Joe Jones establishing championship culture around men’s basketball

Leading 14-4 with 13:04 left in the first half seemed like an enviable position to be in for the Boston University men’s basketball team.  The Terriers appeared ready for the rigors of the Patriot League Tournament.  Yet, by the end of the game, BU coach Joe Jones watched his team get outscored 89-64 by eventual-tournament champion Lafayette College.

“The low point of my time here was last year in the Patriot League quarterfinals,” Jones said.  “The biggest game of the season and we ran out of gas.  We weren’t ready to play and they kicked our tails pretty bad.  With ten minutes to go in the first half we sort of had control over that portion of the game, but after that we had nothing.”

On the eve of the 2015-16 season, Jones ran through the possibilities of last year’s team, which had no shortage of question marks, but still had tantalizing potential.

“That was the low point because I think we had enough based on talent to make a run,” Jones said.

As a team, the Terriers shot 40 percent in the game, but their best scorers never found a rhythm.

BU’s All-Patriot League Second Teamer, then-sophomore guard Cedric Hankerson, had nine of his 14 points in the team’s first-half run.

He went 1-for-7 from the field the rest of the way and his team followed suit.

Now, Hankerson is on the road back from a torn ACL, but his team has to move forward without him when the season begins Friday against Northeastern University.

This season, Jones has a team stocked with veteran players and three freshmen, quite the turnaround from last year when only two players had starting experience.

“We have a good understanding of what we’re trying to do on both ends of the floor,” Jones said.  “We just have to get a level of consistency.  I think their level of understanding is better, especially from this point last year, but now it’s just can we get some consistency?”

Consistency has been a staple of Jones’ preaching throughout his tenure.  While his teams ooze consistency, there was a three-year span when the Ronkonkoma, New York, native’s life was anything but.

After leaving his job of seven years as head coach of the Columbia University men’s basketball team, Jones went all the way down Commonwealth Avenue to become an associate head coach with Steve Donahue at Boston College in 2010.  Jones’ first year as an associate head coach was also Donahue’s first with the program. Both had to become acclimated.

That acclimation process did not last long, though.  After just one year as an Eagle, Jones made his way to BU, where he is entering his fifth season.

“I haven’t thought about that transition a ton,” Jones said.  “I was so excited about the job here.  What was hard was when I was an assistant again — at times I missed being a head coach.  But I learned a ton from Steve Donahue and it gave me a chance to step back and think more about how I can be a better head coach.”

During his time with the Terriers, Jones has not reached the Patriot League mountaintop.  Winning the conference title, and by default a spot in the NCAA Tournament, has slipped through the State University of New York at Oswego graduate’s hands.

“That’s the pinnacle of what we try to do,” Jones said.  “You’re always going to strive to make the tournament, which in my opinion is the most exciting thing in all of sports, the NCAA Tournament.”

That pinnacle seemed destined to fall to BU in 2013-14 when it dominated the Patriot League to the tune of a 15-3 conference record.  The Terriers scored 91 points in their first two Patriot League Tournament games before tangling with American University in the finals.

BU shot 30.8 percent from the field, as the Eagles trounced the Terriers, 55-36, shutting down Jones’ best chance to take them to the NCAA Tournament.  However, Jones does not classify that game or the 2013-14 season as lost, choosing to look positively at his squad’s accomplishments.

“Beating [the University of] Maryland and winning the regular season title would be the high point of my time here,” Jones said.

While that regular season title is viewed as a high point on the court, Jones is also trying to develop high points off the court.  The coach is highly active in the BU community, specifically among the other BU athletic programs.  He also guides his players off the court, which means just as much as their performance on it.

“We really try to strive for that, as far as developing these guys as young men,” Jones said.  “We really strive for that, where we believe they will have success after their playing days are over.”

During their playing days, the focus is on bringing the Terriers their first Patriot League championship and their first conference title since 2011. Jones wants to bring a title-winning mentality back to BU as something every incoming class can view as achievable.

“The biggest thing I want to do now is to put the program in a position where the culture is one that it’s a championship culture,” Jones said. “That doesn’t mean you’re winning championships each year.  It means kids know how to behave, they know the standards of behavior and they know how much they need to give.”

This season is as good as any to establish that culture. Senior guard John Papale sits fifth on the Terriers all-time leaderboard for 3-pointers made with 192 during his tenure.  Senior forward Nathan Dieudonne led the Patriot League in offensive rebounding last season averaging 2.4 per game.

Even though Hankerson will sit out for the first portion of the season, and junior guard Eric Fanning is indefinitely game-suspended, Jones sees his team as prepped for the rigors of another season chasing that elusive Patriot League championship.

“We’ll be ready when the time comes,” Jones said. “The biggest thing is that we have three seniors. I feel we have three seniors that are terrific people and very good players. We’ve set standards for them and have tried to do a good job in making sure they are rising to it.”