BU solidifies team with new recruit class

Wednesday afternoon, the Boston University basketball team announced another player will join guard Cedric Hankerson in the fall, representing the class of 2017 on the BU basketball team.

The most recent addition is Dylan Haines of Liverpool, N.Y. Haines stands tall at an even 7-foot-0 and is coming out of a solid year of post-graduate basketball at St. Thomas More in Connecticut.

Hankerson is a 6-foot-5 guard from Miami and earned All-State First Team honors during his time at Coral Reef High School.

These two additions will make an impact right away for an otherwise small Terrieer squad.  Their biggest man last season was junior forward Dom Morris who, standing at 6-foot-7 and weighing in at 240 pounds, finally came into his own this season, but was still not a traditional big man.

Meanwhile, the addition of Hankerson will add some size to the small group in BU coach Joe Jones’ backcourt of freshman Maurice Watson, Jr., junior D.J. Irving and freshman John Papale.

With some primary needs filled, Jones and company are setting themselves up to be in a strong position for their 2013–14 campaign in their move to the Patriot League.

From the FreeP: Men’s basketball’s season ran the gamut

By René Reyes/DFP Staff

About two weeks after the conclusion of the 2012-13 season, Boston University men’s basketball coach Joe Jones mentioned the Miami Heat in the same breath as his own team.

“Being a superior athlete is about what you do in those really difficult moments,” Jones said. “Trust me, I’m not comparing us to … the Heat. But it’s what they had to go through in order to be great. It’s what LeBron [James] had to endure in order to get to where he had to go. There was some losing. There were setbacks. You have to learn how to get over those things as an athlete.

“That’s where we are. We’re at a stage where we’ve had some disappointments. We’ve had some setbacks. We’ve had some success. Now can we take that next step? That’s the exciting part.”

Even before the tipoff of its season opener against Northeastern University in November, BU (17-13, 11-5 America East) faced immediate challenges.

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.

From the FreeP: Former BU coach Rick Pitino named to HOF

By Conor Ryan/DFP Staff

Former Boston University men’s basketball coach and current University of Louisville coach Rick Pitino has accumulated many accolades in his storied career: seven Final Four appearances, one national championship with the University of Kentucky in 1996, another with University of Louisville Monday night and the honor of being the only men’s coach in NCAA history to lead three different programs to Final Four appearances.

Despite these heralded accomplishments, Pitino received arguably the biggest honor of his career Monday, as he heard he will be one of 12 individuals enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in September.

Other members of the Class of 2013 include University of Houston coach Guy Lewis, University of Nevada, Las Vegas coach Jerry Tarkanian and former NBA stars Gary Payton and Bernard King.

After a successful four-year collegiate playing career at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Pitino served as an assistant coach at the University of Hawaii and Syracuse University between 1974 and 1978.

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.

From the FreeP: Men’s basketball suffers CIT defeat

By Michael Bagarella/DFP Staff

The Boston University men’s basketball team ended its season with a 70-63 loss to Loyola University-Maryland in the opening round of the Collegeinsider.com Tournament, Tuesday night in Baltimore.

“We were up 11 in the second half — it’s just a tough way to lose,” said BU coach Joe Jones. “I told the guys we had a very good year. We really battled and persevered all season. We played well in some big stretches tonight, but we just weren’t able to pull it out. It’s always tough to lose your last one.”

The Terriers (17-12, 11-5 America East) came out with a high energy level and, taking advantage of the noticeably sluggish early effort from Loyola (21-11), controlled both sides of the ball with strong ball movement, crisp passing and stiff defense. BU got out to a quick 8-1 lead only 3:15 into the game and spent most of the first half building on that lead.

It seemed like it would be a long night for Loyola when BU found itself up 21-8 with 11:25 to play in the first half, but the Greyhounds refused to die easily on their homecourt.

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.

From the FreeP: Men’s basketball late-season run leads it to CIT

By Christopher Dela Rosa/DFP Staff

If someone looked at the record of this year’s Boston University men’s basketball team after its first five games, odds are he or she would have said, “Better luck next year.”

Despite starting the season 0-5, the Terriers (17-12, 11-5 America East) were able to go on a tear, especially during conference play when they won six of their last seven games to earn an invitation to the CollegeInsider.com Basketball Tournament.

“I definitely saw this in the team’s future,” said BU head coach Joe Jones about the opportunity to play in the postseason. “If you look, we could’ve been 4-1 or 5-0; we played tough teams on the road and just could not finish down the stretch.”

To start off the 2012-13 campaign, the Terriers fell in a tight game against Northeastern University at Matthews Arena. With a two-point lead and 10.7 seconds left on the clock, the Terriers simply needed to play stout pressure defense in order to preserve the victory.

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.

From the FreeP: Men’s basketball confident in chances of making postseason

By René Reyes/DFP Staff

Even after the Boston University men’s basketball team fell to Stony Brook University 71-55 at Agganis Arena Thursday night, BU coach Joe Jones was certain that his squad did enough up to that point to earn a spot in a postseason tournament.

In July, the Terriers (17-12, 11-5 America East) were banned from participating in the America East Tournament due to their decision to switch to the Patriot League for the 2013-14 campaign.

Having recorded 17 wins — with 11 coming in conference play — and stringing together a six-game winning streak before their loss to the Seawolves (23-6, 14-2 America East), the Terriers have to wait until Selection Sunday on March 17 to hear if they have received a postseason bid, whether it is to the College Basketball Invitational or the College Insider Tournament.

“We’ll play,” Jones said of BU’s postseason chances. “We’re going to make a postseason tournament. There’s no doubt.”

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.

From the FreeP: Terriers show true colors in second half

By René Reyes/DFP Staff

Trailing by as many as 28 points late in the first half against Stony Brook University, the Boston University men’s basketball team could have just as easily packed it in for the remainder of the game and not fought back.

When the first session ended and the Seawolves (22–6, 13–2 America East) carried a 19-point cushion, SBU coach Steve Pikiell gave his squad a fair warning in the locker room: BU (17–12, 11–5 America East) was not going to roll over in its final America East game.

“We were really nervous about the game,” Pikiell said. “[Ahead] 19 points at halftime, I said to these guys, ‘They’re the leading scoring team in the league. Don’t worry about them. They’re going to score enough points.’”

In a first half where the Terriers shot 23.3 percent (7-of-30) from the floor and endured multiple scoring droughts, BU showed the fight it has displayed all season long in the second half, ever since it received word that it was banned from the America East Tournament before the 2012-13 campaign had even begun.

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.

BU–Stony Brook Slideshow

All photos by Christopher Dela Rosa/DFP Staff

BU-SBU Press Conferences

From the FreeP: BU keeping it simple in game with rival SBU

By René Reyes/DFP Staff

Boston University men’s basketball coach Joe Jones had an up-close and personal view of the meeting between BU (17-11, 11-4 America East) and Stony Brook University that took place at Agganis Arena March 12, 2011.

He was sitting behind the Terrier bench during the America East championship game, a matchup the Terriers won in nail-biting fashion, 56-54, to clinch the program’s first conference title since 2002 and seventh appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Jones remembers the March afternoon quite fondly, especially the performance by Terrier legend John Holland, who piled up 27 points — including 14 in a row during a decisive stretch late in the second half — and sent the Agganis crowd into euphoria after the buzzer sounded.

“Both teams played hard that day,” Jones said. “John Holland was outstanding. What a great atmosphere. Those were things that I remembered from that afternoon.”

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.