#1 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: Joe Jones enters

We have finally made it to the last important story of the summer that I did not write about, and it's led me to two conclusions:  1) I'm never doing this again -- writing 12 blog posts on big stories in 3 days is a shit ton of work, and 2) I never want to see the word "egregiously" anywhere near my blog again, ever.

After the shock and disappointment of Pat Chambers' departure, the summer got more interesting -- we needed a new coach.  Someone who could keep the incredible momentum of the brief Chambers reign going and build on it.  I honestly don't want to get into who interviewed, who was rumored for the job, or anything like that -- because to be honest who knows how much of that stuff was correct?  Suffice it to say, Joe Jones got the job.

Who is he?  Well, we had no idea - we just knew he came from BC.  (So far, off to a bad start.)  But picking a complete unknown worked last time, so why not.

It turns out Coach Jones has a lot in common with Chambers -- both learned under Villanova's Jay Wright and both have the extremely outgoing (non-Wolff) personality.  But Coach Jones has 4 times the experience as an assistant, as well as a (somewhat) successful head coaching stint at Columbia, which he took from god-awful to just merely not very good.

It's clear from interviews that Jones has a Chambers-like ability to connect with players (none of Chambers' recruits bailed on us) and fans:

Only one question really remains:  is he a spy from BC who has been sent over to sabotage us?  It's a fair question, and we can really just wait-and-see.  Until we know, I'm on 100% board with Coach Jones and can't wait to see what he can do this year.

#2 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: Pat Chambers leaves

After March, Pat Chambers was a god to us.  He took us to two straight AE finals, including a championship and our first Big Dance in a decade.  The future looked even brighter.  I’m not going to say he could have gotten away with murder, but he certainly could have pantsed Dr. Robert Brown, BU President, in the middle of Comm Ave and received nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

For these reasons, BU AD Mike Lynch offered Chambers a contract extension through 2016 in early May.  We were excited.  Lynch was excited.  Chambers was excited.  After he signed the extension, Chambers stated:

“This is where I want to be. We’ve made this my dream job and again, you don’t get this type of support anywhere,” Chambers said. “We love the city of Boston, we love the university and we’re very grateful of this opportunity that they’ve given us and for BU basketball and what it’s done for us in this short time as a head coach.”

Less than one month after saying BU is where he wants to be, Chambers accepted the head coaching job at Penn State, a forever underachieving Big Ten program that will never make much more than a ripple next to its football program. 

The hire for Penn State was hailed as an excellent move, and the Nittany Lions fans rejoiced.  Reaction at BU was mixed, to say the least.  I can only speak for myself, but I was a little miffed.  On the one hand, Chambers got us the championship we wanted, left the cupboard full, and we can all understand the appeal of a bigger paycheck closer to home.  But on the other hand, it made it obvious that everything he had said about our program was disingenuous lip service.

Not only was BU not exactly "where [he] wanted to be," but there was unfinished business as well.  As I pointed out in this article in the Penn State Daily Collegian, everyone remembers Chambers' proclamation of turning BU into the "Gonzaga or Xavier of the East"... something virtually impossible in a mere two-year stay.

Look, everyone wants to move up to a better job.  But Penn State is a shitty job.  It's a near no-win situation in a place that doesn't care about basketball.

In the end, the majority of fans are not going to hold this against Pat Chambers, including me.  He is a good guy, and we probably would have made the same decision.  We may just be a little more skeptical the next time a flashy young coach roars into town talking big about his giant aspirations for our modest little program.

Best of luck to you, Coach Chambers, truly - and thank you for everything.  But don't be offended if I call your team the Shittany Lions.

_____________________________________________

The postscript to this is the awful situation unraveling now in Happy Valley (which takes on a whole new, terrible meaning).  I have no sympathy for anyone who went down in flames for any part of the cover-up or failure to act on allegations of child rape.  But how is this going to affect Coach Chambers and his historically terrible basketball program?  It's not fair to him or his players, but this is going to suck for them.

A few days ago, Chambers was interviewed about how somber the mood on campus was.  Well, I have a feeling it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.  One can't help but wonder if Coach Chambers regrets his decision to leave BU for this shitshow, or if he'd take it back if he could.

Penn State's first basketball game under Chambers is this Saturday, and was timed to begin right as the football game got out.  In retrospect... yeah that's not going to be good for business.

#5 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: JOB has foot surgery

Poor Jake O'Brien can't catch a break... unless you mean a bone in his foot.

He's stuck with this BU program through a lot.  We forgave him for attending BC High and in the end accepted him as one of our own.  He was a Dennis Wolff guy, and after a fantastic freshman year almost transferred when Wolff was fired.  He didn't progress as much as we hoped under Pat Chambers, and was hurt for the second half of last year.  When BU made it's memorable title run, Jake was stuck sitting on the sidelines in a suit and tie. 

Sadly, that's where Jake will be as BU attempts to defend that title.  He's gone under the knife to have surgery to work on that foot again.

The team is going to miss Jake's leadership this year - if not for him sitting out, I'd have predicted BU to finish in first place. This definitely hurts our chances at a repeat.

But, he sounds committed to recovery and playing again next year, so here's hoping we can keep this success going another 2 years, and give JOB a chance to celebrate on the floor with his teammates.

#7 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: Touted frosh join the team

While we have to wait a full year to see what we've got in John Papale, Maurice Watson and Nathan Dieudonne, we need only wait mere days to see what BU has in newcomers James Kennedy and Zach Chionuma.

Again, I plead general ignorance about players before they actually join the team.  But, so far I have heard (unsurprisingly) great things about both players. 

These guys are the final link to Coach Chambers, and thankfully they stayed on board after he left.  Thanks for the parting (Partin?) gift, Coach!

ZACH CHIONUMA is known as an explosive scorer, getting to the basket any number of ways -- slashing, pulling-up, dunking, bombing from deep.  At 6'5", he's got serious "length" for a guard, and though he has quite a few guys in front of him, I'm hearing he'll see a lot of court time.  His size could create matchup problems similar to a guy like Darryl Partin. 

It is incredibly depressing that Zach was born in the year 1992.

NERR story

JAMES KENNEDY has been described to me as a "bulldog"... which makes me wonder why he didn't end up at Yale or Georgia... I personally prefer my Terriers to be terriers.  Kennedy already has one strike against him, since he chose the uniform 23, of the Immortal John Holland.  However, despite being a trifle undersized for a forward at 6'6", everyone reports that he has an amazing "motor" and has strength that will keep him pushing the bigger boys around underneath the basket.

This quote from Kennedy brings joy: "I probably could have gone higher but when I got to the campus I knew it was the right fit."  That's right, you heard him - he knows he coulda gone higher but eff that noise.

NERR story

By all accounts these guys are great pieces to add to the club, in addition to redshirters Malik Thomas and the 7-footer Mat Piotrowski - both of whom I really have no clue what to expect, if anything.  I wouldn't look forward to seeing these guys on the court at tip-off on Friday, but you'll see them before halftime.

#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.

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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The Weight of Great Expectations

Every season, we judge our team in two ways: the level of success on the court (number of wins, how far they get in the postseason, etc) and how that success measures up against our expectations. We set those expectations right about now - the weeks leading up to the season.


But in the case of BU, many times those expectations are made for us. For the 4th straight year, we've been picked first in the league. A Marqus Blakely-led Vermont team was never picked first? Three years ago, we were coming off a 6th place finish with a bunch of sophomores, and picked first?

Yet we haven't come in first since 2003-04, and so according to the expectations, BU has been a failure.

This year might be the most undeserved #1 pick yet! We lost 9 seniors, and there are 3 guys remaining on our team who have suited up for BU. Four other guys averaged less than 5ppg at their previous schools. And of course 7 straight-off-the-boat freshmen.

There wasn't another AE team that looks better on paper than this??

The reviews from Monday's Scarlet vs. White scrimmage were underwhelming. Not surprising for a pre-season exhibition. The Terriers are going to take quite a while to learn and gel, and the out-of-conference schedule is gonna tough sleddin for the Chambers Gang too. If right now we're the best the America East has to offer, they can write us into play-in game right now!!

Now this all isn't to say that this year's Terriers can't win the conference or be very good. But setting those kind of expectations on this squad is unfair.

On to the Little Dance

With a resounding 76-56 thumping of Maine, the Terriers ended the 2009-10 season on a high note. That makes 5 out of 6 wins in February, the only loss coming in the final seconds against Vermont. What made this win more notable than the others is that it was the first of the year over a top-3 opponent. That is a nice hump to get over, and such a convincing win gives hope going into the tournament.

We finish at 17-12 and 11-5 in the America East Conference, which is good for 4th place. How does that compare with the season that got Dennis Wolff fired last year? Well, last year we were 17-12 and 11-5 in the conference, which was good for 3rd place. Scott Brittain was out this year, but Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong missed most of last year, and this year the guys are a year more experienced.

So on the surface, it doesn't look like the coaching change made any tangible year over year difference. However, DWolff wasn't fired for going 17-12 or 11-5. He was fired for going 0-1.

Will Coach Pat Chambers make his mark on this portion of the record? If that's how we judged Wolff, it's only fair we judge Chambers by the same standards. I think it's fair to say that Chambers will be feeling some heavy expections from Mike Lynch et al as he heads to his first America East tournament.

So who do we play? Well right now, it's uncertain. We are supposed to play Binghamton, who finished 5th place despite some crazy obstacles. But one more obstacle may be put Bing's way, namely a voluntary or involuntary absence from this year's tournament in Hartford. NY Times reporter Pete Thamel tweeted that "The America East and Binghamton are deciding if Bearcats should play in conference tournament."

This would be bullshit for us, especially since we dominated Binghamton by 40 last week, and it would leave us with the host team Hartford. Meanwhile, Vermont would move from getting a tough UNH team to getting the hapless UMBC Retrievers. This may all be resolved by the time you read this post, so no use getting worked up about it now. I am sure that Chambers & Co. are doing everything they can to prepare the Terriers for whichever team shows up at 2:30 on Saturday.

More on the tournament to come this week.

Aberration, or is this who we are?

Not a great start to the conference season for the Terriers. First, credit is due to Stony Brook: Tommy Brenton was the negative polarity to the positive charge of the basketball on the boards, and Bryan Dougher just could not miss from 3-point land. I watched at a local bar and the bartender thought this guy was Larry Bird or something - we just knew it was going in every time he went up for a shot.

But BU was bad in this game. Thirty-seven 3-pointer attempts, a school record, highlights a team that is unable or unwilling to take the ball to the hoop by dribble or by pass. We need to get tough and bring the ball to the hoop! Corey Lowe couldn't hit a thing, and that's the risk when all we do is take threes. A few games ago, there was a real effort to get the ball to Jeff Pelage against Marist - yes he had 5 turnovers on traveling violations, but he also had 8 points and 10 rebounds. That's production we need; his footwork will improve. JOB was our best player against Stony Brook with 27 points, but even Coach Chambers said, "Jake played great from 3-point land, but I’d like to see him get in there and mix it up a little bit more."

We can all agree that the Chambers Era is not off to the rosy start we all envisioned. There has been a very interesting discussion on the subject in the comments section of the last post. I think an adjustment period is expected and understandable. The players will eventually get used to the system and playbook if they haven't already. But much of our trouble this year stems from our complete lack of a bench, and I put some of the blame for this on Chambers' shoulders. BJ Bailey's departure isn't his fault, and neither is Scott Brittain's injury. But Chambers gambled by taking 3 transfers (who need to sit out a year) instead of a JuCo or 2 (who could play right away). Our problems right now prove that he lost that gamble.

My own take is that we lost a tough game to a decent opponent due somewhat to an inordinately bad performance by one of our better players. I think we'll be better by next game and in first or second place by the end of the year. But hey, I'm an optimist by nature!

How Bout Some Icing on the Cake: The Georgia Tech Preview

We all know this tournament is already "Mission Accomplished" - the win over Indiana was awesome and that's as much as any of us could ask for.

I'm guessing Coach Pat Chambers is not satisfied however. He'd like to finish off this trip to San Juan with a stunner over the #21 ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. BU last played a ranked team when they almost knocked off Notre Dame on the road last year. The Terriers led almost the entire game.

Tech has looked pretty good. They were upset by Dayton on Thursday, but disposed of George Mason on Friday. We saw the Mason game, and Derrick Favors is the real deal - one of the best frosh in the country. And Gani Lawal could have been a 1st round NBA pick last year, if he didn't return to school. We ran into some George Mason fans in Old San Juan on Friday night, and all they could talk about was how "Georgia Tech's got some biiiig boys."

So can we do it? You've got to wonder how well we will do inside. We won the Indiana game by rebounding. We've got to crash the boards at least as well to have a chance in this one, or the shooting has got to be lights out.

A Big Win in Puerto Rico!

My expectations for the Puerto Rico Tip-Off were not high before coming down here. I thought we could compete, but with such a stacked field I did not think we'd win a game.

By now you've heard that the Terriers did just that, staging a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the storied Indiana Hoosiers. Maybe you listened on the radio stream, or even followed along with my fevered series of tweets down the stretch. But this was a game that made the trip to Puerto Rico well worth its while. We didn't just travel here for the fun of watching the Terriers, we came here and witnessed something great.

BU was behind the whole game, due to another pretty poor shooting performance, but always remained within striking distance. In the first half, we got in a hole and clawed our way back to within 2 points just before halftime... unfortunately, IU hit a buzzer-beating 3 to make that deficit 5 again. They had held Corey Lowe scoreless in the first half, but rebounding kept us in the game.

In the second half, we hung around and made our move in the final minutes thanks to huge 3-pointers by Lowe, Carlos Strong, Tyler Morris and John Holland. Jake O'Brien, with a double-double, and Jeff Pelage led BU to a 52-32 rebounding advantage over the Hoosiers. Strong's only bucket of the game, a 3 that tied the game for the first time at 63, made the BU fans go bonkers. Clutch free throws by JOB and Corey kept us up until a lay-in by Jake with a minute remaining (off a pretty feed from Tyler) put us up by 4. Indiana couldn't hit any desperation shots after that, and the rest is history.


The keys to the win were certainly REBOUNDING, the lack of FOUL TROUBLE and Indiana's refusal and/or inability to institute a full court PRESS. That press had been utilized by the 3 teams that already beat us to take us out of our offensive rhythm, and it worked. Maybe Indiana just didn't have the athletic horses to take such a tack.

Sherrod Smith and Valdas Sirutis played meaningful minutes, and BJ Bailey played his first collegiate minutes, even scoring on a lovely fast break. He looked good out there.

Coach Chambers has that monkey off his back, and got his first head coaching win. He's got the team excited and disciplined, and as the team made their way off the court he led them in a simultaneous salute to the BU fans in attendance. Awesome moment.

As for the High Roller and I, we found a cool little hole-in-the-wall pub to celebrate in Old San Juan (we've gotten pretty good at ordering beers in Spanish). We get to spend today regaining our voices before taking on #21 ranked Georgia Tech on Sunday.

But this win over Indiana, our first over a BCS conference team since Michigan in 2004, is one we'll remember for a long time!

Tough Loss to Kansas State, 80-70

What's the difference between an Big 12 team and an America East team? Not much except for size, strength, speed, and skill. The Terriers were just as into the game as the Wildcats, possible even more, but gumption will only get you so far.

And there's only so much one team can do when they commit 34 fouls in a game. I like the way Chambers coaches, but there's no way that he can allow Corey Lowe to reach four fouls in the first half.

Corey Lowe and Tyler Morris were both limping at the end of the game, by the way. Make of that what you will.

Today we take on the Hoosiers of Indiana, and as John Holland Sr. says, it's "winnable". Less fouls, less turnovers, more threes, and tighter defense should pave the way to victory.

Hobbs, Chambers tweet before tip-off

Both coaches hit their Blackberries within 5 minutes of each other for a quick tweet before the game tonight. You tell me which one feels more confident about tonight's matchup:

@GWCoachHobbs Just finished shootaround / really tough game tonight. Young group has to mature quickly.

@Coach_Chambers Heading to our shoot around... Can't wait for tonight!!! Lets pack Agganis and start the season right at home!

As always, you can follow me here @chipweis, which roughly 75% of the time it's about BU basketball.

Finally, a few minutes ago from @JohnBattaglino, can't wait to see this place packed:

We Must Protect This House: The GW Preview

Today is the day we get to find out if the performance at the Terrier Tip-off worked. Coach Chambers can scream all he wants to rally the students, but if they still don't come to fill up The Greek tonight for GW, you have to wonder if they ever will.

I remember vividly the first game at Agganis Arena, a hope-filled win over Vermont seen by over 5000, a number that hasn't been matched since. Here's hoping today brings us back to that first game.

GW and I go back a long time. As they're my local team now and knowing quite a few alums, I attended quite a few Colonial games in 07-08, and flirted with sub-fandom for a while. I even have GW t-shirt. But it was a love/hate relationship, and ultimately the inferiority of the First Ladies dance team and the creepiness of the mascots pushed me to Howard instead.

However GW is a team that should be doing better. Long-time readers will know that a frequent target of mine is "Little George," who was described thusly by a blog ranking the 25 worst college mascots:

For some reason, the Colonial reminds me of the Norseman, McKinley High's mascot in "Freaks and Geeks." Both are unintentionally terrifying, with their gigantic heads and soulless eyes. While the Colonial isn't sporting a spine-tingling grin, somehow his look of placid indifference is even scarier.

The bad mascot news doesn't end there those. GW features an odd mix of several miscast mascots (see chart).


Now, there fantastic news for Colonial Nation, as Little George has been retired. I guess they got tired of re-painting his papier-mache face every year (really..) and replaced him with a much, much, much better version of Little George. Now they just have to puncture the 10-foot tall inflatable Big George and we'll be in business.

Damian Hollis has been my favorite Colonial for a while, mostly because he constantly looks like he's about to fall asleep. He comes from a long line of tall, athletic GW forwards like Rob Diggs and Pops Mensah-Bonsu, but has never achieved on the level of those two - again, mostly because he's about to fall asleep.

Hollis is the best player, and I'm not sure what to expect from the rest of the team. GW sucked last year, but still beat us.

I do know that BU is going to have to cut down on fouls and turnovers this game. The shots will fall eventually. Hopefully, many will be there to hear it. Hmm, there's a tree-falling-in-the-woods analogy somewhere in there...

Who is this fast-paced basketball team, and what have you done with BU?

In my Iona preview I listed a few things people might think of when they hear "Iona." Unfortunately, BU fans who traveled to the game on Friday have emailed me to add another one: "raging alcoholic dickheads."



Read the Hot Dog's full account here, if you don't mind feeling uncomforable just sitting in your chair. Now, I'm not going to say we were all choir boys and angels back in my day, or always showed up ready to pass a breathalyzer, but we never personally targeted other fans or got in anybody's face. Especially for 40 straight minutes. These losers had zero interest in the game, just in making life miserable for the die-hard fans who made a 2-hour trip to cheer on their team. Idiots.

As for the game: sigh. In the excited build-up to every basketball season, especially this year with Coach Chambers getting everybody whipped into a frenzy, you forget how quickly you can be brought back down to earth by one uninspired opening performance.

This year it was BU losing by 9 at Iona, 82-73. One thing was crystal clear from this game: this is no longer Dennis Wolff's team. If the teams were Elton John songs, this is "Crocodile Rock" to last year's "Candle in the Wind." No more walking the ball up the floor to a half-court set offense. No more low-scoring games. And really, not much defense to be seen.

The Terriers ran up and down the floor non-stop. While this makes for an exciting, back-and-forth basketball game, I've got to criticize the strategy a bit. We had only 6 regular rotation players available... plus Vlad Sirutis and Sherrod Smith. Going up against a rotation of 11, this puts us at a disadvantage. Not only would we get tired more quickly, but the fouls mount up - which is exactly what happened. We had 6 guys finish with 4 or more fouls. Add it up and you've got a defense that resembles... the BU hockey team (sorry guys).

No strategy is going to work unless the shots fall, which they didn't. We shot under 40% for the game, and worse, made only 4 of 9 free throws in the second half. Turning the ball over 22 times doesn't help.

Bright spots were there. Tyler Morris looked like the 2006 version of himself. Carlos Strong had the first double-double of his career. The guards (Carlos, C-Lowe and Holland) rebounded the ball well, which will be important for our perimeter-oriented team.

The team's injuries hurt the depth, but even so we could have won the game. This much was glaring: the team desperately misses Scott Brittain's presence inside.

Buckle up, everybody: The Iona Preview

Tonight we arrive, as KW so eloquently put it, at Milepost 0. First game, beginning of the journey that is the 09-10 BU Terriers season.

The Terriers are not making it easy on themselves. Already, Scott Brittain and BJ Bailey are out with concussions. That means were going to have a VERY thin bench for the next few days. More importantly, our youngest Terrier is off to a bumpy and painful start, and any more concussions for one of our senior captains could bring his long-term health into question. I don't even know if Trent Green had 3 concussions. Be safe, Scotty.

On paper, BU should dominate Iona College tonight, right? We won in last year's Bracketbuster, we didn't graduate any of our big scorers, they lost 2 out of their top 3 scorers and they are picked 9th out of 10 in the MAAC. My expectations would normally be for a win of blowout proportions.

But then you account for the injuries on our side (Iona is a little banged up too, but not as bad). And that we're on the road. And it's our guys' first game under Coach Pat Chambers' new system. And they have a lot of tall men.

It'll be a good first test, and a nice tune-up for the GW home opener. And hopefully a win!

Expectations and Predictions

Expectations are a funny thing. As fans we cheer for our team and talk trash about how we're better than other teams. But then sometimes, we are hesitant to predict big things from our team. Why? Because we don't want to "raise expectations."

And why don't we want to raise expectations? I guess because of some fans have this idea about how much enjoyment you can get out of it. If you expect to come in 1st, and you come in 3rd, you're disappointed. If you expect to come in 1st, and you come in 1st, you're merely satisfied. And if you expect to come in 3rd, and you come in 1st, you're ecstatic beyond your wildest dreams. These fans think you get more enjoyment out of coming in 1st if you're not expecting it, and they want to mitigate their disappointment in case they come in 3rd ("Well, this is how we expected to do..."). The same effect comes into play to a sickening degree at political debates.

In the case of players and coaches, they try to set expectations low for the same reasons, except it's job security instead of enjoyment.

Well, the players can do what they want, and the coaches can do what they want. But I'm not tempering my expectations. I expect us to win a game in Puerto Rico. I expect us to win 20 games. I expect us to have two players on the All-AE First Team. I expect us to win the America East this year and go to the NCAA Tournament. And I'm going to enjoy it all just as much as if I only expected us to finish in 8th place (Binghamton is the default 9th place).

These high expectations should be the same every year, for every team. They're the reason Dennis Wolff was fired. And I don't think Pat Chambers should get any leeway from them just because he's new! We have a group of great veterans who have proven themselves capable. This is their last shot - why wouldn't they expect to make it to the NCAA's themselves!

Coach Chambers, Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong have all recently talked about not looking ahead of the next practice or game in front of them, and not worrying about where they are at the end of the year as long as they are the best team they can be. That's a fine attitude to have in order to keep concentration on the day-to-day efforts at improving. But they're crazy if they don't have any goals or expectations for the entire season.

There is pressure involved in setting high expectations. But when you expect great things, sometimes you get great results.

* * *

Now, predictions are different that expectations, but for fans they can fall into the same trap as the expectations... forecasting lower results to minigate disappointment and be "pleasantly surprised" by success. Well, not me. I predict (and expect) that this group of seniors and this new coach will bring us a championship.

Others who don't care about our program one way or the other are unencumbered by the expectations game. So what do they think?

In short, they all have pretty high expectations for us. I haven't seen a publication yet (published post-Tiki) that doesn't have us winning the America East. So what about beyond that, in the NCAA tourney?

CBS Sports: #16 vs. Kentucky
ESPN Bracketology: Play-In Game vs. Jackson State (!)
Blogging the Bracket: #14 vs. West Virginia
FoxSports: #16 vs. West Virginia

That's a lot to live up to.

Media Day: Everybody Loves the Terriers!

For the third year in a row, the America East coaches have UNANIMOUSLY picked BU to finish #1 overall in the Preseason:

1. Boston U
2. Vermont
3. Albany
4. Stony Brook
5. New Hampshire
6t. Hartford
6t. UMBC
8. Maine
9. Binghamton

And we were well represented on the Preseason All-Conference Team:

Tim Ambrose, Jr., Albany
Marqus Blakely, Sr., Vermont
Muhammad El-Amin, Sr., Stony Brook
John Holland, Jr., Boston U.
Corey Lowe, Sr., Boston U.

Pat Chambers was "sick" (no really, Coach, we believe you...) and missed his first America East Media Day, so right-hand man Orlando Vandross ably stepped in to give soundbites of things we mostly knew already. Among them:

Chambers will bring a more exciting, Villanova style of play to BU

Carlos Strong and Tyler Morris are healthy and ready to go

BJ Bailey should emerge as a regular part of the rotation by conference play

It was mighty nice of the coaches to vote us #1, but we don't care

"There is a genuine excitement about our basketball program. We need to harness it."

BU will secretly play UMass on Saturday

OK, so don't tell anybody, but BU is going to play UMass in a "secret scrimmage" this coming Saturday. It'll be Pat Chambers' first experience as a head coach going up against another D-I program. It's an opponent his players will know better than he does; before last year, BU played (and lost to) the Minutemen three years in row.

Every year, teams play 1 or 2 so-called secret games against another school, one that they won't play during the regular season, just for practice purposes. It's secret because fans and media are not allowed to attend, and coaches aren't allowed to comment on them. This is because schemes and plays that coaches are trying out are apparently akin to state secrets and should be protected as such. Jeff Goodman released his list of "secret scrimmages" this morning.

This leads to some philosphical questions of the basketball universe. If two teams play a basketball game and nobody's around to see it or hear about it... does it ever actually take place? Is there a score? If an injury happens, does it miraculously heal when the teams return home? Since it's Halloween, will they dress up in disguises?

If, somewhere in the space-time continuum, this game actually occurs and somebody hears about it and any real or virtual scores, storylines or injuries, let us know!

Just the Tip-Off

PAT CHAMBERS.

I could end the post there and I would have said enough. But it deserves a few more words. We have heard Pat Chambers talk a lot about getting kids fired up for basketball. This is the first time we saw it in action. Like a mad man, Chambers sprinted out onto the court, screaming at the fans to stand up, even jumping up on the scorers table. And the fans responded by standing up, and screaming back louder. Chambers lost his voice in about 2 seconds. He went on for about 5 minutes talking about supporting the team, getting fired up, the team has a new attitude.

It was a far cry from a Dennis Wolff tip-off performance, or even the BU women's coach. It might even succeed in getting people to go to games, who knows.

Random observations from the rest of the night:

-- Is it just me, or were the guy's intro songs slightly outdated? I think the time for "Hey Shorty, It's Your Berfday" and "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" has passed. (And John Holland, lose the Yanks cap dude. You're trying to connect with the student body!)

-- Speaking of outdated songs, someone with access please slip some newer material under Chris Parks' office door. I love the BU Band -- they are probably the most devoted BU sports fans there are -- but the old songs they have been playing since I was a freshman (a decade ago!!) just remind me of the OLD BU basketball. Pat Chambers is trying to re-invent this program with new life, but that old intro song the band plays (whatever it's called) keeps me back in the DWolff era. And were any students even born before "Push It" came out?

-- The Dance Team was good as usual, but I'm feeling the MJ fatigue. But the collab with the hoops team was "Bad" (meaning good). John Holland was not good, Tyler Morris was surprisingly good, and Jeff Pelage looked like he was having the most fun out there.

-- My ranking of the different dance performances of the night:

1. Fusion
2. BU Dance Team
3. BU Cheer Team
4. XCeption
5. Status Quo - not impressed by them. Bring back Lil' Phunk or Phunk Phenomenon!
...
99. BU Men's Basketball team - points for effort. At least it was better than this:



-- In the first round of the 3-point shooting contest, both girls beat Tyler Morris and Corey Lowe. In fact, both guys appeared to be drunk. But then Tyler redeemed the men by getting on fire in the second round, proving once and for all the men are the dominant gender.

-- The best dunks from the dunk contest were pretty impressive. Carlos Strong was the clear winner, so I'm glad he took the title for the second staight year. My favorite comment, courtesy of Dean Elmore: "Show 'em what it means to be from Maine, Carlos!"