The winter of my discontent

As the just-barely-above-.500 record of BC teams in my presence (as indicated in the box on the right of the page) demonstrates, this has been an extremely disappointing winter season for BC athletics. I didn't really want to look at it that way until now, but it's time to face the facts.

Tonight's loss to Providence by the men's hockey team really stung. It dipped BC's home record to .500 and leaves the Eagles barely clinging to a Hockey East home ice spot, only because Northeastern managed to lose to UMass Lowell.

It was another one of those frustrating games - same song, different verse. BC played pretty well for most of the game and got chance after chance after chance, but it was the Friars who cashed in on their opportunities. BC was killed yet again by abysmal turnovers in their own defensive zone, and poor rebound control by John Muse.

I think the Eagles also need to shake up the first line, as Gerbe is ice cold, with no points in his last 5 games.

In reality, it's time to forget about contending for a national title. We just need to hang on to home ice and hopefully make NCAAs and perform credibly. This team just isn't NCAA champ caliber right now.

And with the West's gap over the East widening, and Jerry York's career winding down, our window for contending for national titles is shrinking ever-so-slightly each year.

Looking at it from the macro perspective, this winter has blown, all things considered:

Men's Hockey:
Expectation- contend for a national title
Reality- clinging to a tournament berth and struggling mightily at the worst possible time

Women's Hockey:
Expectation- return to the national tournament
Reality- has a chance to maybe, just maybe, qualify for the conference tournament

Men's Basketball:
Expectation- Make the NIT and maybe be a bubble team for NCAAs
Reality- Probably going to finish under .500 and maybe go to the CBI

Women's Basketball
Expectation- ACC middle of the pack
Reality- Above average in the ACC and on the bubble for NCAAs

So, women's basketball has (far) exceeded expectations... but not enough to overcome the fact that this has been a maddening season for Eagle lovers.

Things have got to change, fast, for this winter to be anything less than a failure.

Is it football season yet?