From returning stars to promising underclassmen to those who don’t even suit up on the field or court, from the cozy confines of Agganis Arena to brisk fall evenings at Nickerson Field, here are seven people to keep an eye on this year in Boston University athletics:
- Men’s basketball head coach Joe Jones
Jones may not be a BU athlete, but there will be no other person watched more closely than him. When former head coach Patrick Chambers left the program in early June for Penn State University, it left a promising program without its energetic young leader, naturally prompting the question – who would continue Chambers’ work? Weeks later, the announcement was made that Jones, the Boston College associate head coach, would be that man.
He inherits an NCAA Tournament team that returns all but one player (star forward John Holland) and scored his first victory as the BU head coach by retaining the entire roster and a respectable two-man recruiting class. Jones went 86-108 in seven seasons as the head coach at Columbia University, but don’t draw too much from that record, given the program’s history of ineptitude. With a talented roster and supportive administration, it’s time to see what Jones can accomplish.
2. Men’s hockey forward Charlie Coyle
Far and away the most talented player on the Terrier hockey roster, Coyle will look to build on a promising freshman season, one partially overshadowed by BU’s shortcomings on the ice last season. The 28th overall pick of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, Coyle provided dynamic play for the BU offense, scoring seven goals and 26 points en route to capturing the Hockey East Rookie of the Year.
The Terriers figure to be a favorite in a conference decimated by several key players graduating and Coyle will play a prominent role in deciding the fortune of this team. Enjoy him while you can, though – over the summer, Coyle’s rights were traded from the San Jose Sharks to the lowly Minnesota Wild, a team that may need the East Weymouth native sooner rather than later.
3. Men’s basketball point guard D.J. Irving
The Terriers return two of their top scorers in guard Darryl Partin and forward Jake O’Brien, but no player on the roster has more potential or a brighter future than Irving, the type of player to whom the word ‘quick’ doesn’t do full justice. The Philadelphia-area point guard quickly took over as the starting floor general early in the season – as a freshman – and went on to average eight points and 3.6 assists per game, earning all-AE Rookie honors.
Most importantly, in the most pressure-filled situation of the season, Irving showed his poise in the Terriers’ 72-53 loss to the University of Kansas in the NCAA Tournament when he scored 11 points and dished out six assists. Look for the upperclassmen composure that Irving displayed in the Big Dance to carry over into next season
4. Women’s hockey forward Marie Philip-Poulin
The term “phenom” is thrown around a lot in this day and age, often incorrectly so, but Poulin is just that. She’s one of the top prospects in women’s hockey and entered her freshman season on Commonwealth Avenue with hype – albeit not on a John Wall or Terrelle Pryor level — but expectations were high for the most heralded recruit in the program’s young history.
Poulin more than lived up to her lofty billing, scoring 24 goals and 47 points, all while helping lead the Terriers to the national championship game. Now entering her sophomore season, Poulin, along with fellow standout forward Jenn Wakefield, will look to lead the women’s hockey team back to the Frozen Four, this time with the collective attention of the BU faithful fully on a team that looks to be the school’s best.
5. Men’s soccer midfielder Ben Berube
Coming into last season, much of the talk surrounding the men’s soccer team focused on the goal-scoring ability of forward Aaron O’Neal and the highlight reel-worthy midfield play from Michael Bustamante, but as the games added up and the season progressed, no single player was more critical to the team’s success than Berube.
Starting the season at outside midfield, Berube quickly started to show a scoring acumen that utilized his blazing speed and ignited the BU offense, leading to a breakout season concluded with eight goals and five assists. Expect Berube to lead a strong core of returning players on a team that should contend for an AE title under the strong leadership of head coach Neil Roberts.
6. Women’s basketball guard Chantell Alford
Seemingly a dominant presence on the court from the moment she arrived at BU, Alford will look to build off a successful first two years that wouldn’t even constitute a career for most. Averaging 15 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, numbers that helped her capture the AE Player of the Year as a sophomore, Alford led the Terriers to a 12-4 mark in AE play.
Despite her decorated play thus far in her career, Alford still has room for growth, and the fact that BU fell a game short of the NCAA Tournament should only motivate her and her team — one that returns most of its key players from last season — to get even better.
7. Lacrosse attack Danielle Etrasco
Head coach Liz Robertshaw and the BU lacrosse team may have suffered through one of the most disappointing seasons in the program’s recent history, but Etrasco was the opposite of underwhelming, lighting up the scoreboards with 57 goals in 2011, 28 more than the team’s second-leading scorer.
She netted four game-winning goals and single-handedly out-scored the University of Vermont with nine goals on April 30, both of which were among the many reasons she was named the AE Co-Player of the Year. And to top off her banner season, Etrasco earned a spot on the U.S. national lacrosse team as one of only five rising juniors on the roster.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
