The Boston University men’s basketball team tried something new its March 4 America East Tournament first-round game against the University of Vermont. When the Terriers took the court, they had an altered game plan, a changed set-up — one they hoped would lead BU to its first NCAA appearance since 2002.
Freshman point guard Marques Johnson, who in 20 previous appearances saw five minutes or less 12 times, played his most active role of the season. Senior co-captain and first-team All-Conference forward Kevin Gardner came out shooting from the paint — not the post — drawing out foul after foul.
“He took over that game and we struggled,” said Vermont coach Mike Lonergan of Gardner. “We tried everything to guard him.”
Most surprising may have been freshman forward Ben Coblyn shedding his foul-early-and-often style and carrying a goose egg in the foul column through the first half.
But the Terriers’ control over this new situation ended soon after the break. Vermont took over and dictated the pace of the game. The Catamounts’ spread out offense and strong perimeter play — led by the 10, 12 and 12 respective points from the hands of sophomores Kyle Cieplicki and Josh Duell and America East Rookie of the Year Mike Trimboli — forced the normally post-ridden Gardner to hang around the arc on defense.
Coblyn quickly forgot about his new foul-free life and reverted to his old ways, tallying his first foul at 4:19 of the second half and getting three more within the next six and a half minutes. Coblyn fouled out with 7.7 seconds to go in BU’s season.
But there were bright spots. Sophomore guard Bryan Geffen dribbled seemingly through people, outworking his opponents across the floor. Corey Hassan registered 18 points in the second half — seven off free throws — after taking just one shot (a made 3-pointer) in the opening 20 minutes.
And, of course, there were the 19 points Gardner chipped in during one of his more gutsy career performances.
Regardless, Vermont had BU a bit off its game.
“We wanted to get out there and run, kinda push the tempo,” said senior co-captain Shaun Wynn. “We were just a little too anxious in forcing plays, we had a lot of turnovers.”
GUTTING IT OUT
Gardner and Wynn weren’t ready for their careers to end on Saturday, March 4. But if it all had to end for these seniors, they were going to leave everything on the Binghamton hardwood.
And they — along with the six other Terriers that saw action that day — did leave it all on the court, and the scorer’s table, and the post under the hoop.
The Terriers wore their hearts on their sleeves early, showing that they had, if nothing else, gusto and a will to fight.
Wynn led things off about five minutes into the second half when he nearly tackled a Catamount guard to force a jump ball. Seven minutes and 40 seconds later, the senior dove headfirst into the scorer’s table to vie for possession after the ball was tipped away.
Then there was Coblyn, who with 12:51 still to play came charging at the glass (accompanied by Gardner) to block Vermont’s Chris Holm from an easy layup. Tangled up with the other two, Coblyn hit the padded post before slamming down into a split on the floor. The 252-pound redshirt rookie came up with a limp — and his third foul.
“I think we were just trying to play hard the entire game, when we got down, when we got up,” said Gardner. “We weren’t gonna throw in the towel with four minutes left.”
“We’re not the kind of team that’s gonna give up,” he added. “We still wanted to play, and we weren’t gonna go down without a fight.”
THE YOUTH MOVEMENT
Against any other team, youth would be a valid defense in the Terriers’ three-point loss, but not against Vermont. The 2005-06 Catamounts are tied with Central Michigan University as the most inexperienced team in the nation. With just 43 combined starts entering the season, 38 of them from returning starter Martin Klimes, the Terriers’ 90 combined starts (89 coming from Wynn and Gardner) seem immense in comparison.
“Inexperience really hurts,” Lonergan said. “No excuses.”
BU is the second youngest in the America East, with 273 games played to Vermont’s 177.
For comparison purposes:
* Vermont has seven freshmen to BU’s five (including suspended rookies Ibrahim Konate and Brendan Sullivan and excluding injured Tyler Morris).
* Vermont has five sophomores to BU’s three.
* The teams match in juniors, both having a pair.
* BU may only lose two to graduation, but the Catamounts won’t lose any.
* BU had just nine available players on Saturday, while Vermont had 14.
The Terrier youth has struggled throughout the year and the team has missed 77 total games due to injury and suspension. During the course of the 2005-06 campaign, Konate, Sullivan and sophomore Tony Gaffney have been suspended, while Morris and sophomore Matt Wolff have missed most or all of the season due to injury.
ZOOLOGY
BU fans could take a lesson from their New York counterparts. Roughly 1,000 green-clad (and painted) students piled into a packed “BU Zoo” at Binghamton’s Events Center Saturday and created an atmosphere hard to find in the America East Conference — one of a true college basketball school.
MONKEY BUSINESS
Binghamton’s Events Center holds 5,222 at full capacity … 4, 335 showed up to cheer the Bearcats to a 71-62 win over Maine on Saturday at noon … The Zoo dubbed Maine’s 5-foot, 10-inch Rashard Turner “Gary Coleman” … Turner paid them back by dropping 19 points on the Bearcats … Andre Heard lived up to his first-team All-Conference bid, scoring 24 points in his first-round game, including two big dunks that sent an already charged student section into a frenzy … Maine’s two Turners (Rashard and Ernest) accounted for over half of the Black Bears’ points in Saturday’s loss (34 of 62) … Binghamton’s Steve Proctor tried to end the first-round victory with a bang — and ended up getting called for a travel … The Bearcats’ 9-point win came without the help of America East Defensive Player of the Year Sebastian Hermenier, who was out with a right foot injury.