NCAA Tournament: Boston University Terriers v. Kansas Jayhawks

Well BU plays Kansas tonight and I am pumped! Should be exciting for BU Basketball program.  In one of my first posts, I described what I think it would mean for this program.  I think it means a lot.

When I was at Agganis last week to see them beat Stony Brook in the America East Championship Game it was truly a sight, the place was packed for the first time I can remember.  If we get one thing out of this experience I hope it is fans!  With the recognition we have been getting in Boston lately I hope we see a spike in attendance next year.  It makes things so much entertaining when we have butts in the seats and loyal dedicated group of followers, not just fair weather fans who are going to show up only when BU is close to making the tournament.

TONIGHT


99.1% of Americans participating in ESPN.com's Tournament Challenge have picked Kanas to win tonight.  Your's truly is not one of them.  I am of the 0.9% that has BU winning.  I believe that if we hit the three consistently, like Northern Iowa, the BU Terriers can pull off the HUGE upset.

Key to the game:

• John Holland will have a huge game
• BU will sink the majority of our three-point field goals
• BU has to keep it close with defense

I leave you with this....

However improbable the odds, if you work hard and have faith, anything is possible, GO TERRIERS!

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The Beginning: BU vs. Northeastern, Tomorrow, 7 PM, Be There!

Let me start off with an email (edited) I sent to some friends who are all going with me to the game tomorrow:


Dear College Basketball Fans,

I am writing to you because you love mid-major college basketball just as much as I do (well, that's probably not possible). We're going to go see the BU Terriers play the Northeastern Huskies at Matthews arena tomorrow night. Here's the plan:

• I get off of work at 5:30 (maybe earlier I will see what I can do).
• I will book from work and meet ya'll at Pour House for some pre-game beers. Hopefully I will arrive there at 6.
• After 45 minutes of pounding 22 oz. beers we'll head over to Matthews (about 0.6 miles)
• I think tickets will be $10 maybe $12, it definitely won't be sold out.
• Then we will watch the BU Terriers and their talented and very young team beat the Northeastern Huskies!

If you have any questions you can email me or phone/text (203-687-6907) me anytime tomorrow (I'll be working, but it will be slow, I'll be able to field some calls)

For a preview of some sorts you can visit my blog.

Looking forward to an awesome night of College Basketball.

Feel free to suggest any post-game activities.

-Jimmy C

THE RAMBLING PREVIEW (I'm not previewing the game or the season just the facts that we all care about).

This is it finally it's the start of another BU Terriers Basketball season.  To my surprise BU was voted the pre-season number one to win the America East conference (unfortunately these days that means a play-in game unless we only lose4 or 5 games all year).  Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, this is the fourth year in a row that BU has been named that honor and it has not turned out very well in that span, no NCAA appearances since 2002.  We all know that BU does not do well with high expectations (see 2004 America East Tournament).

I think this year can be different though.  This team is mostly Pat Chambers now.  The only key Wolff recruits remaining now are Holland, O'Brien, Pellage.  The rest of the team is transfers and freshman, very talented freshman (a group of freshman that I am going to name "Villanova North."  Why? Pat Chambers was the associate head coach under Jay Wright at Villanova before becoming the rookie head coach of BU last year.  And on top of that 6 of the freshman recruits are from the city of brotherly love).  It's a new and younger era.  I'm looking forward to players who are talented and have got swagger and hustle.  All indications are that this will be a different team "High Expectations" team than in previous seasons.  Plus (and I know I have previously been a critic) Pat Chambers is the fucking man.

You know who else is the man?  Senior John Holland.  He's coming off of a year that he was the America East Conference leading scorer.  This is a talented kid who in my opinion could've easily played in a major conference for a good team (plus he's from the mecca of MLB Baseball - Bronx, NY).  It will be very fun to watch him play at MSG in February versus Albany.

In conclusion I think the two biggest keys to this season will be how well the Pat Chambers recruits do and how well John Holland can do this year.  I think both will win coach of the conference and player of the conference honors.  Lock it up.    

Tomorrow is the first game of the regular season for the Terriers, they face the crosstown and former conference rival Northeastern Huskies at Matthews Arena.  It's going to be a great game.  Last year the Terriers beat the Huskies in OT, this year who knows. I can't wait to see all of the new faces and make some evaluations. finally the coolest part about the Terriers Huskies game tomorrow: this is the first time in 60 years that both of these teams have met each other in the first game of their respective seasons.

MY INVITATION

Anyone who reads this post and is excited as I am should come to the game.  I really don't care who you are (as long as your not Marqus Blakely, you are not invited).  See my letter above for info.

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Jimmy C: BU Basketball Season Ticket Holder

This year I decided to buy season tickets to entice me to go to every home game and more importantly save some money. I am very excited as this is my first ever season ticket holder experience.  Below is the Letter I received.

I should post a short preview later tonight or tomorrow detailing the things that I am looking forward to this year.  There will definitely be a lot of new names and faces to memorize.

T minus 2 days until the start of the Boston University Terriers 2010-11 Men's College Basketball season.

The Corey Lowe Situation: Update

My theory is almost 95% correct.  The only difference is that I believed that Corey hired an agent, when in fact he only had contact with an agent, which is not illegal according to NCAA bylaws.  Today's Daily Free Press has a great investigative article that describes in great detail the course of events that led up to Corey Lowe's removal from the active roster prior to the Morehead State game. 

In short, Corey had been in "contact" with an agent on Saturday 3/20 but claims he did not break any NCAA rules.  Coach Chambers found out about the "contact" and removed him from the team before the Morehead State game.  Chambers could not know for sure exactly what happened on Saturday, so he took the precaution of removing Corey from the team to avoid any investigations into possible NCAA violations that could affect the future of the program.

This was a smart move by Coach Chambers.  If Corey was going to be in direct contact with an agent he should've consulted with Coach Chambers especially if he wanted to remain on the team for the rest of the postseason run.  I don't fault Corey that much though, he made a small mistake that in the long run is going to have almost no affect on his BU legacy.  I am going to remember the four years he poured his heart and soul into this program, not the two games (which he wasn't going to play in anyway) he missed at the end of his final season because of a small mistake.  Corey you still my boy

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Season Wrap Up Part 1 of 3: The Corey Lowe Situation

The BU Terriers season was probably one of the more eventful and dramatic in recent history.  Before the season began it looked like BU was poised to to make it's first NCAA tournament appearance since 2002. However, BU returned 9 seniors all Dennis Wolff recruits, but did not return their head coach and commandant Dennis Wolff.  Before the season, in an unexcpected move to shake things up, BU got rid of their most winningest coach and hired the associate head coach for the Villanova Wildcats, Patrick Chambers.  In his first year as a head coach of any team, he took over a very experienced and talented squad that his predecessor almost entirely constructed.  So many story lines, so many moments, what a season the Terriers had.  In the last  three games they beat Oregon State, they lost Corey Lowe, the third highest scorer in BU history, beat Morehead state in overtime and lost to Virginia Commonewelath in the CBI semifianls, what a dramatic end to a very fulfilling and eventful season . As fans we can only hope that the Terriers put out an even better product to play under The Roof and within the walls of Agganis Arena in the years to come.

The Corey Lowe Situation
I think this came as a shock to everyone who was BU fan.  After BU slaughtered Oregon State in the first round of the CBI, Corey Lowe unexpectedly left he team before the Morehaead State game.  I didn't learn about this until the Morehaead State game,  And I like a lot of other fan discovered this when I went to the Morehead Sate game on Monday.  I watched the game, and I saw a lot fo our stars from this year out there but within almost five minutes I noticed Corey Lowe wasn't on the floor and he wasn't on the bench.  He could've been in the stands but I didnd't see him the entire night, where was he? My first thought was that something happened to either him or his family, I was concenred.  I learned after the game that he "moved onto the next chapter of his life."

I really wasn't sure what this meant at first.  Why would the third highest scorer in BU history (that is 101 years of BU Basketball) just leave unexpectedly? In the coming days it became apparent that the "next chapter" meant playing pro ball in Europe.  Still, why leave the team?  You are one of the best players in BU history (again that's 101 years of BU basketball).  Pat Chambers (for all purposes of my upcoming theory we will give him the benefit of the doubt) said that everyone involved with the team supported Corey's decision to leave.

So my theory is this.  Corey was not expecting to play this far into the postseason.  He didn't know what his chances were of playing on a professional level. As an NCAA player he is not allowed to receive advice from scouts or agents about going pro. Corey was anxious and he knew that if he got injured in the the final games of his at BU it would severely hurt his chances of a pro career.  What did Corey do, he hired an agent but kept it quiet, he wanted to see out his last games in a BU uniform but wanted to get advice about his future.  In a sense Corey wasn't thinking about the present he was thinking about the future. 

On the plane ride back to Boston from Oregon State, Corey approaches coach Chambers who is studying the scouting report for Morehaed Stat (wishful thinking Coach Chambers probably didn't have a scouting report printed out yet, but I like to thnk that my team's coach had a scouting report in his hand withing minutes of knowing who his next opponent would be).  When he speaks to Coach Chambers he explains that he is already thinking about a pro career but he would like to remain with the team. Chambers gets suspicious and eventually finds out that Corey has in fact hired an agent. Chambers and Lowe go back and forth for about 15 minutes.  Lowe wants to remain with the team but wants to have a limited role.  Chambers says no, he either plays with a full role or not at all.  Also, he says to Lowe, "if you have already hired an agent, maybe it's best if you stayed away from the team, we don't want to have any future sanctions against us."

Corey was BU's third highest scorer (the third time I've said this), he just got a little too anxious.  I guarantee if BU was one and done in the NCAA tournament that this would not even be as big of a story as it is.  I cannot fault Corey and I cannot fault Coach Chambers. They were both looking out for their best interests.  However, Corey's best interests may have been slightly selfish and Chambers's best interest were all about the team.  I'm disappointed in Corey but I'm not one to hold a grudge for long.  Corey's career is going to be defined by what he did in four years not what happened in the last week.

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In the next two parts of my season wrap up:

• BU beats Morehead State at The Roof .
• BU is defeated by VCU.

Also to come in the offseason a recap of the year and a preview of next.

The 2010 CBI Invitational: BU beats Oregon St. and Morehead State

I have not kept this blog completely updated in the last week, and a lot of stuff has happened in Terrier Nation.  BU has won not one but two CBI games and advances to the semis and of couse the "Curious Case of Corey Lowe."  I plan to make up for lost time right now.

3/17 - BU vs. Oregon State - Gill Colliseum - BU wins 96 - 68.
I did not get to listen to a lot of this game, I was watching something on TV this particular night.  But from the looks and sound of it, I did not miss that much.  The best thing about this game was that a BU win meant that there would be at least one more game at Case Gymnasium this season.

Other stuff:

• Th score.  BU scored a season high number of points versus a BCS conference team.  A mediocre one at best, but I still think it's somehting to get a little excited about.
• John Holland led the team with 26 pints.  Remember the America East's leading scorer is only a Junior, we still have another year of the JH show.
• Senior Carlos Strong only needed one more postseason game to top the 1,000 points mark.

3/22 - BU v. Morehead State - Case Gym - BU wins 91 - 89.
On the Sunday before this game I got the following email from a friend of mine:

• "I think Kulp's fantasy just came true. Soul Fire BBQ is offering all you can eat wings for $9 Monday nights from 5-10pm (see below)"

Perfect, I thought to myself.  We can go to the game and after it ends we can go to Soulfire for a bunch of wings, the perfect way to spend my Monday.  I dropped a few hints, I asked if anyone wanted to go to the game, all of my attempts were futile.  As long as BU Basketball is not ranked and they  are in the America East no one, even my friends who are BU alumni are not going to want to go to see BU play Baskeball, next year I probably won't even bother trying to recruit people.

During the game, I was hoping for a blow out or early ending so I could meet up with my friends in time to enjoy the all you can eat wings. When BU had three chances to put it away in the final 30 seconds of the game with the scored tied, I was honestly thinking "damn you Jake O'Brien, you don't want me to have $9 all you can eat wings do you."  There's always next week, $9 all you can eat wings...

The Game
Because I had some guests the night before and they trashed my place, I had to go home first to vcean up my place before going to the game.  As a result, I didn't make it to the game until ten minutes into the first half and just caught the tail end of BU's comeback. 

The game as a whole was really good from beginning to end.  The thing that excited me most was the crowd; the biggest student crowd I have seen all season.  Rightfully so, this was BU's first ever home postseason game (excluding the America East Tournament final). I am going to add some photos and videos later. 

In the second half, it looked like BU was going to run awaya with it.  But in true Terriers fashion they let their opponent hit a few threes and get right back into the game.  The Terriers had real troubles with Morehead State's fullcourt press. The Terriers led by 11, then by 4, then it was tied and before you know the game was in OT. The Terriers scored the first five points in OT and never looked back.  The advance to the Semis.

Good Stuff:

• Carlos Strong was on fire from three point range.
• Jake O'Brien and John Holland are going to be a great core for next year's team, behing Strong they were the team's other two highest scorers.

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One Last Thought - NCAA Tournament teams I am following

Just because BU is not in the Big Dance, does not mean that I won't be blogging about the Tournament. During March Madness check back to get my opinions and thoughts on some of the most exciting games of the tournament.  Also, I plan to follow two mid-major teams in the first round or as long as they are in the tournament; the first, the America East tournament champions Vermont; the second, the Wofford Terriers (only because they share a nickname with the BU and I figure maybe because of my domain name I might get some site traffic from people curious about Wofford's first NCAA appearance ever).  Other than those two teams the rest of it will be random, and mostly the games I get the pleasure of watching.

In the end I am not just a BU fan, I'm also a College Basketball fan.

(13) Wofford v. (4) Wisconsin - 3/19 - 2:50 pm* on CBS
(16) Vermont v. (1) Syracuse - 3/19 - 9:30 pm* on CBS

*All times approximate

HAPPY MARCH MADNESS!!!

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