A Boost for Our Bench Scoring: The Maine Preview

I am currently watching Georgetown-Notre Dame on CBS, and they flashed a stat onscreen that caught my eye. It said that Georgetown is ranked #345 out of 347 D-I schools in bench scoring with 17 points per game, and Notre Dame is last in the nation at #347 out of 347 with 13.6 bench points per game.

I immediately called bullshit. As a Terrier fan, I know that absolutely NOBODY has worse bench production than us.

Basketball State doesn't show bench scoring, so I had to add this up myself. All told, even including 5 or 6 games at the beginning when John Holland was coming off the bench, BU non-starters only scored 290 points in 28 games - an average of 10.3 points per game. So SUCK IT CBS, I had no idea where you got that stat from. I'd love to know what they were talking about.

Things could change today, as it's Senior Day and all our senior bench guys will start, meaning we will have Jake O'Brien and John Holland coming off the bench. Here's how I see our starting lineup:

G Mike Schulze
G Tunde Agboola
F Sherrod Smith
F Valdas Sirutis
F Brendan Sullivan

Anything else would be a travesty. Lowe, Strong and Morris don't need to start this game. All 5 of those bench guys should get at least 4 minutes, since this game is essentially meaningless. It would be really awesome if Scott Brittain could suit up for this one too, but I don't see it happening.

So let's have these guys go out and win this Senior Day for Scott.

The sky is not falling

BU is coming off two pretty disappointing losses, but for VASTLY different reasons - and neither one gets me too depressed about how the season is going.

Notre Dame - we lead the #12 team in the nation, who hasn't lost in their building in like 4 years, for 37 out of 40 possible minutes. Basically all but the ones that count. This was one of the most exciting games I've watched BU play in a long time. I was fist-pumping and ninja-kicking all over the room, every time we scored a big deep three to answer an Irish run. In the end, we just ran out of gas and the shots stopped falling. McAlarney started hitting some of his normal shots, and Harangody just decided he wasn't going to allow a loss to Boston University.

But the Terriers showed how they are capable of playing.

Delaware - this game pissed me off just because I TiVo'ed it (for some reason it was televised on cable here in the DC area) and also had the BU All-Access as a back-up. I went to great lengths to avoid seeing the score before watching the game, since the Titans game was on at the exact same time. So I pull up BU All-Access (via the Men's Hockey page, so as to not see the game headline on the homepage) and right on the top of the video player is the headline: "Delaware trey sinks BU, 70-68." Well, that really makes you want to watch a whole game, right?

I did my best to watch as much as I could - I did fast forward through a lot of free throws and stoppages. From what I gathered, we did not play our best basketball but put ourselves in position to win the game at the end. On an off night, that's all we can hope for. I do think we are a better team than Delaware, and we led for the entire game - but they hit the shots when it mattered. It's a game we should have won but didn't.

So there they are - two losses for different reasons, neither of which spells doom for the season despite the Chicken Littles out there. A record of 5-5 is not where I, or Coach Wolff, or anyone else really hoped the team would be after 10 games. But there have been good things to go along with some very tough losses so far. Certainly enough to build on as conference play approaches.

The Hack-and-Spray Defense: The Notre Dame Preview

Everyone hates Notre Dame football, even despite everyone loving Rudy. It might be the pompousness of refusing to join a conference. Or maybe it's just a reaction to them being so good for so long.

I'm not sure if that hate carries over to the Notre Dame basketball game - but I don't see why it shouldn't. Either way, BU finds its way to South Bend, Indiana tonight for its chance to shock the world tonight.

And what a shock it would be. Notre Dame comes into the game at #13. Alongside their sharpshooter Kyle McAlarney, the frightening big man (and reigning Big East player of the year) Luke Harangody comes back from pneumonia.

BU comes off its best defensive effort, but that was against Yale, not a Big East team. A good defensive strategy tonight would be inducing Harangody into a pneumonia relapse, maybe by spraying him with cold water outside before the game and then blocking his entrance to the arena. Combine that with taking a hacksaw to McAlarney's wrists, and we may keep that duo from single-handedly destroying us.

Overall, hopefully BU comes out of this game with some good experience playing against superior players and a respectable score. And -- here's what I really want -- a chance at an ESPN dunk by Johnny Holland!

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.