Their careers with the Boston University men’s basketball team may be winding down, but seniors Kevin Fitzgerald and Ryan Butt said they are focused on capping their years as Terriers with a successful final season.
“Right now, I’m not trying to think about it that much,” Fitzgerald said Tuesday. “I’ll probably wait until the end of the season to reflect back on it. I just want to finish this season strong and make sure that we, hopefully, go into the playoffs in first place.”
“If you get caught looking ahead at games, sometimes you get caught up in that kind of trap,” Butt said. “I’m just trying to focus on the games one at a time.”
The next focus on the schedule for Fitzgerald, Butt and the rest of the Terriers (15-4, 9-1 America East) is a trip to Durham, N.H. tonight to take on the University of New Hampshire (5-15, 1-9) at Lundholm Gymnasium. The Wildcats are tied for last place in the conference and have lost four straight games.
“They’re at the bottom of the conference, but it’s also a tough place to play up there,” Fitzgerald said. “Right now, we’re one game behind [the University of] Vermont, and we can’t afford to slip up in any games.”
Undoubtedly, Vermont has become and will continue to be the Terriers’ main focus for the rest of the season. In the most recent CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll, Vermont sits at No. 15 and BU at No. 25. And if BU is to jump ahead and regain first place before the America East Tournament, there is a good chance it will have to win its final eight games, including a date in Burlington on Feb. 15.
Before that day comes, however, the Terriers have to follow Butt’s mindset and not look ahead.
“We’re aware of where we are currently in the standings,” said BU coach Dennis Wolff Tuesday. “We’re aware of where we are in the scheme of things in regard to trying to get the top seed. But, we’re not overly caught up in it to the point that we would be looking past any game.”
With that said, the Terriers will try to avoid the type of game they played on Jan. 2 when the Wildcats visited Case Gymnasium in the season’s conference opener. BU got off to a slow start in the first half that night and even trailed after halftime, but Matt Turner’s 14 second-half points pushed the Terriers to a five-point victory.
“The time that you play different teams and where games fall on the schedule sometimes has an impact,” Wolff said. “We were coming off the heels of the [University of] Michigan win on a weekend when nobody was here and it was right after the first of the year. I don’t think it was a case of us playing poorly. I think [New Hampshire] played pretty well.”
Wildcat forward Craig Walls scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the teams’ first meeting of the season. The junior is also second in the conference in rebounding.
Walls dropped 19 on Jan. 2, but his teammates combined to score just 32. New Hampshire is eighth in the league in scoring (61 points per game) and ninth in shooting (41 percent). BU’s defense has held most teams in check in conference play, and tonight should be no different.
While Fitzgerald and Butt said they are only concentrating on the next game and what’s left of their final season, Wolff, who played at Louisiana State University and the University of Connecticut, said he thinks his seniors are starting to think about their BU careers.
“There’s a whole range of thoughts that come into your mind,” Wolff said. “I’m sure they’re beginning to reminisce about all the games played … It can lead to conflicted emotions. We’ve tried to work to have them just enjoy the end of it.
“If they go about it that way, which I think they all have done, then they’re going to play well and help us as a group.”
Butt said the Terriers need to continue to be aggressive on defense and share the ball on offense in a game BU must win to keep itself in position for a shot at first place.
“If we want to have the season that we want, we definitely have to win [Wednesday] night,” Butt said.
For Butt, Fitzgerald and the other Terrier seniors, it’s all about what’s happening now. But in the end, it sounds like only an America East Championship will suffice.