Just when it seemed like Husky sports was awakening from its slumber over winter break, it collectively nodded off again.
I guess the men’s and women’s basketball and hockey teams took the word “break” a little too literally. If not that, the luck of the Husky’s snout did, anyway.
Northeastern sports went an amazingly underwhelming 2-15 between finals ending Dec. 16 and classes beginning Monday. And all but the women’s hockey team lost heartbreakingly close decisions to tough conference opponents last week, pouring salt in the wound. And you thought Huskies were supposed to excel in the cold, wintry weather.
The swimming and diving team is exempt here because it didn’t have a meet between Dec. 3 and Jan. 7, plus it won the Orange Bowl Classic in Florida this weekend. (It’s not as prestigious as winning the Orange Bowl football game, but let’s just say it’s a good victory nonetheless.)
The men’s and women’s track teams are also off the hook because, well, they didn’t start competition until Saturday when they both exacted solid wins at Harvard. So it’s the varsity athletics competing in (read: lose) games that are in question here.
The men’s hockey team has been losing all year, so I suppose we can’t blame them. It’s not their fault they contributed to this trend by going 0-4 over the break, it’s just what they do.
To be fair, it’s a young team. However, it’s still a Hockey East team that has an overall record of 1-13-4 – not the results new coach Greg Cronin was hoping for. He must have been encouraged his team didn’t give up at Boston College Friday night in a 4-3 loss, but the 4-0 drubbing by a decidedly average Boston University team the following night kind of negates any possible momentum.
Women’s puck hasn’t been much better at 4-15-1 on the season, but over the break they’ve only played one game – a 3-0 shutout loss at Yale on Saturday.
It’s obvious where I’m stressing the disappointment by now – the two basketball teams. These are the two teams I had high expectations for heading into November.
The women’s team was coming off a pretty average 14-15 season, but had an emerging star in Shaleyse Smallwood, going into her sophomore year, and also returning senior Maralene Zwarich, last year’s America East leading scorer in conference games. With promising junior guard Jody Burrows and senior and fellow captain Michelle Decerbo in the mix, and a strong recruit in McDonald’s All-American Top 100 pick Ashlee Feldman, things were shaping up for a solid first season in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).
Neither of the two captains or Zwarich has panned out, though, each actually taking steps back from last year’s production. (Zwarich went from nearly a 40 percent three-point shooter to a dismal five percent thus far in ’05-’06.) Smallwood has met expectations with a solid season, but she’s pretty much alone in that description.
They were getting by, though, until the break; when an 87-59 blowout loss to Buffalo started a decline. After splitting two non-conference matchups, the team dropped all of its first three CAA games.
I realize the move to the CAA makes things tougher (especially considering the lack of money the university spends on athletics in comparison to other schools in the new conference, but that’s another discussion); nonetheless, this team has enough talent to post at least a .500 record. The coaching staff needs to get things on track.
The men’s hoops team is facing a similar problem, but on a bigger scale. Co-captain Jose Juan Barea and his team entered the season with a lot of hype about their chances to break out in a new conference. So far, the team has produced some amazing individual performances and some convincing wins over decent teams, but the break tested the Huskies with their first taste of some top-flight opponents in Providence, Holy Cross and reigning CAA champ Old Dominion. They lost all three.
They actually led PC by 11 with 3:10 to go in the first half, but the Friars went on a staggering 31-0 run to embarrass the Huskies. Barea was out against Holy Cross, so I suppose that loss doesn’t carry much significance. After losing a home game they should have won against George Mason, the Huskies blew out Georgia State and then two days later found themselves leading Old Dominion by 16 points in the first half, on the road. Things were looking up. But (you knew there’d be a “but”) NU somehow found a way to squander its big lead again.
After jumping out to a 4-0 start, the fact the Huskies are now 7-6 must be pretty deflating for the team. But, watching the loss to the Monarchs Saturday afternoon, I think there are certainly positives to draw from in that game. Their execution and gameplay on offense looks much more polished compared to last year. Also, Barea finally played a great game against a solid opponent – and what’s more, it was arguably his best performance of the season, scoring 32 points and dishing 10 assists.
The individual numbers were quite impressive for many of the Huskies this weekend, and have been over the course of the season. Let’s not forget Barea is leading the nation in assists and is seventh in scoring, while Shawn James is leading the nation in blocks with 6.1 per game. Also, budding sniper Bobby Kelly is sixth in the NCAA in three point shooting with at least 40 attempts, converting at a .535 clip.
The positives are there to indicate a reversal in fortune for both hoops teams, and even the hockey teams down the road a year or two, but, in order to keep the fans, they all need to stay competitive and avoid terrible streaks like this.
Just because the fans off the court took a break doesn’t mean the players on the court should, too.
– Tim Coughlin can be reached at [email protected].
