In a year where the conference sports the nation’s only winless team in Binghamton University, it’s not a secret that the America East Conference is among the worst conferences in Division-I basketball.
If anything, it has allowed the Boston University men’s basketball team to continue a recent run of success in the conference portion of its schedule.
After finishing non-conference play 4-10, the Terriers have gone 10-3 in league play, something that is far from an isolated case, as BU has had its way with the conference for the last four seasons.
In that time, in regular season games, the Terriers have gone a total of 22-33 in non-conference games, but have turned things around in America East play, going 44-17.
BU coach Joe Jones noted that the Terriers’ tough non-conference schedule limited their ability to use their bench, something Jones said “hurt us.” Overall, things have changed drastically for BU since starting conference play.
“It seems almost like two separate seasons,” Jones said.
At 14-13, BU has just one non-conference game and three conference games remaining. If the Terriers win out in America East play, finishing 13-3, they would finish with their best conference winning percentage since they went 17-1 in 2004.
More from Morris?
Expectations have been understandably high for Morris since the highly touted recruit committed to BU in 2009. A solid freshman season in which the bulky power forward logged significant minutes for an NCAA Tournament team did little to temper those.
But this season, Morris has not made significant strides for a player who possesses a physique and a skill set that could easily make him a star in the America East Conference. After averaging 5.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game last season, Morris’ numbers have improved, but only slightly to 6.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.
Morris, however, showed signs of improvement in BU’s win over the University of Maine, scoring 13 points and pulling down seven rebounds.
Although the performance came in the absence of standout Maine center Alasdair Fraser, Morris’ aggressive play stood out from his other showings this season, something Jones hopes can continue for the young post player.
“He was a force and they did a good job of getting it to him,” Jones said. “He played very confidently and that’s what we need from him.”
After recording four double-digit scoring games last season, Morris’ game against Maine was just the second time he has scored in double-figures this season.
Irving improving from charity stripe
Captaining the BU offense for much of last season as a freshman, Irving had several standout qualities in his game during his rookie campaign, perhaps none more evident than his excellent free-throw shooting. Irving shot 84.5 percent on free throws last season and at one point he went almost an entire month in America East play without missing a single shot from the charity stripe.
This season, though, has been a different story: Irving has seen his free-throw percentage dip to 67.4 percent. Lately, Irving has returned closer to his vintage form. In the Terriers’ last 10 games, Irving shot 77.7 percent on free throws, a stark contrast to his 62.0 percent number he carried through the season’s first 17 games.
Jones said that for Irving, as well as the team as a whole, free throws will continue to be a point of emphasis and Irving has made necessary changes to his form.
“Collectively, we try to put more time in and I think he went back to shooting them the way he did last year,” Jones said. “For whatever reason, he changed his free-throw shooting and he’s much more comfortable shooting the ball that way.”
Lin-ing Time
As BU worked to improve its standing in the conference rankings over the past couple weeks, much of the basketball world has been enthralled by the pronounced emergence of New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, a movement that’s come to be known as “Lin-sanity.”
But before he starred under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, Lin was a star at Harvard University, which Jones coached against for the entirety of Lin’s collegiate career.
While coaching at Columbia University, Jones went 5-3 against Lin’s Harvard teams with Lin averaging 11.1 points per game in those contests. While he understandably did not expect Lin to become a nationwide phenomenon, he saw potential in Lin’s game from an early stage.
“I don’t think anyone in their right mind would tell you that they saw this coming,” Jones said. “He made a couple of plays against us when I coached at Columbia that were really eye-popping, that you thought, ‘Wow, this guy is really good.’
“Now, did you ever think he’d be able to do some of the things he’s doing right now in the NBA? No, but he definitely did a couple of things back then that caught your attention.”
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