With 14:51 left in the first half of the Boston University men’s basketball team’s game against Colgate on Feb. 11, freshman guard Cheddi Mosely stole the ball from an opposing player, passed it to junior guard John Papale and ran the floor to get a fast break 3-pointer.
This is the type of play that has come to define Mosely in his freshman season. Mosely may be fifth on the Terriers (12-14, 8-7 Patriot League) in scoring with 9 points per game, but his role within the team is well-defined.
“Right now, I feel like I’m in a happy spot,” Mosely said. “[BU coach Joe Jones] really has trust in me as a freshman, and I’m going to keep showing him that I can play with anybody.”
Of Mosely’s total shot attempts this season, 65.2 percent have come from 3-point range, and he is connecting on 41.5 percent of them, a team high for those who have more than 20 attempts. He also ranks fifth in the Patriot League in 3-point field goal percentage.
Coming out of St. Anthony’s High School in Jersey City, New Jersey, Mosely was the state’s No. 7 prospect, according to NJHoops.com. He received offers to play for College of the Holy Cross and Quinnipiac University, but ultimately decided on BU.
“I chose BU mainly because I fell in love with the city of Boston, and when I came here, Coach Jones made me feel at home,” Mosely said. “He told me that I could have a major impact on the team as a freshman, and the education part of it came into play as well with my parents. I just fell in love with the coaching staff and the city of Boston.”
Mosely has always been known for his ability to knock down the long-range shot, with recruiting websites citing the shot as his most poignant asset, yet he said the first skill he learned was how properly to handle the ball as a point guard.
“As a kid, I was a point guard, but then I started to grow, and I got to the gym and started shooting a lot more, so I like my 3-point shot,” Mosely said. “When I played AAU back in middle school, my dad told me, ‘Hey, you can really shoot the ball,’ so the coach put me off the ball, and I fell into the role.”
That may be needed going forward on this Terrier team that lacks a pure point guard. Thus far, BU has relied on Papale, a converted 3-point specialist, to step into this role, and he has grown increasingly comfortable as the season has worn on.
Papale leads the Terriers with 95 assists on the year, compared to just 26 for Mosely, albeit in extremely different roles for the Terriers.
Mosely has shown an ability to control the ball throughout the season, and he said it is something he would be comfortable doing more of in the future.
“I could play it [point guard] because when I was little, I played point guard, so I’m used to it,” Mosely said.
The Jersey City, New Jersey native’s biggest game for the Terriers came against Loyola University Maryland on Jan. 18. He had 23 points and shot 5-for-9 from 3-point range. For comparison, the rest of the Terriers went a combined 7-for-18. He made almost as many 3-pointers as his teammates, but with half the number of shots.
A more standard Mosely game occurred Saturday when BU took on the Greyhounds (10-16, 6-9 Patriot League) again. In a 73-60 BU win, Mosely contributed 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting from deep. Mosely was one of four Terriers to reach double figures on the night. After the game, Jones said there is a great benefit to having a wealth of proven scorers on the team.
“We have six guys that can put up double figures any night, so that gives Cheddi so much space to get shots off when so much attention goes to guys like John and Cedric [Hankerson], and I think Cheddi’s the one guy that, you can’t focus on everybody,” he said.
Mosely also takes far fewer free throws than is customary for a player in his guard position. He has attempted the same number of free throws as sophomore center Blaise Mbargorba, who has played 328 fewer minutes than Mosely.
Even on a team that has a dearth of veteran presences, as there are zero seniors on the roster, Mosely said he has found that there is a core of veteran leadership within the team.
“Coach Jones has been amazing and telling us that, since we’re young, we have to play tougher than everybody, harder than everybody, so practice has mainly been about competing every day,” Mosely said. “I look up at John Papale, [junior forward] Justin [Alston] and [junior forward] Nate [Dieudonne] for leadership because they’ve been here and what it’s like to work under Coach Jones.”
Mosely has been a contributor for the Terriers since the beginning of the season, after starting and scoring 12 points in the team’s first game against Northeastern University on Nov.16. However, his team was a bit more sluggish, dropping early-season games against Saint Peter’s University and the University of New Hampshire.
“In the beginning of the season, we were a very raw team. We did not know the correct way to play defense, and our offense was very stagnant, but it’s been getting much better as the season progressed,” Mosely said. “As a team, I think our chemistry is real good. We get along real well in the locker room and on the court. There’s some scuffles here and there, but that’s just competition.”
In the Terriers’ Wednesday game against American University, Mosely was out due to injury, but the team did get the win 61-53.
Right now, the Terriers sit in fourth in the Patriot League standings, with an NCAA Tournament bid waiting for the winner of the conference tournament.
Mosely said his team has what it takes to get there.
“I can see the team making it to the NCAA Tournament,” he said.
Whatever the outcome, Mosely will likely be watching from the 3-point line.
