(Photo: Junhee Chung/Daily Free Press)

What a weekend – four thrilling games, unfortunately followed by basketball’s letdown on Monday. But, all things being equal, the Huskies got one marquee win over the weekend, the absolutely heart-stopping overtime victory over Boston University in basketball on Friday night. If you haven’t heard the entire game broadcast, you’re in luck, because we’ve archived it (WRBB Sports), and it’s definitely worth a listen. Now comes homecoming weekend, with the last basketball home game for two weeks and the last home hockey game for three weeks.

We’ll get to the upcoming games in a moment, but first back to the week that was…

• A thrilling way to kick off the basketball season. Case Gym was beyond sold out: it was over capacity. 1,875 watched (and many more likely wanted to watch – one reason why it was our most listened-to broadcast this season). Not only was it a big win to start the season in front of a crowd loud enough to make your bones rattle, as Andy Towne explains, it was a great first game for the Huskies’ new freshmen (WRBB Sports). Across town, the reviews weren’t as glowing for an experience but still talented BU team (Daily Free Press). Meanwhile, the big concern for NU after the game was again giving up a late lead, forcing overtime (Boston Globe). Dan Duggan also highlighted NU’s emerging freshmen (Boston Herald).
• Meanwhile Monday night wasn’t quite as pleasant. UMass got out to an early lead then kicked it into another gear (Boston Herald), while Northeastern committed a calamity of errors, not the least of which was the plethora of turnovers (WRBB Sports). Encouragingly, the Huskies didn’t back down and chipped away, but in the end UMass just shot too well and pulled away. (Boston Globe)
• Northeastern hockey couldn’t finish a game… again. And again. Friday night’s loss to Boston College was a punch in the gut for a variety of reasons, namely the fact that it happened with 2.5 seconds remaining, but it also exposed all of the Huskies’ nagging problems in a more glaring light, and in heartbreaking fashion (WRBB Sports – more coverage of Friday’s game from College Hockey News, Boston Herald, Boston Globe). Saturday’s game was much of the same, thought the Huskies finally broke through on the power play, twice. At least that’s an encouraging sign, but as CHN’s Joe Meloni points out, guys like Vinny Saponari just have to start producing for the wins to start coming (College Hockey News).
• Perhaps the biggest women’s basketball crowd we’ve seen in several years packed Solomon Court last night. Though the Huskies lost to Temple, a promotion for a $10,000 half-court shot promotion plus a significant ramp-up in marketing has boosted attendance (official attendance was 775). The noise and energy from the crowd early in the game was a welcome change for the team, and we hope it continues.

Now, on to the weekend:

• A big test for men’s basketball on Saturday, but for different reasons. The game against Southern Illinois should heavily favor the Huskies, and as such expectations for a win are high. The Huskies should be looking to take care of business not only for that, but to see how the corps of freshmen responds to Monday’s deflating loss. With a large crowd expected, we’re looking to see how the grind of the season’s rhythm has begun to settle in, or whether there will be more early-season jitters such as in the troubling number of turnovers. Either way, Saturday should be an entertaining litmus test.
• Meanwhile, men’s hockey is just desperate for points after getting 1 win in their first 10 games. Reminiscent of last year’s slow start (listening to Hockey East This Week from this time last year was fun to do), the Huskies need homecoming weekend to once again be a springboard towards a second half run. Otherwise, with the amount of parity going on in the league this year, it has 2010 written all over it again (Remember these wacky playoff scenarios? Yeah, NU still missed out on the postseason). Is it too early to start worrying about making the playoffs?…
• Women’s hockey with a pair of crucial early-season games against Boston College are absolutely two under-the-radar games to keep an eye on. Of course, we’ll have live coverage of Thursday’s game on WRBB Sports Extra, but we’ll keep an eye on both games as the Huskies sit in first place, riding a six-game winning streak as conference play has started. However BC is, not surprisingly, again one of the favorites for the Hockey East championship, so this game could have big implications in the race for the regular season title.
• Volleyball rides into the CAA tournament as the #2 seed, having still failed to defeat Delaware in the regular season. Huskies fans will no doubt remember the down-to-the-wire championship game at Cabot a few years ago between the Huskies and Blue Hens and it seems like the two are on a collision course for a rematch. The Huskies’ 21-5 record is their best regular season record since 2003.

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