After failing to earn a win Thursday night against the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the Boston University men’s basketball team will have little time to rest before traveling to the University of South Florida for its second of a lengthy five-game road trip.
The Terriers (1-2) are coming off of a 90-76 loss to the Highlanders (2-1) in which BU allowed its opponent to connect on 32 field goals and 17 free throws in the game. NJIT earned those free throws due to the Terrier’s foul trouble early in the game. This is not the first time that the Terriers have piled up the fouls.
In the opening game at home against Northeastern University, freshman guard Kyle Foreman and senior forward Justin Alston fouled out late in the game. Their presence was missed in overtime, where the Huskies (2-0) were able to pull out a 87-84 victory.
BU coach Joe Jones believes that the recent rule changes of the NCAA are the reason for the extra fouls and are something that his team will have to work on in order to keep their starters in the game.
“The thing that we got to adjust to is that the referees are going to call more fouls than they have been,” Jones said. “There’s a ton of new rules and one of them is they’re trying to speed the game up, so the refs are going to be more aggressive calling actual fouls. We have to adjust and we got to play without fouling. I think that a big thing right now is us adjusting to the new rules.”
One positive that can be taken away from the Terrier’s first three games is their outside shooting. Through three games BU have hit a whopping 35 3-point shots on 86 attempts, good for 40.7 percent. The team is led in this category by senior guard John Papale, who is 14-for-28 from deep, and sophomore guard Cheddi Mosely, who is 9-for-30 three games into the season.
Jones pointed out how important it also is to have Foreman and sophomore guard Eric Johnson, who only played 17 games last year due to injury, step up. The duo has 23 assists through the first three games.
“The team fits together better,” Jones said. “There’s no doubt about it. We’re able to do more now offensively with that strategy, that really helps.”
Jones’ squad will have to continue their success from 3-point land when they square off with South Florida (0-3) this weekend. The Bulls are in the midst of a five-game homestand, the contest against the Terriers being the fourth. South Florida started off their season with a pair of losses to Troy University and the Highlanders, then fell on Thursday night to George Washington University by a score of 73-67.
On offense, South Florida is led by freshman Jahmal McMurray and senior Angel Nunez, who respectively average 17.3 and 10.7 points per game so far this season. McMurray is currently shooting 34 percent from the 3-point line, and Nunez is averaging 6.7 rebounds per game.
As a team, the Bulls shoot 36.8 percent from the field and have a scoring margin of -4.7. They do, however, manage to pull down 46 rebounds per game, so it will be important for the BU’s big men to battle down low.
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
