#1 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: Joe Jones enters

We have finally made it to the last important story of the summer that I did not write about, and it's led me to two conclusions:  1) I'm never doing this again -- writing 12 blog posts on big stories in 3 days is a shit ton of work, and 2) I never want to see the word "egregiously" anywhere near my blog again, ever.

After the shock and disappointment of Pat Chambers' departure, the summer got more interesting -- we needed a new coach.  Someone who could keep the incredible momentum of the brief Chambers reign going and build on it.  I honestly don't want to get into who interviewed, who was rumored for the job, or anything like that -- because to be honest who knows how much of that stuff was correct?  Suffice it to say, Joe Jones got the job.

Who is he?  Well, we had no idea - we just knew he came from BC.  (So far, off to a bad start.)  But picking a complete unknown worked last time, so why not.

It turns out Coach Jones has a lot in common with Chambers -- both learned under Villanova's Jay Wright and both have the extremely outgoing (non-Wolff) personality.  But Coach Jones has 4 times the experience as an assistant, as well as a (somewhat) successful head coaching stint at Columbia, which he took from god-awful to just merely not very good.

It's clear from interviews that Jones has a Chambers-like ability to connect with players (none of Chambers' recruits bailed on us) and fans:

Only one question really remains:  is he a spy from BC who has been sent over to sabotage us?  It's a fair question, and we can really just wait-and-see.  Until we know, I'm on 100% board with Coach Jones and can't wait to see what he can do this year.

#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

#12 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: H.J. Gaskins leaves team

I don't know if we ever expected much if anything out of poor H.J. aka Henry.  He came to BU with his two talented "brothers" from the same high school team -- Dom Morris and Travis Robinson -- but unlike the others had to pay his own way.  Then he sat on the bench for the first half of the season, before disappearing completely from the bench, due to a need to focus on academics, according to Coach Chambers.

I think we all kind of wondered if Chambers promised to take on H.J. if it would get Dom and Travis to come aboard.  Which I love -- anything creative BU can offer to get talented guys to join is fine with me (within NCAA limits, of course).  It seems to have worked, but we don't yet know how much of a coup this was.  Dom had a very solid freshman year campaign, but T-Rob remains an unknown at this point.  If T-Rob busts, then it's like we took on TWO guys just to get the services of Dom.  If Dom becomes a First Teamer, then it would be worth it no matter how good Travis becomes.

In any event, H.J. was put out of his misery for good this summer, having been completely erased from the roster by either Coach Chambers or Coach Jones.  In order to give H.J. his due, I will now reprint the entirety of H.J.'s highlights from BU directly from the website:

AS A FRESHMAN IN 2010-11

Appeared for one minute each against Marist and Villanova.

I can honestly say life was better with a guy named H.J. around.  Best of luck on your studies.

See you in SAN JUAN!

By some stroke of luck, or genius, or cunning... the BU Hoops Blog will be reporting to you direct from San Juan, Puerto Rico over the next few days.

Thanks in large part to these guys, the High Roller and I will travel to the Puerto Rico Tip-Off and take in hours upon hours of college basketball, rooting our Terriers on all the way.

Lesser men and women would cave and spend at least a few hours on the pristine white-sand Caribbean beaches. No beaches for us. We're trading sand for hardwood, and that's the way we like it.

We fly in tomorrow, arriving some time in the middle of the George Mason/Villanova game. Come back often for plenty of updates, basketball talk and random Puerto Rico tales of hilarity. We'll be unencumbered by the constraints of work obligations, girlfriends or personal hygiene. We may even have appearances by a special guest or two.

¡Vamos, Terriers!

Meet BU's new head coach, Pat Chambers

After being called out by good friends, anonymous commenters and none other than AD Mike Lynch, it's time to update the blog. I'm redefining the phrase Better Late Than Never.

As you may or may not have heard, BU finally hired a coach after a month-long search: Mr. Pat Chambers, formerly assisting on the Villanova sidelines. My first reaction, of course, was: Who? The media kept telling me we were looking into these big names like Richard Pitino and Tim Welsh and Fran McCaffery. It only mentioned lesser-known names like Pat Chambers in add-on sentences at the ends of articles about those other guys. And if you used the BU Hoops Blog as your sole source of information on the search, you still thought Tony Jones was the main candidate for the job (sorry).

I'll admit I let myself be drawn into the celebrity search. I liked the idea that a Richard Pitino could come in, energize our players and our fanbase and turn BU into a perennial winner in no time. It sounds nice, but the reality is that doesn't usually happen. It takes tons of hard work, skills gained through experience, and time to build something like a basketball program. It doesn't just happen because you bring in a big name.

That was something I realized the day Pat Chambers was introduced as the new men's basketball coach. I didn't know much about Coach Chambers except that he spent 5 years at Villanova, rising from Director of Basketball Operations (booking hotels and flights?) all the way to associate head coach (X's and O's plus head recruiter). And truth be told, 5 years doesn't seem like that long to be coaching at the highest level.

But anyone who had any doubts about Coach Chambers taking over the program and making it successful should take the time to watch the introductory press conference (I'm looking at you Jake O'Brien). The guy is young and energetic, enthusiastic and optimistic to a fault, and just seems to be a guy that college players could relate to. He also seems like he could be a hard-ass if he wants to (he's got the military haircut for it anyway).

A young, hungry, up-and-coming assistant coach is who we've been hoping for in this program - somebody like Leibovitz, Lonergan, Pikiell and Broadus, who have all been making their marks on this league. And if all goes well, we'll be looking for another coach in 3 or 4 years (although the same could be said if all does not go well at all).

There's no way to know right now if this is a good hire or not. That will be decided in 2 or 3 years by what is produced on the court. For now, however, put me in the effin-pumped column. I think the future's bright for BU basketball.