It is going to be very important that BU has a clear plan in place to handle the pressure defense that Drake will throw at us. I'm sure that Drake sees that we will have a Freshman PG and 2 other guards on the floor that are not very good ball handlers, and they will likely press, trap, and pressure them accordingly.
Without Ruffin, BU simply can't rely on the point guard dribbling through those traps and presses by himself...Maniscalco has played really well in Ruffin's place, but he does have a bad habit of trying to force his way through too many traps with the dribble...and while that probably worked in HS, it won't consistently work against good defensive D-I teams.
So, I'm hoping that Les has spent a lot of time this week drawing up ways that will allow BU to beat the press/traps without having to do it on the dribble all night long. If they simply inbound the ball to Sam tonight and clear out to let him bring it across on his own, I think we will be in a lot of trouble...However, I would assume that the coaching staff would be very aware of the pressure defense that will be coming tonight and will do whatever they need to do to make sure they don't lay it all on our freshman PG to do it himself.
It will be interesting to see what they have put together...