Coming off of a busy sports weekend in which Northeastern dropped its football program, and Charlie Weis and Steve Kragthorpe secured their respective places in the unemployment line, the one thing that has been continually running through my mind has been the brief BU men’s basketball season and the team’s performance in its early slate of games.
With the men’s hockey team still on its seemingly season-long quest to perplex and frustrate its fans, attention has shifted to basketball as a new era under coach Patrick Chambers has begun for BU. Undoubtedly, a lot changed in the offseason, so the anticipation surrounding this team was certainly merited, but the question has to be asked: how have they done so far?
I would hate to look at what has already been a multi-faceted season from a single perspective, so I’m going to provide some quick reactions on what I am optimistic about and what concerns me with this team. Bear with me here.
– The most significant shift that took place with turning to Chambers to be the head coach came with an overhaul of the offensive philosophy of this BU program. Out went Dennis Wolff’s defensive-minded, half-court offense in favor of an up-tempo, guard-oriented attack. It seemed like many people figured this change would be relatively seamless, but that sort of assumption reveals a fundamental ignorance of the game of basketball because dramatic alterations in a team’s style of play are anything but. There are growing pains that inevitably appear that have to be dealt with.
– One of these growing pains is an increase in turnovers, something that was all-too-evident in BU’s season opener against Iona, a game in which the Terriers turned the ball over 22 times. A faster rate of play can be overwhelming at first, especially for a group of players that had become so accustomed to conservative offensive schemes, something that was very evident in the first couple games of the season. Since that first loss, though, the number of turnovers has gone down in each game, something that hopefully points to an increased level of comfort with Chambers’ fast-paced offense.
– Whether it’s a product of a new offense or not, the Terriers’ shooting woes have to be addressed.’ The team has yet to come out of a game with a field goal percentage higher than 36 percent, something that alarms me far more than anything about this team. What it indicates to me is struggles with shot selection and a group of players that cannot tell a good shot from a bad shot. A team like that will have trouble winning even in a weak conference like America East.
– I was as excited as anyone to get a prized assistant from a solid program like Villanova that features an exciting offense, but one thing that worried me as someone who religiously follows Big East basketball was that Jay Wright’s Wildcat teams have never really been that defensively-sound. Putting up a lot of points sounds great, but if you can’t get to the other side of the court and prevent the other team from scoring, well then you’ve got some problems. Giving up 82 points to a mediocre team like Iona to start the season didn’t quell any of these doubts, but I’ve seen a lot of improvement on the defensive end, even in games against Georgia Tech and Kansas State, where the opposing team reached or passed the 80-point mark. Those games were really more of a testament to a good offense, not the sign of a bad defense.
– Scott Brittain’s importance to this team has never been felt more than it has right now. The lack of a true center who can put up respectable numbers has plagued this team from the start of the season, and Brittain’s absence has left Chambers with a very thin bench, meaning considerable minutes are being logged by the likes of Valdas Sirutis, Jeff Pelage and Sherrod Smith. The bench players haven’t exactly been productive, but to their credit, they go out there and fight hard to try to make things happen. Only problem is when you’re matching up against the likes of Denis Clemente, Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors, that’s usually not enough to prevail.
– The person who has came back from injury and looked very good in limited minutes is freshman guard B.J. Bailey. His three-point, two-rebound performance in six minutes against Indiana gave BU fans a glimpse of what he is capable of, but there’s still a long way to go if BU wants to have a fourth consecutive America East Rookie of the Year.
– John Holland has looked like an absolute stud thus far, averaging 21 points per game to go along with 6.8 rebounds per game, earning him America East Player of the Week. I think Holland, at this point in the season, has separated himself from his teammates and emerged as the team’s unquestioned star.
– Corey Lowe is not a point guard and the sooner we all realize it, the better we may be for it. Lowe is a creator out on the court, but he does much better when he doesn’t have to work for his own shot or have to worry about distributing the ball to teammates, seeing as that is a point guard’s primary responsibility. An assist to turnover ratio of 19-26 screams Greg Oden more than it does Steve Nash. While he may not be suited to play his current position, don’t be too dismayed by Lowe’s slow start- he’s only going to heat up from this point.
– Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong have answered a lot of unsolved questions with their commendable play coming off of season-ending injuries from last year. Hopefully, Morris’ scoring presence and Strong’s rebounding and defense can continue as the season goes on.
– I’ll end on this: don’t let this team’s current 1-4 record fool you. The team has gotten through what has arguably been its roughest stretch of the season in which they had to play some very good teams (Georgia Tech and Kansas State), renowned programs (Indiana), and teams that have proven to be better than their preseason standing (Iona and George Washington). The growing pains of breaking in a new offense and playing tough competition will only help them as conference games approach and as the season rolls on, for this may very well be the kind of team that can justify the preseason hype and make it into the Big Dance.
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