In response to Sopan Deb’s column about the men’s basketball team (“Show me something, then I’ll believe the hype,” Oct. 17, p. 12), I ask him if he even went to a game last year. Sure, the team struggled for the beginning half of the season, playing against veteran teams like George Washington University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Even with its inexperience, the starting five — mostly made up of “kids” who had played as many college games as I had — played the standard Dennis Wolff defense and shut down a lot of its America East and Atlantic-10 foes.
Offense in basketball usually comes with experience. It only takes a fan a few minutes to realize that Corey Lowe, Carlos Strong and Tyler Morris have a lot of raw offensive skill and simply need time to adjust to the college game.
I couldn’t be there Saturday night, but 1,000 people sounds like quite a lot, considering a normal game at The Roof barely gets 100 students. Midnight Madness hadn’t happened in years (didn’t happen once in my four years), and it’ll take time to grow the fan base back for such an event. Deb first states in his column that the team is going to be good according to publications, and thus, it was a disappointing turnout on Saturday. Then he argues why they aren’t going to be a very good team. Maybe people bought into his line of thinking and that’s why they didn’t go?
The real reason people are excited about this team is because of its chance to make the NCAA Tournament. I was around for more than one dominating regular season followed by a first-round America East Tournament exit — three first-round exits in a row. Last season, this young team — albeit playing at home — actually came through in the clutch and won an America East tournament game. The next day, BU was beating No. 1 Albany at the half and nearly pulled off the upset.
With a full summer of playing together and training under its belt, the BU basketball team is on the rise. I hope Deb will recognize how fortunate current students are and go out to The Roof to support this year’s team.
Jeff Christenbury
COM ’07