Fearlessly looking into the future

There's a rule when you have a "basketblog" that you have to make end of the season picks and predictions. So fine let's get the boring ones out of the way.

1st Team All-Conference
Marqus Blakely - Vermont
John Holland - Boston U.
Darryl Proctor - UMBC
Corey Lowe - Boston U.
DJ Rivera - Binghamton

Rookie of the Year
Jake O'Brien - Boston U.
Defensive Player of the Year
Marques Cox - Stony Brook
Coach of the Year
Bill Herrion - New Hampshire
Player of the Year
Marqus Blakely - Vermont

The rest of them, 2nd/3rd team, All-Defense... eh, who has the time.

Here's how the tourney should go down:

I don't care what anybody says, this is how I think it will shake out. Binghamton is a paper tiger - you can't win that many extremely close games without eventually losing one of them. BU over Vermont might be a stretch, but not if they are missing Mike Trimboli - who at last check is still "questionable" to play in the tournament.

OK, now for the important predictions.

1) First coach to get T'd up: Randy Monroe, UMBC
2) Least fans in attendance: Tie - BU and Maine
3) Bing player attracting the most heckling: Tiki Mayben
4) Average age of Vermont fans, including dance team: 67
5) Most likely to go to overtime: UNH-SBU
6) Biggest blowout: Hartford over Maine
7) Number of Sparks consumed by our group of 5: 13
8) Weather for our Sat morning tailgate: Rain, of course.
9) Minutes Matt Wolff is on the bench in Round 1: 6
10) Tournament MVP: John Holland, BU

Agree? Disagree?

First look at the bracket matchups

Yes, the official bracket came out two days ago, and if you follow the America East enough to actually visit this blog, then this is probably not your "first look" at the bracket. But here it is anyway.


What you haven't seen yet is the BU Hoops Blog's thoughts on the first-round match-ups NOT involving BU (I know, it's outside of our area of expertise, but humor us). The parity in the league this year give this weekend the potential to be the most entertaining conference tournament in the nation.

The Stony Brook Invitational
#8 Stony Brook vs. #9 Maine

Jan. 6: @ Stony Brook 75, Maine 59
Feb. 23: Stony Brook 56, @ Maine 51

Stony Brook is wearing the home whites in the America East tournament, possibly for the first time ever. And they dominated Maine during the regular season, so things look good for the Mighty Seawolves. We make a point of driving to the Stony Brook Invitational Play-In Game every year to see what the Seawolves have in store for us. Last year, they rewarded us handsomely with buzzer-beating loss to Hartford after blowing a 20-point lead. Since the so-called "winner" of the SBIPIG goes on to get destroyed by #1 (except of course for that year when Stony Brook used their momentum from the game to beat one of the best BU squads ever...grrr), the REAL winner of the SBIPIG is whoever gets the drunkest. Let's see if we can defend our title.

Side note: This is the first tourney in 5 years we won't have the chance to heckle Popoko. Sad times indeed. Please read the High Roller's farewell letter to Popoko from last year's tournament. We will be on the lookout for new Stony Brook freshman who can fill Popoko's shoes for the next 4 years.

Quarterfinals
#1 UMBC vs. #8 Stony Brook/#9 Maine

Jan. 3: UMBC 76, @ Stony Brook 62
Feb. 6: @ UMBC 75, Stony Brook 63
OR
Jan. 12: Maine 77, @ UMBC 74
Feb. 28: UMBC 85, @ Maine 68

Based on regular season performance, we might expect to see Stony Brook sitting in this position, barely 12 hours removed from a SBIPIG victory. But it was MAINE that somehow beat UMBC at home this year! NASA scientists are still trying to figure that one out. You can bet that with all their weapons, UMBC will be ready for either one of them this time though.

Side note: I think it's kind of unfair that the winner of the SBIPIG has to face #1 so soon after that game. Let's break it down: The game ends at 9:00, and the next game starts at 12:00. That's 15 hours. You can take out:

30 mins getting dressed after the game.

1 hour traveling to and from the arena.

2 hours for dinner, breakfast and lunch.

45 mins for sex with team groupies.

1 hour for team showers (with or without groupies).

15 mins because someone is always late to the bus.

2 hours looking at film and preparing for a game against the toughest team in the league.

1.5 hours to warm up for the next game.
That leaves a grand total of six hours to rest and sleep and recover from a grueling 40 minute basketball game. I mean, I know #1 is supposed to get an advantage, but come on. I think it was Will Brown who was complaining last year about scheduling games too close together. Well, Willy B. never had to play with 6 hours of rest, did he?


#4 Vermont vs. #5 Binghamton

Jan. 3: @ Vermont 71, Binghamton 60
Feb. 6: Vermont 83, @ Binghamton 78

In my mind, this will be the most entertaining game of the day. On the Binghamton side, you've got coach Kevin Broadus coming off his hilarious 1-game suspension for fighting another coach - we'll see if he can keep his emotions in check. And on the Vermont side, you've got the best and most exciting player in the league in Marqus Blakely, who is more than happy to serve John Holland's only competition for the AE's best dunker. Unfortunately, Vermont is also the whiniest bunch of cry-babies since Jose Juan Barea. So get ready to see Mike Trimboli break out the water-works every time he gets called for a hand check on one of the Binghamton guards.

Side note: The cry-baby thing makes me thing of the game several years ago at The Roof when we bought a few packages of diapers and painted the No. 5 on them, and we waved them around and cried like babies every time Barea had a hissy-fit. Those were good times.

If the BU "Zoo" is reading this, you would be wise to take advantage of such a tactic. But please get rid of the pizza boxes. My god, those pizza boxes. Lame. Oh, and no storming the court on Saturday - you're in the #4/#5 game, and it's only the Quarterfinals.


#2 Hartford vs. #7 New Hampshire

Jan. 27: @ New Hampshire 74, Hartford 59
Feb. 17: @ Hartford 82, New Hampshire 63

This feels like a big opportunity for a nice upset. I kind of feel like Hartford is pretty weak for a #2 seed, and UNH has already shown that they can blow out the Hawks. Plus all the Albany and BU fans will be rooting for New Hampshire. Both of these teams will be chucking up 3's at an alarming rate - so depending on whether they go in the basket or not, this could be a really exciting game or an excruciating one.

Side note: It's hard to hate either one of these teams. Both have been hard luck losers for pretty much their entire time in the conference. They also always have among the least fans in attendance at the tournament (so get ready to hear a pin drop at this game). In past tournaments I have adopted these teams to root for since BU got knocked out so quickly. But I'm going to try my hardest to hate whichever one BU will face if we get by Albany.

We'll also get to see the 2nd and 3rd place finishers for Rookie of the Year (UNH's Alvin Abreu and Hartford's Morgan Sabia) face off, since John Holland wrapped up #1 last week with his fifth consecutive weekly award.

Happy Valentine's Day! I LOVE beating Vermont

The wins against UNH, Maine and Stony Brook were nice to build a little confidence. The destruction of Binghamton was a great game that proved we were ready to compete with anybody in the conference.

But this one just felt GOOD.

As a veteran of the Terrier-Catmounter Wars of 2002-04, watching them make the conference finals these past 3 years (and WINNING it the 2 years before that) has been torture. Ever since we made the tourney in 2002, they just always seem to be ever-so-slightly better than us.

That may still be true, and last night's 59-58 win is by no means equal to a conference championship, but it's really nice to walk into their house, out-play them for 40 minutes and prove that we still got some fight in us, even in what we thought was a down year.

The first half ended with a 4-point BU lead, and the story was defense. It seemed like BU stole the ball every other possession and pushed it up for a fast break. That's one thing I LOVE about this team... they're not afraid to run and they do it well.

Second half - remember how after the Binghamton game I wrote about the stepping on the throats thing? Yeah, not so much. BU pushed it out to a 14-point lead, which was great, but let Vermont claw back into it, culminating in the thrilling conclusion: what else, but Mike Trimboli missing a shot at the buzzer.

The Freep says it's BU's first one-point win since 2003. Winning this one, our fifth straight, against UVM made it that much sweeter.

Thanks for the Valentine, BU.

See you in Baltimore.