Terriers Are Opening Act For Hofstra Arena
December 31, 1999 | Men's Basketball
Boston University/Hofstra Series - The Terriers lead the all-time series, 9-7... Hofstra has won the last three meetings... B.U. is 5-6 against the Flying Dutchmen on Long Island... Dennis Wolff is 6-4 against Hofstra... The Terriers' 63-37 win over Hofstra on February 15, 1995 is the largest margin of victory in the series.
Debut of Hofstra Arena Not only is this the first game of the 21st century, but it's also the first game in Hofstra Arena... The Terriers are the first opponent in the $15-million, 5,124-seat arena.
Home Court Advantage Hofstra is looking for the same type of home court advantage it enjoyed in the 29-year old Physical Fitness Center, where the Flying Dutchmen won their final 16 games. The home court winning streak is tied for the 11th longest home winning streak in Division I entering the week.
Terrier Ties to Long Island The game with Hofstra will be a homecoming of sorts for two Terriers... Head coach Dennis Wolff, who will extend his B.U. record to 158 career games with the Terriers, is a native of Queens, NY... Freshman forward/center Jacob Kudlacz (Glen Cove, NY/Long Island Lutheran) has averaged 8.0 ppg and 3.0 rpg since missing the first three games of the season with an ankle injury.
Terriers On The Road B.U. is 0-3 in road games this season and 0-4 in neutral site games... The Terriers have lost eight straight games away from their home court - "The Roof" dating back to last season... B.U.'s last win away from home occurred on February 19 at Vermont, a 68-54 decision... In road and neutral site games this season the Terriers are averaging 59.7 ppg, while opponents are averaging 76.0 ppg..
For Starters Dennis Wolff has used three different starting lineups this season... For the first five games, Wolff used seniors Mike Costello at forward and Jean Avebe at center, and sophomores, Ignacio Rodriguez at another forward, and Dereck Franklin at the point, with freshman Matt Turner as the off guard... With that lineup, B.U. was 0-5... Wolff incorporated sophomore forward Jerome Graham into Rodriguez's place, and the Terrriers are 2-1... At the Golden Bear Classic, Wolff inserted Paul Seymour into Turner's spot.
Growing Pains With its youngest team in program history, the Terriers are off to a 2-8 start for the first time since the 1970-71 season.
Last Time Out For Terriers - Portland State 62, B.U 58 Consolation Game of Golden Bear Classic December 29, 1999 Boston University seniors Jean Avebe (Yaounde, Cameroon) and Mike Costello (Belmont, MA) scored 16 points and 14 points respectively, but their effort fell short as the Portland State Vikings downed the Terriers, 62-58, in consolation play of the 7th annual Golden Bear Classic at Haas Pavilion... The game was the first meeting between the two schools... Boston University (2-8) jumped out to an early 6-0 lead on a back door layup by freshman Paul Seymour (Liverpool, NY) and two jump shots by Avebe... Portland State (7-4) came back however and tied the game for the first of seven first half ties at 9-9 with 14:22 remaining... The lead changed hands five times before the Vikings took the lead for good at 26-23 with 3:11 remaining in the first half... PSU's Derek Nesland hit the pointer at 3:11 that sparked a 10-0 run to close out the first 20 minutes... Despite converting 50 percent of its field goals in the first half (10-of-20), B.U. was held scoreless in the final 4:07 of the half... Portland's Anthony Lackey scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half to pace PSU's 33-23 halftime advantage... In the second half, the Vikings built on its 10-0 run to end the first half by outscoring the Terriers 7-3 to open the second half... Portland State held its biggest lead at 40-26 with 17:09, before B.U. staged a run of their own... Down 14, the Terriers went on an 11-4 run to close the gap to 44-37 with 8:30 to play... During the run, Mike Costello hit his 158th career 3-pointer to move him past LeVar Folk ('99)-157 for third place on the Terriers' all-time list. The 3-pointer came at 15:55 of the second half... The Vikings continued to hold the Terriers run as they regained a double-figure lead at 48-37 with 6:13 to play... Trailing by nine, 50-41, with 4:32 to play, Portland's Matt Elliott sank two straight 3-pointers to push the lead back to 12, 56-44 with 3:02 to play... B.U. drew as close as five, 60-55, with :24 seconds to play, as Avebe hit a jump shot... Portland converted two of four free-throws down the stretch enabling the Terriers opportunities in the waning seconds, but B.U. could only manage an Avebe 3-pointer at the buzzer... Sophomore Jerome Graham (N. Minneapolis, MN) added 8 points and 8 rebounds and freshman Jacob Kudlacz (Glen Cove, NY) also added 8 points in the loss.
Youngest Terrier Squad in School History With only two upperclassmen on its 12-man roster, this year's Boston University team is the youngest in school history. The Terriers graduated five seniors from last year's club, leaving them with two seniors and 10 underclassmen for the 1999-2000 season. Every previous Boston University team has fielded at least four upperclassmen, while no Terrier club has featured more than nine underclassmen. Below is a look at some of the youngest squads to wear the Scarlet and White:
Year Fr So Jr Sr
1999-00 5 5 0 2
1995-96 4 3 3 1
1987-88 3 6 2 3
1983-84 4 5 3 1
1982-83 4 4 2 2
1977-78 4 4 1 3
Defensive Minded Defense has been a cornerstone in the Dennis Wolff era... In Wolff's five seasons, B.U. has a 76-23 mark when holding opponents under 70 points... On December 11 vs. New Hampshire, the Terriers held the Wildcats to a season-low 51 points and 39. 6 percent shooting from the field... Four days earlier, B.U. held Harvard to 57 points and 32.3 % shooting.
Three-Point Field Goal Streak at 103 B.U. currently has a 103-game three-point field-goal streak... The last time the Terriers were held scoreless from beyond the three-point arc was Feb. 10, 1996, when they were 0-for-10 in a loss at Vermont.... B.U. has hit three-pointers in 154-of-157 games in the Dennis Wolff era.
America East Success Boston University is one of the charter members of the America East Conference, which was founded in 1979 In 20 plus seasons, the Terriers have won a league-record 167 conference and 30 tournament contests, including championships in 1983, 1988, 1990, and 1997.
Three-Point Specialist Senior forward Mike Costello has scored 633 career points, 482 of those points have come via the three-point field goal, thus 76.1 % of his career points have come from beyond the three-point arc.
Costello Heats Up At Golden Bear Classic Senior forward Mike Costello tied a career-high with 17 points in B.U.'s loss to California on Tuesday... It was the fifth time in his career that he has scored 17 points in a game... Against Portland State the next night, Costello again reached double-figures with 14 points and dished out a career-high eight assists... In the two day tournament, Costello averaged 15.5 ppg, shot 50 % (10-of-20), including 9-of-16 from three-point range... In addition, he added 10 assists and 7 steals... He leads the Terriers in three-pointers made (23), attempted (54) and percentage (38 %)... He is second on the team in assists (28) and steals (20).
Senior Leadership From Avebe Senior forward Jean Avebe (Yaounde,Cameroon) scored a season-high 16 points vs. Portland State on Wednesday... This season Avebe has led the Terriers in scoring three times and rebounding on four occassions.... He also leads the Terriers in field goal percentage at 56.2 % (41-of-73).
Everyone's Contributing Through 10 games this season, six different Terriers have led the team in scoring... Freshmen Paul Seymour and Matt Turner, and senior Jean Avebe have led twice, and senior Mike Costello, and sophomores Dereck Franklin and Jerome Graham have each led B.U. in scoring once...It's not just the scoring column where everybody is chipping in, but it's also in rebounding and assists... Seven different Terriers have led the way in rebounding, with Avebe grabbing the most caroms on four occassions, while senior Mike Costello led twice, and Franklin and sophomore Ignacio Rodriguez, and freshmen Jacob Kudlacz, and Seymour, have led the team once...In the assist catergory, Turner has led the team five times, while Costello and Franklin have led twice.
Freshmen Providing Scoring Punch Freshman guard Matt Turner is second on the team in scoring averaging 9.4 ppg, while his fellow classmates, Paul Seymour and Jacob Kudlacz average 8.0 ppg and 7.9 ppg, respectively... In all, the Class of 2003 accounts for 59.2% of B.U.'s scoring offense this season... This percentage is derived from field goal and assist totals from Turner, Seymour, Kudlacz, Grochowalski, and Sadusky divided by the team's total number of made field goals.
Seymour Connects From Three-Point Land Freshman Paul Seymour (Liverpool, NY) ranks second on the Terriers in three-pointers made (13) and three-pointers attempted (45)... The 6-5 guard has led the Terriers in scoring twice this season and is third on the team in scoring averaging 9.0 ppg... On November 22nd, Seymour scored all of his career-high 18 points from three-point land in the 91-79 overtime loss at James Madison ... Seymour connected on 6-of-9 from beyond the arc... His six three-point field goals were the most by a Terrier since Billy Beal made 7 on January 12, 1999 vs. New Hampshire.
Graham is Golden Sophomore forward Jerome Graham (N. Minneapolis, MN) has started the last five games for the Terriers... So far this season, Graham is averaging 5.0 ppg and 3.7 rpg in 16.9 minutes of action... He was named to the Doral/Florida International Tip-Off Classic All-Tournament Team on November 20... Graham averaged 8.0 ppg and 3.5 rpg in the two games... The 6-8 forward also shot 53 % from the field (7-of-13).
Kudos to Kudlacz Freshman forward Jacob Kudlacz (Glen Cove, NY) continues to impress in the early stages of the 1999-2000 season.... After sitting out the first three games of the season due to an ankle injury, the 6-8 forward has contributed greatly to the Terriers' effort... Kudlacz is fourth on the team in scoring (8.0 ppg) and is second in field goal percentage (47 %)... He leads the team in blocked shots with eight... On December 9th vs. Maine, Kudlacz recorded his first collegiate double figure outing with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting in 16 minutes..In the December 7th win over Harvard, Kudlacz was 4-of-4 from the floor en route to his third straight eight-point outing... The 6-8 forward made his collegiate debut at Providence on November 30... In 23 minutes of action, the 6-8 forward scored eight points on 4-of-7 shooting and collected two rebounds... At UMass, Kudlacz added eight points and a team-high nine rebounds.
Grochowalski Red-Shirted For 1999-2000 Season Boston University freshman forward Jason Grochowalski (Shrewsbury, PA/Worcester Academy) will miss the remainder of the 1999-2000 season due to a season-ending shoulder injury that will require surgery...The 6-6,190-pound forward initially dislocated his left shoulder in practice on October 30 and reaggravated the injury during the Providence game on November 30th..."It is unfortunate that Jason has had an injury-plagued first semester," said head coach Dennis Wolff... "Actually, we have had him for only about a week. He had to rehab the shoulder for most of the pre-season. Then, we had him for three practices before our road trip to Florida and James Madison. He played in the three games, practiced for the Providence game, and then got hurt against Providence..."We plan to redshirt him this year," continued Wolff. "He will have his shoulder operated on then go through rehab so he will be completely healthy for next season." ... Grochowalski appeared in the Terriers' first four games, averaging 2.0 ppg and 2.3 rpg. Grochowalski was also averaging 11.3 minutes per game.
Sadusky Joins Grochowalski As A Red-Shirt Freshman guard John Sadusky (Fairfax, VA/DeMatha Catholic) will miss the remainder of the 1999-2000 season due to chronic lower back pain... Sadusky becomes the second freshman to be red-shirted by head coach Dennis Wolff this season... Sadusky, a 6-0, 180-pound guard, has been plagued by lower back pain for most of the season... "It's (lower back pain) been an ongoing problem since the first week of practice with no sign of improvement," said Wolff. "The best thing for John now is to start to rehab."... Sadusky, a McDonald's All-American nominee last season, appeared in five games for the Terriers. He had six assists, three steals, and three rebounds in 63 minutes of action.
Butt Signs National Letter of Intent Ryan Butt, a 6-7, 235-pound power forward from Hempfield H.S. in Landisville, PA, signed a national letter of intent to play for the Terriers.
Joe Tompkins Tribute A long-time Boston University employee, Joe Tompkins was a great friend of all Boston University athletes, and a special friend the Boston University basketball team... This season, the Boston University men's basketball team will be wearing black bands in tribute... Joe died suddenly at work on Tuesday, July 13, 1999.
B.U. On the Radio Twenty-one of Boston University's 26 basketball games this season will be broadcast live on WROL-AM 950 (Boston), WCRN-AM 830 (Worcester), and WPLM-AM 1390 (Plymouth). Rich Levine returns for his fifth season to call the action, while Doug Guy will provide analysis for the sixth year.
