MBB Game 14: Maine at Boston College, plus a side note

A Happy New Year to all of you, and I hope most of you aren’t too hung over from last night’s festivities, but if you are I won’t hold it against you.

The best of the out-of-conference schedule is over, and BC will have a chance to get to 11 wins before the bulk of ACC play. The first hurdle they have to clear will be the University of Maine Black Bears, who at 6-5 might not seem too bad, but a look at the schedule would punch a hole through that theory. They’ve played two ranked teams, Syracuse and UConn, who wiped the floor with them. They have no good wins and several very bad losses.

BC has some good wins and some bad losses, but there’s really no comparison between a middle-of-the-road ACC program and a middle-of-the-road America East program. Maine is not the worst team they will face this year (that would be Bryant), but they are far from the best. The Black Bears, however, are one of only three AmEast teams with a winning record in non-conference play (but if BC played that same schedule, they’d probably have several fewer losses than they do).

If BC wins: 10-4 (1-0); hey, they won!  4-game win streak
If BC loses: 9-5 (1-0); oh crap, they lost!

Seriously though, a loss would be bad news, but it’s not an outcome about which I am particularly worried.  BC has not lost to Maine since 1925, which is 85 years.

Rather than bleat on about who leads the teams in what stats, and what team does what well, I’m just going to tell you straight that BC should, and probably will, win this game with ease. Thank you, and good night.

Finally, the hockey team resumes its play today, as they will play St. Lawrence in the Wells Fargo Denver Cup.  This game will not be on TV, but tomorrow’s game (against Denver) will — the only catch is that it’s on FSN Rocky Mountain, so people with the DirecTV sports pack (or Colorado residents) will have the easiest time.