FADEM: It’s about damn time

Imagine Tunde Agboola, a walk-on for the Boston University men’s basketball team two years ago, starting for the Terriers. OK, now imagine him averaging 35 points per game and being in serious contention for the national Player of the Year award. Imagine him leading the Terriers to an NCAA Tournament berth. Imagine him doing this for three years. Then imagine Tunde graduating college (the College of Engineering, no less!) and being signed by an NBA team.

This actually happened, except not in basketball, and not with Tunde. The person I’m referring to is none other than the greatest college hockey goalie I have ever seen play in person ‘-‘- Johnny Curry.

Half of the current student population has probably never heard of Johnny Curry, and if they have it’s only been tales of his legend.

Johnny walked onto the team his freshman year. He got his first opportunity to play that year ‘-‘- for five minutes ‘-‘- and decided he liked his position on the team. He continued to play, and play at a supremely high level. Night in and night out he would make saves that he shouldn’t have had any business making.

Furthermore, he was small ‘-‘- he wasn’t a goalie with size like Grant Rollheiser or former Maine goalie Ben Bishop. I mean, he was bigger than Michigan State’s Jeff Lerg, but then again so are Willy Wonka’s Oompa Loompas.

I can say Curry was the main factor in most, if not all, of the Terriers’ success my freshman year (his senior season). He was in hot contention for the Hobey Baker Award until the last five games of the season when he began to falter.

Curry was reliable and rarely took nights off. I don’t think anyone truly understood his impact on the Terriers until the next season when Karson Gillespie and Brett Bennett took his place.

Oh, Brett Bennett. Your name lives in infamy at this school. Your career at this school resembles the 2008 Detroit Lions. Except somehow you got a couple wins, something I really don’t see happening for the Lions.

Anyway, Curry was an outstanding goalie for the Terriers. He is a legend in a sense. This school hasn’t had a goalie like him since, and I think I speak for most Terrier fans when I say I truly miss seeing No. 36 in net.

Switching from the college game to the pro game ‘-‘- there is one NHL team that has made the smartest executive moves possible over the last couple seasons. I’m of course talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Then their management blew me away, again, when they picked up Johnny Curry after his graduation. Talk about excellent decision-making.

Johnny stuck it out in the AHL and led the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to the Calder Cup. Then, a couple of weeks ago, the Penguins’ current goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury ‘-‘- who has suffered through injuries and hideous mustard yellow pads for years ‘-‘- went down with an undisclosed injury, which lead to Curry’s call up to the big show.

It wasn’t until last Wednesday night that he saw time ‘-‘- he entered a 3-0 game in which the Penguins were down. He was all like, ‘efff this, I want to win, GD,’ and proceeded to stop all 11 shots he faced in the remaining 30 minutes of the game, earning his first of probably many NHL wins.

Two nights later he had to go to Buffalo. He had a decent game, stopping 28 of 32 shots, but was dealt a loss. He was up against a Hobey Baker goalie, the Sabres’ Ryan Miller. However, Curry did stop more shots than the Michigan State alumnus.

When Fleury returns, I’m hoping there will be a major goalie controversy in the works ‘-‘- BU hockey style. I really hope Johnny Curry succeeds to the fullest, and I don’t doubt he will. His story is one of perseverance and dedication, and he deserves to be rewarded to the fullest.

I may not love the Penguins, but I can’t help but root for them when I see Curry guarding their goal. Go Crosby! (Ew, I can’t believe I said that.)

I think the only piece truly missing in their quest for the Cup last year was their goaltending. Might I suggest a BU Terrier to make up for the lack of college experience (and knowledge) of Marc-Andre?

I can’t help but be reminded of better times when I see the statlines from Pittsburgh games. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with our frosh goalies, but I miss Curry. I know we could sure use him this weekend ‘-‘- the biggest of them all ‘-‘- BC weekend. BU hasn’t beat BC since Feb. 12, 2007 when Johnny was on the team. Sigh.

I can only imagine what these Terriers would be like and what they could do against the Eagles with JC36 playing behind Colin Wilson, Nick Bonino and the rest.