Where the F&%# is Rhett

On December 21, I attended the Mount St. Mary's/BU game at the Roof. At least I thought it was a home game at the Roof, but I couldn't really tell... because our damn mascot still doesn't show up for games!!!


Because of the joys of being an out-of-town fan, I have been to 3 regular season home games over the last 2 years. And our mascot Rhett has been at exactly none of them. Does he even freakin exist anymore? Or did they put him to sleep because he's too damn lazy? I remember when Rhett was a mascot I respected. His old suit used to be a bad-ass muscular physique, not the girly teddy-bear look he has now. And he showed up for EVERYTHING.

What is the point of having a mascot if he doesn't go to games? I don't care if he's been to every single hockey game (he probably has in fact!) - this school's athletic program is thankfully more than hockey. And don't tell me this is a holiday thing. The cheerleaders and the entire band were able to be at all of those games.

How sad is it that our mascot can't show up to a game, yet this guy is able to be there and waltz around our gym freely:

I'm serious. Who wears this to a BU game? The ticket guy at the entrance should have knocked this guy out.

Mascot issues

Lots of pixels lately on the interwebs about the America East mascots for some reason. America Least decided to do a Mascot Bracketology, and the Hot Dog wrote up his own rankings of the mascots. Hot Dog obviously placed Rhett the Terriers as the #1 mascot, and the America Least brackets have yet to play out.

But as big a fan as I am, I have a bone to pick with Rhett. I attended my one and only BU home game a couple weeks ago (you may remember it... it went 4 overtimes). I had a young lady with me who may not be the biggest basketball fan but is a huge fan of mascots. And Rhett the Terrier decided not to show up for that Monday night home game at the Roof!! All she wanted was a picture with Rhett. While I would have felt pity for the poor soul who had to endure four overtimes in that stuffy suit, it would have been nice to have a little entertainment in between periods for those of us who were excited to see Rhett.

We did a little investigating, and found out that the reason for Rhett's absence was that the athletic department for some reason didn't have access to the Rhett suit that night. Huh???

We were told that it was locked up in some inaccessible part of Agganis because of the hockey game TWO NIGHTS EARLIER or something. That's not even the worst part, get this: there are TWO different Rhett suits, and they couldn't get the other one either! The story on that is apparently it was somewhere in East Campus and nobody bothered to go get it. What was it doing in East Campus you might ask? Hell if I know, maybe walking around Myles dining hall or some other such non-athletic activity. Come on BU, these are really sad reasons not to have your mascot at a home basketball game.

The mascot impropriety doesn't stop there, however. Two days ago, BU had a game on ESPNU, and since we're not often on national TV, they bused down to Hartford with the cheerleaders, band and some fans, plus our lovable Rhett. Cool idea, right? Yeah, cool idea -- except I'm watching on TV and I almost spit out my Miller Lite:

RHETT THE TERRIER IS WALKING AROUND THE HARTFORD GYM IN A HOCKEY JERSEY.

What the shit? This is an outrage. This is worse than Rhett not showing up to a home game. Would Rhett ever prance around at a home BU hockey game dressed in a basketball jersey? No, he'd be laughed off the ice. BU fans who go to basketball games dressed in their hockey jersey have a special place in hell reserved for them. And not only does our mascot do that, but he does it at an AWAY game, on NATIONAL TV, for everyone else to see how pathetic it is.

Ugh. Come on, Rhett. Time to step up your game. The team needs you. The fans need you. I need you.

At least we know the BU Dance Team is still on top of things:

Burger Man, Meet Mr. Holland

Let me tell you about Burger Man. Burger Man is a big-time BU fan, but you might say his fan-dom of the men's hoop team has lapsed a bit. He still follows the team from afar and is always up for watching a game, but maybe not as up to date on the intracacies of the team as if, say, he read this blog every day.

But I won't hold that against Burger Man.

Burger Man earned his stripes as a BU basketball fan, showing such spirit during college that he sometimes showed up to games looking like this:

I was delighted when Burger Man elected to join me at Porter's for the BU vs. Maine game on Wednesday (the bartender doesn't even hesitate anymore - he sees my BU shirt and immediately tunes the DirecTV to NESN). The last game Burger Man watched with me was really depressing, so he had been a little gunshy about bringing more bad luck to the Terriers.

"But they're a whole different team now than when you saw them shit the bed against Albany!" I told Burger Man. "And wait till you see this John Holland kid."

"Who?"

Clearly, something needed to be done about this. I told Burger Man that Johnny Holland was going to put on a show for him against Maine.
Annnnnnnnnnnnd, he did.

Within minutes, John-boy was dropping effortlessly 3-pointers and frustrating the Maine ball-handlers at the top of the zone defense. BY FAR, the most ridiculous stretch came near the middle of the 1st half. BU stole the ball on 4 straight Maine possessions, each time leading to a fast break - first for a Marques Johnson lay-up, then a missed 3-pointer, then a Carlos Strong dunk... and THEN what we were all waiting for: Johnny gets a steal and takes it the length of the floor for a jaw-dropping, thunderous dunk. I loved that 2 minutes of my life.

BU annihilated Maine - it wasn't even as close as the final score of 73-54. The outcome was never, ever in doubt. Burger Man and I were hoping to either double Maine's score OR stay ahead by 30... we did neither, but it didn't matter. John Holland and Co. put on a show for us, and we were thankful.