The Boston University men’s basketball team had better get a good glimpse of Boston while it can.
The Terriers won’t be seeing much of their home city anytime soon, as they embark upon a stretch with five of their next seven games on the road, beginning with a match-up at the University of New Hampshire tonight.
“It’s not like we have any tremendous homecourt advantage,” said BU coach Dennis Wolff, who is 4-7 on the road this season. “It’s no factor at all. We’re used to it and we’ll prepare like any other game.”
BU cruised to a 67-46 victory against the Wildcats in their first meeting of the season, but New Hampshire looks quite different now than it did during the early December contest. The Wildcats, who were 2-5 at the time, have since reeled off five wins in their last seven games, moving the team just a game back of the Terriers in the America East standings.
“I think it will be significantly different,” Wolff said. “I think they’re playing way better. They’ve played a very tough schedule and improved. I think it’s going to be a much harder-fought game this time.”
Despite having won three straight before losing to the University of Maine over the weekend, the Terriers need a win to avoid falling back to .500 in conference play with only six games remaining. They will need to shake off any ill effects from their last-second loss against Maine, in which the team squandered an eight-point lead by going over six minutes without scoring to open the second half.
To bounce back, BU will need to rectify the poor shooting that plagued the club both from the field and from the line on Sunday and even throughout its three-game win streak. The Terriers have now shot below 40 percent in three of their last four games and have cracked 50 points only once in that stretch.
“We’re the type of team because of the makeup of our roster right now, we’re getting the ball inside and guys are getting the foul,” Wolff said. “If we don’t finish the play with either a layup or making our foul shots, then it’s a wasted trip down the floor.”
Perhaps the key for the Terriers in overcoming their shooting woes is freshman Corey Hassan, who will be returning to his home state to play for the first time in his collegiate career. The New Hampshire native who has scored only two points in two games since draining a game-winning shot against the University of Vermont, had a breakout game with 18 points and six 3-pointers in BU’s first meeting with the Wildcats.
“You have to just gradually get your rhythm back when you’re struggling a bit as he has been,” Wolff said.
Helping open up Hassan’s outside shot will be senior co-captain Kevin Gardner, whose two straight double-doubles earned him Player of the Week honors in the America East.
Gardner is leading the team this season with 12.1 points and 7.5 rebounds a game, though he has stepped it up even more as of late, averaging a double-double since returning from an injury that kept him sidelined against Stony Brook University two weeks ago.
Yet Gardner cannot do it alone, as evidenced by the team falling to Maine despite his 16 points and 10 boards.
“I think what we need to have is have a bunch of the other guys step up,” Wolff said. “We’ve had different guys on different nights, but we haven’t had anyone step up consistently.”
The upcoming road stretch will be vital for the Terriers, who were tied for third place in the America East and just one and a half games out of first heading into last weekend’s play. But the loss puts BU in danger of falling into the middle of the pack with a defeat tonight, which would make things difficult with only six games left to play.
Yet with games still remaining against conference-leading University at Albany and second-place Binghamton University, the Terriers are still very much in control of their own fate.
“There’s not a whole lot of difference between any of the teams,” Wolff said. “I think the group of kids that plays the hardest and stays into whatever their coach is trying to do has the best chance to win it.”