A mere half hour after the Boston University men’s basketball team’s 75-63 win against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County on Jan. 12 at Case Gymnasium, BU coach Patrick Chambers was already looking ahead to the squads’ next meeting.
‘It’s going to be a battle,’ Chambers said.
The America East Conference standings suggest quite a disparity between the Terriers (10-9, 5-2 AE) and last-place Retrievers (1-18, 0-6), who will meet Sunday in a 1 p.m. contest at Retriever Activities Center in Baltimore, Md. But BU, victorious in three of its first four conference road games, has yet to overlook a lesser opponent during America East play, sporting a 5-0 record against the league’s bottom five squads.
Firmly entrenched in a rebuilding year following the graduation of stars Jay Greene and Darryl Proctor, the Retrievers secured their lone win of the season Dec. 20 at American University. Yet they earned the respect of the Terriers earlier this month at The Roof, trimming a 15-point second-half deficit to six with 6:20 remaining in regulation.
‘They never stopped,’ senior guard Corey Lowe said after the game. ‘We got really comfortable when we were up by 15, then they just kept chipping away and chipping away. Next thing you know, it was a six-point game. We had to snap out of it.
‘That team’s not going to give up. They play hard.’
So too does BU, which lost senior forward Brendan Sullivan to a dislocated left shoulder in the first half of Tuesday’s contest against the University at Albany. Chambers said the walk-on could miss as many as two weeks of game action, another blow to the depth of a team already without senior co-captains Scott Brittain (preseason concussion) and Tyler Morris (broken right hand).
Don’t expect Chambers’ players to make excuses.
‘When we face something like this, when somebody goes down, it’s nothing we’re not ready for and can’t handle as a team,’ junior forward John Holland said. ‘It’s just a matter of having people step up and replace them. Everybody on this team is stepping up and doing their job.’
Holland, sophomore forward Jake O’Brien, Lowe and senior guard Carlos Strong have teamed up to carry Chambers’ reserve-thin squad. In Tuesday’s victory at Agganis Arena, the quartet accounted for all but nine of BU’s 79 points and 15 of its program-record 16 3-pointers.
‘That’s what we’re capable of if we all play up to our potential, and we know that,’ Holland said. ‘We’re just trying to go out there and bring it every day. I think we’re becoming the type of team that works together to live up to our potential and helps each other out. Luckily we were all on our game [Tuesday], but if someone isn’t on their game, we feel we can lift them up.’
‘Those guys want to be the type of players we all envision them to be,’ Chambers said. ‘We just need more consistency out of them.’
Consistency remains an area of improvement for Holland (AE-best 19.3 points-per-game average), who has authored extended stretches of brilliant play this season to affirm his status as one of the premier players in the America East.
‘Every day is just a battle to be consistent and bring it all the time,’ Holland said. ‘I’m still fighting every single day to be the player I’m capable of being. I’m trying to bring it every single day in practice and in games to be the best I can be.
‘It’s a battle, and I guess right now it’s going OK, but you have to keep working every day to stay at that level.’
News & notes: Minus Sullivan, the Terriers will dress just nine players in Sunday’s matinee. ‘We’re playing everybody right now,’ Chambers said. ‘Everybody’s going to get a chance. As long as you’re defending and rebounding, you’re going to get a chance.’ ‘hellip; Sunday marks the start of a three-game road trip for BU, which has played four of its past six contests away from home. The Terriers close the regular season with five of their final seven games at either Agganis or Case.