While the rest of Boston University’s student body will be resting over an almost month-long winter break, the men’s basketball team will be putting in plenty of work against tough opponents during those same weeks.
The toughest of those could be the University of Dayton (6-2) on Dec. 29. The Flyers were at one point ranked as high as No. 18 in the nation, but consecutive losses to Villanova University and Kansas State University sent them careening out of the spotlight. UD also needed a last-minute, come-from-behind effort to beat lowly Towson University on Nov. 28.
Despite its recent struggles, Dayton still has six wins to its credit, including a 63-59 victory over Georgia Tech (the Yellow Jackets defeated BU, 85-67, on Nov. 22). The Flyers also return four starters who went to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season ‘-‘- among them, sophomore forward Chris Johnson (14.5 points per game, 7.0 rebounds per game) and junior Chris Wright (14.3, 6.1).
Before facing the Flyers, the Terriers will battle winless Marist College (0-6) and Mount St. Mary’s University (3-6), two teams that shouldn’t provide much of a challenge to round out BU’s non-conference schedule.
Critical matchups await BU at the start of America East play. The Terriers will battle Stony Brook University (6-3) on Jan. 2 in an afternoon game at Case Gymnasium. The Terriers then face two road tests against the University of New Hampshire and the University of Hartford.
Stony Brook has looked solid so far and leads or is second in many of the conference’s statistical categories, including tops in points allowed per game (56.8) and second in scoring offense (67.6).
O’Brien doubles down
Sophomore Jake O’Brien might just be the best thing the Terriers have going for them at this point in the season. He has consistently averaged more minutes than the team’s usual number one, junior John Holland, as exemplified in a 39-minute performance against Bucknell University in which the sophomore was two rebounds shy of recording his third career double-double.
O’Brien has two double-doubles already this season, the first and second of his career. The sudden explosion in rebounds points to one conclusion ‘-‘- O’Brien is improving his play under the basket and off the boards, using his 6-foot-8 frame to his advantage.
His increase in average rebounds has improved, though not too dramatically ‘-‘- he averaged 4.6 last season and has grabbed 6.1 per game this year ‘-‘- but his presence in the paint makes him invaluable to a Terrier team that doesn’t have a player who consistently plays well inside.
That’s not to say that the sophomore doesn’t still take a lot of 3s. Thirty-three percent of his shots this year have been taken from beyond the arc.
However, his interior defense has improved significantly as well. Last season, O’Brien had 29 blocked shots ‘- this season, he has 15 already.
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