Nov. 12, 2008
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BOSTON - The 2007-08 season looked to be a season full of promise, as the America East coaches selected the Boston University men's basketball team to win the conference in the preseason poll. However, those predictions proved to be slightly premature as the team's predominance of youth and unexpected spate of injuries forced the team to run uphill for over two-thirds of the season. The Terriers started the year 5-14 and 2-5 in the America East.
"Last year was a tale of two seasons," said head coach Dennis Wolff. "The first semester, due to injuries and some other issues that we had, we were almost totally disjointed from the beginning of school. We had virtually no preseason because we had four or five guys rehabbing from injuries. When we went into what has always been a staple here, a perennially tough non-conference schedule, we weren't ready. The kids tried hard, but we were overmatched at times."
"I think after that when we entered the start of the new year, we had to push some of the younger kids to try to mature a little quicker," he added. "We were healthier. We changed some of the things that we were doing, particularly from an offensive standpoint. Those changes really benefited us, and then we were an entirely different team the last two months."
During the last 12 games of the year, the Terriers reeled off nine wins, including three games with margins of victory of 19 or more points. The stretch featured the explosion of sophomore Corey Lowe and freshman John Holland, who combined to lead the team in scoring in nine contests. Holland had 38 points, America East and The Roof season highs, in BU's 97-66 win over Hartford on Feb. 28. The team also snapped a seven-game losing streak to Albany in the tournament before falling to Hartford in the semifinals.
This season, the team is healthier, deeper and more experienced than any team in the past four years. The 16-man roster features three seniors a year after being dominated by sophomores. Boston University has added size in the frontcourt to complement a full and battle-tested back-court. This year's edition of the Terriers is hitting its stride and is poised to challenge for the America East's NCAA bid as Wolff enters his 15th season at the helm.
With the return of his top seven players, head coach Dennis Wolff has loaded the non-conference schedule with the usual contingent of heavy-hitters to prepare for the slate of America East games. The entire schedule boasts at least six games in BU's Agganis Arena, a record number for one season, as the Terriers have spent most of their time at Case Gym.
"It's very important for us to have a more visible presence at Agganis for a variety of reasons," Wolff said. "First, it's a fabulous arena. It helps with recruiting and hopefully will get more students out to the game. That being said, the Roof has been a very good home court for us. It's first-class, albeit a little smaller. We have the best of both worlds as we'll play as many as seven games in both places and having the luxury of 14 home games is always a good thing."
The schedule kicks off with the season opener against George Washington, a game that will welcome back former players as this season will mark the 100th in program history and the 50th anniversary of the 1958-59 team that made a run to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament - BU's deepest foray into the national tournament.
Wolff hopes that the festivities surrounding the season will only provide extra motivation to his players.
"The 100th season celebration has given me a chance to reflect on my time here and at the same time reconnect with the 1958-59 team and different guys that I've maintained relationships with throughout," said Wolff. "It only reinforces to me that I've been lucky to be the coach here. There have been some other fabulous coaches who came before me, and I think that BU has had a very rich basketball tradition. We hope that this year, we'll be able to add a chapter into it that we can all be proud of."
After hosting the Colonials, the Terriers have match-ups with Northeast Conference champion Mount St. Mary's and Ivy League champion Cornell as well as Big East power Notre Dame. The Mount went 19-15 en route to an NCAA first-round tilt with No. 1 seed North Carolina in 2008. The Big Red collected its conference title with a perfect 14-0 league record and ended the year with a 22-6 mark after falling to No. 3 seed Stanford in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Irish received an at-large bid and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament before finishing the year with a 25-8 overall record, including a 14-4 mark in Big East play.
"What our goal with the non-conference schedule is to make it as challenging as we can for a variety of reasons, to try to get good home games on the return end, to help us attract recruits, and at the end of the day with the addition of some teams who were NCAA participants last year put ourselves in position to play the type of games that will help improve our RPI," said Wolff.
"We've always tried to play a national game, and I think the reputation of Notre Dame's program has been a good one," he added. "We've added a team that could very well be ranked in the top-10 when we play them, and it will be a fun challenge for us."
The non-conference schedule is designed to prepare the team for an annually difficult league season. Along with the Terriers, Vermont, Hartford and UMBC should again be at the top of the conference standings.
One thing BU needed to address in the off-season in order to be ready for the tough opponents who lie in wait was improved post-play and rebounding. The additions of Jeff Pelage and Jake O'Brien should provide an answer to those needs as well as add depth to the front-court.
Pelage, a 6-9, 240-pound center, is an athletic, back-to-the-basket player whose strength and rebounding ability put him in the position to force playing time. The product of Pine Crest School in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., averaged 12.7 ppg and 12.8 rpg as he led his team to a Florida Class 3A state title. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel Second Team All-County selection also competed in track and field.
"Jeff Pelage is a physical presence that we probably haven't had here in a couple of years," said Wolff. "He's a wide body post-player who knows how he has to play to be effective. He gives us a little bit of a wider, stronger presence around the basket."
O'Brien is a skilled high-post player, a step-out four whose shooting reminds Wolff of some of the fours he has had over the last five years. A local product from Boston College High School, he was a four-time Catholic Conference all-star. The 6-8, 205-pound forward averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds as a senior and captained his squad to a 21-4 record and an appearance in the EMass final. As a junior, O'Brien led his team to a perfect 25-0 mark and BC High's first-ever state title.
"He can really shoot the ball and has a high basketball IQ," Wolff said. "For a guy who needs to still work on the physical end of it, he is very willing to compete and has a toughness to him that I like."
"Those two will contribute right away," Wolff added. "We've been very fortunate that we've been able to play guys immediately like John Holland last year and Tyler Morris the year before, and I think Jake and Jeff will be in that position."
Junior Scott Brittain worked extremely hard, adding strength and working on his game over the summer. Wolff believes he has established himself as a good post player and will be needed to continue to contribute this season. Juniors Ibrahim Konate and Max Gotzler, a red-shirt and an NAIA transfer, respectively, graduated in 2008, so Brittain will be counted on to provide experience in the post. He played in 30 games and shot a team-best 47 percent from the floor. The Oakville, Canada native collected a team-high 6.3 rpg and was fourth on the team with 10.0 ppg.
"Scott has been a pretty consistent performer for us the last two years," Wolff said. "The challenge that we've thrown at him is for him to elevate his game into becoming one of the elite players of the conference. There's no question that he has the ability to do that. He needs to be more consistent in his play in practice and in games, so that he can carry over the glimpses he gives us of his potential into being an all-conference type of player."
Junior Valdas Sirutis and sophomore Matt Killen are two other post options for Wolff. Sirutis struggled last season, and his goal for this year is to contribute the way he did at the end of his freshman year. The Lithuanian came on strong at the end of 2007, highlighted by a solid performance in the America East tournament. He went 8-for-11, including a key 3-pointer, in the come-back win over Binghamton. Killen played sparingly in 2008, taking time to get adjusted to the college game and adding size.
"Matt is still a work-in-progress," said Wolff. "He's put as much time and effort into improving his game as any player we've ever had here. He still has an upside, but it's still going to be a bit of a learning curve for him. Valdas will help provide quality depth at the position."
Wolff has a wealth of options on the wing. Senior Matt Wolff, junior Sherrod Smith and sophomore John Holland are all at the coach's disposal. The younger Wolff's 2008 season was a microcosm of the team's. The Walpole, Mass., native missed two years with an injury to the same knee. Last season, he used the first month and a half to settle into the pace of the game and rediscover his touch.
He was the only player to play in all 31 games and averaged 5.6 ppg and 4.3 rpg, shooting 41.1 percent from the floor. In the final 12 games, his numbers improved to 6.9 ppg and a shooting percentage of 56.9 percent.
"I think Matt is probably in the best place he's been at during his time here," commented Wolff. "He's healthy and has a year of experience under his belt. He understands how he has to play to be effective. The additional strength he's gained from working with Glenn Harris in our weight room to all the time he's put into his shooting has made him an effective America East player, which he proved he was during the conference season last year."
Wolff thinks Holland's performance in the America East was as good a freshman conference season as any player at BU has ever had and believes Holland's daily challenge is to work to the best of his abilities to make himself into an excellent league player.
The product of the Bronx took some time to get adjusted at the beginning of last season, showing flashes of what was to come during the non-conference schedule. Holland earned the first of six America East Rookie of the Week nods after his 12-point, off-the-bench performance in the Terriers' season-opening win over St. Bonaventure. His renaissance overlapped with BU's second-half resurgence.
After going through the first round of conference games and getting a feel for his America East opponents, the wing player scored in double figures in 11 of BU's final 14 games of the year. Holland won the final five AE Rookie of the Week honors in a row, and his outstanding play persuaded opposing league coaches to name him the 2008 America East Rookie of the Year and a member of the third-team all-conference and all-defensive teams. Holland ended this rookie campaign as the team's second-leading scorer (11.4 ppg) and rebounder (5.0 rpg). He was also BU's leader in steals (44) and shot 43.8 percent from the floor.
"John last year was somewhat of a gradual explosion where we recognized he had a lot of talent and tried to get him to understand how hard he needed to work and the responsibility that comes with having that talent," commented Wolff. "Once we were able to get that through to him, he was the type of player that impacted every America East game he played in. John still has a terrific upside and is as good an athlete as I've had during my time here. He's now developed a very good work ethic. He's a difficult player for people to guard in our league based on his ability to shoot 3s and get to the basket."
Smith will provide depth on the perimeter this season after seeing action in seven games last year.
Juniors Corey Lowe, Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong form the nucleus of this year's back-court, with seniors Marques Johnson and Sam Tully and junior Tunde Agboola providing depth at the position.
Even with five missed games, Lowe established himself as a premier America East player in 2008. The graduate of Newton North High School garnered America East second-team honors after his team-leading 18.1 ppg ranked him second in the league. Lowe shot a team-best 37.1 percent from behind the 3-point line and shattered BU's single-season 3-pointers made record, tallying 92 for the year and besting Mark Daly's record of 79 set in 1991-92. He finished ranked 12th in the country in 3-pointers made per game and led the conference with 3.54 made threes. Wolff expects the junior to step up his game even further this year.
"Corey has unfortunately had to battle through a different series of nagging injuries," said Wolff. "He's had his knee scoped, which I think is ultimately going to end up being a positive thing because he'll be back before we thought and will be available for the start of practice. Arguably, he was as good as any player in our league through the conference season last year. We kind of switched him to where he played a little bit more off the ball than on the ball. Once we did that, it kind of freed him up to just go play, and I thought that he was extremely effective and at times dominating. I think this year we hope that he can improve further, as we're still going to use him some at the point in different situations."
Morris suffered an ankle injury and fought back from a surgery whose rehab was more arduous than expected. He missed the first nine games of the season and struggled to catch-up after starting play mid-year. Wolff believes the Indiana native has made the right moves this offseason and will be a major contributor like in 2007. That year, he was named the America East Rookie of the Year, second-team all-conference and all-rookie after averaging 13.4 points per game and leading the America East in 3-point percentage (46.9 percent).
"I think last year due to no fault of his own that circumstances just piled up against him," said Wolff. "Tyler never could get himself into the right place physically, and that wore on him mentally because he wanted to so badly help the team win. In the offseason, he did exactly what he should have been doing, which is lose weight and work on his game. You'll see a Tyler Morris this year maybe better than he was as a freshman."
The coaching staff will look for Strong to develop the consistency he needs to have to fulfill his potential. Strong played in 28 games last season and was third on the team with 11.1 ppg. He stepped into more of a starting role after coming off the bench as a freshman and will be looked upon to continue that development.
"Carlos has as much physical ability as any guard we've had, including Corey or John," said Wolff. "The challenge for him is to consistently play at a high level. I think sometimes he gets frustrated with either himself or the circumstances of any particular game. He needs to find a consistency that enables him to play to his talent level."
Johnson continued to grow into his role as a point guard and a leader last year and turned in some valuable minutes. He was second in the America East with a 2.13 assist-to-turnover ratio and recorded career highs in nearly every category, posting better numbers in 2007-08 than he had in his previous two seasons combined.
"We're hopeful that Marques will have his best year as a senior," said Wolff. "He's probably the one true point guard that we have. He needs to continue to try to understand how he has to help lead the team from the point position."
Wolff calls Agboola and Tully as dedicated as any two walk-ons in his 15 years at BU. Both are team-oriented and hard-working. They each played sparingly in 2008, with Agboola scoring his first career points against Binghamton on Feb. 12.
"Both kids bring a spirit to the locker room that has really helped with the team chemistry," Wolff said. "They are very committed to what their roles are on the team. Tunde is one of the best student-athletes I've ever coached here. He's a fabulous student and is a hard working guy. Sam has a great way about him in regard to his personality and that's helpful with the team's camaraderie."
Junior forward Brendan Sullivan and junior guard Michael Schulze walked onto the team this fall to complete the roster.
This season, the Terriers return athletes who struggled with inexperience and adversity last season. Having worked with the coaching staff into turning those challenges into great learning opportunities, the players now find themselves poised to make a strong push toward March Madness.
"This is an experienced group of players who have been through tough situations and have worked very hard to turn themselves into a winning team," said Wolff. "As long as they stay healthy and use their experiences correctly, the logical next step for them to take is to make the NCAA Tournament.
"I recognize that certainly based on what our recent history has been that you can never be too sure of anything, but I think barring injuries that the mindset is back to the way we've had it here for a long time," he added.
To purchase season tickets for men's basketball, please visit AgganisArena.com, call 617-353-GOBU (4628), or visit the Agganis Arena Ticket Office, located in Boston at 925 Commonwealth Avenue and open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
