Pat's Meaner Demeanor

Pat Hazel played an underrated role in BU's championship run last year.  He doesn't put up big offensive numbers, but over the last half of the season he became a force in the middle of the defense.  In the end, I guess he was accurately rated because he was awarded a spot on the AE All-Defensive Team.

But while Pat hasn't registered any blocks yet on the season, we've seen renewed vigor on the offensive side as he is scoring 7.5 points per game in the young season.  One thing I noticed during the Northeastern game was some really solid inside moves and nifty footwork by Pat when he got the ball.  This was against NU's very athletic and tall interior line.  If Pat can keep showing aggression and using these moves to get to the basket, he could make an impact on offense this year.

The key with Pat, as always, is making sure he stays clear enough from foul trouble to continue being a factor.

We still don't know if Dom Morris is going to get around to utilizing his size to get inside (instead of chucking up 3-pointers over and over and over...).  Cornell has some height on the interior, but they aren't athletic as the Northeastern or Texas front lines.  This game should be a good test of whether we can be successful scoring with our bigs.

Steers and Jeers: The Texas Review

I attempted to watch this game on my Motorola Droid while on the New Jersey Turnpike on Sunday night.  See, the University of Texas started up this cute little television network with ESPN called the Longhorn Network that everyone seems to like, especially Texas's friends in the Big XII Conference.  And this past weekend, the Longhorn Network had a free preview to show everyone how awesome it is!  And imagine, it was the BU game they wanted to show off for everyone!

It didn't take too long to realize why the UT powers-that-be wanted this game to be seen by many:  it was a complete and utter blowout. 

It was hard for me to tell exactly what was going on - viewing the choppy video on my phone meant staggered audio, frozen video frames, and having to refresh the whole damn thing every couple minutes or so.  And to be honest, things we're going OK when we were leading 19-18 with 6 minutes to go in the first half.  But it became clear, in between refreshes, that BU was too small, too slow and outhustled.  It turned into a 36-point loss -- one of the worst I can remember.

Texas, despite losing a few guys to the NBA sitting around on the couch, has some serious athletes, some of whom could not be stopped.  J'Covan Brown, for example, with a relaxed 28 points.

Normally, I'd finish this blog post with a "steers and queers" joke, but I can't.  We've been humbled by the Longhorns.

#9 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: 2011-12 Schedule released

Every year, we wait patiently to see what kind of goodies the OOC-Fairy has left in our Schedule Basket.  And this year, after many years of waiting, she has left us a particularly tasty morsel:  a date with our ugly step-sister up the road, the Eagles of Boston College (sucks!).

In real life, a date with a maiden this hideous would be the stuff nightmares are made of... she shows up late, her breath smells of garlic and funyuns, she has a zit the size of North Dakota on the old honker, she won't STFU about her lame-ass job, and to top if off she won't even let you get to second base in the backseat of your Honda on the way home.  In short, she sucks.

But in college basketball world, this is our dream date.  Our Terriers have wanted a piece of these Beagles since BC cut off the series in 2004 after a too-close-for-comfort 6-point victory at home.  And whether this change of heart is due to their new head coach or just a much-needed sack enlargement procedure, we're glad it's happening this year.  Why?  Because they are going to SUCK even more than usual!!  In the traditional sense, of losing games.  On their web site's front page alone, it trumpets the news of 1) being picked 12th a.k.a. LAST in their conference-- and 2) squeaking out their exhibition game by 4 points over something called American International College.  I don't want to get ahead of myself, but this could be a real fun year to face Chestnut Hill University.

The schedule also provides other delights.  We travel down to Austin to play Texas on the Longhorn Network, cause of much chagrin amongst Texas A&M, the Pac-12 and other parties. For some reason we travel to Philly THREE SEPARATE TIMES, to play at Villanova, St. Joe's and LaSalle - here's hoping the boys don't gorge themselves on cheesesteaks.  We play a very solid slate of good mid-major programs, highlighted by the 3-day Legends Classic against Rhode Island, Hofstra and Cleveland State - I will be personally lobbying hard for a road trip to that one.  And of course, we open against our rivals from the dirty side of Boston.

Here is the out-of-conference schedule in its entirety:

11/11/11 vs. Northeastern
11/13/11 at Texas
11/20/11 at Cornell
11/25/11 vs. Cleveland State
11/26/11 at Rhode Island
11/27/11 vs. Hofstra
11/30/11 vs. Delaware
12/03/11 at Boston College
12/07/11 at Saint Joseph's
12/10/11 vs. Harvard
12/13/11 at Villanova
12/22/11 vs. Bucknell
12/29/11 at La Salle
12/31/11 at Quinnipiac