Bears, Terriers Looking to Regain Past Form
Brown and Boston University, two mid-major schools that have had a good deal of recent success, have started off slowly in 2005-06. Evidence of it doesn’t come solely from a look at the won-loss record, and there are more questions about each team going forward.
Their starts have a couple of things in common, most notably just one win on the season and offensive struggles. The Terriers, one of 23 Division I teams to win 20 or more games in each of the past four seasons, have been proof of the old saying that a team has to score to win. They are once again a strong defensive team, but they average under 55 points per game and are shooting just 41.3 percent from the field, while committing 26 more turnovers than they have assists. The Bears, meanwhile, average about the same, but are shooting just over 36 percent from the field and a woeful 17 percent from three-point range.
There’s an easy explanation for Boston University’s 0-5 start, its first in six years, prior to Tuesday night’s win over Harvard: the schedule. Boston University was given no gifts early in the season, starting off with Duke in the NIT Season Tip-Off, followed by Michigan, Rider, Rhode Island and George Washington. That’s not exactly a schedule designed with getting wins to build confidence in mind – it’s one that will test any team, not just one that lost two key players to graduation and a third (Etienne Brower) to a transfer.
The Terriers have had to do this with an inexperienced roster all over. They start seniors Shaun Wynn and Kevin Gardner, as well as junior college transfer Brian Macon, but they also start freshman Corey Hassan and either of two redshirt freshmen, Ben Coblyn or Ibrahim Konate. The bench started the season headed by three sophomores, point guard Brian Geffen and wings Matt Wolff and Tony Gaffney, and they also bring in junior Omari Peterkin, who entered the season with under 200 career minutes played.
Head coach Dennis Wolff summed it up after Michigan, saying, “when you have a roster with the makeup that we have, to play Duke and Michigan in the first two games is a tough deal.”
It got tougher than that before long. Already missing guard Tyler Morris for the season due to a broken ankle, the Terriers then saw Coblyn suffer a high ankle sprain that has kept him out of the last four games and Wolff possibly lost for the season with torn ligaments in his left knee. On top of that, Gaffney, who has the tools to break out and be the go-to guy, has been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules. That brings the number of scholarship players currently available down to nine. Wolff also said that the team had some disruptions last week, which doesn’t bode well for a team already struggling.
The Terriers have had to struggle with limited numbers, and they put up a good fight Friday night against George Washington in a losing effort. They shot 56 percent from the field and jumped out to an early 12-3 lead in the game before the Colonials started to take over. Wynn had his best game of the season at the offensive end, as he has struggled mightily in the role of go-to guy. That’s not a surprise since he’s more of a complementary player and known for his defense and being a jack-of-all-trades. Gardner has played well, but he’s not a go-to guy either; right now the best offensive option in the frontcourt could be redshirt freshman Ibrahim Konate, who is rail-thin but very athletic and has given them good efforts of late.
Now more than ever, defense is a key for this team. They have been one of the nation’s best defensive teams in recent years, and thus far that has been the case this season as well. The Terriers’ defense has given them a fighting chance in most games thus far, but sooner or later a team has to score.
“We’re going to keep working at it, and before it’s all said and done, we’re going to have a good team,” Wolff said.
Wolff, the dean of coaches in the America East by a good margin with the retirement of Tom Brennan and two other coaching changes, is facing perhaps his toughest challenge yet. He is the school’s all-time leader in wins, so it’s not like he hasn’t answered the call before.
“It’s a challenge because of the age of our team and the makeup of our roster right at the moment,” he said after the Rhode Island loss. “These are really nice kids, and they try real hard.”
Though Brown’s slow start includes a win against Hartford, when the Bears have lost, they haven’t done it in a good way. In recent weeks, they played a good first half at Rhode Island before a poor second half doomed them, then went the other way around a few nights later in a home loss to Wagner. On Wednesday, Holy Cross blew them out by 23.
The Bears are 1-5 after six games, and given their inexperience (one senior), it’s not a major surprise. They are struggling mightily to shoot the ball, especially from long range (making less than 18 percent of their three-pointers), and they’ve also looked erratic at the offensive end with 21 more turnovers than assists. Even worse, it’s not as though they’ve simply taken a lot of bad shots; they’ve had plenty of good looks where the ball just didn’t drop. The biggest concern for head coach Glen Miller, however, isn’t any of the numbers or the shots not falling.
“The biggest problem I have right now is that when we face a little adversity, we have absolutely no leadership,” Miller said after the loss to Wagner. “No one is stepping up, no one is communicating, no one is showing any emotion at all.
“I’ve coached plenty of teams in the past where, if you call a timeout, the guys that are competitors are getting after each other before you get into the huddle. Right now, we’re just not a team that’s showing that type of competitiveness.”
Miller spoke of the individual players struggling with their games as having a major effect on the lack of leadership. Looking up and down the roster, the struggles are obvious: only one player, sophomore Damon Huffman, is averaging double-digit points per game. Huffman is having a difficult time shooting the ball, connecting on just over 35 percent from the floor and just 20 percent on three-pointers. Senior Luke Ruscoe leads the team in rebounding, but he’s making just under 32 percent of his shots. Junior Marcus Becker has more turnovers than assists and is shooting just over 37 percent from the floor, and on it goes.
Miller knows it takes players time to digest his motion offense, so some struggles were expected. That also happened early last season, when a team that had lost four seniors from the prior season got off to a slow start before turning it on in Ivy League play. So why the tough start now, with many of those players back and, in theory, more seasoned in the college game in general and the motion offense in particular?
“I think it’s more a product of our guys struggling with their own individual games,” Miller said. “They look lethargic at times, but it’s more because they lack confidence, and it’s because of that, guys aren’t stepping up and leading.”
Miller has had great success at Brown since taking over and seems to have found a home. No Brown coach has won as many games in his first six years as Miller has (83), including two straight seasons with a school-record 17 wins. He was a finalist for the opening at Stony Brook this past off-season, but removed his name from consideration before they chose former George Washington assistant Steve Pikiell. Now, like Wolff, he’s facing perhaps his biggest challenge as a head coach.
“You come in, you take over a program that’s in very poor shape, and I almost feel like we’re starting over again now,” he reflected. “Hopefully that’s not the case, and I do think we’re a little better off now than we were then.”
Both coaches are confident that their teams will get going before the season is over. In each case, they have a track record suggesting that will happen, even if it does involve some initial struggles.
