Raiders, Terriers, and Hoyas, Oh My

Another huge weekend for BC sports is almost upon us, as the hoops team prepares to open NCAA tournament play against Bobby Knight's Texas Tech Red Raiders while the hockey team is set for another matchup, the 5th of the season, against archrival BU in the Hockey East semifinals. A win over the Raiders in the 12:35 pm game on Thursday would in all likelihood set up a meeting with former Big East foe Georgetown on Saturday.

For the first time in years, we at BC can't complain about our seeding or placement in the NCAA hoops tournament. A 7 seed is fair (although some at Texas Tech are lamenting the missed opportunity for a first-round matchup with another 7 seed and Knight's former employers, Indiana) and playing in Winston-Salem with UNC in our bracket (and safely on the other side) can only help us--it's a short trip, the players will be familiar with the surroundings from having played at Wake Forest, and hopefully a crowd that will likely be overwhelmingly clad in Carolina Blue will also pull for their conference bretheren. After several consecutive years of getting screwed, I'm relieved here.

I'll have more on the game later this week, but until then ATLEagle, Angry Eagle, and Double-T Nation should have some insight.

As for hockey, well, we all knew it would come to this. BC-BU, for a shot at the Hockey East title as well as a possible 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Although I won't be at the game, my non-presence ensures that I will be there on Saturday to see us take on either UNH or a red-hot UMass team.

(Oh yeah, Saturday. If we beat Texas Tech and BU, BC will be playing for a Hockey East tournament title and a Sweet Sixteen berth....both on St. Patrick's Day. Throw in an afternoon Dropkick Murphys concert at Agganis Arena and the fact that I stopped off at the New Hampshire state discount liquor store yesterday on the way back from Vermont and I doubt I'll remember seeing us lift the HEA banner.)

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Very interesting article on EagleAction yesterday on the areas of recruiting responsibility for each of the new coaches. Some of it was old news, but a lot is new information. To sum up:


Spaz - "spot recruiter" for Mass., involvement with all defensive recruits

Logan - Involvement with all offensive recruits, particularly QBs

McGovern - North Jersey, Long Island

Siravo - North Shore of Mass., Connecticut, SE Pennsylvania outside of Philly, Rhode Island, Virginia, involvement with all recruits as recruiting coordinator

Turner - Northern Florida, eastern Pennsylvania including Philly

Sirmans - Western PA, South Jersey, Ohio, "spot recruiter" in Michigan and Indiana

Yanowsky - Illinois, Carolinas, central Florida, Houston area

Commisiong - Western Mass, NY state outside Long Island, northwest NJ

Day - Maryland, DC, southern Florida, Georgia


A couple thoughts:

-I'd like to get a guy in California, or at the very least the LA metro area; it'd also be nice if Yanowsky can scout the Dallas area as well; Commisiong seems to have the lightest load of anyone currently so perhaps he could also take SoCal

-Boston and the immediate suburbs as well as the South Shore weren't mentioned in the article, my guess is Siravo will take them since he has most of the rest of New England; Commisiong would also be a possibility

-Siravo seems to have a lot on his plate so my guess is that his responsibility for Virginia won't include the DC suburbs in the northern part of the state, and that Day will take these. The state of Virginia as a whole is a potential gold mine for BC and I'd like to get at least 2 coaches working there

-One of the first and most telling recruiting tests for the new staff will be DT Masengo Kabongo from Fairfield, CT, and consequently I love the fact that Connecticut falls under the responsibility of Siravo, who I have the highest hopes for of any coach on the staff as a recruiter

-The Tidewater region of Virginia and the Carolinas always seem to produce a ton of dual-threat QBs, and conveniently enough this is Logan's home region and area of expertise...I think we'll do well there, starting with Tommy Reamon, a QB from Newport News whose coach, a longtime friend of Logan's, has compared him favorably to the Vick brothers (who attended the same high school as Reamon) at the same stage of development and who has mentioned BC as one of his leaders

-Day is going to be thrown right into the fire...his areas of responsibility are all crucial to BC's success. Georgia and the DC metro area in particular are both places we need to start tapping into

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All I got for now, but I'll have more on the Texas Tech and BU games as the week progresses.

Also, if anyone is making the trip to Winston-Salem, say hi to this guy for me: