/08 (@ Harvard)

 Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
Brittain, Scott.....    0-2    0-0    1-2    1  1  2   4   1  1  0  0  2   9

I know that it's mostly not Scotty's fault. But at what point do we begin wondering 

if last year's 3rd Team All-AE, 10 ppg Scott is coming back for his sophomore year. 

He has been back from his concussion for 5 games now, and it hasn't gotten much 

better than this game against Harvard. Some of it has to do with JOB's emergence. 

How much of it has to do with what Wolff calls his lack of aggression out there?

Be Perfect, BU: The Marshall Preview

I tried to watch We Are Marshall last night, to get inspired for this afternoon's game against the real Marshall. But the video store was out of it, and the closest thing I had was Friday Night Lights which I had never seen.

Truly inspirational. And you can picture Coach Wolff in that locker room motivating the Terriers to victory just the way Billy Bob Thornton did. Well, maybe not exactly the same.



The game today will be played at lovely Agganis Arena. A lot's been said this week about whether BU should be playing more of their games at The Greek or if they shouldn't play any at all. I've written about this before, and I'm firmly of the mind that BU should be playing games there - in fact I love this half-and-half arrangement they have now. The shooting percentage numbers are lower there, for sure - but I believe that's caused by the quality of the opponent we host there.

A week and a half ago, these same Terriers shot 55% in a win in Northeastern's Matthews Arena. The general shittiness of Matthews aside, it's a pretty similar setup to Agganis: it's located on top of a hockey rink; there's seats behind the baskets. And I don't think the Terriers have been coming over to practice in Matthews Arena on their off days. So the idea that BU is unable to shoot well in Agganis for those reasons simply doesn't hold water.

However, I love that the term "curse" is thrown around now. Here's D-Wolff:

“I vehemently disagree with the idea that there’s any curse at Agganis,” BU coach Dennis Wolff said. “Agganis is a state-of-the-art building. It’s one of our home courts. It’s great to play in there and that’s how we have to look at it.”

And if there's a team to break the "curse" against, it's Marshall. This is not the same team that destroyed us 70-47 last year. And we're not the same team either - that was when Tyler was still hurt, Johnny H. was still coming off the bench, and C-Lowe was on his mental health vacation.

This year's Marshall Thundering Herd come into The Greek at 1-4, with losses already to Wisconsin-Green Bay, Morgan State and East Tennessee State. Not lighting the world on fire quite yet.

This is BU's second chance (out of 3) this year to lay the smack down on a major conference opponent, since Marshall's coming from the Conference USA. Make it happen.

The Better Belding

When it comes to the America East conference schedule, which came out yesterday, I think of it like Mr. Belding. Do you remember when he wanted to take the gang on their Senior Class Trip to Yosemite for a lovely, but slightly boring and predictable, nature outing? But then his brother the substitute teacher, Rod Belding, swooped in with the more exciting prospect of whitewater rafting, leaving Mr. Belding to sadly toss his Yosemite brochures in the trash.

Every year, the non-conference schedule swoops in, tempting us with fun exciting games like Notre Dame and UMass and GW. But where's that non-conference schedule gonna be when the end of the year comes and BU wants to try to make the Big Dance? That's right: taking off with some stewardess who's only in town for the weekend.

And that's when we'll realize who's been there with us the whole time - the predictable and slightly boring games with Maine, Binghamton and Stony Brook. The long, flowing golden locks of GW and the chiseled jaw of Marshall are not taking us whitewater rafting to the postseason... it's going to be the balding, paunchy Hartford's and Albany's.

To paraphrase, it may not be the most exciting schedule, but yesterday we got the better schedule.

Thu 1/8 - @ Albany
Sun 1/11 - vs. New Hampshire
Wed 1/14 - vs. Vermont
Sat 1/17 - @ Binghamton
Mon 1/19 - vs. Stony Brook
Thu 1/22 - vs. UMBC
Sun 1/25 - @ Maine
Sat 1/31 - @ Hartford
Mon 2/2 - @ UMBC
Thu 2/5 - vs. Albany
Sat 2/7 - @ New Hampshire
Wed 2/11 - @ Vermont
Sat 2/14 - vs. Binghamton
Wed 2/18 - @ Stony Brook
Sat 2/21 - vs. Bracketbuster TBA
Thu 2/26 - vs. Maine
Sun 3/1 - vs. Hartford

We found out which AE games are going to be held in The Greek too: Vermont on 1/14, Albany on 2/5, and Hartford on 3/1 (along with GW, Marshall, Holy Cross and the Bracketbuster). Vermont and Albany are no-brainers, as the dominant forces in the conference over the past few years. To me, Hartford is a mild upset - I thought they would give UMBC some respect for winning it all last year. But it'll be cool because the Hartford game is Senior Night - hopefully a starting lineup consisting of Matt Wolff, Marques Johnson and someone named Sam Tully can fill the Arena.

Wolff sez: More games at the Greek (including BracketBuster!)

I had a chat with D-Wolff recently, just like I did last year, for a quick summer update on the happenings surrounding the Terriers. He was cool enough to call me while driving between two different gyms in Vegas during the big recruiting week there a little while ago.

Scouting in Vegas? Sounds like fun right? But coaches like Wolff and his assistants aren't there to drop a couple C-notes on the blackjack tables at Caesar's or spend a couple hours watching Gallagher find new ways to smash watermelons. No, it's a real grind going from gym to gym to look at hundreds of kids and having to choose between eating a meal and going to take a leak. For a really good illustration of what it's like read about it here (scroll down to Tuesday, July 29, 2008) or here.

Anyway, so it was incredibly nice to Coach to set aside a few minutes for me. Like a jackass, I didn't actually record the conversation because I have no idea how to record both ends of a telephone call with a regular tape recorder. I took notes, but they aren't perfect. So for that reason, info gleamed from the interview will spill out in smaller bits.

Like this, to start: Coach says the team will inconvenience the almighty hockey team a bit more this year by playing SEVEN games in Agganis Arena a.k.a. The Greek. The most we've had before was either 3 or 4, I can't remember.

The idea behind this is to create more of a big-time atmosphere around the team, and to me it's true: the games seem more of a big deal when they are played in a real college arena, and not a high school gymnasium. The skeptics among us will point out that if the tiny Roof looks empty on game nights then the Greek is going to look like the loneliest place on earth. Others will point to the Terriers' dismal win-loss record at Agganis. Well I say eff that... I want my team to play at the nicest court we have.

There will be 3 non-conference games there: GW, Marshall and Holy Cross. Good choices all, since they're the 3 highest profile home opponents we've got.

The Greek will also be hosting a BracketBuster matchup - and it's the first time a home game has been awarded to an America East team. I am REALLY hoping for a TV game this year. It'll be nice to be relevant after getting stuck with meaningless games against Manhattan and St. Peter's the last 2 years.

That leaves 3 America East games to be hosted at Agganis. Anybody got guesses on which ones they will be?

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.