CAMBRIDGE, Mass – I’m an eternal pessimist, a glass half-empty kind of guy, so this is unfamiliar territory for me. The weaknesses of the Boston University Terriers are as clear as day: They don’t rebound, don’t have a reliable low post scorer, and rely almost entirely on the three-pointer to generate offense.
But I can’t help it. I like this Terriers team.
I know, BU lost a very winnable game last Saturday against Mount Saint Mary’s, and almost blew a big league against a completely overmatched Saint Peter’s squad a few weeks ago. But this year BU has shown the toughness and heart that has been absent from the program for several years.
In previous years BU would have completed the collapse against Saint Peters, instead of hanging on. In previous years BU would never have made a statement like the one they did in their victory of Northeastern, and in previous years the Terriers would never have grabbed the momentum in the second half and put a team away like they did against the Crimson of Harvard in their 75-59 victory Wednesday night. BU is playing with a purpose in a way they haven’t in several years, and their talent on the perimeter is scary good.
One of the greatest weaknesses of Dennis Wolff’s squads of the past several years has been their exasperating tendency to play down to the level of their opponents. They have had a tendency to let lesser teams stick around late in games, and maddening inability to put teams away.
In the first half, it appeared that this game had all the makings of another debacle for BU, as they played at Harvard’s slow, methodical pace, and failed to utilize their big advantage in speed and athleticism.
John Holland, the Terriers’ super-athletic super sophomore, got BU going with a steal that led to a monster one-handed tomahawk jam. But BU let the momentum fizzle, and let Harvard back in the game.
The Terriers seemed to shoot themselves in the foot at every opportunity. Leading 18-16, BU held Harvard without a field goal for over eight minutes, but failed to capitalize, only pushing their lead to 5 points (29-24) thanks to six turnovers during that stretch.
BU committed 11 turnovers in the first half, and allowed what should have been an overmatched Harvard squad to go into the half trailing by only seven points.
It was a game that BU could have easily blown, and in past years would have. The Terriers let a pesky Crimson squad stick around, and build their confidence. BU went into halftime flat, and playing on their home floor in front of their fans, Harvard was in a prime position to grab the momentum, and the game, after the intermission.
In short, it was a game that BU could easily have let slip away, and in previous years would have. But this Terriers team is different.
Halfway into the second half, BU turned on the jets, and put the game away. Defense has always been Wolff’s staple, and after playing lock-down defense all game, the Terriers ratcheted it up another notch. BU turned their defense into offense, and the basketball game into a track meet, and Harvard was left in the dust. Holland and Corey Lowe blew past Crimson defenders, scoring on an array of acrobatic lay-ups, and long bombs from deep, and in the blink of an eye BU had gone on a 22-6 run and put the game away.
“I think that sometimes we say we want to run, but when we get out there we don’t, tonight we were able to do that,” said Wolff.
“Our defense definitely initiated that run, we were able to step up on defense which gave us a lot of momentum on offense,” said freshman Jake O’Brien.
O’Brien continued to sparkle, scoring 18 points on 7-13 shooting, nailing three long treys, while showing off a pretty mid-range game. More impressive, however, may have been the job that O’Brien, along with senior Matt Wolff, did on Crimson freshman center/house Keith Wright. The 6’8″, 260-pound Wright entered the game a one-man wrecking crew, but was held to less than half his season average, scoring only six points while being frustrated into 7 turnovers.
“I thought that throughout the game our defensive intensity, and doubling in the post, really enabled us to really limit Wright’s chances. There were a lot of bodies around him and he had a hard time making moves, so I thought that was the key to the game,” said Dennis Wolff.
“O’Brien has been a good player since the first day he set foot on campus, he plays with poise, and he’s a very good player.”
For a player labeled as soft coming out of high school, O’Brien made a statement by fighting with Wright, one of the most physical players in the northeast, despite being outweighed by 50 pounds.
“He was a strong kid, he definitely got positioning really well,” commented O’Brien.
O’Brien put a body on Wright every time down the court, and had two big rejections. He also added the icing on the cake, shaking the backboard with an emphatic two-handed slam, the first of his college career, in the game’s final minutes.
“It definitely felt good (the dunk), it was kind of a relief, I’ve been looking forward to getting my first one under my belt, so I’m glad I got that one out of the way,” chuckled O’Brien.
Lowe was the story of the game, as he has played some of the best basketball of his career during the Terriers’ three game road trip, beginning with a 27-point outing in the win at Northeastern. Lowe scored a game-high 20 points on 7 of 13 shooting, going 4-6 from behind the arc while committing only one turnover. Lowe showed tremendous discipline and unselfishness, and only took 2 shoots from more than 23 feet out, one a 26 footer that he nailed with the shot clock expiring.
“I thought that Corey Lowe played about as good a floor game tonight as (he) could play,” said Wolff. “Corey Lowe really sets the whole groundwork for everyone, and he is a very unselfish kid. He picked his spots, got good shots.”
The game was billed as a matchup of two of the best guards in the northeast, but it was a one-sided affair. Lowe was matched up against Harvard junior Jeremy Lin, who entered the game averaging 20 points per contest while shooting an eye-popping 58.8 percent from three, but it wasn’t close. Lowe was unstoppable on offense while shutting down Lin on the defensive end, forcing one of the best guards in the Ivy League into 5 turnovers, and holding him scoreless from behind the arc.
“When you’re playing half court defense you usually have rules, with (Lin) we had no rules, Corey’s job was to just stay with him, and Corey did a very good job doing that,” said Wolff.
Lin’s final stat line looked nice on paper, as he finished with 17 points on 8-13 shooting, but he scored most of his points at the end of the game, when the outcome was already decided and Lowe was sitting on the bench.
Holland was also firing on all cylinders, scoring 17 points, shooting 7-12 from the floor and 3-5 from 3, while pulling down 7 rebounds. Holland wreaked havoc at the top of the 1-3-1 zone, coming up with 3 steals and disrupting passing lanes all game.
“John Holland tries off-the-charts hard in games,” said Wolff. “His effort a lot of times gets the whole team going, so like in the first half he’s making great plays, and then he’s running all over the place looking like he’s about to die,” said Wolff.
“For me, going off of the steals, and maybe getting a dunk or two, sometimes that get’s everybody hyped,” added Holland.
Matt Wolff brought hard-nosed defense in the second half after spending the first half on the bench in foul trouble, coming up with three steals, and the Terriers even got some productive minutes out of reserve forward Valdas Sirutis, as the junior scored his first points of the season on a crucial first half three to sap some of Harvard’s momentum.
To be sure, BU can’t rely on shooting 46.4 percent from behind the arc like they did against Harvard (13 of 28 from three), and the Terriers are still searching for some one who can score around the hoop. 6’9″ Scott Brittain is still suffering from post-concussion syndrome, and appeared very tentative in limited minutes against Harvard. Even when he was healthy, Brittain wasn’t the kind of player who could take over a game in the paint if the Terriers weren’t lighting it up from three.
The struggle of point guard Tyler Morris (6 turnovers, 1-5 shooting from 3) is also concerning. Morris still looks worlds away from the kid who set the conference on fire as the Rookie of the Year two seasons ago, as he has struggled to generate his own shot and with running the offense.
But the Terriers have proven that they can find ways to win. They are playing with heart and a sense of urgency and purpose, and most importantly playing as a team. With the Terriers sharing the ball, and when their shots are falling, BU is going to be a handful for anyone in the conference.
“We have so many different weapons, it’s hard for somebody to guard,” said Holland. “On any given night we have a lot of people who can light it up.”
