#11 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: BU AD Mike Lynch joins twitter

Big news from the world of social media, as BU's reclusive chieftain of sport Mike Lynch has joined the ranks of such luminaries as @KourtneyKardash, @charliesheen, and @shitmydadsays.

I'm impressed to note that the tweets appear to be authentic and written by Mr. Lynch himself -- however, the page lacks the "Verified Account" badge as yet so I'll reserve final judgment on that.

You can follow him here:  http://twitter.com/#!/BU_AD_MLynch

While the AD's tweets so far have mainly trumpeted the achievements of the various BU athletic teams (and there's certainly nothing wrong with that!), I'm hoping his account will consist of more than PR pablum and we get to see an insiders view of the department and its day-to-day vision and strategy.  This is something the fans desperately want.  We need more than the date and time of the next basketball game... we need our leaders' true feelings on the outcome, what he ate at the game, what he thought of a clever fan chant, or whether the refs screwed us.  I'd also love to know if the AD at Boston College has been a dick about scheduling a basketball game at The Greek, or if the AD feels the same way about Northeastern as the rest of us do.

One disappointment so far:  As of this writing, nothing from Mr. Lynch as to the failure of BU to be swept up in the conference realignment madness.  Looking forward to his thoughts about how the trickle down could aid BU's rise to collegiate athletic dominance.

Nine Years of Waiting Ends - We're the Champs

Once I knew BU was hosting the AE championship, I knew I'd be sparing no expense to be there. I was in the house in 2002 (woo-hoo!) and 2003 (barf), and nothing short of a Lohan-style ankle bracelet was going to stop me from going this time.

So off I went -- with a quick stop at T's Pub for the pre-game tailgate where a couple of PBRs calmed the nerves. Being in The Greek for this game felt like an event. It wasn't sold out, but it felt like it. The crowd was buzzing, the bands and student sections were yelling back and forth, the bright ESPN lights were gleaming off the shiny hardwood floor. It felt like primetime.

I don't think I can adequately describe the game.

The first half made me want to cry. I think we had 3 points about 12 minutes into the game - something very sad like that. It picked up a little before the end of the half, but we still trailed 30-23 when the teams went into the locker rooms.

In need of a change of scenery and luck, I moved from my very adult-like seats halfway up the side at mid-court down to the rowdy students area behind the basket (no thanks to the fun-hating security guards who tried to stop me). For a while, nothing changed - Stony Brook went out to a 15 point lead and I sunk further into a Kafka-like depression.

Then he showed up.

John Holland -- 3-time AE First Teamer, AE Rookie of the Year, AE Player of the Year, future AE Tournament Most Outstanding Player, future BU Hall of Fame member, wearer of future BU Retired Number 23 -- decided it would be a good thing if we won the game and went to the Big Dance. He reeled of 14 points before anyone else on the court scored, over the course of about 6 minutes. I hope it goes down in BU lore as "The Six Minutes." They need to be remembered.

From there, it was a tight game, and Holland kept asserting himself. The last minute of the game, he drew a foul and sank two freebies to tie it up, forced a jump ball to give BU possession, then got fouled with 2.4 seconds left and sank two more. You know what happened next.

But going back to The Six Minutes. I have rewatched this section about 70,000 times on my DVR, and I get chills every time. Does anyone know how to upload a high-quality youtube of this - at least the 3 possessions in the middle that went three-pointer/ridiculous up-and-under/steal-and-breakaway?

.

John Holland wasn't going to be denied his trip to the Dance, and took it upon himself to carry the team on his back. In the process, he cemented his legacy at BU.

My Terrier Pet Peeve: The Delaware Preview

A couple things. First, that Binghamton game was the greatest. It seemed like Every Single Thing went right for the Terriers. Shots were falling, and we played amazing defense. Tyler, John, Jake and Carlos all shined. It's true that Binghamton was finishing a 4 game road trip, but it's still a team that almost beat us a month earlier. A 42 point win is a 42 in though. In the seniors' last game ever at Agganis, they finally proved once and for all that they could score there. Just a joy to watch.

Now, with only one more conference game left, we're locked into the #3 or #4 seed for the tournament. The #3 is wayyyyy better because we wouldn't have to play Stony Brook in the semifinals. So we have to root for Maine to lose one of their next 2 games, and then beat them in our last game. BOOOOOOO to Maine.

Now, I've got to get something off my chest. I love the Terriers, and they play a fun brand of basketball this year. But one thing really sticks in my craw: when the other team makes a bucket, it takes forever to get the ball inbounds. I'm not talking about if the other team is guarding us, it's just that it seems like the guy who's supposed to inbound it seems to forget he's has to inbound and is already running down the court. Then the point guard has to call someone back to inbound it.

I know, it doesn't really matter, but I hate it! It interrupts the flow of the game for me. Look for it next time you watch the Terriers. So note to the inbounders: Don't run down the court and forget to inbound!!

About today: it's BRACKETBUSTER SATURDAY! Or fake bracketbuster Saturday. Instead of a crappy MAAC team we got a crappy CAA team. But it's cool because Delaware is within driving distance for me. So I'll be among a small group of visiting Terrier fans today.

This game, in reality, doesn't really matter at all. The big one is next week. But we can at least use it to keep our momentum going. We're playing well now, we just need to continue that into the tournament.

To Be the Best You Gotta Beat the Best: The Vermont Preview

Tonight is a huge game for our Terriers. The last two wins... they were nice. It's important to take out the UNH's and the Albany's that are near the bottom of the conference.

But tonight, Vermont comes to town. This is a different story, because BU is 0-4 against the best 3 teams (Vermont, Maine, Stony Brook).

If we fail to pick off any of these teams, we're going to be stuck finishing in the middle of the pack. Depending on how we do over these last 4 games, we end the season as high as #2 or as low as #5.

Vermont killed us in the first matchup this year. We kept Blakely under wraps, but the rest of their guys were hitting every shot they took. Luckily, we are MONEY at The Greek lately. Five of the last six games there have been wins.

Should be a great game - and it's on TV! That means I'm braving the snow to make it to the bar! Go Terriers!

Last Road Game: The Albany Preview

BU athletics marketing came up with the perfect giveaway for Thursday's game against UNH - camouflage shirts. They were a huge hit... when I watched on TV I could hardly see any fans in the stands.

Ba-dum-ching.

BU gave the fans who were there reason to cheer. After a lackluster first half, we dominated the Wildcats in the second. Our shots were falling and theirs weren't, simple as that. Tyler had his first great game back from his injury, John and Jake both shined and Corey had 7 assists to 1 turnover.

Some good trends continued in this game:

• UNH still hasn't beaten us in Boston since 1994
• BU has won 5 out of its last 6 games in The Greek

Tonight we will play in Albany. Despite their last place standing, they will put our crowd to shame, which is kind of depressing. Still, I think we kick some more ass tonight and put some more pressure on the teams ahead of us not to screw up.

Get Excited: The New Hampshire Preview

New Hampshire Wildcats basketball, coming to an Agganis Arena near you... CAN YOU FEEL THE EXCITEMENT??

I know part of the plan to build excitement around the BU basketball team was to hold more games in The Greek, but I'm not sure that's working anymore. We barely had 1,000 for the Albany game, and they were giving away JERSEYS! Methinks the luster of having normal games in Agganis (as a gimmick to get more people to games) may be wearing off.

When it comes down to it, a game against UNH just isn't exciting to the normal student, even if it's at The Greek. That's because it's not so much of a big event anymore, especially when we're playing higher-profile opponents like Vermont and GW there this year.

My friends, prepare for the first sub-1,000 Agganis crowd ever (aside from an ill-fated Creed performance). I don't think the camou tshirts are going to save us, cool as they may be.

And this sucks, because we're finally getting good at playing there. Last time out, the Terriers sank a school-record 16 3-pointers (6 from Los!) en route to demolishing Albany. We have a winning record there this year.

When we played UNH earlier this year, we played OK but were lucky to escape with a win when their best player that day, Tyrone Conley, got hurt in the second half. UNH has never played in The Greek, so I'm hoping they suffer whatever befell the Terriers the first 5 years they played there. The Wildcats do not always set the nets on fire anyway, so that's my prediction for the game: UNH has shooting woes, BU wins by 10.

The strangest BU basketball career ever

The Terriers had a fantastic night at The Greek last Tuesday - everything was working against Albany. Three-pointers were falling like whoa - a school record of 16! Johnny Holland had 21, Los had 18, JOB had 18. And Corey Lowe, despite only scoring 12 points, had another fantastic game with 5 steals, 6 assists and only 1 turnover!

The one negative coming out of the game was that we had another injury. And if I had told you at the beginning of the year that we would lose Brendan Sullivan to a separated shoulder and it would matter, I wouldn't have believed you. Actually, I would have said... Brendan Sullivan is back on the team? But this is just the latest chapter in the weirdest career of any BU athlete ever. Consider:

• Sullivan joins the 2005-06 Terrier squad as a highly touted freshman
• He doesn't make much of an impact, except for one an early season game against Rider in which he explodes for 15 points, all on 3-pointers.
• He messes up somehow and Wolff suspends him for the final regular season game and the AE tourney.
• He quits the team after the season.
• He stays at BU and spends the next 2 years playing pick-up hoops and presumably lounging around at the GSU
• He's announced at Terrier Tip-Off 08-09 as having rejoined the team as a walk-on, but only sees 4 mins of action all year
• Sully again quits the team, or is not asked to return, when Chambers takes over at the beginning of 09-10
• He is begged to return as a walk-on when it's clear we have a shortage of big men
• Sully then gains more and more PT until finally he's averaging over 15 mins in conference play this year
• And then, of course, Sully separates his shoulder and we're again short on big men.

We anxiously await Sully's return to the lineup.

Boy I'm glad I paid 40 bucks for my jersey: The Albany Preview

We got thrashed on Sunday, early and often. And for once, it wasn't man-beast Marqus Blakely doing the damage, since he ended up with only 11 points and 3 rebounds. We couldn't hit a damn thing for the first half of the game, and after that it didn't matter.

It was a disheartening loss and an embarrassing one, as I had a bunch of people come over and watch it in my apartment building's lounge. This included having get there and stake a claim on the main TV to ward off Cowboys fans. However, I don't think the loss was truly a reflection of our team. Consider:

1) We were coming off 4 games in a week, 3 of which were road games. Vermont came off a week of smoking doobies in the dorm rooms.

2) The Terriers actually showed some fight in the second half, playing hard until the final buzzer and keeping it a respectable 20-point loss (respectable, in that it could have easily been 30 or 35 points).

I don't think this was as bad as it looked. We're still 4-2 in the league, our stars still (eventually) shined and it represents the hardest our schedule gets all year and the most tired our team will be all year.

Well, up until tonight. We end this horrific stretch against Albany at The Greek tonight. It will be the 5th game in 10 days. I mean, come on. Will we have anything left in the tank?

I'm hoping a large crowd greets our weary warriors. They better show up, since the Athletic Department is springing for 1,000 BU basketball jerseys to give out. This is a fantastic thing! This blows every other giveaway they've ever done out of the water. If they gave out stuff like this all the time, people would actually show up... I mean it would bankrupt the Athletic Dept, but whatever.

Best of all, this could hopefully stem the tide of the most outrageous of Terrier fan faux-pas.... of course I'm speaking of the hockey jersey-wearing basketball fan. This phenomenon angers me like nothing this side of genocide, and it's an epidemic at BU. I want to knock these people out on sight. It's a basketball game, wear a basketball jersey or at worst a red t-shirt. If you wear a hockey jersey to basketball, you're not a real fan.

Now, thanks to this giveaway, nobody who calls themselves a BU basketball fan will have any good excuse. It's a FREE freakin jersey. Take one, wear it with pride, and save the hockey sweater for the next loss to UMass-Lowell.*

*Disclaimer: I do like the BU hockey team a lot, just not the people who wear the jersey to other sports.

This team lost to BINGHAMTON: The Bucknell Preview

Coming off of the big loss to UConn, BU plays Bucknell today. Bucknell is coming of a loss to... uh, Binghamton. Seriously.

Binghamton beat a team.

And we play them now.

I don't care if we're missing Corey Lowe, I don't care if we're playing in Agganis Arena. If BU loses to the team that lost to Binghamton, I quit!

Where's Your Football?: The Northeastern Preview

Today, coming off the rush and exhaustion of a long Puerto Rico trip, a brand new experience, the team stays home to host one of its most familiar opponents, Northeastern. The all-time series is 70-66 in favor of BU, including last year's destruction of the Huskies that served as Jake O'Brien's coming out party.

The timing of this game is questionable. I'm sure there's a good reason for scheduling it on an afternoon on the day before Thanksgiving, but I don't know what it is. Probably squeezing in an extra day of rest after the San Juan trip. But on any other day (except maybe Thanksgiving itself), this game seems like it could be a pretty decent draw for students and alumni, maybe even hold it in The Greek. Today, I think we'll struggle to bring 500 people out to the Roof.

Northeastern has only played two games, a pretty close loss to great Siena team during the 24-hour ESPN showcase, and a close win over an OK Utah State team. The Huskies may be a little more talented this year, but the Terriers are already in mid-season form having played 5 games already. NU is predicted to finish near the top of the Colonial Conference this year, led by senior sharpshooter Matt Janning, who was kept relatively in check in last year's meeting despite his 22 points.

Finally, it must be mentioned: Northeastern dropped their football team this week. And while many people across the collegiate athletics landscape might express sadness, most BU fans are wearing a smile this week. Countless "BU football" chants over the last 12 years are coming back to bite those obnoxious fans in the ass. I love it. Come up with something new at the next Beanpot, losers!

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...

Will the Chambers plan work?

Coach Pat Chambers came to BU and saw a deficit of enthusiasm. And judging by the way he's handled his first few months, he's making it priority #1 to change that.

The apathetic aura surrounding BU basketball is a long-known and often-lamented fact around campus. Sure there are die-hards. But there are also box scores that show no hope of getting attendance figures out of the triple-digits. And national blogs writing about how the published figure was 276, but the in-person count was merely 147.

I don't plan on doing this all season long, but contrast the efforts of our former coach with our new one. I am one who thought Dennis Wolff was a good coach, but his outreach efforts to the student fan base consisted of a 3 minute speech at Midnight Madness. Then get out of the way and let the sports marketing department struggle to push the boulder up the mountain.

Chambers has a plan. A plan that will require a lot of time and effort, but and one he has already begun to embrace. And it's one that says get out of the way sports marketing department, I'll handle this one.

1. He started a blog. And it's not like the "The BU Blog" on the Athletic Dept website, which despite the fact that it's got good info and shows they're trying, still sounds press release-y. No, Coach's blog is obviously written by him. His "Chambers Vision" videos are awesomely hand-filmed by himself. The whole thing gives BU fans who are hungry for more to read about the team (and yeah, there's a couple of us like that). Frankly, that's why we started this blog. Does that make our blog obsolete? Don't answer that.

Go read Coach Chambers' blog: http://coachpatchambers.blogspot.com/

2. He's twittering. Like you, I thought twitter was retarded. Then Coach Chambers came on there and started spilling nuggets about recruits coming on campus and all the other good stuff I want to know about, and it forced me to check it out. And then I grudgingly admitted that there was some other cool stuff on there, so I signed up. Gratuitous pimp: Follow me here if you're so inclined - it's not all BU hoops stuff, but some of it will be - and once the season starts, look out.

Oh, and go read Coach Chambers' twittering: http://twitter.com/Coach_Chambers

3. He's going out and meeting regular students. People just like you and me! He's just going up to people and talking to them. He's going to talk to student groups and wander around the dorms. And, in a very smart move, he's trying to snag them during orientation, before they can be poisoned by the hockey-industrial complex. Does anyone remember the BU Soccer Tailgate on the first day of school last year? They just herded all the freshmen to that thing and ended up with 5,000 fans, which is just amazing.

4. He's sending PLAYERS out to meet regular students. This is something I thought they should do forever. A lot of the fans who come to the games are there because they're friends with some players and they want to support them. I started coming to some games during my sophomore year, but I didn't become a die-hard until I worked with some of the players over the summer. After that, it was cool to see guys I was friends with out there on the court.

The players need to be ambassadors for the program. I understand that they are just college kids, and they are probably a little shy to just go up to random people all the time, especially if you are freakishly tall. I would probably have a tough time with that too. But it would go so far to walk around the lunchroom at Myles or Warren and show everyone that they're students just like them. I imagine it's a lot harder for someone to blow off the basketball game if the day before Tyler Morris asked you point blank if you'd come watch him.

5. He wants to play all our home games at The Greek. Coach thinks it helps build a big-time atmosphere around the program (and probably would help attract better recruits). It's definitely a topic of contention, and has been discussed at length here and elsewhere. Are those in favor of home games at The Roof swayed at all by Coach's plans? Do you want to see evidence that his plan is working first, and then move games to Agganis? It's kind of a chicken-and-egg scenario. I am on record as being pro-Agganis though.

So that's Coach's plan as I understand it. I'm optimistic.

Here's one piece of advice I'd offer: when targeting students in the dining halls and dorms to recruit to games, go after girls. Don't just forget about them because we think of guys as more traditional basketball fans. Make them the priority. Since stereotypes are such a good time-saver, remember that girls are more willing to try new things, they make personal connections better, they are unfailingly loyal to friends, they find basketball players hot, and wherever girls go -- guys will follow.

The End of the Road: The Hartford Preview

The end of this season is a little bit anti-climactic. Today's game against Hartford at The Greek could not mean less. The 3 seed is locked up. Hartford is so bad that they are guaranteed to be a non-factor in the tournament. We beat them by like 30 last time.

The only thing that means anything today is that it's Senior Day. Today we say goodbye to 3 guys who will (hopefully) graduate and who will not put on the red and white beyond next weekend (plus whatever happens with post-season for us, if anything).

Sam Tully - I can honestly say I have never seen the kid play. He hasn't gotten into a game this year, but had a rebound last year as well as a steal. But today, he will get into today's game and make his family proud. Let's see if he can but the biscuit in the basket.

Marques Johnson - I like MJ. He's a good backup PG and pretty much does his part when he's asked to. He was never a scorer but always had a good A/TO ratio when he was in. I remember hearing rumors about him possibly wanting to transfer a couple years ago, and I'm glad he didn't. I'll have two great memories about MJ. One was the career game he had this year when he stepped in for the suspended Corey Lowe against Albany - he played all 40 minutes and came away with 7 points, 7 assists and 8 rebounds... and 0 turnovers. The other memory I'll have is when we went to to Holiday Classic at Madison Square Garden. We were taking the PATH train back to Hoboken after a tough OT loss to St. John's, and one of the train operators noticed our BU shirts. He told he us he had a nephew on the team - it was MJ's uncle. He told us how proud he was to have him playing ball up in Boston, and we told he we loved MJ.

Matt Wolff - Matt is probably the most controversial player we've had in our program. As the coach's son, he gets a lot of scrutiny. And since he doesn't score much, he catches a lot of flack for all the minutes he plays. After a very promising freshman year (ALLLL the way back in 2004-05), he had really bad luck with knee injuries. But since then, he has played in 60 straight games and has quietly been a solid player, whether anyone wants to admit it. For all the shit he has taken, I don't believe would have been as successful this year had Matt not been on the team.

Thanks for the memories, guys.

There's no place like home

There was yet another Freep column today about which building BU should play basketball inside of. The Hot Dog has established in the past that he is strictly in favor of Case Gym as the home for BU basketball. The guy who wrote yesterday's article, known to Freep.com readers only as "MEYER," is in favor of playing our home games at Harry Agganis Arena. I thought I'd weigh in.

First, the Hot Dog's case for Case stems mostly from the performance of the current and recent teams, in terms of winning percentage and shooting percentage. The reality is, those things are going to correct themselves back to the mean in time. There is no Agganis Curse, as Coach Wolff rightfully insists and I'm sure the HD knows this. But Hot Dog makes good points about practice time and comfort level on the Agganis floor that are valid - but I think those are things that will improve on their own over time as well. The Terriers won their fifth game at The Greek this year, and looked more comfortable than I have ever seen them play there in their win over Albany. They play the last game of the season there against Hartford, and I'm predicting the comfort level will continue to improve with each game.

I disagree with MEYER's original complaint that BU's "big deal" of a Bracketbuster game should have been played at Agganis; it would have been a big deal if it were a real Bracketbuster on TV, but it wasn't... and if we had gotten a TV game, I believe it would have been held at The Greek. But he/she makes good points about many teams having separate practice facilities, about The Roof being the smallest AE facility BY FAR, and about impressing recruits with our nice new arena.

Look, we are not filling up either gym. Attendance at Case is probably hovering somewhere around the 500 mark. While it's only marginally better at Agganis, it looks bad no matter where we play. Might as well give the fans a thrill by being lonely in a big-time arena.

And about the fans. Many fans are attached to The Roof, including me. They say it sounds louder in there because every is closer to the action. But they said the same thing when the hockey team moved from Walter Brown Arena to Agganis. And they were right to an extent, but I don't think anybody is complaining about it any more.

The bottom line is that if we have an A+ facility on campus, we should use it. Playing there more often should alleviate the comfort concerns of the players, and playing some lesser opponents there should get that winning percentage back on the right track. As far as attendance is concerned, it sucks right now no matter where we play. The only thing that can fix that is winning. And that has little to do with where we play the games.

Biggest game of the year?: The Vermont Preview

Here it is, the Big One - how this game isn't the Mid-Majority Game! Of! The! Night!, I have no idea. Seems like every year the "Biggest Game of the Year" playing up in Burlington in February. Just once, I want Vermont to finish in last so we have a different Biggest Game of the Year.

So this is our chance to finish in 1st place - if we lose this one, we'll lose all the tie-breakers and we'll have to hope Bing and Vermont lose to the lower echelon... which ain't happening.

Vermont beat us at home earlier this year, yes it's true. We were winning throughout the entire first half, then fell apart or ran out of gas in the second half. Vermont used a full-court press the whole game, and since Corey was brand new to running the point, it affected us. We had 14 turnovers in the game, and we haven't been coming close to that lately. You can also chalk a few of our misses up to the unfamiliar rims at The Greek.


I think tonight's game is different. Nobody is rolling like BU right now. Vermont is having some trouble at home, especially late in the game. Corey is far more used to running the show now - he's become a great facilitator and making great decisions about when to keep it himself. Holland and O'Brien are scoring like it's prom night.


Even Coach Wolff can't control his excitement. For several games now, he's been saying Corey has been playing as good as he's ever seen. And the Freep reported that after yesterday's practice, Wolff said John Holland looked like an NBA player during the workout. High praise from a man from whom praise is normally issued in teacups, not buckets.

No rest for the weary: The New Hampshire Preview

See? What curse? BU took care of bidness Thursday night against Albany in Agganis, proving it once and for all that we can win there. Nine regular season games in a row is a nasty streak, but it ain't no curse. Ask the Cubbies.

How much more can be said about the way the team is playing. Seven games in a row, and they're not even letting them stay close any more. I guess all we can ask for is for the team not to overlook today's UNH matchup while looking forward to The Big One against Vermont on Wednesday.

The Albany win + the loss by Vermont means we're alone in first place by a full game for the first time in a long time. It's been said that we now control our own destiny - meaning if we win all the rest of our games, we lock up the #1 seed. But everyone forgets there's another team that controls its own destiny, and it's Vermont. If the Crapamounts win all the rest of THEIR games, they get the #1. And they get us at home. So I still wouldn't put us in the driver's seat.

That's what makes all the other games so important, starting today in Durham. And we're playing for the 4th time in 8 days, 3 of them on the road. We absolutely destroyed the Wildcats at home for our first conference win. I think UNH will do a little better this time so we can't sleep on them.

Let's enjoy first place while we still can: The Albany Preview

Fascinating game tonight! We take on Albany at The Greek, playing for the first time this season as the first place team, thanks to Vermont's choke-fest last night.

First, let's get it out of the way. We have lost 9 straight reg season games at Agganis. You probably know that I don't buy the curse argument, but apparently some of the players do, so it might be a factor for that reason alone. Some believe our struggles are due to shooting against a different background - but we have scored well there this year. We put up 80 against Marshall, and Corey had a great game that day. So what wins out: 9 game Agganis losing streak, or 6 game current winning streak?

Today's matchup against Albany is a rematch of our first AE game, and the first without TyLos, AND Corey was benched. BU fans were getting the razorblades ready. But the Terriers played tough thanks to John Holland and Marques Johnson, only lost by one and we backed off the ledge thankfully. Would having Corey Lowe on the floor that night have made the difference for us? Maybe we'll find out tonight.

We have four players averaging in double figs during conference play! BU, normally known for dominating defense, is winning games with their efficient offense these days.

Bottom line for tonight:
Terriers win... BU will be alone in first place by a full game.
Terriers lose... BU will fall back into a first place tie with Vermont, Binghamton and Albany.

THE ROOF!!!: The Stony Brook Preview

For those who were wondering, no you can't use the GSU's wireless network without being a student. Lame. I eventually wandered down to Bruegger's Bagels in Kenmore, which for the price of a cup of soup and a Nantucket Nectar allowed me to plop down for the whole Binghamton game.

Gotta say, I was not expecting to watch the game I saw. I was expecting something similar to the Vermont game, since Binghamton has been real good lately, and just beat UVM at their place. No, the Terriers decided to come out swinging, dominating from wire-to-wire in a blowout.. WTF. John Holland, as usual lately, led the Terriers with 28... he's averaging close to 25 per game since TyLos went down! He has been a beast. The team has been a roller-coaster ride.

Although I've watched almost every game on the 'net, today is the first time this season I'll watch the Terriers live. Pathetic, I know. And it's Stony Brook, but that's just the way the timing worked out. And even though Stony Brook has shown a little feistiness this year... it's still Stony Brook.

More exciting is the fact that the game is at The Roof. When the flashy new kid comes to town (Agganis), you kind of forget about Old Reliable. A place that nurtured my love of Terrier basketball. Over the last few years, I've somehow managed to make it to Boston only for games at The Greek... I think because I planned around the biggest games (Vermont, Michigan, UMass, etc). So I haven't been to a game at The Roof in years... and I've been missing out.

The chance to be sitting within body-odor range of the players. Sitting anywhere you want. The little concession booth out in the hallway. It's all great. Walking up those steps to the ticket-takers from the West Campus dorms, hearing the band playing inside and knowing that the Terrier basketball experience is right through those gym doors -- it's a feeling of anticipation I grew to love during my time at BU, and I'm pumped to get to re-live it today. Even if it's against Stony Brook.

Back To My Roots: The Binghamton Preview

Tough loss to take, last time out at The Greek. BU, and by BU I mean John Holland, played pretty well in the first half, building up a big lead. But at the end of the half, Vermont started doing full court press pretty much every time and it started working. They kept this up for the entire second half, and we had no answer.

The lead kept ssssssssssslipping away, and we were helpless. It was so obvious we were helpless against the press that when we were down 5, it felt like 25 and I knew there was no way we were coming back. Dennis Wolff called it "caving in" but I think they just ran out of gas.

The turning point, I believe, was the stoppage in play after Marqus Blakely stole the ball from Matt Wolff, Matt tried to grab it back, and then a pile-up ensued on the floor. Anybody else get the feeling that the game felt different before and after that play? I feel like several minutes of standing around got us out of any rhythm we may have been establishing.

But the real problem was handling the press. And here's the reason we couldn't handle the ball coming up the floor: WE HAD NO BALLHANDLERS. When you put 4 forwards out there with 1 guard, teams are going to take advantage.

So here's my plea for today's game in Bing: start Marques Johnson, and let him play. He can handle the rock.

Today I'm back in Boston for the first time in a year, for some kind of alumni weekend+football watching+general drunkenness. Unfortunately the Terriers are not in Boston. So I'm going to do the right thing and watch the game online in the GSU. You can purchase the video from Binghamton here, beware of homer announcers. Question: Does the GSU have free wireless for anyone, or am I going to have to go across to Espresso Royale?