Gameday Information: Northeastern (0-0) at Boston University (0-0)
When	Friday, November 10  |  Boston, Mass. | Case Gym  | 7:30 p.m.
Game Links	Watch Live |  Live Stats | WRBB
Game Notes	Northeastern (PDF) | Boston University (PDF)
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BOSTON – The Northeastern men's basketball team will kick start the 2017-18 season at Boston University on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Case Gymnasium.
 
The game is a part of an opening night doubleheader that will begin with the Northeastern and BU women's basketball teams squaring off at 5:30 p.m.
 
The Huskies and Terriers will meet on opening night for the eighth-straight season, with Northeastern tallying a 6-1 record in the last seven season openers against BU.
 
The Huskies return seven letterwinners, have added four freshmen and San Diego transfer Vasa Pusica will make his Northeastern debut in the opening night game after sitting out last season. In addition to Pusica, the Huskies have also added George Washington transfer Jordan Roland, who will be sitting out this year per NCAA transfer rules.
 
NOTABLES
• This is the 98th season of Northeastern men's basketball. Northeastern has an all-time record of 1,184-1,091 (.520) in 2,275 games
• The Huskies are 376-253 (.598) all-time in conference play including a 118-83 (.587) record since joining the CAA in the 2005-06 season
• The Huskies have amassed 12 regular season conference championships and eight tournament titles including a 2015 title which sent the Huskies to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 24 years
• Northeastern and Boston University meet in the season opener for the eighth straight season and for the 147th time in program history
• The Huskies have a 6-1 record in the last seven season openers
• The two teams split the season series last year, the first time they have met multiple times since the 2004-05 season
• The Huskies started the year with an 87-77 victory over the Terriers on opening night followed by a narrow 65-63 victory in favor of the Terrier one week later
• The two teams have won the same amount of games in program history with the series tied at 73-all dating back to the 1920-21 season, the first year of varsity basketball for Northeastern
• Northeastern has won six of the last eight meetings with BU
• The last eight games between the two teams have an average margin of victory of 4.4 points while three of the last four to take place AT BU went to overtime
• The Huskies return seven letterwinners, including a pair of Preseason All-CAA honorable mention honorees in Devon Begley and Jeremy Miiller 
• Northeastern lost three seniors, Jimmy Marshall, Alex Murphy & CAA Player of the Year T.J. Williams, two of which are playing professionally
• Williams is a member of the Greensboro Swarm, a Charlotte Hornet's affiliate in the G League, while Murphy is overseas in Finland
• The Huskies will have five new faces on the court this year in four freshmen, Derrick Cook, Myles Franklin, Tomas Murphy (younger brother of Alex) and Jason Strong, and Vasa Pusica, a transfer from San Diego who sat out last season
 
SCOUTING THE TERRIERS
• Boston University was picked to finish second in the Patriot League in 2017-18 receiving a pair of first place votes
• BU lost three starters after last year's 18-14 season including All-Patriot League honorees Eric Fanning and Justin Alston
 
LEADING THE WAY
• Fifth year senior and 2015 All-PL Second Team honoree Cedric Hankerson is the Terrier's top returning scorer at 9.2 ppg and is just 23 points away from the 1,000 point mark
• Senior Nick Havener, who recorded 5.3 ppg and 5.4 rpg last season, finished 13th in the Patriot League in rebounding
• Cheddi Mosely leads all Terriers with a career average of 10.7 ppg while Eric Johnson returns as the top performer in assists at 2.0 per game
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
• The two teams have met 146 times in the past, in a series that dates back to Northeastern's first year as a varsity program in 1920-21. 
• After splitting the series last season 1-1 with both team's earning the home victory, the series remains tied at 73-all, and the Huskies have won six of the last eight games between the two foes with BU's two victories coming on their turf (2016) and at the Boston Garden (2013)
• The Huskies are 30-33 all-time on the campus of Boston University
 
LAST YEAR VS. THE TERRIERS
• Northeastern faced BU twice last year, for the first time since the 2004-05 season
• The Huskies defeated the Terriers 87-77 on opening night behind 50 points from T.J. Williams (30) and Alex Murphy (20)
• Just one week later, the two teams met again with BU eking out a 65-63 win on their home turf
 
HUSKIES IN SEASON OPENERS
• The Huskies are 49-48 all-time in season openers dating back to the 1920-21 season.
• Northeastern is 7-3 in its last 10 season openers, winning six of the last seven games, all of which have come against the Terriers
• Bill Coen has won eight of his season opening games at Northeastern.
• The Huskies have opened the season against BU just eight times in the history of the program, the last seven seasons and then again in the 1972-73 season
• Northeastern is 2-1 all-time in season openers at Boston University with their last loss at BU in a season opener coming in 1972-73 (74-84) in Jim Calhoun's first season as head coach of the Huskies
• The Huskies are 2-0 in season openers at BU under the direction of Bill Coen
 
NORTHEASTERN PICKED SIXTH
• The Huskies were picked to finish sixth in the CAA in 2017-18 by the conference's coaches
• Charleston was picked to win the league while Towson was second and Elon was chosen to finish third
• NU has matched or surpassed the expectations of the preseason polls in five of the last sixth seasons.
 

Season	Preseason Pick	Finish
2016-17	Seventh	Sixth
2015-16	Third	Sixth
2014-15	First	First
2013-14	Sixth	Third
2012-13	Fifth	First
2011-12	Ninth	Seventh

 
PRESEASON All-CAA NODS
• Both senior Devon Begley and junior Jeremy Miller have been honored by the CAA with All-Conference honorable mention honors entering the 2017-18 season
• Begley was named to the CAA All-Defensive Team after leading the league in steals in 2016-17
• The Huskies' lone senior finished his junior campaign with 9.7 points per game, 3.3 assists per game, and 3.7 rebounds per game while making 48 steals in 2016-17
• In an injury shortened season, Miller played in 12 non-conference games before suffering an injury at Michigan State
• In his first 12 games of the year, Miller averaged 9.5 points and 5.1 rebounds while making 16 blocks while connecting 56.8 percent of his field goals
 
ELITE COMPANY
• Bolden Brace joined some elite company last season when he became the 18th player in Colonial Athletic Association history to record a 40-point game
• He also became just the eighth player to achieve the feat during a conference game
• Brace's 40 points were one shy of the Huskies' school record 41 points set by Reggie Lewis (vs. Siena, Feb. 19, 1986) and then by J.J. Barea (vs. Stony Brook, March 5, 2005) 
 
 

Pts	Name (Team)	Opponent	Date
50	David Robinson (Navy)	Michigan	3/12/87
45	Alex Loughton (ODU)	Charlotte	12/6/03
45	David Robinson (Navy)	Kentucky	1/25/87
45	David Robinson (Navy)	JMU	1/10/87
44	David Robinson (Navy)	Drexel	1/21/87
43	David Robinson (Navy)	Michigan St.	11/29/86
42	Davon Usher (Delaware)	CofC	2/5/14
42	Kent Culuko (JMU)	Rutgers	12/22/93
42	Carlos Yates (G. Mason)	Navy	2/27/85
41	Gary Neal (Towson)	Samford	11/16/06
41	Willie Taylor (VCU)	Evansville	12/22/00
41	Dave Skaff (G. Mason)	Catholic	2/23/81
40	Bolden Brace (NU)	Elon	2/23/17
40	Denzel Bowles (JMU)	Towson	2/15/11
40	Charles Jenkins (Hofstra)	Binghamton	12/8/10
40	Gary Neal (Towson)	JMU	1/7/06
40	Anton Gil (E. Carolina)	W&M	1/9/94
40	Brian Gilgeous (American)	Mount St. Mary's	2/17/93

 
INTO THE HALL OF FAME
• The men's basketball program added another former student-athlete into the Northeastern Hall of Fame this season in 2011 graduate Chaisson Allen
• Allen finished his Northeastern career on the All-CAA First Team in his junior and senior seasons while also finding a spot on the CAA All-Rookie team in 2008
• In addition he was honored twice by the National Association of Basketball Coaches on the All-District First team in 2010 and the All-District second team after his senior season
• A three-time CAA All-Defensive team honoree, Allen finished his career second on the career steals list with 232 behind just Northeastern Hall of Famer Andre LaFleur
• Allen led the Huskies in dishing out assists in each of his four seasons on campus finishing his time on Huntington Ave. fourth all-time in assists (430) and (at the time) ninth in scoring (1,550)
 
OUT WITH THE OLD....
• Following the 2016-17 season, the Huskies saw the departure of three letterwinners including the team's top-two pointgetters in CAA Player of the Year T.J. Williams and Alex Murphy
• Williams, who finished the 2016-17 season as the CAA's leading pointgetter averaged 21.4 ppg, a mark that also ranked 13th in the country, 4.7 rpg and 5.3 apg
• Along with his Player of the Year accolades, Williams would go on to earn USBWA All-District, First Team NABC All-District and AP Honorable Mention All-America honors
• Murphy was the team's second-leading point-getter averaging 14.0 ppg and a team-leading rebounder pulling down 5.8 rpg in his lone season with the Huskies
• The Huskies will also be without role player Jimmy Marshall, who saw action in 29 games last season and shot 41.1 from the field
 
...IN WITH THE NEW
• However, the Huskies added five new names to the squad in the offseason adding four freshmen along with a tranfer in former-George Washington guard Jordan Roland
• Northeastern's freshman class is comprised of guard Derrick Cook (Langston Hughes (Ga.)), guard Myles Franklin (Villa Park (Calif.)), forward Tomas Murphy (Northfield Mount HErmon (Mass.)) and forward Jason Strong (Westminster Academy (Fla.))
• The four incoming Huskies hail from four different states and combined for four state championships and an appearance in the National title game during their high school careers
• Three of this year's incoming freshmen are coming to Northeastern fresh off of state championship titles
• Freshman Tomas Murphy is the younger brother of former Husky Alex Murphy who played for Northeastern last season
 
SOME OLD-BUT-NEW FACES
• The Huskies have added a pair of old, but new faces to the staff this season in Manny Adako and Danny Young
• Young joins Northeastern as the Director of Basketball Operations after serving as a manager for the Huskies from 2011-15, round out his senior year with a CAA Championship
• Adako is a former letterwinner for the Huskies and returns to his alma mater after a seven-year professional basketball career that took him to countries like Holland, Egypt, Qatar and Dubai
• He joins the Huskies as a graduate manager