A 0-5 start to the season is pretty rough. Even if you're the most diehard Terrier basketball fan, not seeing a win yet makes you question the season. At the same time, we have to worry that if we don't have a near spectacular overall record, there isn't a shot in hell of us making the NCAA tournament (America East you suck). It's a little nerve-racking knowing there's no longer a superstar to carry us - John Holland is gone, Darryl Partin is gone. Even dearly beloved Jake O'Brien left us. And we can't forget about Patrick Chambers and the tiny part of our hearts that followed him to Penn State. I mean, sometimes it feels like the entire heart and soul of this team has moved on for one reason or another.
Alright, are we done with the self-pity now? Men's basketball takes on Coastal Carolina tonight and I've got a few reasons why there's no way I'm giving up on this team just yet.
1) Check out that freshman class. I mean, I'm no basketball analyst, but ESPN sure has a couple of those. Earlier this summer they ranked our incoming class as one of the best at the non-BCS level. We've only had one home game up until this point but I can tell you - Terrier fans already like what they see. Maurice Watson Jr. is certainly something. Oh, and his family is the greatest group of fans you'll ever see. John Papale hasn't even started a game yet and he's already draining more threes than anyone on the team. Nathan Dieudonne is shooting 1.000% from the FT line (okay, sure, there's a tiny tiny tiny minuscule sample size on that one). If the Terriers are going to make a push at anything this year, you bet part of the credit will be due to these guys.
2) Don't forget about those vets. If you've been to a game at all in the past few years you've seen DJ Irving. And once you see DJ Irving, you remember DJ Irving. Dom Morris, Travis Robinson, and Malik Thomas. Those guys are always reliable. No doubt they'll continue to carry this team. Sure, they used to work terrifically with the Darryl Partins of yesteryear, but now they'll get a chance to prove just how valuable they've been since the beginning.
3) BU basketball is full of surprises. Of course in the games. Two years ago they went dancing and faced off against the Kansas Jayhawks. No we didn't win that game and nobody expected us to either. But the surprising part - we sure as hell held our own in the first half. I mean, Kansas could've hung us out to dry from the get-go but we gave them a hard fought battle and our starters certainly went toe to toe with theirs. They're also surprising because of that one guy you underestimate who just does work. Most recent guy to come to memory is Jeff Pelage. He wasn't expected to be a game changer, but that doesn't mean he didn't get his hands dirty once in a while. Every once in a while he would just pull a huge play out of his back pocket and blow everyone in attendance out of the water. It's only a matter of time until someone does that this year. And finally, basketball fans can be surprising. Some games, for whatever reasons, there's a hefty student section. Those games are ridiculous. Even when there aren't a ton of us, those games can be hilarious. If there's just a tight group of us, we can get creative. Do whatever the hell we want. If you haven't heard the "tuba cheers" - get on those. Some of the funniest things you'll ever hear and you can only hear them at basketball.
4) Don't forget - we haven't played a single in conference game yet. Those are the games we dominate and those are the games that are the best to watch. That record will turn around real fast once we face the Seawolves (which is actually an ugly ass fish and not a wolf in a baseball hat - sorry Wolfie), Catamounts (which, as we know, don't exist), or one of the other inferior dog breeds (Great Danes, Retrievers). There is absolutely no reason to underestimate the Terriers when it comes to conference games. Even if we don't have a chance to participate in a post season, these games will without a doubt remind me why I'm #ProudToBU.
So we call all breathe now and stop freaking out. Give our boys a little more credit. They might just pleasantly surprise you.
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