Anyone regard this Valentine’s Day as a bitter reminder of certain things that are absent rather than a celebration of love? Looking for a place to spend your night while avoiding all the displays of affection? Then tonight, The Roof is just the place for you.
The Boston University men’s basketball team has a date with Northeastern University tonight, but not the kind you’re not going on. The Roof may be one of the only places on campus tonight where there will be anything but love as the Terriers host the feisty Huskies in a late-season conference matchup that has all the makings of a hot, sweaty night of competition.
BU (15-9 overall, 9-3 America East) enters the game on a two-game win streak while Northeastern has won just two of its last nine contests and sits in second-to-last place in the conference at 4-9 (6-18 overall). The Huskies, who always seem to find ways to squander a breadth of talent year after year, have sputtered through one of their worst recent seasons in a program that may be slipping after a 10-19 season last year.
Yet if there is one team in the America East that could spoil the Terriers’ late-season push toward the playoffs, with only three games remaining after tonight, it’s Northeastern. The Huskies are quick, athletic and physical but have had disastrous collapses late in games this season, many resulting in last second losses.
“[Northeastern] has a much better team than [its] record indicates,” said BU coach Dennis Wolff. “They haven’t been able, for whatever reason, to close it out the way they’d like. They’re a talented team, and I know from my years here that you can never look past any Northeastern team.
“It’s a rivalry game, so I’m expecting them to come in and play real hard, and our guys have a lot at stake.”
And rivalries are such for a reason, games where nothing is decided until the final buzzer, or buzzers, as was the case the last time these two teams tipped off Jan. 20 at Northeastern.
In that game, BU made up a four-point deficit in the final seconds to send the game into overtime, where the Terriers stormed to a 95-88 win after being down for most of the game. Freshman guard Chaz Carr was phenomenal in that first meeting, netting a career-high 36 points to lead all scorers.
BU’s win was one of five straight losses for Northeastern recently in a season that has been full of heartbreak for the Huskies.
As it is quick to point out, Northeastern has lost four games this season by one point, and its last two losses were crushing back-to-back defeats by one point each. The Huskies led by three points with 31 seconds left against the University of New Hampshire Feb. 5, only to give up four straight points in the final 18 seconds to lose, 82-81. Two days earlier Northeastern lost to the University of Maine, 74-73 — fittingly, on a dunk with eight seconds left.
Woe has been the Huskies this season, but while Wolff and the Terriers had their hearts broken many times over last season, they won’t be showing any love tonight.
“I really don’t think they have weaknesses; I think they’ve just been a victim bad luck in a lot of games. If you look at their record, they’ve lost a bunch of very close games,” Wolff said.
Of course, BU will have no regrets about dumping Northeastern on Valentine’s Day or about breaking the Huskies hearts just a little more.
And Wolff wants people there to see it.
“Hopefully, we’ll continue to get the good student support. The people that have been here have been into it and enthusiastic. I just hope that as we go on and gain momentum, we’ll get more people interested and coming out to the games,” Wolff said.
Translation: Tonight there won’t be any love lost between BU and Northeastern, and if you’re not getting any (love), you might as well come out and show some for the Terriers.
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