Men’s basketball season preview

Patrick Chambers has heard the questions.

Are you going to win 20 games? Are you going to win the America East? Are you going to the NCAA Tournament?

‘Everybody wants to know the answers,’ Chambers said. ‘I don’t even want to talk about it.’

What the first-year Boston University men’s basketball coach does want to talk about is his team taking short-term strides toward a successful 2009-10 season, one that promises to be as intriguing as any in recent program history.

Tabbed as the favorite in the America East preseason coaches’ poll for the third straight year, the Terriers will have the undivided attention of their opponents this season. They’ll also have a new leader patrolling the sidelines, a man eager to bring out the best in a squad loaded with talent and experience.’

Unfulfilled expectations came to define the end of Dennis Wolff’s 15-year tenure at BU. Despite being picked to represent the America East in the NCAAs the past two seasons, the Terriers did not earn a postseason berth either year. Now the spotlight shifts to Chambers, the former associate head coach of a Villanova University team that advanced to the Final Four last spring.

But Chambers knows that he alone cannot steer BU to its first NCAA appearance since 2002. That responsibility ultimately belongs to his players, a veteran group led by eight seniors.

‘They have to take ownership of the team,’ Chambers said. ‘I’m just trying to guide them. That’s what I keep telling them: ‘Here are the keys. It’s your team. You guys have been here a lot longer than I have. I’ll be the captain of the ship, and when you go astray I’ll pull you back in, but this is your team. You have to lead us. As you go, we go.’

‘They’ve bought into it, and they want to make it happen. They want to do the things I’m asking because they’ve never done it before. Coming from where I came from, going to the Final Four and the Sweet Sixteens and the Elite Eights, they believe that ‘Hey, this guy knows how to get there. Let’s listen.”

Backcourt
Led by senior co-captains Corey Lowe, Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong, BU’s guard corps is its finest asset. Morris and Strong will look to rebound from season-ending knee injuries last year and join forces with preseason all-conference team selection Lowe, the America East’s active leading scorer with 1,334 career points.

Chambers plans to spread the offensive wealth around among his bevy of scoring options.

‘The offense is simple,’ Chambers said. ‘If we defend and rebound, we’re going to push the ball and have a great secondary break that leads into a trail ball screen that will create opportunities for everyone. For Corey, for Tyler, for Carlos, for [sophomore] Jake [O’Brien], everyone will be able to get a touch and everyone will be able to get the shots. I think that’s what’s important.’

The biggest backcourt question mark surrounds the team’s lone freshman, B.J. Bailey. A prized recruit from Mays Landing, N.J., Bailey will aim to overcome rookie growing pains and log quality minutes in a veteran-heavy Terrier lineup.

Frontcourt
Opponents may ignore BU’s big men at their own peril this season. Junior John Holland, a preseason all-conference team honoree, and O’Brien, the reigning America East Rookie of the Year, can each shoot the lights out. But Chambers will also look for both players to score in the paint, along with the Terriers’ only true center, 6-foot-9 sophomore Jeff Pelage.

‘There’s no doubt that we want to drive the ball,’ Chambers said. ‘What that does for us is, when you miss three or four 3s in a row and there’s long rebounds and [the other team] is going off and finishing, at some point you need to stop the bleeding. And how do you do that? Put it inside. You make a layup, you make a dunk, or you get to the foul line.’

An X-factor down low for BU will be the play of senior co-captain Scott Brittain. The forward’s production hinges largely on his health, and he has already missed time this preseason with a minor concussion.

Schedule
It won’t take long for the Terriers to gauge how they stack up against the nation’s elite squads. A non-conference schedule that Chambers considers the toughest in the country begins Friday in New Rochelle, N.Y., where BU opens its season at Iona College.

Following their home opener against George Washington University Nov. 17 at Agganis Arena, the Terriers will travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off, an eight-team tournament that includes No. 5/6 Villanova, No. 22/20 Georgia Tech and the No. 21/22 University of Dayton. BU plays Kansas State University Nov. 19, opposes either Indiana University or the University of Mississippi the following day, and concludes the trip Nov. 22 against an undetermined opponent.

The Terriers’ non-league slate hardly eases up upon their return to Boston, as BU hosts Northeastern University and Harvard University at Case Gymnasium to close out November before its most glamorous non-conference game of the season ‘- a Dec. 2 contest against the No. 12/14 University of Connecticut in Hartford, Conn.’ ‘

‘There’s no rest for the weary,’ Chambers said. ‘We’re going to know a lot about ourselves early on and right away. How are we going to bounce back from certain situations? How are we going to bounce back from adversity? In years past, maybe we put our heads down and lose a couple in a row. This year, as long as we can compete and prepare ourselves for the America East, I think that’s what we’ve got to get out of this non-conference schedule.’

Home dates against Bucknell University (Dec. 6) and Mount St. Mary’s University (Dec. 22) along with road bouts at Marist College (Dec. 12), Dayton (Dec. 29) and an undetermined ESPN BracketBusters opponent (Feb. 20) round out non-league play for the Terriers, who open their 16-game America East schedule Jan. 2 against Stony Brook University at The Roof.

Chambers realizes preseason recognition doesn’t guarantee BU any victories in what he expects to be a competitive America East.

‘It was very nice of the coaches to vote us as the preseason number one,’ Chambers said. ‘That’s something to be said for this tradition and the talent of the players we have here. But we haven’t had Tyler at full strength in a couple years, and we didn’t have Carlos for most of last year. On paper it might look OK, but there’s some very good teams in this league. It’s well balanced, and we’ve got to play hard every game. If we don’t do that, we’re going to be in trouble, especially on the road.

‘We’ve got to be mentally ready, mentally tough, and take all comers.’