Merry Christmas to you, too, GF. And to all good Flashes everywhere.
The BC games is similiar to Creighton in the sense that it's all upside. If we win, we get a geat RPI boost accompanied by experience of winning tough road games. Those are more important to me than polls right now. Most will expect us to lose. If we do it won't be considered a "bad loss" and we'll recover.
BC isn't getting a lot of respect for it 8-0 record, probably as it's viewed as a little light. As axeme pointed out, they've won some sqeekers against middle of the road teams ( Holy Cross and Yale). The Eagles may be ready to be taken and we can do it if:
1. Our frontcourt plays its best game of the season. The Eagles win through their forwards. Smith is a monster, we have to keep him under his 20 ppg average. We gotta block him out on the boards; he's very quick and likes those second chances. Overall, he brings a complete game other than the fact he's been a bit sloppy with an average of three turnovers a game. If we handle Smith, we have to worry about Dudley, who contributes more through rebounds. Doornekamp is big but only an average center. Edwin, Cutley and Gerwig, if he plays, have to bring it all for us to pull this out.
2. Our guards bring the offense. No All Americans or wanna be's (ala Deiner or McKinney) in the Eagles backcourt, so Haynes and Youngblood should have a challenging but not draining defensive task. I hope this frees up their energy and offense a bit.
Given the last two outings, this should be another barnburner. Somthing tells me the Flashes want to make a statement with this one. They're bigger, we're faster...but we may want it just enough more to pull it out. Go Flashes.
