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.

I wonder if Snooki will be there!!: The Marist Preview

BU was able to take care of bidness against Bucknell last weekend, which I'm quite grateful for. But I have a bone to pick with the BU Athletic Dept.

I was unable to watch the game live, so I waited until late Sunday night to watch the video archive of the game. I even avoided the outcome of the game all day. Problem was, every time I tried to play the game, I got "The media you have selected is currently unavailable." This was maddening, since the whole reason I knew it was OK to miss the game was because they put up archives of all the home game broadcasts.

I tried again at work the next day. "The media you have selected is currently unavailable."

I tried AGAIN at work on Tuesday, still avoiding knowing if BU won or lost: "The media you have selected is currently unavailable."

WTF, I'm paying for this service, am I not? I am a subscriber to BU All-Access. I have an All-Access Pass, dammit! This is like going to an Alice Cooper concert with a backstage pass, only to be denied before Alice ever has a chance to explain what Milli-wauke means.

Even now, the archive is still "currently unavailable," so I had to rely on written accounts and the box score. Sounds like JOB had a great game, Corey played pretty well coming off the bench, Holland had an off-night, and Carlos and BJ had some clutch points down the stretch.

After a week off, we play again today, and then have another long layoff for finals before the next game. These breaks come at a good time. Our short bench means guys are tired, and maybe this will allow some players like Valdas and Corey to get healthy.

The Terriers travel to Poughkeepsie, NY, to visit the Marist Red Foxes. Some of you may also know that Poughkeepsie is also home to "Snooki" a.k.a. "Snickers" from newest awful/great show on MTV, Jersey Shore. This is one of those car wreck TV shows where you know you should look away but you just can't. Snooki is an annoying, loud, overtanned shrimp of a girl who gets obnoxiously drunk the first night, and while doesn't deserve what she gets later in the season, this may be one of the most gratifying images ever:


OK, back to basketball. Today's game is against Marist, another team which we cannot lose to. Marist is currently 0-6, including a 14-point loss to UNH and a 37-point loss to Hartford. I repeat, we cannot lose this game to Marist.

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.

Line up the troops!

At Fake BU, the lineup means standing in front of a giant ruler and a witness behind glass. At the Real BU, however, it means the five guys who are going to lead Coach Chambers into his inaugural season on the court.

Projecting the Terriers' starting lineup and depth chart will not be as easy this year as it seems. Even if Chambers didn't bring in any of his own guys this year, he's bringing his own system and philosophies and we may not know how the players fit into his schemes.

That said, we've seen what all but one of these guys can do so we have a pretty good starting point. What can we expect to begin the season? My guess:

1: Corey Lowe
2: Carlos Strong
3: John Holland
4: Jake O'Brien
5: Scott Brittain

I think this is the year that 'Los sheds the "6th Man" label and gets a chance to start every game. The other option is throwing Tyler in at the point and moving Corey off the ball, but Tyler was a little less effective last year after coming back from injury. Chambers may feel that Corey would be more effective off the ball. But due to Tyler's injury problems of the last few years, he may benefit from not being ridden for 35 mins per game this year. I think that Tyler would excel in a bench/quick energy, shooting and defense role, but we know he can hold down a starting job too.

There aren't really any other debates about the starting lineup, but there is certainly some decent depth right behind them. While noting that practice hasn't even started yet, here's how I could see it shaking out:

1: Lowe/Bailey
2: Strong/Morris
3: Holland/
4: O'Brien/Sirutis
5: Brittain/Pelage

I think it'll be a 9-man rotation, with Vlad Sirutis getting only a few per game. Mike Schultz, Tunde, Sully and, unfortunately, TheRod Smith will play the role of pine-jockey until the team is completely ravaged by injuries.

Bracket Bluster: The Iona Preview

Today is BracketBuster Saturday. While Vermont is on The Deuce (do people still call it that?) playing in a real Bracketbuster against Buffalo, at the same time BU will be stuck inside Case Gym playing a sub-.500 team in a "Bracketbuster Pool game." Unfortunately this does not mean they're playing Marco Polo.

Back during our 8-game winning streak (R.I.P.) I got cocky and complained about the quality of our opponent, Iona College. Right now, Iona is 12-15, under .500 in conference play, and sitting in 6th place in the MAAC. Their RPI is languishing in the low 100's. Basically, they're not very good.

But let's get real, we're not busting anyone's bracket they way we're playing lately. I predicted before the season that we'd get stuck with some shitty MAAC team, and we are, just like usual.

What BU needs more than a better BB opponent is some wins and getting back to playing the way we were before. And some rest. The guys look tired.

Corey is mad from being benched against Stony Brook. We could have won the game if he played, but I'm pretty glad he got some rest anyway. I hope it lights a fire under his ass for the rest of the season. Last time he was benched, he came back to play the best ball of his life.

FCP says Wolff is planning to start Lowe against Iona, so everybody's back on good terms. Wolff also says he's planning to play all the starters their regular minutes. I suppose he wants to get them back into the flow of how we were playing before, but I can't say I wouldn't like to see quite a few minutes of Valdas, Pelage and --dare I say it?-- the Rod.

(Nah.... never happen)

BU claims the Territory of Allston

There was a lot to feel good about in tonight's big blowout win over Harvard! As I mentioned before, the Crimson are not a bad team this year and will win a lot of games by the time this year is over. That said, BU played their second-best game of the season and Harvard had no chance.


It seems like we have a new three-headed monster on campus, and its name is Jakney O'Hollowe. Corey goes off for 20 points... Again. Holland sleepwalks to 17. JOB cruises to 18 points, and this time adds 8 boards. These guys playing this well together makes a potent offensive attack, and real matchup problems for any opponent.

We had a team effort and did the little things. Like making 75% of our free throws and outrebounding a bigger team with hustle - those are two things we failed miserable against the Mount. And winning the turnover battle. Overall, BU shot 48% from the field, which only sank below 50% because of the scoring drought over the last 8 minutes of the game, when the outcome was already decided.

Props to two guys in particular today. Vlad Sirutis got his first significant playing time of the year after Scotty B and JOB picked up some early fouls. He knocked down his first shot of the year, a money 3-pointer in the first half, and played solid defense. And Tyler Morris played his best game of the year so far, despite only netting 7 points. He hustled for 6 rebounds and dished out 6 assists (we'll let the 6 turnovers slide tonight). His shots still weren't falling, but he's figuring out how to contribute.

The guys most LOVE these road games that they could probably walk to. They seem relaxed, and and quite a few of our fans make the short trip over (you guys were LOUD on the radio broadcast - well done!!). Too bad BC refuses to play us, the pussies.

Honey, can you pick up some Windex on your way home from work?

The Terriers need some serious help in the glass-cleaning department. In fact, the Case Gym glass is so filthy it seems like it hasn't been cleaned all year (at least not by BU).

Figure this: BU has 4 "big men" (although at times that seems like a stretch) - Scott Brittain, Vlad Sirutis, Max Gotzler and Ibe Konate. During the 9-point loss to Hartford on 1/12, that Fearsome Foursome gathered a grand total of THREE rebounds. Not three apiece, not an average of three between them... but THREE total. And all four of them got playing time! Kudos to Ibe for pulling down 33% of the group's rebounds in just 4 minutes of action.

The group responded to that performance with a FIVE rebound effort this past Wednesday against Albany (this time, Ibe didn't see any action). It was sad to watch that display, as the disparity on the boards was 38-20 in favor of Albany - missed shots seemed to head directly into the hands of our big men, then be promptly taken away by Albany and deposited into the basket.

These guys should be averaging 4 rebounds per game EACH, not as a group. Might this problem (ranked 8 out of 9 in rebounding margin) have a little to do with our losses this year?

Boxlines

It's a few days late, but here is the Boxline of the Week:


Corey Lowe, vs. Albany 1/16

FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN

6-19   5-12   3-4    0  1  1   4  20  4  3  1  3  40

Not all that impressive, I know, but according to BU's website, Corey played 40 minutes on Wednesday, so that's why his is the boxline of the week. Plus it wasn't that impressive a week on our side anyway.

And your Boxline of the Weak:

Valdas Sirutis, @ Hartford 1/12

FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  1  0  0  12

No points, no boards, no assists, not even a shot. Just one turnover. What the hell was he doing in there for 12 minutes? Discussing the best places to eat in Eastern Europe with Max Gotzler?

Oh, and here's a couple stats from last night's game that might make you puke:

Rebounds: BU 20 - Albany 38
Shooting %: BU 35.3 - Albany 54.5

I guess at the very least we can call it a breakout game for John Holland with 19 points.

Murmurs of Basketball Stuff

It was a relief to see BU remembered how to score points. They nearly reached their previous games total by half-time as they outplayed UNH to win 82-72. Corey Lowe ended up with thirty points after scoring the first 12 points for BU, all on threes. Carlos Strong had 14 points, and Max Gotzler had 11, a career high.

Jesus, where to being.

First of all, the starting line-up:

Max Gotzler, Matt Wolff, Valdus Sirutis, Tyler Morris, and John Holland.

Weird, right? But it somehow worked. I'm still trying to figure it out.

Corey Lowe took 22 shots. That's a hell of a lot but it seemed to work so I say keep doing it.

Ibe and Marques Johnson barely played. 12 Minutes between the two of them. I'm sure that had something to do with how well we played.

Tyler took a lot of shots, and missed a lot. But he's been trying to shoot his way out of his slump, and he will, as long as he keeps shooting. He still managed 10 points, with 8 from the free throw line. He's starting to get back into, and I like that Wolff isn't overworking him too soon.

John Holland had six steals, showing how much this kid hustles on every play. We need someone like him on the court as much as possible. He is sick on defense. Defensive Player of the Year in a couple years, I'm calling it right now.

As a team, we out-rebounded UNH, and I can't remember the last time we did that. 36!

And how 'bout that Max Gotzler? He played 35 minutes! And judging by the box score, he didn't do too badly either. But there's a reason he got so much playing time. Scott Britain didn't play today, and it's much worse than we could have thought possible:

BU, which now holds a 52-6 advantage over UNH in conference play, was playing without leading rebounder and third-leading scorer Scott Brittain, who pulled a gluteus muscle in practice Tuesday.

I quoted the recap from ESPN because I didn't want to have to think of a way to say that, but it sounds bad. I have no idea if this is a short-term or long-term injury, but if someone knows, or if anyone knows specifically what is going on with Scott, leave a comment.

Anyway, this was a big win for us. We needed it bad after four straight losses. We go hammered by SUNY (I started using SUNY when talking about Binghamton because it was getting too confusing with two BU's. Plus I think they hate the name SUNY), and we were in danger of starting conference play 0-2. It's good to see some life in them. I hope they keep this up.

And around the America East? What a strange couple of days.

Sunday:

BU took a serious beating from SUNY, who I had predicted only minutes earlier would finish 8th in the conference. That was a real wake up call.

After looking so sharp the entire game, Vermont loses in overtime to Albany by a point. What an exciting game that was.

Stony Brook totally hands it to Maine. Didn't think they had it in them.

Wednesday:

Down 7 at the half, Hartford rallies back with 48 points in the seconds half edge out Binghamton by one point.

UMBC crushes Vermont 78-60. Right after Vermont looked so sharp at Albany, too.

And the standings look incredibly odd right now. Everyone has at least one win, except Maine, and everyone has at least one loss, except Hartford, who only played one conference game, and UMBC, who is 3-0. I think I can honestly say that right now, it looks like almost anyone could win this conference.

And UMBC? Didn't see this coming. Hodges is having himself a great season, and he's got a great team around him. Yeah, it's early, but I can't recall UMBC ever having a decent season. Maybe this is the season they finally make some noise.

Too early to know too much, but we know this: this is going to be one ridiculous season.