Let me start out my thoughts to this games by first telling you why I was not able to watch this game. Thursday evening I wanted to go out after work to celebrate a co-workers birthday (happy birthday Tara). Originally it was supposed to be Wednesday but she moved it. Okay, fine, the BU game is being televised on CSN, I will just record it on my DVR and watch it with a little bit of a delay. And they are playing UNH a team they should bury anyway, which they did by an embarrasing 22 points. I set my DVR and go out of my way that night to not pay attention to the score (which failed when I accidentally saw the halftime score on ESPN's bottomline, which I hate with a passion. In college I had to duct tape over it on occaision when watching tape delayed games. It makes no sense to show a delayed game but then have the final score of the very game you are watching scroll across the bottom of your TV). When I get home I put on the DVR recording and what do I find? Because I recorded the HD channel and not the regular channel the entire broadcast is pixelated and the sound is meesed up. The entire telecast is unwatchable. I cursed out Comcast and CSN for about five minutes. This would never fly for a Celtics game. They televise about 3 - 4 BU Basketball games per year and they screw one of them up, big time. This is unacceptable in my eyes, CSN get ready for a very angry letter from a very dissatisfied customer.
Onto the game. There are a couple of things I take from this game:
- Tyler Morris is back and all indications are he is 100%. He was one of three Terriers in Double figures.
- BU continues to dominate the teams that are below them in the America East standings.
- BU's attendance is very poor. Since I watched only a few minutes of a pixelated game I didn't catch a great glimpse of the crowd but it did not seem like a very exciting place to be on a Thursday night.
- This is why free throws are important kids. The Terriers shot 39.6% from the field but hit 26 of 33 (78.8%) from the charity stripe.
- I really hope we draw UNH in the first round of the America East confeerence tournament.
It's always cool as a fan to see other teams play besides your own. This year I saw Duke v. UConn at MSG (terrible game) and also went to UMass vs. Memphis at TD Bank Garden (great game). Yesterday a friend and I went to the Duke v. BC game at Conte Forum.
On Friday night I was smoking some cigars and drinkng a scotch with my friend Eric at a fine establishment in the North End. He mentions that he is a closet Duke fan and really wants to go see Duke play BC at Conte Forum the next day at 2 pm. Knowing that I have a blog dedicated to being a fan of a college basktball team he doesn't waste any time recruiting anyone else to go with him, he immeidiately pushes the idea on me and no one else. I make him a deal, he pays for $10 of my ticket and he comes with me to the Boston U. v. UVM game on Tuesday. He says good, he'll do it. All of a sudden, in the span of 10 minutes I have committed myself to see two teams that I hate (this was not the first time I have seen a Duke v. BC game at Conte, I saw them a few years back with my friend Kyle on a nationally televised weeknight contest. I auditioned for Sox appeal but was not chosen, probably for the best).
Saturday comes. We are not prepared at all to go to the game, Eric buys the tickets off of some agency for $30 a head just before 1 PM, I print the tickets out at 1:15. I get to his apartment around 1:50, he still has not taken a shower. By the time he is done the game has already started it's 2:10. Due to some unforseen incident we dont leave for the game until 2:45. We caught the last bit of the first half on his TV. We park at a one hour metered parking spot hoping that we won't get a ticket. We briskly jog to the game and get there for all of the second half. I am very glad I am not paying full-price for my ticket at this point.
Once at the game we sit in the nosebleeds Section VV row 35 seats 8 and 9. Eric is a very charming fellow so we snapped a few pictures with the security guard near our section. If they sold booze at the game, which they don't, I have a feeling this security guard, who was an elderly woman, would have trouble throwing any unruly fans out of the game. But who knows maybe she is a 10th degree black belt and can flip people over.
The game itself was a good contest. BC surprisingly played Duke pretty tight in the second half. They had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but didn't get off a great shot (if I was Al Skinner I would've used the last time out they had to set up a play and get off a better trey). The place was packed and the crowd stayed until the very end, all of my skepticism was not justified. It was a great College Hoops atmosphere and I enjoyed the experience. Hopefully we ddn't miss that much in the first half.
Here's some pictures:
Eric and the security guard.
A view from the nosebleeds.
2/6 - Boston U. vs. U of Albany - Albany, NY - BU wins 68 - 53
Solid showing on the road. I'll update my thoughts about this game later as I read more about it. I need to start getting ready for the Super Bowl party I am attending.
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