The 2009-10 Boston University men’s basketball season may still be underway, but it is not too early to look at what next season has in store for the Terriers. BU basketball fans may think that with the graduation of nine seniors, including guard Corey Lowe, forward Carlos Strong and guard Tyler Morris, next year’s team will see a drop in talent.
BU coach Patrick Chambers, however, told The Daily Free Press in a pre-season interview that it might very well be possible for next year’s team will be even better than the current team.
During his welcome-to-BU press conference, Chambers said he would focus much of his recruiting efforts on his hometown of Philadelphia, and he has stayed true to his word, as six of his seven recruits for the 2010-11 season are natives of either the Philadelphia suburbs or the city itself.
In early October, Chambers received verbal commitments from three highly touted seniors and classmates from Friends’ Central School, just outside of Philadelphia. One of these soon-to-be Terriers is 6-foot-8, 230-pound power forward Dominic Morris. According to ESPN.com, Morris has a Scouts Grade of 86 and is ranked 92 among all power forwards in his class.
Some context: sophomore forward Jake O’Brien, a starter for the Terriers and the 2009 America East Rookie of the Year, had a Scouts Grade of 40. In addition, AE first-team junior forward John Holland had a Scouts Grade of 73. While one should not dwell on rankings alone, BU basketball fans cannot ignore the skill level and upside that Morris brings to the table.
Morris, who lives near Villanova University, had watched the Wildcats’ up-tempo offensive style when Chambers was an assistant coach at the university. For Morris, it was important that Chambers bring to BU some of the same traditions he learned during his years at Villanova, which culminated in the 2009 NCAA Final Four.
“The fact that he came from “Nova and was planning on bringing the “Nova tradition to BU,” Morris said when asked why he wanted to play for Chambers. “I was getting the “Nova experience without going to “Nova. I also got to see how real of a person Pat was and how he treated the players that were already there once he took the job.”
It is a testament to Chambers as a coach and recruiter that he was able to secure a player with Morris’ skill level. Going to the same college and playing collegiate basketball with high school teammates Travis Robinson and Henry Gaskins, also recruits for BU, also appealed to the Philadelphia native.
“I chose BU because I get to go to school with my two best friends,” Morris said. “It’s a school known for academics. Its basketball program is in a rebuilding stage along with a new hungry head coach.”
Morris has the strength and size to become a dominant force down low in the AE Conference, a league not known for the strength and size of its big men to say the least. ESPN scouting reports that Morris is not shy in using his body in the paint in order to get to the hoop.
“This wide body does a great job in close to the rim,” ESPN wrote in its evaluation of Morris on its men’s basketball recruiting page. “The combination of attributes that would make him an outstanding Mid-Major power forward includes great hands and feet. Mr. Morris should become an enforcer on defense and a low post scoring threat for a championship caliber team in a conference like the MAAC on the east coast.”
What ESPN failed to touch on was Morris’s leadership ability and hard-working nature.
“My leadership and my toughness are going to help the BU basketball team,” Morris said. “In practice my teammates may hate me because I am going to push them as well as myself just to bring the best out of everyone. I am a hard worker, that’s what I do, day in and day out.”
In his final two years at Friends’ Central School, Morris helped his team win one Friends’ Schools League championship and two straight Pennsylvania Independent School state titles. As a senior he averaged 10.4 points per game and 6.9 rebounds per game.
Morris used his last year of high school basketball to improve upon several aspects of the game, specifically his defensive footwork and becoming more explosive when elevating off the ground against bigger defenders.
Morris’ emotional and aggressive style of play will mesh well with Chambers’ impassioned coaching style. The former Villanova assistant promised BU a team that would not be afraid to dive for loose balls and do the dirty work for the betterment of the team.
“His game is a bit of a throwback to the time when the big bodies banged around in the paint,” ESPN wrote of Morris. While he may not be as offensively oriented as Holland, Morris has the ability to use his big body to get down low in the paint, post up players and put in the so-called “garbage points.”
The Terriers finished the season ranked seventh in the AE in defensive rebounds. Their struggle to rebound was most apparent in their recent loss to the University of Vermont in the conference championship game. The Catamounts out-rebounded the Terriers 32-25, a score which included 18 boards by senior forward Marqus Blakely. Morris’s size down low should certainly help improve BU’s defensive rebounding next season, while helping to give them more second chances on the offensive end of the court.
“He has a great nose for the ball and rebounds well in and out of his area,” said ESPN.com Recruiting Coordinator Reggie Rankin on the site’s page on BU recruiting. “Dominic has a great basketball body and can be a physical presence on the block when needed. He’s also a very good defensive rebounder.
Offensively, Morris is more than just an inside-the-paint player. “Dominic is a skilled power forward who runs the floor well and possesses good hands,” Rankin continued. “He scores with a nice looking face-up jump shot out to the 3-point line and in the post with a jump hook.”
Morris is the type of player who excels when he is pushed to his limits. Looking back upon his two years at Friends’ Central School, he said he is appreciative of how hard head coach Jason Polykoff and assistant coach John Timms pushed him during practices.
“They push me to the max, to the point to where I am mad,” Morris said. “That’s when I perform best, when I am mad.”
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