This is an interesting article on Under Armour and its impact on basketball recruiting (HT: BCI).
BJ Raji is upsetting some division rivals with his comments on the Bears.
The Giants will lean on Kiwi down the stretch.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Another hockey win and other links
The hockey team beat Providence 3-1 in a Hockey East game Saturday. This is BC's best start since the 2003-2004 season.
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37 comments:
Another great weekend for the hockey team.
Anyone else see Barry Alvarez' call for a 12th Big 10 member? You'd have to think it would be from a lower conference (negating a lateral move from the Big 12), which would probably leave them with 'Cuse, Pitt, or maybe the state university of New Jersey (good luck with that...).
Personally, I think the conference who really should add members is the Pac 10: Utah and BYU would be a no brainer in terms of size, geography, and natural rivalry.
We look good against URI at the half.
It's going to be tough to root for this basketball team this year - they still are having trouble in-bounding the ball. URI players are laughing so far.
No energy on this team at all. Sloppy play. Can't defend the three whatsoever. Basically don't deserve to be on the floor with Rhode Island.
That said, these guys basically don't have home games. Either neutral, away, or home against Duke or North Carolina. I was lamenting earlier how poor the crowd was for the Patriots today, but the Foxboro crowd is like an MLK rally compared to Conte. It's embarrassing.
The Conte crowd stinks, but I'm glad I wasn't there tonight.
The most amazing thing about BC basketball is not about BC but rather how there are a few (not many) college basketball coaches who don't press when they play us. It's a fool-proof plan to beat BC basketball. 3rd year in a row we are completely incapable of in-bounds passes or beating press/traps. I don't know why it is so hard for us, but it never gets any better.
the crowd reflects the product being offered
i was there tonight. it felt like a URI home game. Their "Where Are YOUR fans?" chant made me cringe.
I went but can you blame people for not paying for that product?
I am tired of hearing complaints about the crowd at BC hoops games. Put a team on the floor that doesn't lose to St. Joe's, Harvard, and URI, and people might show up. Until then I just feel stupid for wasting 3 hours of my life watching that mess.
p.s. I went to the game tonight.
I went to the game tonight and it was awful. These players have no idea how to run the flex (and I'm not sure that's the best offense for this personnel) and we can't break a press to save our lives.
What's with all this posting up on a full court press inbound play? If I could see one designed inbound play or some semblance of understanding how to beat a press I will be happy.
Here's to hoping they don't lose to Bryant.
P.S. The Rhode Island fans were way louder than the BC fans tonight. With the students not in school, a home game turned into a road game really quick
your school is your school...go to the games. don't give me an excuse that you don't go because the team stinks, that's bullshit. win or lose it's your school and you should be out there to support them. yeah the guys struggle but do you really think they would be THAT flat if they actually had people in there making noise? i don't think so. home court advantage is not a myth, it's a fact. and we don't have one.
"players have no idea how to run the flex"
If 3 years into the program they don't know, when will they figure it out? Never, I guess.
brablc:
the students are in school. break doesn't start until next week. they just didn't show
Ry, if you use a market-based perspective, not an emotional argument, it makes perfect sense that fans don't show. The team sucks. Keep cheering.
i understand your argument, but that market-based mindset is part of the problem.
the team hasn't performed, obviously. but i still don't believe that this team is going to play like this all year long. they still have not had their full complement of players for one whole game all year long...it's going to take time but they will gel. i will continue to be there cheering, don't worry
"market-based mindset is part of the problem."
I guess the leftist propaganda is still king in the acadame and those still under its sway. A very Obama comment. Sickening.
Tomorrow is the first day of exams. Our students recognize that studying is more important than attending a basketball game. Good for them.
what i meant was, the idea that the students only show up when they find the basketball team to their liking. that doesn't exactly scream of school spirit.
i wasn't making a broader comment on capitalism or anything like that. as disappointing as that may be for you.
when i was at BC, we sucked and I went to every game even during exams. you can find a way to free up a couple of hours, it isn't that difficult.
Ry:
Wow. I just assumed since they were barely able to fill up the front row of the student section.
That's sad. The team needs more support from the students than that.
As far as the flex comment I made before, I agree three years should make sure they know it. I just don't know if the personnel is right for it. They don't really have a dudley or smith type wide body that seals off their man well down low for an entry pass from the top of the key.
I would love to see Al let them run and spread out more on offense with Sanders and Jackson getting more room to navigate on drives in the middle. They also went with a small lineup that was interesting in the second half.
Finals start tomorrow. Classes ended Friday and BC didn't give us any study days. I went to the game for a half I could barely manage that.
This team is brutally bad. Poorly coached and they don't execute what little they're coached on. This is gonna be a long season.
Gorgias...um, easy. I'd like to think you're being sardonic there, but I sense a bit too much acid in the text. Relax with the political polarity; if you'd like to operate in absolutes then fine I'll go ahead and say it's what causes very little to get done at the level of government, not the inherent goodness of Right or Left.
But that's neither here nor there, as this is an athletics board. Listen, if I were to follow a market-based argument, then I would have gone to Notre Dame (I'm from Chicago; the Irish-Catholic South Side, where I was raised amidst f-ing leprechauns everywhere). They own the market; they didn't own my heart. I'd love to be able to explain it, but I can't. There was a mystique to Boston and the T and you people, you lovely chowderheads.
College hoops is such a better product than the NBA because of emotionality, school ties, and tradition. I mean if we're going market then we should all live and die by the NBA because they sell more tickets, have more corporate fiscal backing, and play a supposed 'higher' level of basketball.
But I could give two shits if the Bulls win (and they don't); yet it cuts me to the core when BC loses to URI, though I haven't been out to a hoops game in 4 years.
In the interest of full disclosure, though the overall reason for writing was, well, to tell you to not be a dick to a good friend of mine. The rest was probably just window dressing.
The thing you have to realize is that most BC students are bandwagon jumpers or crowd followers when it comes to sports. Most BC students hear that that we lost to Harvard in basketball, meaning to them that our team isn't very good, and they don't show up. Throw on top of it that final exams start tomorrow, and even less students are going to show. Notice how hockey and football get much better student attendance than basketball? It's because hockey contends for national titles every year, and football is something that everyone does because it gives them an excuse to drink all day on a Saturday. When you have a mediocre basketball team that plays on weeknights and during finals, you are going to have lackluster attendance numbers, especially with the students.
I guess Ry is too feeble to defend himself.
And, Burke the potty mouth is so unbecoming of leftist like your self.
The market-based comment relates to why students choose, yes choose, not to go to games. Not some BS fantasy about why you were rejected from ND but want to pretend you weren't. The commetn that they didn't own your heart is rich!
Absolutely no excuse for losses to both Harvard and URI. The players looked lathargic. I think Skinner is overrated, as is his "vaunted" flex offense. Time for Skinner to go. I always thought Jimmy O'Brien was a much better coach than Skinner, but unfortunately he had his falling out with the admissions office an administration. I'm sick of BC always feeling the need to be Harvard when it comes to recruitment of athletes rather than just accepting students that meet the NCAA minimum requirements. While this might sound selfish, I could care less whether we are in the top programs in the country in graduation rate. As an alum, all I care about is winning games! BC is the poster child for the theory that success on the field/court/ice translates into more interest in the school which allows the school to be more selective in choosing the student body. In fact, this is called the "Flutie Effect" (google it and you'll see what I mean). Also, terrible job by Gene in scheduling Weber State in place of Hofstra. Surely we can do way better than a bottom of the barrel type game. I don't want to hear Gene complain when there are maybe 20,000 fans in Alumni on Sept. 4th because he will have brought it on himself.
I couldn't agree more on the recruitment point. good post BCalumNY,
Ry does just fine on his own.
And I do like the hypocrisy of one such as yourself, so recently bleating about being labeled outsider and understandably feeling the need to invoke your alum status, assuming I'd been rejected from ND. It's fun to assume.
No follow up there, but I suppose someone named for a guy who believed in nothing --thank you Flea, and Jeffrey Lebowski--as your boy, the historical Gorgias did, has to start somewhere.
Keep on baiting. It works well.
As far as the argument goes, though, I will say this: I'll be an emotional fan. You can be a market-based one.
"I'm sick of BC always feeling the need to be Harvard when it comes to recruitment of athletes rather than just accepting students that meet the NCAA minimum requirements."
Well than you probably shouldn't have gone to BC. There are plenty of schools out there that don't care if their athletes can write or have a rap sheet a mile long. BC is not one of those, and I take pride in that. Not to say you can't accept a student-athlete that wouldn't make it otherwise, but you should have some standards.
I don't care if finals start tomorrow. I counted 54 students in the floor seats directly behind the baskets. What a joke. Take 2 hours out of your day and stop making excuses. Sadly it was like just like this when I was the ('08) and its never going to change.
Yeah fucking right Andrew, why would any student before finals when they've had no study days would wanna see THIS team play basketball. I was there, it was embarrassing to watch. If this was Duke, UNC, or even a relevant ACC game it would have been different. A-10 team + apathy at a terrible team + finals with no study days to prep = shitty crowd and terrible atmosphere. Good job alumni showing up, there were far more URI fans there than our alumni too.
Ryan:
this team isn't terrible. that's the one part of your argument that doesn't hold water. none of our losses, as hard as it may be to believe, will qualify as a "bad loss." they are games we should have and could have won, but to say this team is terrible is ignoring a lot.
this team was good enough to finish in the top half of the acc, win an acc tourney hame, make the ncaa tournament, and win a game there. we lost one guy, albeit our best player, but coming in most people called it addition by subtraction. playing 10 games without our full squad has not helped this team find its identity.
the problem is that most bc students don't even care to think about it that much. your idea that the team stinks is probably the prevailing idea on campus and the one that gets communicated by word of mouth. it doesn't allow for the possibility that the team will ever get better. the team though, will have to improve, as usual, in spite of its fans and not because of them. and guess what, they always seem to.
unfortunately, i think we're always going to have this chicken-egg argument. good team first, good fans second? or vice versa. of course i am not naive enough to think that fans showing up will magically put points on the board or defend the three. but our teams have always seemed to need a reason to play beyond the fact that it is gametime. and yeah, maybe that is al's fault...but for the time being, he's our coach. all we can do is show up.
Time to switch gears for the next two weeks and focus on the football team as it preps for USC. At least then I can have positive yet delusional thoughts for two weeks.
Hey Minuteman Pen, I'm not saying there shouldn't be any standards and that BC should take anyone. However, if an athlete meets the NCAA requirements, BC should accept that student and not doing so inhibits recruiting. BC has a nice support system in place to provide assistance to student athletes, particularly those whose previous academic records indicate a potential for struggling academically.
BCaluminNY: I can assure you that the players on the basketball team already get FAR more leeway in admissions than the average student at BC and even more than the football players. I don't think academic standards are what's keeping the b-ball team back.
I would have to agree that the basketball players already have the lowest standards and seem to have the highest amount of off the field/court transgressions.
Back to football... putting together a solid recruiting class. Even lured a committed recruit away from Illinois today (yea yea not a great team but whatever). Two solid QBs coming in January hopefully that lights a fire under Shinskie's ass to have a good game against USC.
Ryan- I'm glad you were one of the 54 students at the game but your attitude exemplifies everything that is wrong with the attitude around campus. It shouldn't matter who we are playing, how good the team etc. You should be at the game because there is a game, period.
There's no way that 8000+ students couldn't take 2 hours out of their weekend to watch a basketball game. It's not like everyone has a final today (Monday) and I guarantee that a good percentage of those that "didn't" have time" to attend the game found time on Friday and Saturday nights. to go out drinking. As usual its a poor excuse to not show up to the game. It was the same when I was there and it's probably never going to change if you have that attitude.
Don't get me wrong, students are not the only ones to blame. Half the "donor based" seats are empty every game and that just embarrassing. But students need to be counted on to be there each game and make noise.
LBKJJ
I went to the PC BC hockey game Sat. night and our team looked very good. The score and shots on goal don't measure the degree of dominance we had.
Enough about basketball, get behind BCs best sport, hockey
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