Ladies and gents, here we go. Ben Howland and his 10-11 (5-4) basketball team is going to tip off against Stanford Cardinal (10-11, 4-5) in about half an hour to remind a football drunk Bruin Nation, that there is still a basketball season going on in Howlandwood. As we discussed during the game day thread this am, despite the matchup between two teams with pretty pathetic records (Stanford is actually 0-8 on the road), the game is actually an important one for the Bruins because we need to stay alive in the Pac-10 race. Even outside observers are taking note that somehow the Bruins are "still alive" in our joke conference in this sorry season.
Still it could be exciting. insomniaclounge informs us AA is going to be in the house. I sure hope the current batch of Bruins don't embarrass themselves in front of him and make an earnest effort to play with the same kind of willpower and effort for the entire 40 minutes. The formula for a Bruin win tonight is pretty simple. Like a broken record we keep repeating the same key factors for this year's team before every game: 40 minutes of hard fought focused defense, patience on the offensive side, make our FTs, and set up each other with easy shots as much as possible (without forcing threes from you know who). No idea what we are in store for tonight.
The tipoff is officially scheduled for 7:37 pm PST on Prime Ticket. Bill Macdonald, a Trogan is going to do play-by-play with the insufferable Dan Belluomini. Thankfully those clowns will be balanced out by Don MacLean and Sean Farnham (who was as surprised at Shirley's announcement as he was when he found out CHP was starting him over Matt Barnes as his "lucky charm"). You can read up on all of our musings leading up to this game here. If you want to follow the game online you can do so via our official site. As always, we will be here in the game threads with our rapid fire takes and commentary.
So let's get this party started. Fire away.
GO BRUINS.