Halftime thoughts

Horrible job by Dwayne Jackson on the last play of the half. Maybe if the kid could learn how to rebound, he'd make it into the starting lineup.

The Bearcats are doing a good job with Blakely. Not great. As he showed on the second-to-last possession of the half, it looks like he can just go inside, take a dribble and a dropstep and score at will.

Our kickline is top of the line. The Zoo's energy has been up, and Mike Gordon really, really, really doesn't want to go down today. You could see how frustrated he was after that second ticky-tack foul -- and oh lord, I'm sure I'm not the only one who was super scared that the third foul was coming when he came back into the game with about 10 minutes left and got a block called at the top of the key. Risky, risky ...

The key to this game to this point has been Vermont's poor three-point shooting -- just 1-for-9. Kyle Cieplicki had an early shot go in-and-out that probably would've really changed the tone of the entire half.

The Bearcats have been throwing the backdoor pass pretty well, but they've got to realize Gio cannot catch that ball, and neither can Jaan. If you want to throw it in DJ, Reggie or Mike Gordon, fine. But there's no way #33 or #50 is going to handle that pass and get it up and in -- just no way.

I almost liked the Bearcats' chances better with the Zoo at their backs on defense. They seemed to feed off of that energy and UVM, especially Blakely -- especially when he tossed up an airball on a free throw -- seemed just a little bit shook. This is not the UVM team of 2005 or 2006.

BU Zoo starts a "fat and ugly" chant for the UVM Dance team -- perhaps the best-looking dance team of the day. Maybe they'll be at Sports Bar again tonight, as they were in '06 when they toppled Boston in the quarters ...

I think the early start really helped BU. I know that sounds simplistic and stupid, but the Albany loss really sunk in in the first few minutes, when the crowd was completely out of it.

This is going to be one hell of a second half.