Basketball, Sports

Men’s basketball faces tough test in No. 1 Kentucky

The Boston University men’s basketball team will continue its five-game road trip against likely its toughest opponent of the season, the No. 1 University of Kentucky, in Lexington, Kentucky, on Tuesday. Facing highest-ranked team in the country means BU will have its work cut out for it.

Senior guard John Papale earned Patriot League Player of the Week honors on Monday. PHOTO BY JUSTIN HAWK/DFP FILE PHOTO
Senior guard John Papale earned Patriot League Player of the Week honors on Monday. PHOTO BY JUSTIN HAWK/DFP FILE PHOTO

The game is a rematch of last season’s regular-season tilt in which Kentucky (4-0) blew out BU (2-2), 89-65. Last year’s Wildcats, however, were loaded with nine former McDonald’s All-Americans, and seven of their players left for the NBA.

That being said, Kentucky coach John Calipari reloaded once again this season, with one of the best recruiting classes in the country.

In addition, the Wildcats brought back sophomore Tyler Ulis and senior Alex Poythress from a Final Four team that lost its only game of the season in a national semifinal against the University of Wisconsin.

The former McDonald’s All-American Ulis is the team’s leader, and is part of one of the best backcourts in the nation. He plays alongside freshman Isaiah Briscoe, who averages 12.7 points per game.

BU will look to senior guard John Papale and sophomore guard Cheddi Mosely to prove it’s up to the task of defending the talented Kentucky guards as well as providing some offensive firepower of their own.

Terrier coach Joe Jones believes not only does his backcourt need to step up, but so does the entire Terriers team.

“On-ball defense is important, but the guys behind them need to take away driving lanes,” Jones said. “They have a great backcourt but we can’t look at it if we take away their guards, we’ll be successful because even if Briscoe has tough game, they have Ulis, [freshman Jamal] Murray and Poythress off the bench. They’re a team of NBA players.”

Kentucky’s most impressive win this season was against fellow powerhouse Duke University, where the Wildcats bested the Blue Devils (4-1) 74-63 in a Madison Square Garden matinee.

For Jones’ team to pull off an upset, he said, it must continue to do what it does effectively: play good team ball, hit threes and play hard at both ends of the floor.

“We have to play hard for 40 minutes,” Jones said. “We need huge plays on the offensive and defensive end with consistency throughout the game. We can’t have three minutes where we don’t play hard, especially against a team like Kentucky.”

The Terriers come off of a narrow victory in Tampa, Florida, when they beat the University of South Florida by a score of 78-66. BU held UCF (0-4) to zero threes the entire game, and while that’s unlikely to happen against a juggernaut such as Kentucky, they must remain aggressive and run their opponents off the line. 

This will be no easy task for the Terriers, but Jones knows Kentucky will get BU’s best.

“The big thing is to be respectful of Kentucky, but we can’t fear them” Jones said. “Last year we played our game and played hard and competed, kept it close with eight minutes left, but that was last year. We’ll be prepared and ready.”

Jones said he doesn’t believe in moral victories, but definitely thinks his team can learn from this matchup no matter the outcome.

“I think you can take something away from every game,” Jones said. “You want to win but you can take things to make you better, like in the [New Jersey Institute of Technology] game. I think last year after our Kentucky game, we had a false bravado and ended up losing two in a row to [University of New Hampshire] and [University of Massachusetts Lowell].

“We learned from last year’s game and became a better team in the end,” he said, “and I expect the same for this year’s game too.”

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