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Saturday, November 26, 2011
Fake Tournament Blues
As bad as our loss in the "TicketCity Legends Classic" stung yesterday, consider the case of Cleveland State. They may win every game in this "tournament" and yet they still wouldn't be the champions.
Why? Because this is a fake tournament!
Cleveland St. can't become the "TicketCity Legends Classic" champion, because the championship game has already been played! And guess what, it was won by Vanderbilt, who Cleveland St. beat in the first round! What a sham.
I find it sickening that BU could have found itself in the same position if we had beaten Texas (yeah yeah, I know... in my dreams). Honestly, I'd rather not play in a tournament than have no honest chance of winning it. Of course the reason for this is $$$ alone. These things should be outlawed.
Can you imagine the outrage if the NCAA tournament moved to this model? They'd still play the first two rounds, but after that they would ignore the results and all the upsets, and put the top 16 seeds into the Sweet Sixteen anyway.
This is a clear affront to the idea of fairness and competition, and must be stopped. That said, I'll be at the Ryan Center to enjoy tonight's game against Rhode Island, fairness be damned.
#3 Egregiously Omitted Summer Story: BU keeps it close with Kansas
Usually I fail to write about the last game of the season because I’m depressed about the loss, but this year was different. There was nothing depressing about the Terriers’ 78-59 loss to #1 Kansas, and in fact I came away from watching the game and I was beaming, exhilarated, and proud to be a Terrier.
I couldn’t go to Tulsa to be at the game (and yes I seriously contemplated taking 3 days off from work to drive all the way out there and back… mapped a route and everything), so I planned an alumni watch at DC’s Old Dominion Brew Pub. Awesome turnout – Terriers came out of the woodwork and filled the room I reserved. I put up a renegade Boston University banner on the wall of the bar.
I was so nervous that we were into the third 3-foot tall beer tower by the time the game started.
The Morris twins were clearly a force of nature, and over time eroded the BU defense like waves crashing down on a beach. The inevitable happened with about 10 minutes left in the game, when we could no longer hold them at bay and we could no longer keep up on our offensive end. But the 30 minutes that preceded that were pure joy.
Far from being intimidated by the Jayhawks and getting blown out from the opening tip, we stayed within a couple points the entire first half, and even led at a few different points (!) – Holland made some sick shots and DJ was racing up and down the court faster than any KU guards.
Down 4 points at halftime, my phone was blowing up with long-lost friends… “can u believe this??” … “shock da world!” ... “gooooooo Terriers!!”. People told me that John Holland was trending on twitter.
Yes, we ended up losing. But we went to the Big Dance, and we looked good. DJ and JH showed their skillz to a national audience. And Terriers around the country walked out of bars like Old Dominion knowing our boys gave it their best shot… and that we’d be back before too long.
For this big occasion, I thought we'd reach out to see if any Jayhawk fans can clear a few things up for us in advance of the main event. We can all learn a thing or two from people who are from so far out in the middle of nowhere that there is absolutely nothing to do but concentrate on their basketball team.
Lifelong KU fan JayhawkLex, who "literally bleeeeeeeeeds crimson and blue," was nice enough to answer the call with some friendly trash talk.
BU Hoops Blog: You grew up in Lawrence and went to KU, obviously a huge Jayhawk fan. What are the coolest traditions about Kansas basketball?
JayhawkLex: Our first coach literally invented the game. Our opening video montage stars with Wilt Chamberlain. Phog Allen's coaching pedigree -- Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith, and others. The Rock Chalk Chant. Allen Fieldhouse is literally a basketball mecca. And it gets loud as hell. Pre-game foot fire exercise and floor dives during warm-ups Shaking newspapers while opponents are announced and tearing them up into confetti when our players are announced. Seniors start on senior night. Mastering the claps to 'I'm a Jayhawk.' The singing of -- and swaying to -- our alma mater song. Gives me goosebumps. 'Waving the wheat.' Hating Mizzou (it literally dates back to violent raids during the Civil War). The full and complete unity of Jayhawk Nation. We are EVERYWHERE, and we support our team members like they're family. Thomas Robinson: case-in-point.
...need more?
BU Hoops Blog: Rock Chalk Jayhawk... explain this string of seemingly nonsensical words.
JayhawkLex: Traditional intimidation tactic :) And it rhymes.
But, in all seriousness, it actually came from a science professor in the late 1800s who wanted a chant to fire up his students. 'Rock chalk' comes from the deposits of chalk rock limestone in both western Kansas and on KU's campus (my dad is a geologist -- I know these words). The Jayhawk is a mythical beast, likewise rooted in history. (Jayhawkers were the Kansas abolitionists who fought to have Kansas entered as a free state.)
Now ask me why we hate Missouri so much :)
BU Hoops Blog: Kansas has a history of choking against BU's in the tournament (Bucknell, Bradley)... nervous?
JayhawkLex: Nope. When was the last time a 1-seed lost to a 16-seed?
BU Hoops Blog: Predictions for the game --
JayhawkLex:
Will Kansas get to 20 before BU gets to 10? Barely. How close will the game be at halftime? I'll bet you're down by 10 at half. Who will win and by how much? Kansas by 22. How awesome would be if BU pulled off the shocking upset? ...do y'all even have a mascot?
We found out last Sunday night that we'd be going to Tulsa to play against the Kansas University Jayhawks. I don't know why the guys were all cheering - the Terriers got robbed with this matchup!
I suppose we're lucky that we aren't in one of the play-in games. But Kansas is definitely one of the top 2 seeds overall - they should be playing the winner of a play-in. BU was clearly the best of the 16 seeds (if not better than one of the 15 seeds), so we should have gotten the worst of the 1 seeds - that would be Pitt in Washington, DC. In essence, Kansas got screwed too because they should not have gotten the best of the 16 seeds. Of course it won't matter for Kansas because they'll steamroll whoever.
“I was surprised they were on the 16 line to be honest,” Self said. “When I was in my mind going through the bracket, I didn’t have them as one of the teams on the 16 line.”
What do we know about Kansas? I'm sure some hayseed from Kansas will come on here and tell us all about them (and how much we suck, etc). But for the time being, we just need to know about their twin towers, Marcus and Markieff Morris. Pretty unstoppable.
But little do they know, we have a secret weapon: the long-lost third twin Dom Morris! Though only a freshman, and only averaging 5.6 points per game, and like 4 inches shorter, he just needs to reach within himself for that Morris DNA - no problem.
It's something of an annual tradition here at BU Hoops Blog where we write up until the night before the last game of the season, then we lose and then it's radio silence right through to next season -- no mention of how the season ended or why we lost the last game or even a recap of the past 5 months. Usually we're just too depressed from a conference tourney gone wrong, which, when combined with laziness, is a deadly cocktail.
This year we took it a step further. Not only did we refuse to write about that tear-inducing loss to the Catmounters on ESPN2, but we didn't even mention BU's barnstorming tour through the College Basketball Invitational. A blowout of the PAC-10/12's Oregon State Beavers, a home-court overtime win over Morehead St and a good showing against VCU in the semis were not enough to get our carcasses off the couch onto the blog (though we of course watched all those games intently). And it was all punctuated by Corey Lowe's do-si-do with a pro agent, a story ripped from the headlines at USC or Memphis or Kentucky.
However, like the on-court Terriers, we feel like we had a great season. The trip in November to cover the Puerto Rico Tip-Off was the experience of a lifetime and a blogventure unlikely to be topped for the duration of this website.
Next year holds a lot of promise. Though not the exotic San Juan, I think we can count on a trip for this blog to the Preseason NIT in Philly. The schedules are trickling out and we have reams of untested freshman to hype up and to nickname. We have Hartford 2011 to look forward to. And of course, as dictated by tradition, we have bombastic predictions of vast improvement and impact relating to the skills of one Jeffrey Pelage.
Let this be our emergence from the shadows. We won't be posting every day of course, but once every week or two should be enough to whet everyone's appetite for the coming season.
That was the last day BU was in an America East final. At the end of that game, which was won on a last-second shot by some frosted-hair pansy on Vermont, I stood in the front row of Case Gymnasium and stared motionless for about 10 minutes out at the court, where the Catmounters reveled with a few hundred of their fans. On our floor.
That's a terrible feeling. Tomorrow, it's time to return the favor.
If you're watching ESPN 2 tomorrow at about 1:55pm ET, I'll be the one dancing on Vermont's floor, possibly taking a dump on the Catamount's mouth at center court.
Fresh of the high of going to sleep a few benjamins richer, we awoke for another round of America East Specials. Our original plan was to get back to the arena by 11am to see the BU women play their semifinal game, however we could not get off our lazy butts in time... sorry ladies.
Let me say something: Of course I have nothing against women's basketball. I was quite the BU women's fan back in school. I don't even mind having the men's and women's tournament together, since I'm sure it saves everyone money. But not holding the men's semifinals until Sunday evening is insane. The combined format should preserve everything that was great about the men's tournament from years past.
Everyone in the conference in driving some major distance to get to the tournament. This year, half of our party couldn't wait for BU's 5pm game - which meant they drove 6 hours each way for 1 game. Taking away the Stony Brook Memorial Invitational Play-In Game on Friday night was bad enough... making the semifinals too late for many fans is unforgivable. Vermont fans had to drive 3.5 hours after their game ended at 10pm... good thing we don't have to worry about Maine ever making a semifinal!
America East: Please make this change for next year's tournament.
Back to this year's tournament. We had plenty of time to kill before our Sunday evening (I still can't believe that) game. There were brochures at the tournament's FanFest for something called Monster Mini-Golf that seemed interesting enough to waste a few hours on. Turns out it's an indoor arcade which is totally dark except for fluorescent things everywhere. It was kind of fun to play skee-ball and air hockey under black lights, but the real fun was on the putt-putt course. It actually looked really cool.
Finally, the time came to head back to watch BU - of course, not before more tailgating, more beer/Sparks, and more free Cabot cheese.
We were playing Stony Brook of course, the #1 seed that had beaten us soundly twice this season. That, combined with the fact that their cheering section was about 5x ours, meant we were going to have to be super loud. That worked for about a minute when the supposed "best player in the league" Muhammed El-Amin hit three straight 3-pointers to begin the game. The Terriers didn't lose hope though, as they quickly caught up, then ended the half on a ferocious 15-point run to end the half.
Play of the game: Towards the end of this run, the shot clock was running out and Corey had the ball near halfcourt. Instead of running toward the hoop, Corey just launched a 35-footer (no exaggeration) then found the hoop and the BU fans went apoplectic. That shot takes some large balls and was a huge momentum booster. The fans, the coaches, the bench and the players were pumped up to 11.
Halftime came and went, and then some of the air came out of everyone. Stony Brook immediately went on a 13-0 run, and we didn't score for over 5 minutes.
(Tangent: Dear BU Pep Band, can we stop the slow clap at the beginning of each half? Please? Nobody else joins in. And it gets real embarrassing/frustrating/annoying when it has to go on for 10 minutes including time-outs. Worse, it prevents anyone from starting any different cheers, specifically faster-paced ones that may be helpful in boosting energy in the fans and players, like D-FENSE. Can we maybe put a 2-minute time limit on it? Or at the very least end it after the first media time-out? PLEASE end this "tradition." Love, BU Hoops Blog.)
After we finally scored and the band mercifully stopped slow-clapping, the teams traded leads over the rest of the half. BU kept stalling though, and that's when Pat Chambers took matters into his own hands. He says he wasn't "trying" to get a Technical (wink, wink), but he got one anyway with about 6 mins left. The ensuing free throws left Stony Brook with a 53-48 lead. It fired everyone up though, and from then on it was BU making steals, getting rebounds and putbacks, making free throws and Corey with another big-time 3-pointer to take the lead.
BU won the game with defense. The "best player in the conference" disappeared down the stretch, and actually contributed 8 of SBU's 19 turnovers. And despite the non-stop trash talking and shoving by Tommy Brenton and Chris Martin, the Terriers kept their cool.
As the final seconds ticked down, the team started going crazy on the court and some of the fans came down to join. This group of seniors, which had never made it to the final game of the America East season, wasn't ready to be done yet.
I've attended the quarterfinals and semifinals of 9 America East tournaments in a row. Not since the second one have I come home feeling happy.
Of course that streak stopped this year when we demolished the host team Hartford 87-46 and then upset the top-seed Stony Brook 70-63 in a tense and amazing game. Corey Lowe looked like the player we always thought he might be, scoring 26 in the first game and 24 in the second, while contributing great defense and being a floor leader. He was the unquestioned MVP of the first two rounds of the tournament. Now, we have a date with the Catmounters for a trip to the Dance.
So how did it all go down? You really should have been there to see for yourself. But if you weren't...
Friday
Due to late starts from work, the weekend got off to a rough start. Traffic and a 6+ hour drive from DC to CT will put anyone in a bad mood, even those embarking on a hoops pilgrimmage. Sadly, but somewhat fortunately for our situation, the Binghamton situation and the combined men's and women's tournament at the same location meant we didn't have to get up there in time for the Stony Brook Memorial Play-In Game. We were sapped by the time we got to CT at 1:30am, so we called it a night so we could be at full strength the next day.
Saturday
Breakfast was delicious at the lakehouse courtesy of our amazing hosts. Of course, we all had the America East Special - two eggs over easy with cheese plus bacon and a sliced bagel.
We got to UH's Parking Lot N early to begin the annual tailgate. I wonder why nobody else tailgates at the America East Tournament. The weather was gorgeous and the Hartford parking cops were very cool in casting a blind eye toward the Miller Lites. Last year, the Albany Times-Union asked us about it:
A few cars over, recent Boston University alumni Chip Weiskotten and Mark Bassotti, natives now living in Washington, D.C., had set up shop with a BU flag, a grill and a crockpot filled with chili.
Both were such fervent basketball fans that, when they arrived back home this weekend, their respective moms had cut out various newspaper clippings on the championships for them to read.
"I'll root for Albany," Bassotti said, "unless they're playing B.U."
With the car painted with "Go BU" slogans and AC/DC blaring from the speakers, we let the sweet aura of Miller overtake us. We chatted with whichever Vermont fans wanted to come over and say hi. And the folks from Cabot Cheese loved us because we chanted, "Cheddar! Cheddar!" every time we saw them. And boy did they deliver.
Eventually, we did get inside to watch some basketball. We saw Stony Brook TCB against last place Albany. Finally, it was show-time and BU took the floor against Hartford. Unfortunately, Hartford never really seemed to take the floor against BU. This was absolute annihilation.
Poor Hartford - the hometown fans never got a chance to cheer for much this weekend, other than their women's team. J.O.B. and Corey shone brightest for BU, with 28 and 26 points. We happily went off to find some dinner downtown and were delighted to find some nice microbrew at City Steam Brewery.
We did end up going back to the arena for about half of the other two games... but they left a bit to be desired. Neither was close, and Maine (who we wanted to win due to Maine being the home state of the lady) was clearly going to lose. Plus, we wanted to check out Mohegan Sun.
The Sun was farther away than anticipated. We got there sometime around midnight. But we finally made it and were determined to play a few rounds at the craps table before we had to leave. We wanted to teach Honorary BU Alum Britt the basics of craps, so four of us put in $20 each and decided to play until the first shooter crapped out. Shouldn't take too long, right?
Cut to 45 minutes later, and the same dude is still freaking shooting! This guy couldn't miss -- a lot like BU earlier in the day against Hartford! Finally, he rolls a 7 and craps out. So we leave the table and drive home at 1:30... a combined $1,000 richer!!!
As someone mentioned on our way out, "I think this might be BU's weekend..."
I'm about to leave for Hartford 2010 in literally 5 minutes. I thought I'd post my predictions here since I'm not sure when I'll get online next - I'll try to post a vid or two from Chase though.
I'm hoping the High Roller can weigh in with some fearless prognostications from the left coast.
We're feeling pretty confident, pretty happy about our seeding situation and playing Binghamton this coming weekend at the tournament - after all, we just beat them by 40 points. But then....
...Binghamton finds a new way to embarrass itself. Just days before the tournament is set to begin, and after playing the entire regular season, they decide to sit out the tournament. WTF.
This is fine if Binghamton had finished 9th as expected. But they finished 5th, so it affects every single matchup this weekend! It eliminates the (Formerly) Stony Brook Invitational Play-In Game completely - am I getting a refund for the ticket package I bought that includes this game? Of course not.
The biggest swings of fortune happen to the BU and Vermont squads. Vermont should be playing #7 New Hampshire, a decent team that could get hot - instead, after Bing pulled their French military maneuver they'll play UMBC, the most hapless bunch of haps that ever happed. Meanwhile, instead of facing the team we just beat by 40, we play the team we lucked into a last second win over - and oh yeah, they happen to be the tournament's host team.
It's unfortunate, and I think the decision (whoever's it was - the league, the school, the state...) was wrong, especially for the players who stuck with the program. And BU came out on the bad end of it.
But at the end of the day, WE WILL PLAY WHOEVER STEPS ONTO THE COURT AT 2:30 ACROSS FROM US, dammit! We still have to win 3 games to survive.
With a resounding 76-56 thumping of Maine, the Terriers ended the 2009-10 season on a high note. That makes 5 out of 6 wins in February, the only loss coming in the final seconds against Vermont. What made this win more notable than the others is that it was the first of the year over a top-3 opponent. That is a nice hump to get over, and such a convincing win gives hope going into the tournament.
We finish at 17-12 and 11-5 in the America East Conference, which is good for 4th place. How does that compare with the season that got Dennis Wolff fired last year? Well, last year we were 17-12 and 11-5 in the conference, which was good for 3rd place. Scott Brittain was out this year, but Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong missed most of last year, and this year the guys are a year more experienced.
So on the surface, it doesn't look like the coaching change made any tangible year over year difference. However, DWolff wasn't fired for going 17-12 or 11-5. He was fired for going 0-1.
Will Coach Pat Chambers make his mark on this portion of the record? If that's how we judged Wolff, it's only fair we judge Chambers by the same standards. I think it's fair to say that Chambers will be feeling some heavy expections from Mike Lynch et al as he heads to his first America East tournament.
So who do we play? Well right now, it's uncertain. We are supposed to play Binghamton, who finished 5th place despite some crazy obstacles. But one more obstacle may be put Bing's way, namely a voluntary or involuntary absence from this year's tournament in Hartford. NY Times reporter Pete Thamel tweeted that "The America East and Binghamton are deciding if Bearcats should play in conference tournament."
This would be bullshit for us, especially since we dominated Binghamton by 40 last week, and it would leave us with the host team Hartford. Meanwhile, Vermont would move from getting a tough UNH team to getting the hapless UMBC Retrievers. This may all be resolved by the time you read this post, so no use getting worked up about it now. I am sure that Chambers & Co. are doing everything they can to prepare the Terriers for whichever team shows up at 2:30 on Saturday.
Playing for our tournament lives: The Hartford Preview
First, let me say that I was extremely excited about the win over UNH on Thursday. I was pretty down about the team's chances on the road. Thankfully UNH forgot how to shoot a basketball, and thankfully Corey Lowe put the team on his back and gave them a piggy-back ride to the win.
Jake and John had tough games - but you could tell the team was making a conscious effort to bring the ball into the paint, and not jack up another school record for 3-point attempts. We only tried 10, instead of 37 against Stony Brook. This time it was UNH making that mistake, going 4-31 out there (!) on their way to sub-30% shooting overall.
Today the Terriers travel to the location of this year's America East Tournament (Hartford 2010!!) to take on the Hawks. This is like the opposite of The Mighty Ducks: these Hawks are not good. That's not to say that we're going to win this game (anything is possible with the 2009-10 Terriers), but UHa is 2-12 with a 9 game losing streak. Draw your own conclusions.
Hopefully the Terriers will use their time to scout the place and make sure they are quite comfortable there when they return for the tourney. I hope they become experts on the Chase Family Arena. But how have we done in the past when scouting the tourney location?
Albany 09 1/8/09: @ Albany 62, BU 61 Tourney: UMBC 79, BU 75
Binghamton 08 1/6/08: @Binghamton 69, BU 49 Tourney: BU 68, Albany 64 Hartford 59, BU 52
Boston 07 (N/A)
Binghamton 06 2/14/06: @Binghamton 74, BU 51 Tourney: Vermont 64, BU 61
Binghamton 05 2/27/05: @Binghamton 65, BU 48 Tourney: Maine 47, BU 45
Boston 04 (N/A)
Boston 03 (N/A)
Northeastern 02 1/20/02: BU 95, @Northeastern 88 Tourney: BU 86, Northeastern 76 BU 63, Hartford 60 BU 66, Maine 40
So let's see here. We haven't won at the location of the AE Tournament during the regular season since 2002, when we won the whole damn thing. Clearly, the lesson here is that we need to take care of business today against Hartford, and everything will work out perfectly on the first and second weekends of March! Make it happen!
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.
I love the Stony Brook Memorial Play-In Game on Friday night because you can get warmed up for the tournament weekend with a game you don't care about. Also, it presents a chance to overboard on the sauce and get a hangover that you'll regret until Selection Sunday. Such is the case today.
We got into town just in time to see Maine lose to Hartford. While I felt bad for Maine since they and their few fans in attendance since they all drove 9 hours, we were rooting for the Hawks because they brought dance team, cheerleaders, mascot and pep band - which makes for a better atmosphere the next day. And I think they have a better chance at beating the hated Bearcats.
Except for an exciting run at the end that brought them within 1 point, Maine never seemed real into the game. Note the guy on the sideline wearing a Snuggie:
I guess he wanted to read a book while still keeping warm.
After the game we took over a corner of Sutter's, which is conveniently located just steps from the campus, and proceeded to stay there way too long. Luckily the people-watching improved dramatically once the drunk students started showing up. One Boston local saw all our shirts and came over to wish us luck tomorrow.
Off to our tailgate now - look for our BU flag flying high and say hello.
There's a rule when you have a "basketblog" that you have to make end of the season picks and predictions. So fine let's get the boring ones out of the way.
1st Team All-Conference Marqus Blakely - Vermont John Holland - Boston U. Darryl Proctor - UMBC Corey Lowe - Boston U. DJ Rivera - Binghamton
Rookie of the Year Jake O'Brien - Boston U. Defensive Player of the Year Marques Cox - Stony Brook Coach of the Year Bill Herrion - New Hampshire Player of the Year Marqus Blakely - Vermont
The rest of them, 2nd/3rd team, All-Defense... eh, who has the time.
Here's how the tourney should go down: I don't care what anybody says, this is how I think it will shake out. Binghamton is a paper tiger - you can't win that many extremely close games without eventually losing one of them. BU over Vermont might be a stretch, but not if they are missing Mike Trimboli - who at last check is still "questionable" to play in the tournament.
OK, now for the important predictions.
1) First coach to get T'd up: Randy Monroe, UMBC 2) Least fans in attendance: Tie - BU and Maine 3) Bing player attracting the most heckling: Tiki Mayben 4) Average age of Vermont fans, including dance team: 67 5) Most likely to go to overtime: UNH-SBU 6) Biggest blowout: Hartford over Maine 7) Number of Sparks consumed by our group of 5: 13 8) Weather for our Sat morning tailgate: Rain, of course. 9) Minutes Matt Wolff is on the bench in Round 1: 6 10) Tournament MVP: John Holland, BU
The Terriers seemed to be ending the regular season on a high note, then almost a disastrous note, then finally on a relieved note. But eventually, BU finished off the spunky Hawks of Hartford in OT and did not put all of their fans on suicide watch.
The highlight of this game was, obviously, The Rod. We here at BU Hoops Blog have been clamoring for The Rod all season long and especially when the injuries hit, but DWolff went for a miniscule rotation instead of adding Sherrod to it. It's gotta hurt when your coach would risk severe exhaustion and burnout of his stars just so he doesn't have to put you in the game. But The Rod proved him wrong with stellar play, subbing for the quickly injured Matt Wolff.
The latest reports say Matt has recovered from his concussion and is back to practice, but will Sherrod still play a part in the Terriers' first round game? Luckily, we're playing the only team with less depth than us.
UMBC beat Albany on Sunday and earned a date with us. This worked out really well in a lot of ways:
We get to miss the host school, Albany, who even though they suck will have tons of people rooting for them.
UMBC's aforementioned depth troubles.
BU handled them twice already this year, even if one of the games went to 2OT.
We avoid Stony Brook, who beat us already and is my pick for a big-time tourney upset.
As the #3 seed, things work out well except that we meet up with Vermont in the semis. But, in order to be the best, you have to beat the best - and I'd rather get a crack at them in Albany in front of a semi-neutral setting. I'd feel more comfortable at Binghamton in a final than at Vermont.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I like the idea of knocking out the defending champs. Retrievers, you're up.
I'm not so sure how our plan of regular tourney updates is going to work. We've only been through 1 game so far and we're all ridiculously hungover.
The drives here were long but uneventful - car bingo, mad libs, the like. We took care of some Sparks in the parking lot and settled into the FRONT ROW to watch the scintillating Stony Brook vs. Maine matchup. The BU team ended up sitting right near us. The game was a close one, so at least it wasn't to boring. Maine's #22 (Mark Socoby) was hitting from everywhere, including a banked 3-pointer to send it to OT. Ovetime was all Stony Brook though. The High Roller caught some good (and hilarious) footage in his Handycam.
Corey Lowe confided in us that he wanted Stony Brook to win the game. He was also pretty jealous of the red BU headband one of us was wearing, but turned us down when we offered him one.
Aside from winning the game, Stony Brook kicked Maine's ass when it came to fan spirit. We had a fun time with Wolfie, but the band and dancers were kind of lame (better than this guy though).
Then we went to our temporary home and played drunken Rock Band all night and then went out to some OK bars. Ended up stumbling home after the High Roller got kicked out of a bar because he wouldn't stop videotaping this dancing old guy who looked like Ric Flair. If we ever get the video online, you will see exactly what I mean.
OK, time to head out into the rain for our big tailgate!
So it comes down to this. We need to beat a team that we haven't beaten in 3 years, or the season is over.
Albany was one of the two teams (along with UMBC) that we didn't beat this year, and neither was really a close game. In the first game, Brian Lillis was everywhere on the court dumping 27 points on us, and we were severly out-rebounded on both ends of the court. In the second game, just 6 days ago, BU kept it close since Lillis had foul trouble, but contributions from young guys like Josh Martin and Al Turley put the Danes out front. Both were over 10-point losses.
But the tournament is a different animal. Luckily for us, Martin and Turley jinxed themselves by getting mohawks, along with Brett Gifford, the dumbest-looking kid alive. I can't wait to see these. They are going to regret doing this to themselves.
On the other side, you have BU. Coach Wolff undoubtedly has them focused on the task at hand. They aren't fazed by the prospect of beating a team that has already beaten them twice. In a year when seeds #1 through #7 don't matter much, this is a good year to be a #6. I have all the confidence in the world that Wolff can outcoach Will Brown and come up with a game-plan to win.
It's going to take big contributions from John Holland, Corey Lowe and Scott Brittain. Add to that the return of Tyler Morris, who has come back from injury and has been practicing like normal since Wednesday, and Carlos Strong, who will both need to put up some points.
Yes, the official bracket came out two days ago, and if you follow the America East enough to actually visit this blog, then this is probably not your "first look" at the bracket. But here it is anyway.
What you haven't seen yet is the BU Hoops Blog's thoughts on the first-round match-ups NOT involving BU (I know, it's outside of our area of expertise, but humor us). The parity in the league this year give this weekend the potential to be the most entertaining conference tournament in the nation.
The Stony Brook Invitational #8 Stony Brook vs. #9 Maine
Jan. 6: @ Stony Brook 75, Maine 59 Feb. 23: Stony Brook 56, @ Maine 51
Stony Brook is wearing the home whites in the America East tournament, possibly for the first time ever. And they dominated Maine during the regular season, so things look good for the Mighty Seawolves. We make a point of driving to the Stony Brook Invitational Play-In Game every year to see what the Seawolves have in store for us. Last year, they rewarded us handsomely with buzzer-beating loss to Hartford after blowing a 20-point lead. Since the so-called "winner" of the SBIPIG goes on to get destroyed by #1 (except of course for that year when Stony Brook used their momentum from the game to beat one of the best BU squads ever...grrr), the REAL winner of the SBIPIG is whoever gets the drunkest. Let's see if we can defend our title.
Side note: This is the first tourney in 5 years we won't have the chance to heckle Popoko. Sad times indeed. Please read the High Roller's farewell letter to Popoko from last year's tournament. We will be on the lookout for new Stony Brook freshman who can fill Popoko's shoes for the next 4 years.
Based on regular season performance, we might expect to see Stony Brook sitting in this position, barely 12 hours removed from a SBIPIG victory. But it was MAINE that somehow beat UMBC at home this year! NASA scientists are still trying to figure that one out. You can bet that with all their weapons, UMBC will be ready for either one of them this time though.
Side note: I think it's kind of unfair that the winner of the SBIPIG has to face #1 so soon after that game. Let's break it down: The game ends at 9:00, and the next game starts at 12:00. That's 15 hours. You can take out:
30 mins getting dressed after the game.
1 hour traveling to and from the arena.
2 hours for dinner, breakfast and lunch.
45 mins for sex with team groupies.
1 hour for team showers (with or without groupies).
15 mins because someone is always late to the bus.
2 hours looking at film and preparing for a game against the toughest team in the league.
1.5 hours to warm up for the next game. That leaves a grand total of six hours to rest and sleep and recover from a grueling 40 minute basketball game. I mean, I know #1 is supposed to get an advantage, but come on. I think it was Will Brown who was complaining last year about scheduling games too close together. Well, Willy B. never had to play with 6 hours of rest, did he?
In my mind, this will be the most entertaining game of the day. On the Binghamton side, you've got coach Kevin Broadus coming off his hilarious 1-game suspension for fighting another coach - we'll see if he can keep his emotions in check. And on the Vermont side, you've got the best and most exciting player in the league in Marqus Blakely, who is more than happy to serve John Holland's only competition for the AE's best dunker. Unfortunately, Vermont is also the whiniest bunch of cry-babies since Jose Juan Barea. So get ready to see Mike Trimboli break out the water-works every time he gets called for a hand check on one of the Binghamton guards.
Side note: The cry-baby thing makes me thing of the game several years ago at The Roof when we bought a few packages of diapers and painted the No. 5 on them, and we waved them around and cried like babies every time Barea had a hissy-fit. Those were good times.
If the BU "Zoo" is reading this, you would be wise to take advantage of such a tactic. But please get rid of the pizza boxes. My god, those pizza boxes. Lame. Oh, and no storming the court on Saturday - you're in the #4/#5 game, and it's only the Quarterfinals.
#2 Hartford vs. #7 New Hampshire
Jan. 27: @ New Hampshire 74, Hartford 59 Feb. 17: @ Hartford 82, New Hampshire 63
This feels like a big opportunity for a nice upset. I kind of feel like Hartford is pretty weak for a #2 seed, and UNH has already shown that they can blow out the Hawks. Plus all the Albany and BU fans will be rooting for New Hampshire. Both of these teams will be chucking up 3's at an alarming rate - so depending on whether they go in the basket or not, this could be a really exciting game or an excruciating one.
Side note: It's hard to hate either one of these teams. Both have been hard luck losers for pretty much their entire time in the conference. They also always have among the least fans in attendance at the tournament (so get ready to hear a pin drop at this game). In past tournaments I have adopted these teams to root for since BU got knocked out so quickly. But I'm going to try my hardest to hate whichever one BU will face if we get by Albany.
We'll also get to see the 2nd and 3rd place finishers for Rookie of the Year (UNH's Alvin Abreu and Hartford's Morgan Sabia) face off, since John Holland wrapped up #1 last week with his fifth consecutive weekly award.
I kind of knew it was too good to be true. The rise from 8th place to 2nd place within a matter of weeks was just too much to hope for, and Albany made sure of that by having their big dudes push our guys around and putting up a 12-point vic.
The injustice of it all is after that tireless climb to the near-top, one loss sends us tumbling ALL the way back down to the #6 seed. What kind of lesson are we teaching America's youth here? Try really hard, but if you mess up once it's all for nothing? The lesson here, as always: never try.
Actually, there were several points during this season (notably the "We Suck" portion) where I would have been plenty thrilled to be getting the #6, so I can't entirely complain. What I can complain about is a SECOND STRAIGHT matchup with Albany!
We'll have more on that matchup and everything else tourney-related throughout the week, so stay tuned here. Regardless of what seed they are, the Terriers take the floor 5 days from now with a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament - and that's a reason to get excited.
