Dennis Wolff didn’t mince words.
Yesterday, for one of the first times all season, he mentioned a tournament not being played in Vestal, N.Y. at Binghamton University’s Events Center.
“I think that we can finish second [in America East]. And to be honest with you, I think we can go to the NCAA Tournament,” Wolff said.
And why shouldn’t he?
The Boston University men’s basketball team has transformed itself from a potential league bottom-feeder to a squad that’s capable of winning the conference’s automatic bid. The Terriers are the second-hottest team in the league behind the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, which has already clinched the regular season title and won eight straight. BU’s only defeat over its last eight games came against UMBC — a slugfest decided by three points in Baltimore.
In a reversal of fortune from the first half of the year, virtually everything is going BU’s way.
Each player is as healthy as they’ve been all season, the Terriers boast the league’s best scoring defense, six of BU’s last seven wins have been highlighted by a positive assist-to-turnover ratio — including a season-low eight giveaways against St. Peter’s College last Saturday, freshman John Holland garnered his fourth straight America East Rookie of the Week award and sophomore guard Corey Lowe (18.1 ppg, 3.36 apg) is playing the best basketball of his college career.
The laundry list of positives could continue for pages, right down to walk-on Tunde Agboola scoring his first career collegiate basket against Binghamton University two weeks back. But tonight at 7 p.m., when the second-place University of Hartford (15-14, 9-5) visits Case Gymnasium for BU’s final home game of the regular season, optimism and campus buzz alone won’t be enough to vault the Terriers into a tie for second with one game remaining.
It’ll bank on BU’s cohesiveness — on both sides of the basketball. The Terriers (12-15, 8-6) are allowing 64.4 points per game. Hartford? Just the opposite, spotting opponents a league-worst 74.9 points – a full three points higher than the next-worst defense.
Offensively, the Terriers are finding what works and sticking with it. Players are no longer reluctant to make the extra pass or force bad shots. No better example of this comes than when watching BU run the fastbreak, as multiple times — instead of trying to dazzle with an athletic move to the hoop — a simple bounce pass leads to a guaranteed score.
The selflessness has trickled down through all aspects of the team, and the fact that crowd-pumping dunks by Holland are being built upon a foundation of things like stout defense from junior co-captain Matt Wolff, low-post buckets by sophomore Scott Brittain and the constant intensity of redshirt sophomore co-captain Tyler Morris, are what’s making this team go.
It’s been roughly two years since BU has been able to produce at such an efficient level. Last season was riddled with the inability of Lowe, Morris and sophomore Carlos Strong — who Wolff said looked “way better than he’s played” in practice this week — to overlap their most efficient efforts. Every time one or two of them got hot, the third would inevitably struggle.
That’s not to say all the trio hasn’t struggled this year, but across the board, the Terriers’ roles have become more defined, which has led to productive play, and the hot streak.
BU lost to the Hawks Jan. 12 by nine in the second conference game of the season. It was the Terriers’ worst shooting performance of the year from beyond the arc, as the team combined to go 2-of-27. The Hawks weren’t reluctant to shoot the 3, either, as they went 5-of-24 from long-distance. In fact, UH has attempted the 16th most triples in the nation.
Hartford enters tonight’s action well-rested following a weeklong layoff after losing to the University of Vermont. Sophomore Joe Zeglinski ranks fifth in the conference in scoring (16.2 ppg), while big man Warren McLendon is averaging 12.2 and 4.9, respectively. The 6-foot-6, 250-pound forward scored 12 when BU and Hartford clashed at Chase Arena, perhaps due to the fact that Brittain was limited to 10 minutes because of foul trouble.
Rookie Morgan Sabia is having an outstanding season for the Hawks, averaging 10.6 points per game, and is easily one of the top freshmen in the conference. The San Anselmo, Calif. native led his team with 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the floor (3-of-4 from beyond the arc) the last time he faced BU.
“Zeglinski and Sabia are their two best guys that you’ve got to deal with,” Wolff said. “They create problems size-wise, because of the way they play on offense.”
Sabia, University of New Hampshire freshman Alvin Abreu and Holland are all fighting for the Rookie of the Year award, and each is valuable to their team in different ways. Which frosh performs better tonight may not only move their respective team closer to the coveted second spot, but also the battle for AE hardware.
“Sabia’s had a good year and he’s a good player,” Wolff said. “But John’s had a way better year in my estimation.”
