Nick Roberto was the first recruit of the David Quinn era at BU and much like his classmates, he will leave Comm Ave with quite the story to explain his college career. Roberto amassed 44 points over 113 career games for the Terriers including 6 NCAA tournament games. The points were not always the prettiest thing in the world but Roberto always played hard and found ways to produce for his team(see below). That presence will certainly be missed next year.
via GIPHY
Roberto's career was cut a season short due to a NCAA imposed suspension for his entire junior season due to gambling related activities. All of the details will never come out but Roberto's involvement in betting on professional sports turned into a year long suspension by the NCAA. It's unfortunate that any player would lose a year over something that is legal for him to do if he was in Las Vegas and had no impact on any games that he played in. The NCAA essentially just picks and chooses what rules they feel like enforcing. It is the same thing as deciding to suspend any D-1 athlete for any traffic infraction that they commit. Somehow, Roberto was the only player suspended from this investigation when there surely were others involved that saw no punishment whatsoever. The best part to come out of this story was to hear how maturely he handled the suspension. He still attended as many games as he could and practiced and trained with the team. He was a great example to younger players how to handle adversity. Many players may have looked to transfer schools or to leave school all together but not Roberto who stayed amid all the absurd rumors and came back as a leader on this year's team.
Roberto scored again. Sucks to suck @NCAA— BayState RoadSports (@bsrs_blog) December 11, 2016
Roberto will certainly be remembered on Comm Ave for a majority of the reasons but I would hope the lasting image for most fans is a quality, hardworking forward who was a leader on a team a bounce away from the Frozen Four. He will certainly be missed at BU where four year players come at a premium. Roberto will have options both in and outside of hockey after he graduates this spring. He was not drafted by an NHL team but I could easily see an AHL team giving him a shot if he wants to go that route. Good luck to Nick in all his future endeavors.
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