Nothing like getting thrown right into the fire.
The Boston University men’s basketball team starts its season with a bang tonight on national television when the Terriers play their first-round game of the Preseason National Invitational Tournament against Stanford University at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, Calif.
The game is about as tough as it gets for a program like BU from a mid-major conference like the America East.
Coming off their strongest season in years, which included conference regular season and tournament titles and a trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1997, the Terriers have seriously increased their strength of schedule this season. This new test begins tonight against the Cardinal.
The Terriers enter the game and the season with some of the highest expectations in the history of the program. The team is returning 91 percent of last season’s scoring output and 84 percent of its rebounding total. Junior Matt Turner is also returning from a red-shirted season.
Turner, who was injured early last season against the College of the Holy Cross, will be playing his first game in nearly a year tonight. His absence gave way to the rise of freshman guard Chaz Carr, who, along with Turner, will anchor an explosive run-and-gun offense this season that is hoping to light up the scoreboard. With junior Kevin Fitzgerald filling out the backcourt, the Terriers should have a three-man rotation in the back better than any team in the America East.
The team is led up front by senior Billy Collins, junior Jason Grochowalski and junior Ryan Butt. Collins, a first-team all-conference selection in 2001-2002, was second on the team in scoring with 12 points a game while also pulling down eight boards per contest. The 6’8′ Butt takes over for departed senior Nacho Rodriguez in the middle and could receive help up front from 6’10’ red-shirt freshman Matt Czaplinski.
While the Terriers were a unanimous selection to finish this season at the top of the conference, at least according to last week’s coaches’ poll, Stanford is most decidedly not in the America East.
Stanford, a perennial power in the Pacific-10 Conference and in the nation, is at a loss this season to replace Curtis Borchardt and All-American guard Casey Jacobsen, both of whom left Stanford for the NBA after their junior year. Borchardt ranked third in the nation in rebounding, and Jacobsen is third on the school’s scoring list after playing only three years.
Even with the loss of Borchardt and Jacobsen, Stanford is still a big basketball program with big basketball tradition in a powerful basketball conference. The Cardinal are led by a strong returning backcourt consisting of senior Julius Barnes and sophomore Josh Childress. They will lead a team that is coming off a 20-10 campaign in 2001-2002, a second place finish in the Pac-10 and a school record eight straight trips to the NCAA Tournament. Barnes is the leading returning scorer at nearly 11 points per game last year, and Childress is coming off a strong freshman season averaging 7.8 points per game, mostly off the bench.
The biggest question mark for Stanford seems to be replacing the seven-foot, 230-pound Borchardt in the middle. Right now, that job seems to be in the hands of 6’10’ sophomore Rob Little, who played in 30 games last year but started just one.
Tip-off for tonight’s game is scheduled for 9:15 Eastern Time on ESPN2. If the Terriers are able to pull off the upset, they will face the winner of tonight’s game between St. Peter’s College and Xavier University on Wednesday night. A Stanford win pushes the Terriers’ next game back to Saturday in their home-opener against Columbia University at Case Gymnasium.
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