BOSTON – They say that death and taxes are the only certainties in life. There are other things that are so virtually certain they could almost be added to that list, like college football being a joke as long as the BCS is around or a pleasant driving experience in Boston being elusive. Another possibility in that category is that Boston University will win at home against New Hampshire, and the latest exhibit for it came at just the right time for the Terriers.
Sunday’s 68-37 thumping of the Wildcats was the 15th straight win in Boston for the Terriers against their rivals just to the north. The last time New Hampshire beat the Terriers on Commonwealth Ave was a little less than 15 years ago, and the two head coaches prior to Bill Herrion, who was then the head coach at conference rival Drexel, never did it. Sunday was not the first ugly score during that time, either. Two years ago almost to the day, the score was 53-29; nearly 10 years ago, it was 84-49.
But this homecourt dominance of the Wildcats takes a major backseat in terms of significance on this day. The Terriers had seemingly hit a couple of lows in recent weeks, with one poor performance after another during a five-game losing streak. In consecutive games, they lost by 30 at Cornell and by 19 at home to a banged-up Holy Cross team before dropping a close one at Albany in their America East opener. In the Albany game, they showed signs of coming around, but couldn’t pull out the win.
So it’s safe to say that there was a little more urgency to Sunday’s game for the home team, and a real happy feeling when they came away with the win. It seemed like a relief for the team.
“It feels good to finally get off this losing streak,” said sophomore John Holland.
“Obviously we needed a win,” said head coach Dennis Wolff. “I thought that we, for two straight games now, have looked way more cohesive than we had maybe even in the first semester when we were playing better. To me, the credit goes to the kids. No one’s liked the situation we have found ourselves in. We played two bad games, we didn’t act right, we had two guys have terrible, terrible injuries, and we’re still playing. So I think the kids deserve a lot of credit.”
The injuries Wolff alluded to are season-ending ones to guards Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong, two-thirds of the trio of guards that everyone expected over a year ago would help the Terriers rule the conference for three years. But Morris has never been the same since an injury he suffered in the preseason last year, while Strong hasn’t improved since his freshman season when he showed a lot of promise. Even so, losing two regulars for the season never helps. With the other starting guard, Corey Lowe, out due to being ejected from the prior game, the Terriers played seven players at Albany, three of whom played all 40 minutes.
In fact, because the Terriers are basically down to seven or eight players, Wolff went with a zone defense against New Hampshire. He would rather not do it, as he’s built his reputation on tough man-to-man defense, but needing to stay out of foul trouble was the major reason, and he’s also aware that most teams don’t really know how to attack a zone defense, even drawing on his team’s own issues in attacking opposing zone defenses.
Lowe didn’t have his best game, although he made a few key plays early on, so the support is what won this game. Holland set a tone early and scored 16 of his 25 points in the first half, and is starting to look more like the player he was in the latter part of last season. It was the second straight game in which he scored 25 points.
“I’ve been John’s biggest critic,” said Wolff, who then added, “John’s been fabulous the last two games. That’s about the only way you could characterize his play. He’s concentrating, he’s playing off two feet, he hasn’t been going in the lane out of control. He probably has played two of the best games he’s played at BU the last two games.”
The other player who came up big in this game was Scott Brittain. Largely a defensive presence for his two-plus seasons on Commonwealth Ave, the junior forward is perhaps the best candidate to give the team some much-needed post scoring. Wolff has said all season long that he was concerned about the lack of it, no matter how good his perimeter players are, and with two key players there lost for the season, that gets magnified.
Brittain moved into the starting lineup at Albany, and Sunday was his second straight double-digit scoring game. He scored 15 points on 5-7 shooting and was seemingly automatic when the ball got to him inside. The 15 points surpassed his point total for the entire season prior to the Albany game; in the last two games, he has tripled his season point total.
“We need Scott to play the way he’s played in the last two games,” said Wolff.
The Terriers look more like a team on a mission. Wolff feels that people are writing them off, especially after the injuries, but also that doing so is a bit hasty. His comments are indicative of a team that is more focused and listening to what the staff is telling them, and they look like they might be more balanced offensively. Even if the balance comes out of necessity, it’s a plus because the alternative is that the Terriers could simply not develop it in the first place. It all comes at a good time since the team doesn’t have much margin for error.
“We’ve had two games where we’ve kind of stayed with what we thought we would like to accomplish beforehand, and we hadn’t done that in the two prior games,” Wolff said.
So the Terriers continue to dominate New Hampshire at home, making that matchup look more and more like a sure bet. This time around, the timing couldn’t have been better for the home team, and the best thing that came out of it wasn’t the win itself.
