BOSTON – Likely in part because they are departing the conference after this season and thus not eligible for the America East tournament, Boston University has been flying under the radar. But make no mistake: the Terriers are a factor in the conference race, and look very much like a team motivated to win on their way out as they have won seven of eight after Sunday’s 68-56 win over New Hampshire.
“Every game from here on out, since conference play started, has been personal for us,” said freshman guard Maurice Watson, Jr. “We just feel like we’re getting the short end of the stick because we’re making a change. We want to leave them with a sour taste in their mouth when they play against the Terriers.”
How a team takes to not being allowed to compete in a conference tournament, especially in the case of Boston University and the America East, is not predictable. In this case, it essentially meant Boston University would not be playing in the NCAA Tournament since there was almost no way they would earn an at-large bid. A team from America East has never done that, and once the Terriers started out the season losing five in a row, it was official that they weren’t going to have the resume for it.
That wasn’t all this team faced in the off-season, though. After the departure from the conference was announced and it was clear the Terriers were all but out of NCAA Tournament consideration, senior forward Jake O’Brien transferred to Temple. Then they also lost a recruit who was set to come and potentially make an impact. That left a small team both up front and on the perimeter, and in losing O’Brien they lost a potential Player of the Year candidate.
That was a lot to throw at them, but they handled it well. Perhaps it helps that almost every player on the team has more than just this year to reach the NCAA Tournament since the Terriers’ have no scholarship seniors.
“I was amazed by how they handled the summer, because the summer was rough,” said head coach Joe Jones. “For me, going into the season, I haven’t had to talk about that a lot. We’ve just been talking about making it to the postseason.”
New Hampshire head coach Bill Herrion thought this might be the case, but he also recognizes that this team is quite talented and playing very well right now. The Terriers are now tied for second in America East with Vermont and have knocked off the Catamounts in both meetings this season. But they don’t control their own destiny as far as a conference title goes, as they are two games in the loss column behind first-place Stony Brook and have just one more meeting with the Seawolves in the season finale on February 28.
“Some teams are probably thankful they’re not in the tournament,” said Herrion. “They’re dangerous.”
Besides what all competitors play for, the Terriers had plenty of motivators when conference play rolled around. They have not being eligible for the conference tournament, of course, but they also had the bad start to the season and the doubts that might have brought. There is still a chance of getting into a tournament like the CBI or CIT if they win out, which would put them at 18-11, but much will depend on how other conference tournaments go.
The Terriers have gotten this far despite a lot working against them. They lack size all over, although they out-rebounded New Hampshire 43-28 led by the diminutive backcourt of Watson and D.J. Irving getting 10 and nine boards, respectively. They started slowly. Their path to the NCAA Tournament isn’t available to them. But this low-maintenance group is making a push for postseason play, and they know if they had been eligible for the conference tournament they could be a factor.
“We still want to be able to make noise, and we want to prove to everyone that we were a good enough team to make a postseason tournament without the conference tournament,” said Watson.
With three games and a week and a half to go, the highly-motivated Terriers still have chances to show that.
