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.

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.

Halfway Home: The Maine Preview

How exciting is this! We're halfway through our conference schedule, and tonight we're playing for first place. Something odd though - the game isn't against Vermont, and it isn't against Albany or Binghamton. It's against Maine. That's right... terrible, basement-dwelling, joke of a team Maine. I know, I can't believe it either.

But right now, let's focus on the halfway through part. How did the first half go?

Well, we're playing for first place, so not too badly. We cleaned up against the crap teams, and we crapped the bed against the good ones. But in the words of the immortal Brian Johnson, 6-2 ain't a bad place to be.

The Story of the First Half: Coping With Injuries

Already without Scott Brittain and BJ Bailey, we lost Tyler Morris after the first AE game. At that point, many BU fans labeled the season a lost cause and were ready to write the season off. I publicly wondered who would run the point for BU.

Since then, the Terriers starters have pulled together and stepped up their game. And I've got two of them in mind in particular, and that's Corey Lowe and Carlos Strong. 'Los has really stepped up rebounding and on the defensive side of the ball, while still shooting 47% from 3 point range. And Corey has been all-around ridiculous; upping his points and assist numbers, while becoming a real leader on the floor.

The bench has been a problem all year, mainly because of those injury problems. But we're finally beginning to see a glimmer of hope (aka production) there, and from the unlikeliest of sources: Sherrod Smith (7 rebounds against UMBC!!!), Brendan Sullivan (5 rebounds against Binghamton!!), Tunde Agboola (shooting 67% for the year!!!) and yes even Mikey Schulze (a big '2' in the scoring column against UMBC).

What Can We Expect the Rest of the Year?

That all depends on how long our 4 main guys can keep up this pace. They are going to get TIRED. However, 5 of our final 9 are at home, so that helps.

It depends on whether the bench can continue to improve.

It depends on how good Tyler is, and to a lesser extent Brendan Sullivan, coming back from injury.

And it depends on how bad these 9 seniors want to finish out their careers on a good note.

My Prediction: Another 6-2, for a grand total of 14-4 and 2nd place.

I think the tired legs will make an impact at some point. But the experience and talent of the team will get it most of the way there.

It starts tonight in Maine. This is a team that is somehow good. They have a player, Gerald McLemore, who is maybe the next Corey Lowe in this league. And they've got some beefy guys who can patrol the paint. I'm hoping we can hold this one down, and be able to stand on top of the AE mountain for a few days.

FML: The UNH Preview

Tyler Morris broke his hand Tuesday in practice, Scott Brittain is basically out for the entire year, and BJ Bailey just transferred out.

Who is going to play for us!??!

Now, Corey Lowe is our ONLY ballhandler! What happens when Corey is in foul trouble or needs a breather? Nevermind that Corey is most effective off the ball - nobody else can bring it up. Is Mike Schultz going to get significant minutes? Will Carlos and John Holland bring up the ball? Tunde???

I'm not even sure we'll be able to finish .500 now. UNH tonight on the road will be a good barometer. They are not a bad team, but not top tier. Our core of Holland, Lowe and O'Brien is still better than any other in the league, but ZERO bench is ridiculous.

Poor Tyler Morris. This is the 4th major injury of his BU career. I'm sure he feels like shit right now, just wanting to play, and I feel bad for him. Here's hoping he can come back in a month (or less!) and contribute mightily to the stretch run and the tournament. And hoping we can stay afloat in the meantime.

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!

There Will Be Blood: The UConn Preview

In between last week's Northeastern game and today's UConn game was a game against Harvard that occurred precisely in the middle my holiday travel, hence the lack of preview/wrap-up. Yes, as a devoted fan of BU hoops I demanded of a very understanding girlfriend that we pull the car off the highway and find a bar with free WiFi, but the game was also precisely in the middle of my other favorite team, the Tennessee Titans, producing one of the more improbable comebacks in NFL history.

So, in the middle of The Office Beer Bar & Grill in Morristown, NJ, I had one eye (but no ears) on the Terriers's game against the Smarties. First the Titans were up and the Terriers were down big in the first half. Then the Titans gave up the lead but BU streaked to a double-digit lead in the second half. Finally, as the Titans made history BU ran out of gas and left Case Gym with an uninspiring 78-70 loss to an admittedly decent Harvard Crimson squadron.

It's harder than you think to watch your two favorite teams at once, but I did pick up a few things about the Terriers game. One was that Corey had a rough game - not only did he go 0-7 but had bad turnovers on two consecutive possessions in the final minutes that led to fast break dunks and thwarted any possibly comeback. Real daggers in the heart.

Another thing that I noticed is we are really hurting for bodies. BJ and Valdas were not playing due to various ailments. Tunde even got into the game, and made a nice steal and basket before the end of the first half.

This is going to be the big story going into tonight's matchup against UConn. In addition to those two guys plus Scott Brittain, the Hot Dog says Corey will now be sidelined with an injury.

Are you kidding me??? We will barely have enough guys to field a starting five. Forget that this is on TV against the #13 team in the country... we couldn't beat Binghamton with this many injuries.

OK, that isn't true. But this will be a slaughter. I am afraid to admit that I am hosting a BU Alumni in DC Club game-watch at a bar tonight. There are casual BU alums who are almost never exposed to BU basketball and will be turned off from the team because of tonight! We lost to #21 Georgia Tech by 18... we'll be lucky to lose to UConn by twice that.

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!

Who's steering this thing??

Famous captains:

Apparently, you can add 4 more to that list. Coach Chambers announced that Corey Lowe, Tyler Morris, Scott Brittain and Carlos Strong are BU's captains this year. This group contains all of the seniors who have played significant minutes every year since they were freshmen.

Congrats to all of them, as they have all been great contributors over their three years so far and they all deserve to be recognized.

However, and maybe I'm behind the times on this, but I have always been of the mind that there should be 1 captain per team. It's very cool for all the players if every significant player to go through the system becomes a captain at some point in their careers, but if every player is a captain does it really mean anything?

And if they really do have actual responsibilities, is it a good idea to have 4 guys trying to make decision or run drills? You know what they say about too many cooks in the kitchen.

Take Derek Jeter or Jason Varitek, for example. They are not the best players on their teams, but they lead by example and they lead by their words. It's not Varitek, Wakefield, Lowell, Ortiz just because they are the "seniors" of the Red Sox. President Obama is the "Captain" of America... we didn't choose the 4 guys who had been in the Senate the longest.

Regardless, I'm sure the guys will find some way to divide the captaining responsibilities. As long as it doesn't devolve into an ugly power struggle along the lines of Jim Halpert/Michael Scott.

A Night at the Pelaggio

You know, I lied last night when I wrote that we really couldn't learn anything from the Maine game. We learned that Jeff Pelage is going to be a fun player to watch over the next 4 years.

I have to remind myself that this was against Maine, but JP (or "Busta" as the Burger Man calls him) put on a fine show last night. After he seemingly kept scoring 9 points and 8 rebounds every time he got decent minutes... he finally broke through to double digits in BOTH categories, resulting in his first career double-double: 10 pts, 12 rebounds. Not to be outdone, John Holland had a dub-dub with 20 and 10. Jake O'Brien had 18 and 9... falling obviously 1 board short. What's crazy is I specifically remember when Jake and John both had 9 rebounds, and one of the last defensive possessions they were in the game, a rebound came down and both grabbed it at the same time, but Jake was closer. I remember thinking, 'Nice, both freshman are gonna have double-doubles!' And then John just ripped the ball out of Jake's hands, and Jake kind of backed off. So John Holland literally took a double-double right out of JOB's hands. I guess that'll be a lesson to him about why he should be more aggressive on the boards.

But back to Pelage, and speaking of aggression on the boards... he was a lunatic out there when he saw a missed shot coming his way. On several occasions he knocked down other BU players when he grabbed a rebound. This happened to Scott Brittain and either Matt Wolff or JOB I think. It was awesome and hilarious. He would not be denied.

In all his interviews, DW says he just needs to work harder and it will just come to him. He could be a force inside if he puts his mind to it.

Not as bad as it seems: The Stony Brook Preview

That last game against Binghamton was a tough one, but after reflecting on it a bit I don't think it was too bad.

Corey had a rough game. He shot 2-for-15 and missed two chances to win the game with under 30 seconds. I bet he felt crummy about it afterward.

But Corey's not going to let that happen more than once or maybe twice in a season. He's too good. We lost to the first-place, supposedly "best," team in the conference by 1 point. Our two best players, who average 18 apiece, came up with 17 combined. This is not the norm.

And, after getting down big in the first half, the team showed a lot of grit in clawing all the way back to take the lead and had a chance to win. That kind of fortitude hasn't happened every time (i.e. both Vermont games) and I love to see it. Props to Scott Brittain for his best game of the year - one rebound short of a dub-dub and tying his career high for points.

Two strange things we saw in last game. Matt Wolff sat for most of the second half in favor Marques Johnson, and Wolff's focus on continually pushing the ball inside rather than taking outside shots. I'll be looking out to see if those trends continue tonight...

..against Stony Brook. Please God, our team cannot take another 60 minute game. Win or lose, let's have this one end at 40. At this point, we're almost assured of the #3 tournament seed and that extra rest might be more important than the W.

Stony Brook has been good and is threatening to bring its white jerseys to the AE tourney for the first time. They just took UVM to overtime, yes the same team that just beat us by 28.

If nothing else, this is our last road game of the year and it gets easier from here on out.

This Will Never Top the Last Game: The UMBC Preview

I still haven't gotten over last Monday's ridiculous win over Stony Brook. In fact, it took so much out of me that immediately afterward I contracted the worst flu virus ever. I am still now recovering from the flu (and the game), which is why I still haven't written about it. That's coming, along with photos, very soon.

But for now, we'll talk about tonight's UMBC game. The only thing about the last game that's relevant now is how tired our guys might be. John Holland played 60 (brilliant) minutes, and every other started played at least 47, because BU only played 7 guys in the whole game.

Luckily, the Retrievers also limit themselves to about 7 guys. Not only that, but a couple of them are hurt, including the best point guard in the conference Jay Greene. Greene had a concussion and it's unclear if he'll play... but based on Scott Brittain's experience, it may be weeks before he plays up to his potential again.

This is not last year's UMBC squad. These guys are not going to rip through the conference again. Maybe they'll repeat as champs, but it'll be a lot flukier if it happens this time. They are already 2-3 with losses to Stony Brook and New Hampshire, plus a blowout to Vermont.

With both teams shorthanded, I like the Terriers in this one.

Thanks for joining us, Mr. Brittain

BU's new look offense necessarily runs through the paint a lot more than the old one did. When you lose two of your best shooting guards, that's what happens.

That's why the re-emergence of Scott Brittain from the brink of obscurity couldn't have been timed more perfectly.


Scott had been a complete non-factor all season, after he started with his head injury. He scored a high of 3 points in the team's first 12 games. He played 7 minutes each in the humiliating losses to Delaware and Cornell. He didn't even get into the game during the humiliating loss to Holy Cross! Not only did the concussion slow him down from the start, but Coach wasn't happy with his effort/progress in practice which is why he wasn't getting any minutes. Coach said before the season that he was going to hardest on Scott out of anyone - he said that by the end of the season, he was going to either turn him into an All-Conference player, he was going to hate his coach's guts. For the first half of the season, I'm sure it was the latter.

But when TyLos went down, Scott was asked to step up out of necessity, and he responded. He played 26 minutes against Albany, scoring 10 points with 7 rebounds. He followed that with 15 points in the blowout of UNH. Maybe he's scoring more just because there are less options on the floor -- but he's looked a lot better out there... more agressive, less tentative.

How has this happened? Modern medicine still doesn't know everything about concussions. Although Scott was medically cleared to play after two games, he hasn't looked "right" until now. Maybe it just took him a full couple of months to clear his head. Or maybe Wolff's yelling at him in practice finally got through to him. Maybe he saw two of his teammates go down, see how bad they wish they were on the court, and realize he needs to make the most of his opportunity to be out there since he's able to play.

Whatever it is, keep it up Scotty!

Whose fault is it?

This team is bad right now and looks like it's getting worse... thank God we're not playing NJIT this week. I don't think this season is a lost cause by any stretch -- at this point last year, things looked even more hopeless before it got turned around.

But a change needs to happen, and with the first conference game coming up on Thursday NOW is the time for it to happen.

Whose fault is it when the team falls behind by double-digits during the opening 5 minutes in back-to-back blowout losses due to defense -- the coaches drawing up the scheme and doing the scouting, or the players out there executing (or not executing, as the case may be)?

Whose fault is it that players reach for loose balls and go after rebounds with the intensity of a basset hound rather than a hyperactive Boston terrier -- the young ADULTS who are getting paid (tuition) to exert effort toward winning ballgames, or the coaches who are paid actual money (and in BU's case, a hefty chunk of it) in return for motivating these individuals?

Whose fault is it that the same players, shots and playbook that delivered 83 points on the road against Northeastern, a very good team, could manage barely half that at home 1 month later against Holy Cross, a very poor team?

I'm not inside Dennis Wolff's head. Nor am I inside John Holland's, Tyler Morris's, Scott Brittain's or Matt Wolff's. So I don't know what the problem is. And since the team has been bad for a few weeks now, apparently neither do they. If they did I'm sure the situation would be rectified.

This team has the tools -- players and coaches -- to be good, maybe even great. Nobody's getting fired during this season, and nobody's transferring away. These are the guys we're going to win with or lose with this year.

The real question is -- when is someone going to decide that in the end it really doesn't matter whose fault it is, and just fix it?

OK Maybe the Sky is Falling: The Holy Cross Preview

I cautioned people not to overreact to the back-to-back Notre Dame and Delaware losses. Well, now it might be time to start worrying.

The 30-point shellacking at the hands of an Ivy League school, good as they may be, was upsetting. There were clearly defensive breakdowns very early, and once we got down by 28-5, there was no looking back. I do believe the team was trying hard to get back in the game, but that was an impossible deficit. And they had nobody in the middle to answer their 7-footer.

I salute the efforts of Matt Wolff, who has shown the most hustle during this winning streak, and Tyler Morris, who has been averaging over 10 points over the last 5 games. Jeff Pelage played his best game against Cornell with 8 points and 8 boards.

You gotta wonder about John Holland, who has been absent lately, and Scott Brittain, who is still a non-factor this season. Wolff even benched Holland in favor of Carlos, which didn't have the desired effect on either of them.

Holy Cross has owned us lately - and we've sucked at The Greek this year. Signs point to a rough game for the Terriers, but we'll see if they can put it back together.

Boxlines of the Week

The High Roller's computer is on the fritz these days, so I'm taking on his running segment this week.

Boxline of the Week

Tyler Morris - 12/6/08 (vs. Marshall)

 Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
Morris, Tyler....... g  3-4    3-4    4-5    0  3  3   3  13  5  3  0  0  37
It would have been very easy to just plug in Corey Lowe's 36
points against Marshall... too easy. But honestly, I think Tyler's breakout game
shooting-wise is a much more important development for the team. He sank a
couple tough three's to get going, and then after that he was butta cause he was
on a roll. A healthy, productive Tyler Morris means everything to the success of
the team. Having him (along with Carlos Strong) as a solid secondary scorer
behind the three-headed monster. Plus Tyler deserves this after two straight
Boxlines of the Weak from the High Roller. 

Boxline of the Weak
 

Scott Brittain - 12/3/08 (@ Harvard)

 Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
Brittain, Scott.....    0-2    0-0    1-2    1  1  2   4   1  1  0  0  2   9

I know that it's mostly not Scotty's fault. But at what point do we begin wondering 

if last year's 3rd Team All-AE, 10 ppg Scott is coming back for his sophomore year. 

He has been back from his concussion for 5 games now, and it hasn't gotten much 

better than this game against Harvard. Some of it has to do with JOB's emergence. 

How much of it has to do with what Wolff calls his lack of aggression out there?

Win against St. Peter's, Lose against The Quest

It wasn't the blowout we were all hoping for, but last Saturday BU at least came away with a win against St. Peter's. Despite the final score, BU was clearly the better team all day long and was firmly in control. Two droughts, near the end of each half, allowed the score to get a little closer than it should have. But even a 5-point margin was a vacation compared to the full-on, Dennis-Wolff-vein-popping Cardiac specials provided by the first two overtime games.

BU has a winning record for the first time since the very beginning of last season when we were 1-0.

Johnny Holland went off for a "quiet" 26 (well, it seemed quiet to me, except for his thunderous alley-oop slam from Mr. Corey Lowe) in only 24 minutes. Someone remind me why he only got 24 minutes. This effort, combined with the one against Bucknell where he took over in OT, was enough for him to snatch the Co-Player of the Week award, his first of what I assume will be several this year. Corey had another good game, but again missed some key FTs down the stretch. Jake O'Brien had tough shooting night, which I guess we have to expect once in a while - but boy does he love to shoot when he gets the ball, whever he gets it. But Wolff doesn't mind, as he said after the game, "If he’s looking at the basket and his feet are set, I’ll be mad if he doesn’t shoot."

Finally, Scott Brittain returned to the active roster. He wasn't the unquestioned difference-maker right away - with 2 points in 11 mins - but that is our fault for expecting too much. It's obvious Wolff is easing him back into the rotation, totally understandable because you can't be too cautious with head injuries. Take your time Scott, and we know you're gonna come up huge for us down the road.

As for The Quest for 901, that went sadly unfulfilled. A paltry 600 settled into the Roof for its opener, well short of the half-enrollment of St. Peter's I was hoping for. We'll have to settle for one-third of their total enrollment. Maybe the Dec. 10 matchup against Yale in Case Gym will bring more luck, although I suspect they have an enrollment a bit larger than St. Peter's.

The Quest for 901: The St. Peter's Preview

St. Peter's is almost certainly the worst team we will play this year. They only won 6 games last year, and only 5 the year before that. We were forced the play them on the road in last year's Bracketbuster, squeezing out a bit-too-close-for-comfort 3-point victory. And so we're forced to play them again this year at our house. Hopefully that will be the end of this boring series.

While BU has played two opponents of decent quality to a 1-1 split so far, St. Pete has played two poor teams, Wagner and Lehigh, and lost to both of them by double-digits.

The peacocks are led by Wes Jenkins, who led the team in scoring last year and seems to be well on his way again this year: he's the only 'Cock in double figs so far, with 22.5 ppg through 2 games.

On the BU side, we should get a YOOGE boost from the return of Scott Brittain, who will play but not start. I'm very excited about Scotty coming back - I thought we would have won both our games so far in regulation with his help. I'm expecting big things and much improvement from him, thanks to some tough love from Wolff:

“I’ve been on him relentlessly for a kid that I really, really like,” Wolff said Nov. 7. “I’ve said to him at the end of the year, you’ll either be on one of the all-league teams or you will hate me.”

Moving on, this will be the second home opener for BU this year -- this time they're opening up the Roof. Historically, attendance for games at the Roof has languished in the triple-digits, a stark contrast from games at the Greek. This will be compounded by tomorrow's no-name opponent. However, it's still early in the season, so people are supposedly still excited about the team. And students haven't left for Thanksgiving yet, for the most part. Here's a fun game: the total enrollment at St. Peter's is 1,802. The capacity of Case Gymnasium is 1,800. Assuming the 12 student athletes on the St. Pete's basketball team were sitting on the bench, they don't even have enough students to fill our tiny high school-style gym.

But here's the question: Can BU pack at least HALF of St. Peter's enrollment into Case for tomorrow's game? That's 901 Terriers fans and sympathizers. Why or why not?

That ESPY for "Biggest Upset" is 3 long years in the past: The Bucknell Preview

The mid-major world fell in love with the Bucknell University Bison in 2005 when it knocked off NCAA Tournament favorite Kansas in the Big Dance. They became renowned giant-killers, and backed that up with a few big wins against huge programs over next couple years. (And that ESPY they won was against some familiar competition).

Make no mistake: this is not the same Bucknell team, and the difference is nobody is afraid to play this year's version.

Bucknell was picked to finish 5th in the 8-team Patriot League... and that was before their preseason 2nd teamer and best player Stephen Tyree went down with a season-ending knee injury during a pick-up game (idiot). They still don't know who is going to pick up the scoring slack. And Tyree is a big forward who was the PL Defender of the Year, so right off the bat that helps us immensely because...

Scott Brittain is going to be missing from the lineup again - he's not even going to make the trip. And I can't blame him... a flight to Philly, followed by a 2 or 3 hour bus ride in the middle of nowhere. In the meantime, Scott, we need to get you better. According to the Encyclopedia of Natural Healing:

To speed healing and increase oxygen to the brain, and to prevent further damage after a concussion, supplement with antioxidants. Vitamins A, C, E and all the B vitamins, as well as the minerals selenium and zinc, are antioxidants. In addition to stimulating the healing process, vitamin C also enhances the *immune system, reduces *blood pressure and protects against *bruising and blood clotting. Vitamin C should be taken with bioflavonoids to improve its effects. Vitamin E works to repair damaged tissue. When vitamins C and E work together, they have a greater effect than when they are taken separately.

Also:

Arnica is an excellent homeopathic remedy for a concussion resulting from a blow to the head, reducing *pain and speeding healing. Use the 30c strength, placing 2 tablets under the tongue. Repeat for two more doses, every fifteen minutes for a severe injury, or an hour apart if less severe.

So yeah, BU Sports Medicine... get on that.

As far as the guys who are still on the court for us, I'm optimistic. Johnny Holland seems to have picked up right where he left off. The freshmen, Jake O'Brien and Jeff Pelage, are picking up rave reviews from the most unlikely of sources. Carlos Strong is doing some real good things. And, most importantly, Corey Lowe and Tyler Morris can't possibly shoot as badly as they did on Friday night.

Three days ago, Bucknell got destroyed by Maryland by 29 points. Three years ago, in the only prior meeting between the BU's, we lost by 6 and Corey Hassan was our leading scorer. Tonight, I'm looking for something right in between...

My prediction for the game: BU 70 Bucknell 57

At least we didn't lose by 13

Although, maybe that would have been easier. Tonight's 63-58 overtime loss to GW was one of the ugliest, most sickening losses I remember at BU. As in it just made me sick to my stomach.

Look I know my prediction had BU coming out on top, but I really didn't think we would win this game. I had this as one of the two out-of-conference losses. So its own, this isn't a terrible loss.

But if you look at HOW it was lost, you just shake your head. The Colonials did just about everything they could to hand the game to us on a platter, and we wouldn't take it. They shoot 46% on field goals, so what do we do? We shoot 29% The shoot 55% on free throws, so what do we do? We shoot 46%. They turn the ball over like 25 times, so what do we do? Well, I mentioned the shooting percentages didn't I? Corey Lowe couldn't hit water if he fell off the BU Bridge tonight. We missed so many 3-foot shots that GW should have just stopped guarding us when we got into the paint. And Matt Wolff, I've defended the kid before... but yegods, every time we could NOT afford a mistake it seemed like he was throwing the ball away, or making a dumb foul, or taking an impossible shot.

[Deep breath]

OK, in the interest of sanity I will list a few positives.

• Jake O'Brien looked great and I like him a lot. He did NOT look like a freshman out there and he significantly outplayed the senior Rob Diggs while they were out there together. He was all hustle going after loose balls and rebounds. He was stepping up and trying to make plays with the ball when nobody else would.
  
• John Holland scored 22 and was the only consistent performer on offense. And he had a monster breakaway dunk in the first half.
• The Corey Lowe rebound and game-tying layup made for an exciting moment, even if it did just set up the crushing disappointment known as overtime.

I'm going to forget about this one ASAP and start looking forward to Bucknell. Maybe I'll even drive up there on Tuesday. Anything to move on.

I will say one thing: I believe that if Scott Brittain plays, BU wins this game. Jake the Snake played well, but once he fouled out we had NOTHING in the middle to step up against their redwoods. Maybe that's the best thing to think about to make myself feel better.