Large Beers and Lattes: Those other dogs on campus

We know as far as sports go here at BU, the hockey players get all the press. Jack Parker has brought fame and fortune to the program and his teams are always a perennial force in the Hockey East and NCAA Tournaments.

But there’s another team around here that could be building a tradition, and we’re lucky enough to be able to see it forming on the ground level.

The men’s basketball team is quietly enjoying a 6-1 start to the America East season and an impressive 11-7 record overall, despite playing a remarkably tough out-of-conference schedule which included Stanford, Florida State and current No. 1 Arizona. I say quietly because I see the number of students that show up at ‘The Roof’ for the games. It’s like being in the GSU during the summer.

This season, the team returns all five starters from a team which a year ago went 22-10 and danced their way all the way to Pittsburgh and the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Tunji Awojobi prowled the lane back in 1997.

In addition to bringing back all five starters, the Terriers technically also added a sixth. Red-shirt junior Matt Turner, BU’s leading perimeter threat from the 2000-2001 season, has returned after sitting out most of last year with a surgically repaired left shoulder, which he dislocated in a game at Holy Cross.

Turner’s injury, however, gave freshman guard Chaz Carr the opportunity to prove himself in a starting role. He did just that, finishing third on the team in scoring.

Billy Collins, who played through pain last season with a wrist injury, is fully healed and possibly the Terriers’ most exciting player. Collins presents a threat from the perimeter and is electrifying while running the floor in the fast break.

Head Coach Dennis Wolff, who last year signed a contract through the 2005-2006 season, may be the key ingredient. Wolff came to BU for the 1994-1995 season and inherited a team which just two years prior had compiled a 6-21 record. In his first season as coach, he led the Terriers to 15 wins. The next year, he compiled an 18 win season, and the following season, his team won 22 games and made it to the NCAA Tournament.

What all this adds up to is a team on the move.

The main reason for the Terriers’ success is their stingy defense-first attitude, akin to the New York Knicks of the mid-90s (not like the Knicks of today, however, who play defense like the fifth grade Parks and Recreation team I coached back home). In the conference this year, the Terriers have allowed 63 points per game and opponents have shot just 40 percent from the field.

Don’t mistake a defensive-minded game as boring, though. The Terriers rely as much on the 3-ball as they do their swarming defense. The Terriers have launched nearly 20 three-pointers through their seven conference games this year.

But perhaps the most appealing thing about this Terrier club is their accessibility. I’ve watched college hoops on CBS for years. I can remember back in high school taking the hall pass and my tourney bracket and sneaking over to the computer lab to check out the day’s scores. It killed me to go to school in March.

Now I don’t have to leave school at all for March Madness, it’s right in my own backyard.

Anyone who got back early enough from Cancun last spring break would have noticed ESPN’s invasion on the BU campus. BU destroyed Maine by 26 on national television that day in the America East Championship game to earn their ticket to the Big Dance.

The things that make ‘Championship Week’ and the NCAA Tournament so great are all of the upsets and double-digit seeds trying to make the Sweet 16.

A few years back, people were hopping on the Gonzaga bandwagon. Last year the Kent State Golden Flashes and the Southern Illinois Salukis captured the attention of the college basketball world. No one even knew what a Saluki was until last year. For those who have since forgotten, it is the royal dog of ancient Egypt.

Don’t be surprised if these dogs have people talking come March. The Terriers hung around with a tough Stanford team in the pre-season NIT and actually led most of the game, drawing praise from ESPN college basketball guru Digger Phelps.

Just before the New Year, the Terriers were within five points of the nation’s top ranked team, the Arizona Wildcats, in the second half out in Tucson. Granted the chance at the upset slipped away in the second, but the Terriers proved they are not afraid of anyone.

The Terriers have played the best the country has to offer this season and my guess is they’re not intimidated. The tools are in place and ‘The Roof’ should be rockin’. But don’t take my word for it, put on your dancing shoes and check it out yourself.

Every dance needs a Cinderella.