#16 over #1: Why Can't it Happen?

(photo courtesy BU Athletics)

This is the end - it all culminates today against the University of Kansas (yet they use the initials KU... wtf?). There will be no more games for BU after today.

At least, that's what we're told. The 16 seeds are 0-105 all time against the 1 seeds. All the articles about Kansas are talking about their path to the Final Four now that Louisville and Vanderbilt have been knocked off. And why shouldn't they? The first game for the 1 seeds are barely worth playing.

However, they do they play them. This is where the all the usual phrases come in, like the game isn't played on paper. Steve Buckley wrote a nice piece for the Boston Herald today on this very same subject - read it.

I'm proud to report that I'm one of the 0.9% of people who picked BU to beat Kansas in my bracket (which was the highest percentage out of all the 16 seeds, by the way). Do I really think they'll win? No, I don't.

But, a #16 has to defeat a #1 someday, right? Why couldn't it be our Terriers? It's a game - both teams play by the same set of rules. Anything can happen. If Darryl has one of his random games where he goes off for 30, and John can't miss and gets to the line, and Griff hits all his threes, and Pat Hazel doesnt get into foul trouble... who knows.

Unlikely but I'll be cheering like hell for Johnny H and the Terriers to pull off the impossible just the same. And America will be right there behind us.

I Will Never, Ever Get Tired of This

I think I'll make this post my new homepage. And I don't really care that it takes up the entire space.

We Goin to the 'Chip

I wrote a long enjoyable blog post about the last day of the tourney on the plane just now. And then it got unceremoniously deleted. These were the highlights.

- It was a pleasure to watch Vermont lose. So many sad old people (their fans) reminded me of a nursing home.
- I praised Pat Hazel for ridiculous free throw shooting and general domination.
- Likewise, I praised Matt Griffin for his clutchness and declared his new nickname Matty Ice.
- I said I was so nervous watching BU beat Hartford that I shat out enough bricks to build the third Student Village tower.

That was the gist. So pumped for todays game against Stony Brook. The Greek will be rockin on The Deuce!

#Winning on Saturday (Duh)

The details of yesterday are a bit hazy after the tailgate. To paraphrase Rick James, four loko is a hell of a drug.

We missed the Albany-Stony Brook game, but the Binghamton-Vermont and Maine-Hartford were memorable and pretty good games. We spent the non-BU games vacillating between our neutral seats in the corner rooting for upsets, the beer garden for pretty reasonable $5 beers, standing in the bathroom lines, looking for outlets to charge cell phones, and inexplicably buying America East Tournament tshirts.

Our search for matches led us to ask pretty much everyone in the AE FanFest tent for matches. Nobody smokes anymore! But we were saved by a TV technician (I think) who went and got them from his truck, leading me to drunkenly tweet, "HOT DOGS FOR EVERYONE!" For those who care, we also ended up going on a late night Mohegan Sun run, wandering around the casino in our BU jerseys looking for the craps tables. (We broke even.)

The punctuation mark on the day was the Hartford fans storming the court after their upset of... Maine. Freaking Maine?! I spoke with Kyle from Midmajoritywho was wondering afterwardhow the UHa students would top this if they got a win in the semifinals.

Which brings us to tonight's game, of course, when BU will try to prevent another court-storming and who knows, maybe burning the arena to the ground. BU took care of bidness against UNH in one of my favorite types of games: it was exciting throughout but I was never really worried about losing. BU held a single-digit lead the whole time. I haven't seen box scores but apparently JH23 led the team in scoring, which was great considering we were so worried about his health. Matt Griffin, Darryl and DJ all hit some bigtime shots in the second half.

I was really impressed with the BU fan showing - loud and fairly numerous. Props to the kids with the "Partin the Interruption" and "DJ's got me falling in love again" signs.

I talked to John Holland's pops during halftime, who said he thought his soon looked good and pretty healthy (and I respect his expert opinion). Couldn't believe how calm he is though! I feel like I'm way more worried about hoping his son makes an NCAA tourney than he is! Maybe he knows something I don't...

Tonight we take on the homestanding host Hartford Hawks. In last year's quarterfinals, we won by 41 points. They did beat us this year in this building earlier this year. But that was before we were the team we are now. I watched that game at Cornwalls in Kenmore Sq with WildBoyz, and it was the one where we had a huge lead that we let evaporate over the last 5 minutes. Something tells me the Terriers won't let that happen again.

First order of business: resume rainy tailgating.
Second order of business: go inside to root against Vermont.
Third order of business: watch BU kick some ass.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

The Road to H-Town

This year has sucked for BU basketball blogging. I shat the bed, the Hot Dog and Jesus folded up shop, and a few others dropped off as well. (Thank goodness for the Full Court Press.)

But that doesn't mean I can't rise like the phoenix to blog about Hartford 2011. I saw or heard every game this year, either in person, on TV at a bar, on internet video, on internet radio, or via an elaborate contraption I twice set up to record game audio when I wasn't home for the game. And frankly, what I've seen and heard has me EXTREMELY excited for single-elimination basketball this weekend.

The team, over the last month, has looked nothing short of great. John Holland took over the league. Darryl Partin helped him out. When John went down with an ankle, D.J. Irving stepped up and became an upperclassman out of thin air. The Terriers are the hottest team in the league and just beat Vermont without our best player.

We have a lot to look forward to this weekend. Watchable basketball. Beautiful, historic Hartford. Drunkenness. Hopefully a couple wins. Check back and I promise to update a few times.

Current drunk-scale=0

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7