Rock Chalk Terrier: Basketball Beanpot?

In the immortal words of Indians Red Sox Dodgers Rays Outfielder Manny Ramirez, I'm happy to be back, I'm here to play. After a semester student teaching I'm ready to jump back into the fray of blogging BU and Boston sports by introducing what I hope to keep a regular feature on the blog: Rock Chalk Terrier, featuring discussion of our dearly beloved BU men's basketball team, which I eventually plan to spin off into game previews and recaps.

Imagine my surprise Monday when I read a piece in the Boston Herald online that I actually did not think was stupid. (Unsurprisingly it was not the product of Dennis or Callahan or whichever one of WEEI's morning monkeys writes there) This article posited the idea of a Basketball Beanpot tournament similar to the one played among the Boston hockey schools every February. In addition to BU, BC, Harvard and Northeastern, the tournament could potentially include other Massachusetts D1 programs UMass and Holy Cross, both schools with substantial tradition in the sport.

The coaches at the schools all seem to think this is a great idea, but simply a logistical issue that needs to be solved as far as how to pull it off. At least initially I feel that the best approach the schools should take toward this tournament would be to take a similar approach to how the Philadelphia Big 5 is run. those 5 schools (La Salle, Penn, 'Nova, St. Joe's and Temple) All play one another each year on their home courts and the team with the best record in those games against each other is declared champion. I think this would be fine in the case of this tournament as well since these teams typically play 3 or so games a year against other Beanpot schools in their non-conference schedule. Playing everyone every year would build rivalries at all of these schools, which can in the long run give fans a compelling reason to come out to the games. Plus the teams haven't been as unbalanced against each other recently as you might think given their vast differences in conference prestige (ACC vs. A-10 vs. CAA vs. Ivy League vs. AEast); BU is 3-5 against Beanpot schools since the 2008-09 season, Northeastern is 3-3, Holy Cross is 1-8 (but 9-3 in the 4 years before), UMass and BC are 4-3 and surprisingly enough, Harvard is 7-2 (they'd have been this and least year's champs, BU and NU would've tied for 2008-09). Given this kind of parity I think it'd make sense to pull the trigger on making it happen. ARE YOU LISTENING, COACHES?

Here's who would've won the last few years (Based on best record, which admittedly is skewed since BC often doesn't play the lower level schools like BU, Northeastern and Holy Cross)

2010-11: Harvard (2-0)-2

2009-10: Harvard (3-0)-1

2008-09: BU-1 & Northeastern-1 (2-1)

2007-08: Holy Cross (2-0)-2

2006-07: BC (2-0)-5

2005-06: BC (3-0)-4

2004-05: BC (3-0)-3

2003-04: BC (4-0)-2

2002-03: Holy Cross (2-0)-1

2001-02: BC (3-0)-1

BU Opens Season with 4-3 Win Over No. 13 Wisconsin

Going down 2-0 quickly in the first period wasn't the way this BU team wanted to start their season. And as Captain Joe Pereira pointed out, if this had been last year the game would have been over right then. But as the No. 14 Terriers proved last night, this year looks to be nothing like last year. Pereira himself poured in the first and fourth goals, with freshman Charlie Coyle and junior Dave Warsofsky adding goals 2 and 3 to propel BU to victory. Junior netminder Kieran Millan looked shaky in the first period, allowing those two quick goals and one more before the period expired. But that's all the Badgers would get out of Millan, as he shut them down in periods 2 and 3. A large part of this turnaround for BU is centered on power plays - ours and theirs. Our power play gave us 3 of our 4 goals, and their power play gave them 2 of their 3 goals. Parker explained that BU's early problems on the penalty kill resulted from improper spacing due to an NHL sized rink, opening more passing lanes for the Badgers to thread the puck through.

BU now takes on No. 17 Notre Dame in the finals of the Ice Breaker Tournament, Sunday afternoon at 4. Notre Dame beat Holy Cross 6-3 in their opener. Check back in with us then for another recap of hopefully another BU victory and our first title of the year...