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!

The 08-09 schedule is out... and I'm already excited about making Notre Dame jokes

Here's the list of teams we hope to belittle in this space after the Terriers beat them during this upcoming season:

11/14 - vs. George Washington
11/18 - @ Bucknell
11/22 - vs. St. Peter's
11/25 - @ Northeastern
11/29 - @ Mount St. Mary's
12/3 - @ Harvard
12/6 - vs. Marshall
12/10 - vs. Yale
12/13 - @ Notre Dame
12/21 - vs. Delaware
12/29 - @ Cornell
1/2 - vs. Holy Cross

It's an interesting list. Much weaker than last year's; we effectively swapped out St. Bonnie, St. Joe's and UMass in exchange for Mount St. Mary, Bucknell and Cornell. We replaced the A-10 with the NEC, Patriot and Ivy - significant downgrade in talent.

But you know what? It's fine with me. Last year we only won 3 out-of-conference games, and if this schedule helps us win more than that, I'm all for it. I was really excited about last season, and that losing streak at the beginning of the year was a real turd in the punchbowl. And there is probably only one game on that whole list that is a near-certain loss (ND). The rest are eminently winnable.

We're a nationally recognized school!!

Straight from the front page of ESPN.com's mens basketball page. Too bad the cover story was about UMass and we look like we are affraid of the ball in this picture. Still, bad publicity is still publicity.


Thought I'd try something new, so here is my Boxline of the Week:

## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT
22 Strong, Carlos...... f  6-10   5-9    1-1    0  5  5  
    
   PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
   1  18  6  1  0  0  38

And, here's my Boxline of the Weak:

## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT
01 Konate, Ibrahim.....    0-1    0-0    0-0    0  0  0  

   PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
   0   0  0  3  0  0   8

Both came in our Narrow loss to Holy Cross. Look for this everyweek, this is something that I'm going to try to keep going.

Now it REALLY starts

It wasn't BU's finest non-conference effort. Here is a quick recap:

BU was predicted by everyone from ESPN to Tiger Beat to win the AE... and then promptly put up a 3-9 OOC record.

Tyler Morris missed all but three of the games, and even when he came back, he wasn't the Tyler we know and love. Stress injuries like his take a long time to rehab, so he continues to improve. But we need him if we hope to win the conference as predicted. As others have said, even Tyler at 75% helps BU more than hurts them.

Marques Johnson and John Holland develop into solid role players. Finally given playing time, Marques has run an efficient offense by limiting his turnovers. And Holland has shown an explosiveness of offense and could turn into a star over the next 2 years.

Corey Lowe missed two games on the Redneck Roadtrip through West Virginia and western Pennsylvania, fueling rumors of his impending exodus to UMass (where else??), then "works out his issues" and starts putting up 20 points per game. What a roller-coaster ride. I sure hope he's with us next year (or even until the end of this year!). No denying he is a great player.

Our top-recruit, Will Creekmore, leaves the team and intends to transfer to Missouri State or TCU or somesuch. I and many others have said that his attitude was to blame, and would have hurt us more than his playing abilities could have helped. Meanwhile, poor Scott Brittain toils alone in the paint, and it's hard not to think of how much better we would be if he had some help in there.

This whirlwind has led to another round of Wolff detractors calling for his job. I still say no matter what, he still always gets the team ready for conference play. I say, let's see what happens this year. I am cautiously optimistic about this team's chances.

And you know what? None of those results so far mean a thing. It all starts today in Binghamton.

(P.S. thanks to the fine folks in Bing's athletic dept for their live streaming video)

This may hurt a bit

I said I'd post some highlights from our game to UMass, which seemed like it would be a blowout, but we came within 3 points, with 1:30 left. Couldn't really find any highlights, so here's a montage of UMass blocking a whole bunch of our shots. It was just an ugly game, with very few bright spots for us. Apologies all around in advance for the shaky camera work.