Catch me if you can

After a promising first season, speedy point guard D.J. Irving is ready for stardom

Lounging back in a booth at T. Anthony Restaurant on an overcast, non-descript Veterans’ Day in 2009, then-Boston University men’s basketball head coach Patrick Chambers could not get his mind off a certain thing.

It wasn’t his team’s first game of the season that Friday at Iona College, the game that would not only mark the beginning of Chambers’ tenure at BU, but also the start of his head coaching career. Nor was his brain wrapped around a heralded pair of recruits – Dominic Morris and Travis Robinson of Friends’ Central High School outside Philadelphia – who had just committed to BU about a week before.

Rather, on this day, all Chambers could think about was a speedy high school senior about six hours south in Chester, Pa.

“We’ve got this point guard coming in next year, from Philly, who is lightning,” he said with a pronounced emphasis on the last word. “This kid is going to be a star one day in this league, I can guarantee that.”

Roughly two years later, and with Chambers now the head coach at Penn State University, the faceless, ambiguous “lightning” that Chambers spoke of that day is now well-known across campus and the America East Conference by a different name – D.J. Irving.

After riding his trademark speed through a productive freshman season, Irving is now ready to make the next step in his career and turn that promising rookie campaign into a breakout role on a team fighting to make it back to the NCAA Tournament.

With many looking toward Irving as a key player on a possible conference championship team in just his second year, the sophomore point guard is just fine with the proverbial bar that has been set for him.

“I like the high expectations – I feel like I have to live up to it,” Irving said. “I can’t wait [for the season]. I’ve been working hard in the gym to get ready, so whatever it brings, I’m going to take it on full stride.”

With high praise from Chambers before he even stepped foot on campus, Irving came to BU as part of a banner seven-player recruiting class, largely from the Philadelphia area, that was assigned with the task of not only filling the void left by an accomplished graduating class, but also with ushering in a new era for the BU basketball program as a whole.

Even from his first game in a Terriers uniform, Irving showed what the hype around his play was about, as he was BU’s second-leading scorer with 14 points and five assists in his first collegiate action in what was a 66-64 loss at Northeastern University.

With that first game serving as a catalyst, Irving became an immediate and consistent presence in the starting lineup and was quickly among the team leaders in points and assists.

Though he noted that the transition to college basketball was difficult at times, even mentioning the increased speed of the game, Irving progressed as the year went on, growing adjusted to the nuances of being a floor general in the rugged world of Division I hoops.

“I think I got more comfortable with the ball, more comfortable with my teammates and knowing what they were going to do, and just knowing what spots to pass them the ball – getting John [Holland] the ball when he needed it, getting [senior guard] Darryl [Partin] the ball when he needed it,” Irving said. “I just think I got more mature over the year.”

Having displayed his talent from the first game of the season, Irving was tested for much of the rest of the year, but never more so than in BU’s final two games.

Riding a 10-game win streak that propelled them from below the .500 threshold to postseason contention, the Terriers secured a spot in the America East Tournament championship, thrusting Irving into a role of team leader in front of a rare sellout crowd at Agganis Arena.

After BU stormed back from a double-digit second half deficit to defeat Stony Brook University, Irving was soon taking the ball up the court on an even bigger stage – the NCAA Tournament.

And with millions across the country watching the Terriers take on one of the game’s most storied programs in the No. 1 seed University of Kansas, the player known to his teammates as “Baby D” was anything but, as Irving scored 11 points and dished out six assists, all while showing the poise of an upperclassmen on the game’s biggest platform.

The pressure of the NCAA Tournament could have been understandably overwhelming for someone who was just a year removed from attending his senior prom at Archbishop Carroll High School, but Irving never had a problem in such a demanding situation.

“I think I perform better in those types of situations,” he said. “I just like the bright lights and when the pressure is on, that’s when I’m at my best.”

Entering the offseason looking to progress after a textbook freshman season, Irving’s plans immediately changed just more than two months after walking off the court at the Bank of Oklahoma Center in Tulsa, Okla., as Chambers accepted the head coaching job at Penn State in early June.

With the man who recruited him to BU now hundreds of miles away, the change was initially hard on Irving, admitting that he was upset to be without someone he referred to as a “father figure.”

Fresh off a successful freshman season, a simple question naturally arose with Chambers roaming a Big Ten sideline – would Irving and other players on the team create a mass exodus and transfer?

When Chambers announced he was leaving, Irving acknowledged that he was thinking about transferring elsewhere, but with a supportive new coach in Joe Jones and a tight-knit team still in Boston, he felt it was ultimately the best decision to stay put.

“When Coach Jones got the job, he came to my house, talked to my family and told me everything he wanted to do with the program, and me and my family felt comfortable with him,” Irving said. “And a big reason why I decided to stay was because of the guys here. The guys that we have, especially in my class, I feel like we’re family, they’re like my brothers, so I couldn’t just leave them hanging like that.”

Irving’s return to the BU basketball program is a welcome one, as the Terriers lost not only their head coach in the offseason, but also their leading scorer as America East Player of the Year John Holland graduated and is now playing professionally in France.

Posting averages of 8.0 points and 3.6 assists per game, Irving, among others, is someone many feel can fill the scoring void left by Holland’s graduation.

Naturally, with great expectations comes heightened responsibility, and Irving has been working hard over the summer to improve on his outside jumper after shooting 30.3 percent from 3-point range last season. It’s a step that Irving feels will elevate his game that much more and force defenders to play on him closer, a strategy that would help utilize his speed.

Thus far, the results have been promising.

“He’s put a lot of time in, so he’s gotten a lot better,” Jones said. “I think his shooting has really improved, his decision-making has always been really good but we want to keep improving on that. It’s taken everyone a little bit of time to adjust to the new style of play and I think he’s done a great job of being open-minded and being better at the things I’ve asked him to get better at.”

But while many look at Irving’s play-making ability paired with a consistent 3-point stroke as a sign of a step toward stardom, Irving doesn’t see it the same way.

While the young floor general does hope that his game continues to progress, he isn’t worried about a dreaded sophomore slump of any kind.

Well, at least if the Terriers can make another deep run into March, Irving is perfectly content just doing what he can to lead his team there.

“I don’t really focus on a sophomore slump and even if I do have one and we win the championship, I’m fine with that,” he said. “ It’s just doing whatever it takes for us to win.”