BOSTON – They almost had it. For much of the game, they looked like they would do it. Then seemingly out of nowhere, a three-pointer just before the buzzer buried it all, and Boston University was headed back across town with an 0-1 mark to start the season. And now comes the challenge: moving on to the next one.
Youth was served on Friday night at Matthews Arena, at least if you look at the final score and nothing else. The Terriers started two freshmen and brought a freshman and sophomore off the bench for the most minutes, and lost to a team that normally starts two senior guards (one is out with an injury). The Terriers are a young group, but it’s one Joe Jones feels like he can work with and get good results out of with a little work and a balancing act.
“We’re still finding ourselves a bit,” said the second-year BU mentor.
The Terriers have more than just youth working against them, as they also lack size. Only two players on the roster are taller than 6’7″, and both stand 6’8″; neither started on Friday. They are also likely to go small on the perimeter and play D.J. Irving and talented freshman Maurice Watson, Jr. together, with both standing below 6′ tall. That’s part of why Jones wants to press, but he doesn’t think this team is ready for it yet from an endurance standpoint.
Despite all of that, Boston University was clearly the better team in the first half, as they led the Huskies by nine at halftime and had a 23-14 edge on the glass. The second half was another story, as the Terriers never really got untracked and shot below 29 percent from the field. As that happened, the lead slowly evaporated.
“I thought offensively, we didn’t put together a great half,” Jones said.
The Huskies also started to grind them out at the other end of the floor, as they got the ball inside either from drives or passing it inside to the big guys, and they got to the line often as a result. Northeastern was 17-22 from the line in the second half; the Terriers attempted just 14 free throws for the entire game.
Despite the loss and the issues that showed up, there is a lot for Jones to be happy with. Northeastern had a lead about seven minutes into the game before Boston University took control. The Huskies finally grabbed the lead with under six minutes to go, and after all that time with the lead it was possible the Terriers might have been dealt a psychological blow. But they came right back to regain the lead, and late in the game made a big defensive play one possession prior to the game-winner. They dealt with the in-game adversity pretty well.
It shows that some of Jones’ work with this team should be a little easier.
“It’s a really confident group,” he said of his team. “They expect to win. They don’t care who they play. When they saw our non-conference schedule, they thought they would run the table.”
Jones admitted that he has to keep the morale up with this team given its youth, and that as such he can’t beat them up much right now. They play again on Monday at Canisius, so they have to have a relatively short memory.
Friday’s loss was a tough one to take for the Terriers, and one they should ultimately bounce back from. It won’t come easy, though, because they were right there and so close.
