Wednesday, September 21, 2011

From the FreeP: For men's basketball, it's always sunny in Philadelphia

By Craig Meyer/DFP Staff

With the arrival of former head men’s basketball coach Patrick Chambers to Boston University in 2009, a pipeline was created, a bond that linked along the East Coast all the way from Boston to Philadelphia.

It was a connection that Chambers used to recruit talented players who helped to revitalize a stagnant BU program and were instrumental in leading the Terriers to their first America East Conference title and NCAA Tournament appearance in almost a decade.

When Chambers left for Penn State University in early June and former Boston College associate head Coach Joe Jones was hired to replace him, the question naturally arose – would Jones be able to maintain not only Chambers’ success, but also the valuable connection to one of the most talent-rich areas in the nation?

Just over two months into his tenure, Jones has begun to answer those questions, doubts and concerns in one fell swoop when he landed a verbal commitment from class of 2012 point guard Maurice Watson.

The 5’9” floor general from Boys’ Latin School in Philadelphia announced his decision on Aug. 31, three months before he was originally scheduled to, choosing a school that over time became a clear and perfect fit for him.

“Everything felt right and I have no regrets about my decision,” Watson said in a phone interview with The Daily Free Press. “I didn’t feel like waiting anymore – I knew where I wanted to go and I just didn’t want to waste coach Jones’ time.”

Read more at www.dailyfreepress.com.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

how likely is BU getting an invitation to CAA or A10 now?

Craig Meyer said...

Difficult to say -- a lot of it depends upon what ends up happening with the Big East. If the league somehow stays together (very unlikely), I doubt BU's going anywhere. But if the conference splits apart and the BE non-football members split off and add teams like Temple, Xavier, Dayton, etc., then there's a good chance that trickles down to BU. As far as those two conferences go, A-10 is a much better fit, but either one is an upgrade, especially on the hoops end of things