BC Hoops vs. UConn: Was It The Beginning Of The End?

At what point did you realize that this was not going to be the BC basketball season that we had hoped for? Expectations weren't particularly lofty -- after losing by single digits to just about every top team that we faced the previous year, it seemed like a few of those were due to go our way, especially with most of the roster returning. An NCAA tournament berth was the goal, and a reasonable one at that.

You all know that basketball isn't my thing, but even I was a little excited to see BC hoops look good on the national stage. I may hate the sport, but I love BC, and I want my Eagles to be successful.

I was born, raised, and currently live in Connecticut, so despite my frustrations with the sport of basketball, I made it a point to go to MSG to watch the BC vs. UConn game. I hate UConn. It's hard for me judge whether or not BC fans in Boston actually still care, but I do, because here in Connecticut, we nutmeggers are surrounded by Husky propaganda from the day you're born. I remember being at a city-wide elementary school band concert in 1999, and after every freaking song they announced to the crowd what the score of the UConn/Duke national championship game was. Even then I wondered why everyone cared.

Anyway, flash forward to MSG. Joe and I made the trip to New York for the game, and despite losing the first few games of the season, there was still a little hope. We scalped tickets and headed in, sneaking into the Indiana sections behind the net and watching the game from 4 rows back.

We watched UConn promptly go out and take a double digit lead, BC climb back to make it pretty close at halftime, and watch UConn pull away again late. Most of the game, we talked about why in the world we bothered coming down to watch us lose to a team we hate in a sport we hate in a city where everything costs a lot of money. Wouldn't we have had more fun bailing on the game at the last minute and going to see Book of Mormon on Broadway instead? We seriously considered it.

Then BC started doing that thing they did all season last year. They made it close. As the Indiana fans slowly filled their section around us, cheering against the Huskies with us, we started to drink to Kool-Aid and think maybe we had a chance.

BC took possession down by 2 with 10 seconds left and airballed a layup. WHAT THE HELL, MAN?! We grabbed our things, put our jackets on, and said goodbye to our new Indiana friends, ready to bolt out of there before and UConn fans met us in the concourse, because eff that noise.

Then BC drains a trey (I think that's what the cool kids call it) and fouled immediately, down by 1. We threw our hands up in frustration, put our stuff down, and sat back in our seats. Surely this was just a BC tease, but by its very nature a BC tease makes it impossible for you to bail.

The Shabazzler made one of his two free throws for UConn and BC had two seconds to inbound and take a three point prayer for what could have been an all-time epic win -- at least for me. There was more than one coworker back in Cheshire, Connecticut who would be hearing from me for all time should BC nail the bucket.

But no. Blocked, we don't even get a shot off, and it's game over. Aw aww! And we bailed. We made it out of MSG in record time. And as much as we don't care about basketball, it was as frustrating as it gets. Nothing had changed. BC was 1-4. We had played a ranked team close and lost, just like last year.

That was the point at which, for me, anyway, I just knew that getting too attached to BC hoops this year would be a mistake. Sure enough, they regressed to an embarrassing level, somehow beating undefeated Syracuse in the process, which if anything just made everything more frustrating.

So when was it that you knew this was a lost season? Post your thoughts in the comments below.