Belated First BU Hoops Preview: Kentucky

Since the BU men's basketball schedule came out over the summer, a single game stuck out to most of the ten BU basketball fans out there in the world: a road date against Kentucky on Nov. 30 at Rupp Arena.

Most of all, being from Kentucky, this game really stood out to me. This marks the first time that BU will play a major team from my home state (no offense to Kenny Faried, but Morehead St. doesn't count), so this is a pretty momentous occasion, sadly enough.

Is BU going to get killed in this game? Probably. I'm not sure what the line is, but if we can lose by less than 20, I'll be shocked. Even under 30, I'll still be pretty pleased, because let's be honest here: Kentucky's coming off a loss; Kentucky's thus going to be angry. Kentucky's playing at home; thus Kentucky's playing in front of 23,000 people who live vicariously through the fortunes of this team; thus, they're also going to be pretty angry and demanding for blood.

Congrats, we're the sacrificial lambs in this situation.

We've been playing pretty well lately, finding ways to win, but this one might as well be a lost cause. UK's got possibly the two best freshmen in the country in Terrence Jones and Brandon Knight (who, by the way, played high school ball with the Junkyard Dog. Guess whose star shined brighter on that team)



But, again in all honesty, I'm not completely objective in this situation, for I hate Kentucky basketball by proxy of being a Louisville fan.

People can talk Duke-Carolina all they want, but UL-UK is the best rivalry in college basketball. The Tobacco Road rivalry is increased because of a lot of ESPN chatter, but you'll find nothing but pure, unadulterated hate between the Wildcats and Cardinals.

This hate's not entirely all-encompassing. Most of my friends go to Kentucky and are Kentucky fans. I've got family members who work for the school and live nearby the campus. These are good people who just have a passion for basketball.

But as it is with almost any other fan base, the actions of a crazed minority of fans can define an entire group. Just with Kentucky, that contingency just happens to be larger and crazier than most.

After all, this is the same fan base who's home to so many original nicknames like Ricky Three Stacks, Little Brother and Loserville (seriously, if Louisville is for losers, what in the hell is Lexington?). I mean, I can certainly understand Louisville's flaws, especially with Pitino (who couldn't?), but it simply goes too far.

This is the same fan base who continually denies that Adolph Rupp was a racist. Spoiler Alert: He was.

This is the same fan base who put up "FOR SALE" signs in the front yard of a national championship-winning coach who was not only a great coach, but an even better man in Tubby Smith, eventually driving him to leave for Minnesota as opposed to getting fired. The fact that he is black may or may not have had anything to do with that.

This is a fan base that hated Billy Gillispie and ran him out of town...wait a minute, they were right, he did suck.

This is the fan base that made these shirts:



But the worst has to be now as they continually rush to the defense of an indefensible man in John Calipari, and vehemently lash out at anyone who dare writes or says a bad thing about him. I'm sorry, but that kind of thing happens when you give a record-breaking contract to the only coach to have coached two abandoned Final Four teams: people, justifiably so, criticize such irresonsible and thoughtless action.

However, as a side note, Calipari's mother did just die after a bout with cancer, so we here at H & V offer nothing but thoughts and prayers for him and his family as they go through with this tragedy.

My point is that I am what Kentucky fans routinely like to as a "hater," implying that the only reason people could hate a program like Kentucky is from mere jealousy. Indeed, I do hate Kentucky, but that's something you're born with in that state: I hate UK just as much, if not less, than any UK fan hates U of L. But it's not their success I'm jealous of; in fact, it's their success that I truly respect. You have to. I've always said that while I think it's problematic to pick a single greatest college basketball program of all time, I think UK sits with UCLA as the greatest programs in the sport's history. Seven national titles, countless Final Fours, it's all admirable.

But with it comes a borderline-deplorable fan base (reasons listed above), a fan base overwhelmingly tainted by the actions and words of a vocal, influential minority.

My rant against Kentucky fans aside, don't expect much from this game. It will be a hostile environment because UK needs to win and win big, even though that shouldn't be way too hard.

God speed Terriers: I'm not expecting much, it's a no-lose situation, and it's always another opportunity for a remodeled team to continue to come together and improve.


Prediction:

Kentucky 94 BU 63

Matt Griffin = Clutch

As I've mentioned earlier, I'm working as a beat writer for the men's basketball team this season, so throughout the year, I'll be posting my FreeP articles up on the blog from time to time.

I start this week with my piece on Matt Griffin, whose perfect shooting day and 21 second half points propelled BU past a hapless Marist team.



The scene inside Case Gymnasium was placid if not downright sterile. A once-exuberant Boston University crowd had watched as its men's basketball team became entangled in a low-scoring struggle against a Marist College team that went all of 1-29 last season.

The hard bass lines of "Teach Me How To Dougie" reverberated and echoed through the rafters of The Roof as both teams continued to pile up turnovers and missed shots.

Even with only 15 minutes left in the game, the score was still locked in the 20s. The game didn't merely need a star. It was clamoring for one.

And then came Matt Griffin.

The junior guard, a transfer from Rider University, scored 21 points for the Terriers to ultimately push them past the Red Foxes (0-3) by a 58-37 score on Friday night.

Perhaps most remarkable about Griffin's performance was his perfection, not even in the metaphoric or hyperbolic sense. He was literally perfect for BU, shooting 7-of-7 from the field, including an impressive 5-of-5 from 3-point range.

"It was one of those feelings that you can't describe," Griffin said. "It was one of those times when you're in the zone and you don't want it to end."

Such confidence was apparent as the second half played out. Griffin continually found a way to get open, and after getting his shot off, he'd begin to backpedal, holding his stroke as the crowd rose to its feet. The inherent assumption was the same after a while – the ball, regardless of how it may have looked out of his hand, was going in.

Yet for so much certainty throughout so many crucial junctures in the second half, uncertainty was such a dominant theme for both Griffin and his team before and during the game.

Facing a Marist team that has not won a game since Jan. 2 of this year, it was presumed that BU coming off an impressive showing in the Preseason National Invitational Tournament would have little trouble in its home opener.

That was not the case through the first 20 minutes of the game.

With junior forward and co-captain Jake O'Brien playing limited minutes because of a stomach virus and senior forward John Holland held to seven points for the game, BU struggled mightily on the offensive end in the first half.

The team shot a collective 8-of-26 from the field and had already turned the ball over eight times, all of which added up to an unexpected 21-20 halftime lead.

"I just wasn't happy with the offense, us sharing the basketball, moving it," said BU coach Pat Chambers. "I felt like we were on our heels a little bit."

Going into the game, Griffin wasn't exactly the favorite in the clubhouse to be the deciding factor in the game. After starting the team's season-opener at Northeastern University, Griffin was listless in the team's first two games before a promising 10-point performance against Villanova University last Wednesday.

However, that slow start, together with the emergence of freshman guard D.J. Irving, pushed Griffin out of the starting lineup and further back on the team's depth chart.

Through it all, though, Griffin remained undeterred.

"When I came here, it wasn't about starting, it wasn't about coming off the bench," Griffin said. "None of that really mattered to me."

Thus the situation was presented – BU needed a second-half surge to avoid a disastrous home-opener and Griffin needed another opportunity to prove himself.

Match made.

With BU down 28-27 with less than 14 minutes remaining in the second half, Griffin buried a 3-pointer, giving him his first points of the game and giving the Terriers a lead they would not surrender.

From that point forward, Griffin kept his hot hand going, scoring 18 of the team's final 28 points to lead the charge on a 31-7 run that turned a stalemate into a rout.

The Marist game proved to be a critical litmus test for this BU team and its depth. With Griffin's career night, the Terriers managed to pass that first test.

"I think that's a great part of our team," Griffin said. "We have guys who can really come in and provide energy and really pick our team up."

But while the win over Marist was a necessary – albeit not always pretty – step forward for a remodeled BU roster still finding its way, the night undoubtedly belonged to Griffin.

"Matt Griffin earned every shot he made tonight," Chambers said. "Nobody works harder. He earned everything. I was so proud of him and so happy for him. As a coach, you root for kids like that who work so hard."

Back Again

Ok, so it's admittedly been a while, but two weeks without a computer and huge papers and tests to work for will do just that to you, or I guess by proxy, this particular blog.

Well, I'm back at it, and again, what a better way to resume things with some random notes and thoughts.


- I honestly think it's time that people begin to forgive Michael Vick. I love PETA as much as everyone else does (meaning, I hate them since, you know, everyone loves PETA), but those people that still continue to dog him over his past bother me beyond belief. And yes, pun intended with "dog him."



Was what he did wrong? Of course it was, I'm not a lunatic -- I'm fully aware that dog fighting is a horrific act. But consider the following: The man lost his job, his salary, his endorsements, his liveilhood and 18 months of his freedom to pay for what he did. I think it's fair to say he's adequately suffered and he's emerged a reformed man who is playing the best football of his career.

- I'll go into more detail on BU basketball at a more appropriate occasion (I still do have papers to finish), but I really like what I see so far. The team's playing a lot faster than they ever did last year, John Holland has been an absolute monster, O'Brien's improved, and we've got some really promising freshmen. I didn't think Chambers' first season was as successful as everyone else did, but I think his second season's absolutely crucial because we're starting to see his mark on the program, not his mark on what he inherited. And so far, I'm really liking how he has molded this program.

- One more thing on BU basketball: Evidently, only 200 tickets remain for BU's season-opener against Marist. I don't dispute that, but as a BU basketball fan, I've grown cynical when it comes to attendance, aka I don't trust BU fans to support basketball, sad as it is. Case has a capacity of 1,800; if there are more than 1,200 people at the game, I'll go all Frank Reynolds and drink soup out of my shoe.



- Why do so many damn Celtics fans not believe that I went to the same middle school as Rajon Rondo? I did, damnit!

- Trend I am feeling:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/11/16/four_loko_sales_may_be_curbed/

Not because I'm personally opposed to Four Loko (I don't drink the stuff), but it's just fun to see Teddy freak out and start to stockpile our apartment like a 1950's bomb shelter.

- Trend I'm not feeling:



John Wall was one of the few people who I liked on Kentucky's team last year, but my God, do I hate the John Wall Dance. It only got popular because Kentucky fans, after so many years of worshiping Adolph Rupp, finally realized there are African-Americans in this world who they don't try to run out of town like Tubby Smith. Therefore, the smallest things they do, like turn their wrist back and forth, it becomes law.

I thought it would go the way of the Eight Track and die out after he went pro, but it unfortunately looks like I was wrong.

- Deep regret about the end of BU soccer season, for both men and women. A great season for both teams, especially the women, and I look forward to play kicking back off at Nickerson Field again in about nine months.

- A final note here: Teddy, H&V friend Ryan McKetchnie (check out his stuff on America Least, his name's The Classroom), and I were at Raising Cane's last week and we came across a man named Steve who is evidently a huge BU fan. He missed the men's soccer game that night because he was at a boxing match and he was asking a lot of questions about BU basketball. He may or may not have thought we were on the team.

Anyhow, this man seems like a reclusive figure and I want to know this man. If anyone knows of a light-skinned black guy with a goat-tee named Steve who has a T map with Agganis Arena marked who also has an affinity for BU basketball, please let me know. Now that I'm 21, this man deserves alcohol of any sort on me.