The Boston University men’s basketball team will look to get a win this Wednesday night at Agganis Arena when it squares off against its fellow Patriot League member, the United States Naval Academy.
This will be just a one-game homestand for the Terriers (8-13, 4-6 Patriot League), who are coming off a two-game road trip, which resulted in close losses to the United States Military Academy and Lehigh University.
The last time these two teams squared off against the Midshipmen (8-14, 4-6 Patriot League), the Terriers pulled out a 70-64 win in Annapolis, Maryland. Sophomore guard Cedric Hankerson had 21 points in the win.
“I thought we played well down there and that we shot the ball really well down there,” said BU coach Joe Jones. “But they got 14 offensive rebounds, and I think that’s a big key. We got to make them miss their first one and rebound the ball.”
The main focus for the Terriers as of late has been on improving defensively, as the squad has given up an average of 84 points per game over its past three games. Jones said he is determined to get his team back to making stops on defense.
“We’ve kind of had to go back and refresh our guys on our principles,” he said. “We got ahead of ourselves a little bit. We spent a lot of time on our opponents’ plays, and once the season starts, you just don’t have a ton of time, because you have two practices and a game and you’re trying not to overdo it.
“We just spent too much time on our opponents’ plays. We can guard sets pretty well, but the deeper it goes into the shot clock, the more mistakes we make, and … when teams just play without using a set, we have trouble just guarding that. We just try to break it down, review, clean up some stuff.”
BU has especially had trouble at the end of games as they have suffered close, late second losses against Lafayette College, Loyola University Maryland and Lehigh (11-10, 5-5 Patriot League).
“We’ve been stressing just having a defensive mentality,” Jones said. “Our mentality is to score. It’s gotten us to 4-6. I’ve tried explaining to them that if they want to change the direction we’ve been going, we have got to get stops. And that’s what we did our first three games. We defended really well, but since then, I can’t even say we’ve been inconsistent. I just don’t think we’ve done a really good job.”
The Terriers will look to play with superb defense against Navy, a team that has shot over 50 percent from the field in its past three games. The Midshipmen are led by Worth Smith at forward and Brandon Venturini at guard, who average 15.7 and 12.6 points per contest, respectively.
“What they do probably better than anybody in the league is that they execute at a really high level,” he said. “They’re getting the shots they want, and they’re making the shots they want, and a lot of their stuff is geared towards getting Smith and Venturini the ball, and those guys do a great job.
“First, we got to be able to guard their initial set. Then if they decide to go to another set, we got to guard that well. Then depending on what they do next, we’ve got to be ready. They’re very patient, they do a good job of screening in their offense, and they know who they are. They really know what they’re trying to do, and we’ve got to be ready for that.”
Nick is currently writing for the Boston Hockey Blog. In the past, he has served as associate sports editor, and has covered men's and women's cross-country, women's soccer, men's basketball, and men's lacrosse for the Daily Free Press. You can keep track of Nick's exciting life by following him on Twitter at @nikfraz14
