“It’s a joke, right? We’re going to put up a team of mostly untested freshmen and backups against the No.1-ranked college basketball team in the country, including future NBAers J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams?”

ENG graduate Majid Ikhwan makes it sound like BU is taking an intramural basketball team to Durham, North Carolina to face the #1 Duke Blue Devils. Notwithstanding the odds in beating Duke, this BU team is hardly the creampuff that Mr. Ikhwan makes us believe.

Is Mr. Ikhwan aware that BU ranked No. 1 in team field goal percentage defense last year? They only allowed a 37.1 percent from the opposition shots. Duke ranked 11 with 39 percent. BU also ranked No. 3 in the nation in team defense, allowing the opposing teams an average of only 55.7 points.

Defense has always been the strength of BU’s teams, and this game could be much closer than many people think. All the pressure is on the Duke team to run up the score. Our Terriers have everything to gain in just showing up and playing tough defense.

I think it is time we start showing more support for both our men’s and women’s basketball teams. Both coaches stress tenacious defense and consistently send their teams to post-season play.

Tough accomplishments when your players have to be students first and athletes second.