At this point, there’s no quick fix.
The flow of Terrier games, save a few contests, has been painfully repetitive – fall behind by double-digits, claw back to within five midway through the second half before collapsing down the stretch.
A staunch defense that’s been the staple of a Dennis Wolff-run team has struggled to find fluidity; post players haven’t been grabbing crucial or even standard rebounds and sharp-shooting guards have missed their mark. While all three of those aspects haven’t combined to handcuff the Terriers at the same time, they’ve been occurring far too often to prevent a second-consecutive campaign of sub-.500 basketball.
The Boston University men’s basketball team isn’t where it wants to — or should — be. Wolff has tried shaking up the lineup based solely on effort in practice, and also emptying his bench for the final two minutes of an embarrassing loss to Binghamton University — in essence sending a message to his starters — but to no avail. Even though every player on the roster is now healthy, Wolff still described the team as “disjointed.”
“We take one step forward, and then we take one step backward,” he said. “That would sum up the entire season to this point. And until we stop doing that, we’re not going to consistently play well.”
Playing seven of the last eight games on the road hasn’t helped the situation, especially when the lone safe-haven for BU has been Case Gymnasium.
Three of the Terriers’ four wins have come at The Roof, including their most recent memorable performance — an 82-72 win over the University of New Hampshire. Tonight BU (4-11, 1-2 America East) returns home against the University at Albany (7-9, 2-2) in a rematch of last year’s America East Semifinal. The Great Danes won 62-52 and advanced to the NCAA tournament after beating the University of Vermont in the conference championship.
Revenge, though, is on the backburner. Displaying a brand of basketball that both the coaching staff and players know to be possible is the objective.
One of the Terriers’ most glaring problems has been a lack of consistent post play — perhaps the most disturbing example coming in BU’s most recent loss to the University of Hartford. Forwards Scott Brittain, Max Gotzler, Ibrahim Konate and Valdas Sirutis combined for three rebounds (two by Brittain) in 42 minutes of action. Wingmen/small forwards John Holland and Matt Wolff had 20.
“The main area I’m disappointed in is what’s going on with our post players,” coach Wolff said. “The four of them played about 40 minutes on Saturday and they got three rebounds. It’s ridiculous.”
That’s not to say Holland and Wolff shouldn’t be rebounding the ball, but more production from the bigs on the defensive glass would translate to even more scoring opportunities — a necessity for a struggling team.
“The other breakdowns that we continue to have defensively and rebounding — if we don’t eliminate those, we’re not going to win,” Wolff said.
BU is getting out-rebounded by an average margin of 2.3, and is 2-7 when its opponent wins the battle of the boards. Rebounding won’t get any easier tonight. Albany boasts the top rebounding defense in the league and 6-foot-8 forwards Brent Wilson and Brian Connelley average 5.9 and 5.6 rebounds per game, respectively.
“I’ve been here a long time, and we’ve had a couple stretches where we haven’t been as aggressive and tough around the basket as I would like,” Wolff said. “You kinda have to work your way through. We recognize that the strength of our team is going to be our perimeter play.”
However, due mainly to injuries, BU hasn’t been able to lean on its long-range shooting talent to lock-up victories. Rather, the Terriers’ expectedly prolific attack ranks last in the conference in scoring offense (61.1) and scoring margin (-7.2). The Terriers are also second-to-last in 3-point field goal percentage (.307). Granted they attempt far more 3’s than the majority of teams in the league, but still are nowhere close to their third-place efficiency of .360 in 2006-07.
Sophomore guard Corey Lowe (18.5 points per game), has been the Terriers’ most consistent perimeter shooter and leading scorer, and Holland impressed with his first career double-double (11 points, 12 rebounds) against Hartford on Saturday.