I am an interested observer who lives in Beanpot land and to be honest, the Beanpot seems like such a meaningless tournament to much of the country every year.
And as someone who has lived in Massachusetts his whole life, why should anyone care about a Beanpot? I will tell you why:
The Beanpot is somewhat provincial. If you’re not from either Boston University, Boston College, Harvard or Northeastern, you don’t have role in the manifestation of the related events.
Well, unless you’re in the surrounding majority of teams in the PairWise.
Let’s face it. Monday’s championship game between Boston University and Northeastern was as much about the majority of fans that love the schools as it was about the minority of interested observers.
“Yes,” said Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe when asked if he realized what Monday’s loss meant toward his team’s NCAA tournament position. “It wasn’t good.”
The reality is that Monday hurt Northeastern in many ways. It wasn’t simply not capturing the school’s fourth straight Beanpot that was lost. Northeastern now sits on the wrong side of the PairWise bubble, in 17th position, at least two spots from an NCAA at-large bid.
A few days earlier, the Huskies basked in the glow of a win over UMass Lowell that rose them to 14th in the PairWise, comfortably above the bubble of the NCAA electors. Those are the nice moments of the PairWise bubble.
That also shows the volatility of a rankings system like the PairWise.
The other side of the Beanpot felt much better for Boston University on Monday. The Terriers rose to 14th – inside the NCAA tournament bubble. Something not a lot of people saw coming. Raise your hand if you saw any hope for the Terries on December 1 when at that point BU was 43rd in the PairWise and had just lost the club’s flagship game, a contest against Cornell.
Hands down. You’re all liars.
But as we reached Monday and now Tuesday morning, you have to take coach Albie O’Connell at his word. His team has delivered.
“I think there’s more buy-in from the group,” said O’Connell. “Guys are playing for each other more. They’re more concerned with scoring goals that the highlight reel goals. They’re showing up every day in practice.”
This may not be a race to the finish line for any of the Beanpot teams, but for Monday, at least, Boston University had a race to celebrate at the local pub.
