Not as bad as it seems: The Stony Brook Preview

That last game against Binghamton was a tough one, but after reflecting on it a bit I don't think it was too bad.

Corey had a rough game. He shot 2-for-15 and missed two chances to win the game with under 30 seconds. I bet he felt crummy about it afterward.

But Corey's not going to let that happen more than once or maybe twice in a season. He's too good. We lost to the first-place, supposedly "best," team in the conference by 1 point. Our two best players, who average 18 apiece, came up with 17 combined. This is not the norm.

And, after getting down big in the first half, the team showed a lot of grit in clawing all the way back to take the lead and had a chance to win. That kind of fortitude hasn't happened every time (i.e. both Vermont games) and I love to see it. Props to Scott Brittain for his best game of the year - one rebound short of a dub-dub and tying his career high for points.

Two strange things we saw in last game. Matt Wolff sat for most of the second half in favor Marques Johnson, and Wolff's focus on continually pushing the ball inside rather than taking outside shots. I'll be looking out to see if those trends continue tonight...

..against Stony Brook. Please God, our team cannot take another 60 minute game. Win or lose, let's have this one end at 40. At this point, we're almost assured of the #3 tournament seed and that extra rest might be more important than the W.

Stony Brook has been good and is threatening to bring its white jerseys to the AE tourney for the first time. They just took UVM to overtime, yes the same team that just beat us by 28.

If nothing else, this is our last road game of the year and it gets easier from here on out.

Let's try this again: The Binghamton Preview

Today marks our second straight contest fighting for the top spots in America East. After the Vermont disaster, we find ourselves out of the first place battle for now, but we play Fake BU today for second place.

Last time we played Binghamton, we were coming off a disaster against Vermont. Sound familiar? All the fans were feeling down, and we were pessimistic about our chances. And the Terriers came out and dominated on Binghamton's home court.

This time, we're at The Roof, where we tend to dominate. I like our chances.

The Terriers are going to be fighting fatigue from here on out, but they need to be careful not to hype themselves up too much. Sure the game is important, but we need to just get into our game and relax.

It's Valentine's Day. Feel the love, Terriers.

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.

Cock punch: The UMBC Review

I got to see my second in-person BU game of the season, and it was a good one -- not as good as the 2OT UMBC game from two weeks ago, but that's probably a good thing.

Considering this game was directly up against BU's Beanpot game, I figure there were exactly 6 BU fans who saw this game... and they were all in the stands at the RAC (I don't think Comcast SportsNet or MASN got the BU audience they were hoping for). It was our group of 3, plus Corey Lowe's uncle and his ladyfriend and two other BU fans, one of whom was wearing a hockey jersey. Now, we all know my feelings on this, but I appreciate his dedication. But if you're out there reading this dude, can you just explain it to me: you're obviously a huge BU hockey fan, huge enough to wear a hockey jersey to a bball game... and the BEANPOT was going on! I'm baffled.

C_Lowe's uncle is The Man. We recognized each other from when we met at past BU-UMBC games, since he lives in Maryland somewhere. After the game I tried to talk him into going to Albany for the conference tournament, I may have even offered him a ride, I can't remember.

Anyway, the game was highly entertaining. BU was wearing the home whites, since UMBC was doing a "Blackout the RAC" dealio and wore their black unis. When we got to the game a little late due to the famous DC traffic snarls, BU was losing 16-6. We sat down directly behind the BU bench, and the team immediately went on a 19-0 run. Obviously we were the spark that the team needed. Well, either us or Jake O'Brien, who had a career high 25 points.

UMBC kept it close for most of the second half, until we pulled away nicely at the end. UMBC happens to play even less guys than we do, so foul trouble was a factor. The turning point, and the most exciting part of the game, is when with about 4 minutes left UMBC frosh Chauncey Gilliam punched Matt Wolff in the nuts. For realz. They were lined up next to each other for a free throw, and in the process of "boxing out" Gilliam threw a left fist behind him directly into Matt's pills. Problem was, nobody in the arena saw any of this, including the refs, we just saw Matt writhing around holding about a pound of Aunt Betty's nut butter. Then Matt got fired up, Orlando Vandross got fired up, and the refs went to to video tape. Indeed, they said, Gilliam sent Matt on a trip to Bangkok, and so they ejected him. I couldn't see any of this, but we just heard massive booing from the student section. Unless they were saying Booo-urns. Anyway, I Tivo'd the game and checked out the reply, and they made the right call - it was a really bad cheap shot.

The crowd got so fired up that Matt missed his first free throw, which made them even more fired up. I was slightly worried about our 7 point lead. But then Johnny Holland came through with back-to-back 3-pointers, complete with shushing motions to the crowd, and everyone on UMBC except for Darryl Proctor lost the will to keep playing. It was a blowout after that.

Nice win on the road for our boys.

Halfway Home: The Hartford Preview

Terriers are back from their much-needed week off today, and they're on national TV! The question is, why?

We play Hartford today, and this year Hartford stinks so bad it's more like Fartford. The Hawks sit in last place at 2-6, while BU sits above everyone except Vermont right now. On paper, BU should dominate. But the guys can't rest on their laurels, whatever that means - this one smells like a trap game to me.

The Terriers are on a 4 game winning streak because of the effort they've been putting in every game. We know they are rested, but will they get off to a slow start? The effort level worries me - because while this team can be real good when they try hard, they can be real bad when they don't.

This also represents the halfway mark of the conference season. After this game, BU will have played every team at least once. If you told me at the beginning of the year they would have the chance to play for a record of 6-2, I would have been happy. If you told me that at the beginning of the conference season after we lost TyLos, I would have been ecstatic.