Hope Springs Eternal

The best thing about today is that I have unwavering hope that this is the year BU hoops makes it back to the tournament. It has now been 4 years and I am hungry for another run at the Kansas' of the world. Hell, the Patriot League wants us to have another run. After all, no one since BU in 2006 has won an NCAA tournament game. We are the Patriot League and should be on top.

Moving past that bravado for a second, I actually think we might have an opportunity to win the conference. Last year we went 9-5 in conference but suffered a terrible first round lost to Holy Cross in the PL tournament. This year we return all but one starter (Patrick Behan, 9.0 ppg) and as usual will go 8-9 deep. Leading the team will be Senior co-captains Daryl Shazier and Stephen Tyree and Junior Bryan Cohen. All three are seasoned and ready for a deep run, however the team's success will ultimately be determined by the Sophomore trio of Mike Muscala, Bryson Johnson and Joe Willman. Last year all three made the PL All-Rookie Team and Muscala was the only Bison to make the all-league team.

I won't pretend that I know anything about this team. I have read previews, but I have not seen any games. That being said, I this is starting to feel very familiar. We had some pretty decent squads when I was in school, but in 2002-03 we lost a huge chunk of our squad when Dan Blankenship, Boakai Lalugba and Brian Werner all graduated. Left were freshman Charles Lee and Kevin Bettencourt to lead the team. As expected, they had some growing pains during their sophomore year, but the addition of a new class -Chris McNaughton, Abe Badmus, Donal Brown - really brought a lot of hope to Lewisburg. Some thought it would be two years before this young team could contend, but instead they won the league and then famously beat Kansas the following year. The recipe appears to be similar this year - a great Sophomore class and a hungry upperclass that has seen its share of losses. Now comparing the current trio of Sophomore's to that of McNaughton, Badmus and Brown is obviously a little premature as the Class of '07 will go down as one of the top 3 in BU history, but I think they definitely have the potential to be special.

We will all get to see just how special they are as the Bison open their season on the road tonight against #6 Villanova before flying to Wisconsin to face another Big East foe, Marquette on Sunday. I'm not expecting a win in either game, but I will have undying hope.

Ray Bucknell,
Ray Bucknell,
Ray for the Orange and the Blue!
Ray, Ray, Ray, Ray
Ray for the Orange and the Blue!