Honey, can you pick up some Windex on your way home from work?

The Terriers need some serious help in the glass-cleaning department. In fact, the Case Gym glass is so filthy it seems like it hasn't been cleaned all year (at least not by BU).

Figure this: BU has 4 "big men" (although at times that seems like a stretch) - Scott Brittain, Vlad Sirutis, Max Gotzler and Ibe Konate. During the 9-point loss to Hartford on 1/12, that Fearsome Foursome gathered a grand total of THREE rebounds. Not three apiece, not an average of three between them... but THREE total. And all four of them got playing time! Kudos to Ibe for pulling down 33% of the group's rebounds in just 4 minutes of action.

The group responded to that performance with a FIVE rebound effort this past Wednesday against Albany (this time, Ibe didn't see any action). It was sad to watch that display, as the disparity on the boards was 38-20 in favor of Albany - missed shots seemed to head directly into the hands of our big men, then be promptly taken away by Albany and deposited into the basket.

These guys should be averaging 4 rebounds per game EACH, not as a group. Might this problem (ranked 8 out of 9 in rebounding margin) have a little to do with our losses this year?

Boxlines

It's a few days late, but here is the Boxline of the Week:


Corey Lowe, vs. Albany 1/16

FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN

6-19   5-12   3-4    0  1  1   4  20  4  3  1  3  40

Not all that impressive, I know, but according to BU's website, Corey played 40 minutes on Wednesday, so that's why his is the boxline of the week. Plus it wasn't that impressive a week on our side anyway.

And your Boxline of the Weak:

Valdas Sirutis, @ Hartford 1/12

FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  1  0  0  12

No points, no boards, no assists, not even a shot. Just one turnover. What the hell was he doing in there for 12 minutes? Discussing the best places to eat in Eastern Europe with Max Gotzler?

Oh, and here's a couple stats from last night's game that might make you puke:

Rebounds: BU 20 - Albany 38
Shooting %: BU 35.3 - Albany 54.5

I guess at the very least we can call it a breakout game for John Holland with 19 points.

Murmurs of Basketball Stuff

It was a relief to see BU remembered how to score points. They nearly reached their previous games total by half-time as they outplayed UNH to win 82-72. Corey Lowe ended up with thirty points after scoring the first 12 points for BU, all on threes. Carlos Strong had 14 points, and Max Gotzler had 11, a career high.

Jesus, where to being.

First of all, the starting line-up:

Max Gotzler, Matt Wolff, Valdus Sirutis, Tyler Morris, and John Holland.

Weird, right? But it somehow worked. I'm still trying to figure it out.

Corey Lowe took 22 shots. That's a hell of a lot but it seemed to work so I say keep doing it.

Ibe and Marques Johnson barely played. 12 Minutes between the two of them. I'm sure that had something to do with how well we played.

Tyler took a lot of shots, and missed a lot. But he's been trying to shoot his way out of his slump, and he will, as long as he keeps shooting. He still managed 10 points, with 8 from the free throw line. He's starting to get back into, and I like that Wolff isn't overworking him too soon.

John Holland had six steals, showing how much this kid hustles on every play. We need someone like him on the court as much as possible. He is sick on defense. Defensive Player of the Year in a couple years, I'm calling it right now.

As a team, we out-rebounded UNH, and I can't remember the last time we did that. 36!

And how 'bout that Max Gotzler? He played 35 minutes! And judging by the box score, he didn't do too badly either. But there's a reason he got so much playing time. Scott Britain didn't play today, and it's much worse than we could have thought possible:

BU, which now holds a 52-6 advantage over UNH in conference play, was playing without leading rebounder and third-leading scorer Scott Brittain, who pulled a gluteus muscle in practice Tuesday.

I quoted the recap from ESPN because I didn't want to have to think of a way to say that, but it sounds bad. I have no idea if this is a short-term or long-term injury, but if someone knows, or if anyone knows specifically what is going on with Scott, leave a comment.

Anyway, this was a big win for us. We needed it bad after four straight losses. We go hammered by SUNY (I started using SUNY when talking about Binghamton because it was getting too confusing with two BU's. Plus I think they hate the name SUNY), and we were in danger of starting conference play 0-2. It's good to see some life in them. I hope they keep this up.

And around the America East? What a strange couple of days.

Sunday:

BU took a serious beating from SUNY, who I had predicted only minutes earlier would finish 8th in the conference. That was a real wake up call.

After looking so sharp the entire game, Vermont loses in overtime to Albany by a point. What an exciting game that was.

Stony Brook totally hands it to Maine. Didn't think they had it in them.

Wednesday:

Down 7 at the half, Hartford rallies back with 48 points in the seconds half edge out Binghamton by one point.

UMBC crushes Vermont 78-60. Right after Vermont looked so sharp at Albany, too.

And the standings look incredibly odd right now. Everyone has at least one win, except Maine, and everyone has at least one loss, except Hartford, who only played one conference game, and UMBC, who is 3-0. I think I can honestly say that right now, it looks like almost anyone could win this conference.

And UMBC? Didn't see this coming. Hodges is having himself a great season, and he's got a great team around him. Yeah, it's early, but I can't recall UMBC ever having a decent season. Maybe this is the season they finally make some noise.

Too early to know too much, but we know this: this is going to be one ridiculous season.