They say beating a team three times in one season is one of the most difficult things to do in sports.
The Boston University men’s basketball team (14-13, 9-9 America East) will find out just how difficult tomorrow when it takes on the University of Maine in the quarterfinals of the America East Championships in Newark, Del.
It will be the third meeting this season between BU and Maine and the second time the two will play this week. The Black Bears have yet to get the best of the Terriers this year, as BU scraped by Maine at The Roof Sunday, 76-74, after it won, 79-67, at Maine on Dec. 12.
BU’s narrow victory against Maine Sunday secured a first-round bye in the tournament, giving the Terriers one less game to play on the road to the championship. Maine also gained a first-round bye and enters the tournament as the fourth-seed, while BU is No. 5.
After two hard-fought regular season battles in which the Terriers came out on top on both occasions, there will surely be no lack of intensity tomorrow. Aside from any revenge the Black Bears may seek on the Terriers, Maine also lost in the semifinals of the championship last year to the University of Delaware. BU, meanwhile, has not won a conference title since 1997 and recently ended the regular season with three straight wins to give it its first winning record in two years.
All in all, there’s so much motivation between these two squads that someone could bottle it up and sell it.
“It should be one of those typical playoff battles,” said BU coach Dennis Wolff. “We’re very familiar with each other, and I’m sure we’re going to get their best shot.”
Somewhat of a rivalry has developed between BU and Maine this season, especially following Sunday’s game, which saw two technical fouls, including one to Maine coach John Giannini, and in which the players spent nearly as much time on the floor as they did standing up.
BU must account for one factor that was absent Sunday, however — Maine guard Huggy Dye. Dye is one of the most dynamic playmakers in the league and currently ranks No. 15 on the conference-scoring list with 13.2 points per game. His presence tomorrow could give BU quite a bit more to worry about than it had on Sunday. Still, Wolff said he expects the same style of play from the Black Bears and said the Terriers won’t deviate from their normal game plan.
“We’re essentially going to try to do the same thing. I’m assuming Dye will be playing, but we have to be concerned with what we’re doing,” Wolff said. “This week we worked on some of the areas we didn’t do as well in [Sunday] and figured out where we need to improve.”
The Terriers will once again be without the services of freshman forward Ryan Butt, who was lost for the season with a stress fracture in his right foot following a loss at the University of Vermont on Feb. 17.
“We only have nine guys; Butt is still out so we’ve had to go with whoever we’ve had. But [the team] is into it, they’re happy about what they’ve done so far and rightfully so,” Wolff said.
Should BU win tomorrow, it will most likely face No. 1 seed Hofstra University in a semifinal match Sunday. Hofstra is the reigning America East champion, and the Pride will play the winner of tonight’s first-round contest between Vermont and the University of New Hampshire.
But considering the Terriers only need to look back to last Sunday to know what a challenge the Black Bears pose, BU is not looking ahead to a semifinal match just yet.
“Hofstra still has a game to play also, but we’ll worry about that Sunday,” Wolff said. “We have to come prepared for tomorrow.”
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