Great expectations for BU in America East play

Patrick Chambers and his Boston University men’s basketball team don’t need any added pressure to win the America East conference title this season.
The Terriers’ 21-win campaign in 2009-10, their appearance in last year’s AE championship game and their semifinal showing in the third-annual College Basketball Invitational brought unfair expectations for this young, unproven squad.

Being tabbed as the favorite in the AE preseason coaches’ poll for the fourth straight year doesn’t make things any easier.

“I keep it simple and tell them, ‘We need to be the best team that we can be by the end of the year,’” Chambers said. “We already put enough pressure on ourselves, so we don’t need any extra. Our goal is to keep working hard every day, create good habits and create an environment that’s intense and similar to a game.

“We’re getting there. We’ve got young guys…They might be able to play 20 minutes. They’re not able, right now, to play 40. I’ve got to play those guys, and if I don’t play them, I’m an idiot…I’ve got to get them ready for the league.”

In his second year patrolling BU’s sidelines, Chambers scheduled a challenging non-conference slate, one that saw the Terriers travel to three different states, take the floor in front of 21,684 spectators at the University of Kentucky’s Rupp Arena and play in other hostile environments such as The Pavilion st Villanova University.

“A lot of people are looking at me like, ‘Why did you do such a tough non-conference? How could you schedule such a thing? You’re gonna lose the confidence of the players,’” Chambers said. “No, I don’t think so. You put them in the most difficult situations now, so whatever situation we happen to come across in the America East, we’re prepared for everything.”

The Terriers have posted an uninspiring 10-16 non-conference record under Chambers’ watch, including a 5-9 mark this season, but this is an afterthought to the 24th coach in program history.

“My goal is not about my record personally,” Chambers said. “My goal is to get this team ready for the America East.”

Frontcourt

Although the Terriers graduated nine seniors last year and have welcomed 11 new faces to the squad, the frontcourt has undergone surprisingly few changes. Of those nine graduated seniors, only one, Valdas Sirutis, logged extended minutes in the frontcourt.

BU’s frontcourt features junior forward Patrick Hazel – a transfer from Marquette University – and rookie forwards Morris and Robinson. The newcomers will have the advantage of playing alongside senior forward John Holland, junior forward Jake O’Brien and junior center Jeff Pelage as the Terriers continue AE play.

Holland is the Terriers’ lone senior and their most potent scoring weapon. The offensive juggernaut has been a cornerstone of the BU lineup since he arrived in Boston. Holland hasn’t disappointed this year – he leads the conference in points per game with 19.1 and BU in steals with 28 – but he certainly hasn’t lived up to the lofty expectations of him.

Despite Holland’s ability to dominate, Chambers will be looking for something more out of him during conference play.

“What I want from John is leadership,” Chambers said. “For the last three years, he has always had those guys to kind of protect him…He’s kind of second or third in line there. This year, he’s the focal point.”

Holland will headline a frontcourt that has already struggled with injuries. Three games after Pelage returned to the lineup following a high ankle sprain that kept him out for the first 11 contests, O’Brien and Morris went down with injuries at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. O’Brien is still day-to-day while Morris returned on Jan. 15 against the University at Albany.

Morris has arguably been BU’s top freshman thus far, averaging 4.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. With O’Brien – a tri-captain averaging 11.6 ppg – sidelined, the frontcourt appears thin. Hazel, who leads the team with 32 blocks on the season, and Robinson, who has seen extended minutes of late, will be expected to help shoulder the load in his absence.

Prior to Pelage’s return, Chambers viewed him as the player most vital to his team’s success after Holland and O’Brien.

“He’s a beast,” Chambers said. “He’s a freaking Adonis. He looks great. We need to get him back. I would say [that he is the most vital player to this team after Holland and O’Brien] because he’s the anchor of our defense.”

Since his return, Pelage has averaged 19.8 minutes per game and snagged a team-leading six rebounds per game.

Backcourt

In perfect contrast to the frontcourt, this year’s guard corps is brand spanking new.

Led by junior transfers Matt Griffin and Darryl Partin, the backcourt has the difficult task of replacing Corey Lowe, Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong, all integral parts of last season’s guard unit during AE play.

“[Tyler Morris] was everything,” Chambers said. “But you’ve got to remember, he was 6-foot-2. He was 22 years old. He was a man. He was a man. Fifth-year senior. Even Corey, as much as he turned the ball over, he’s 22 years old. He’s a man. He’s bulky, 6-foot-1, maybe 6-foot-2 on a good day. Carlos Strong was 6-foot-4. They were men.
“D.J. is a freshman. Matt’s tiny. We’ll get ‘em there. We’ve got to mix some things up.”

Throughout BU’s daunting non-conference schedule, the backcourt has proven capable. Partin is second on the Terriers with a season average of 13.7 points per game, Griffin has a team-best .435 shooting clip from beyond the arc and Irving has impressed with his lightning-quick speed, 6.9 ppg and a team-leading 72 assists.
While they have shown flashes of brilliance, the guards have also lacked consistency.

Griffin scored 21 points in BU’s home opener against Marist College behind a 7-of-7 shooting effort from the floor, but his average has dipped to 6.4 ppg.

Irving also looked strong at Northeastern University in the season opener and ran the point like a seasoned vet against the University of Vermont in a Jan. 9 win at Case Gymnasium, but he seemed less sure of himself against George Washington University and Marist.

Partin has either shot lights out – he dropped 32 points on a .714 shooting mark against Cornell University – or had a tough time finding the basket – he managed just three points in BU’s 52-49 loss to Bucknell University on Dec. 4.

If it can find a rhythm, the new-look Terrier backcourt could be well on its way to success.

AE schedule

Three home and three road matches through January and February will lead up to BU’s most attractive conference game of the season: a Feb. 10 tilt against Albany at the Mecca of Basketball, Madison Square Garden.

The 9:30 p.m. bout with the Great Danes under the bright lights of New York City’s premiere venue will be a homecoming of sorts for Holland, a native of the Bronx.
“I was fired up about MSG,” Chambers said. “Anytime you get to play in MSG, you’ve got to do it, and John Holland’s from New York, so I want to do that for him. I’m not sure if he’s ever played in MSG.”

So what conference foe poses the most significant threat to Chambers’ squad?

“I think everybody does, and I’ll tell you why,” Chambers said. “You guys have watched us. We should have beat La Salle [University], and then you come back and play the way you do against Harvard. We should have beat Bucknell, and look at what we did against La Salle.

“We’re on a rollercoaster. That’s what a young team is…Teams just like this, you play hard and you get up or you can get down. We need some consistency because the conference is wide open.”