Well ladies and gentleman the regular season is finally over. The outcome of this afternoon's game was never in doubt even though the Bruins showed some faint signs of life late in first half and at points during the second half. The Bruin implosion took place early as Arizona State Sun Devils came out smoking the Bruins with a 13-0 run. Thanks to the efforts of Bobo Morgan (yeah him), Brendan Lane, Malcolm Lee and Tyler Honeycutt we did make somewhat of a run in the first half to close the game just a bit and make it manageable heading towards the half, but it didn't matter.
The Bruins as usual imploded down the stretch. The familiar game management issues (don't feel like repeating them) cropped up all over again as ASU closed the half with an 11 point lead and never looked back. Yes, we made the game a little close during second half thanks to the usual meaningless threes from you know, but it didn't matter all that much. The final score was 46-56. Here is the box score if you care to dabble through through it.
If you want to stick with the positives, Tyler Honeycutt had some issues with turning the ball over, but he did everything he could to keep the Bruins in the game with 10 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and a block. Malcolm Lee gave a scrappy effort with 15 points and 8 rebounds. Those two guys along with Michael Roll and Brendan Lane (along with Bobo) gave a solid effort but they were ultimately undermined by you know who.
It is really worth noting the effort we got from Bobo Morgan after he came back from a one game suspension. The kid came out to play giving the Bruins a boost with a bucket and taking a charge to give the Bruins some signs of life. He was rewarded by immediately getting pulled and 5 total minutes in the first half. He ended up playing 22 minutes and with not spectacular couple of points and 2 rebounds. He was burned couple of times on D but considering the effort he gave overall, he should be proud of it. Hopefully he keeps at it rest of this season and set up for a good off-season or whatever team he ends up playing with next.
Otherwise, there is really not much to say. I don't feel like providing any observations concerning Nikola Dragovic, Jerime Anderson and the minutes they got today despite giving their "usual effort" on the basketball court. Yeah, Dragovic showed little signs of life with 2 back to back 3s in the second half, but by that point it was somewhat moot given his overall body of work (on both ends of the court) for the entire game (and rest of this season).
As for other positives tonight consider the following (thanks for all the suggestions!):
- Our football team has an awesome recruiting class coming in
- No more late nights (at least for regular season) for the BNers in Eastern/Central/Moutain Time Zone
- We can be thankful for the wonderful effort we got from Michael Roll all season
- Spring football gets started in less than 30 days
- Women's basketball team won their eighth game in a row, beating Arizona this afternoon at Pauley by a score of 70-61.
- Men's baseball team ... well ... they are on FIRE! They have a great chance this afternoon to set a RECORD for the BEST START EVER in program's history. The Bruins are up by a score of 4-1 in top of the 7th. Here is the ongoing game thread and I am sure Rye will have the details.
But wait, there is MORE! Look at all the Saturday night excitement on BN:
- Class of 66 is setting up my photo stuff at Jen's Band's dance and taking pictures of the kids. Freebird Burrito for dinner.
- LongtimeBru is heading for dinner out with friends and getting some pizza
- Sideout11 is getting ready for Dinner for 12 Strangers
- BruinTrouble is getting caught up with last two episodes of Lost
- inhowlandwetrust goin out in San Francisco
- uclafans11 is heading out for dinner at a local jazz restaurant in Knoxville. Filet mignon and gouda rice. Yum.
Even BamaBruin's plan of grading mid-term papers sounds lot more fun than watching the "defensive effort" of you know who.
So ladies and gents it's not all so bad. Right? We probably just have one more game to go in this basketball season and we can then start thinking about football, baseball, and of course keeping an eye on how Ben Howland manages this off-season heading into this Fall and beyond.
Otherwise, we don't really have much basketball thoughts to offer tonight. We will leave you guys with this (HT inhowlandwetrust):
This too shall pass. Right?
GO BRUINS.