Thursday, November 10, 2011

From the FreeP: Men’s basketball: Jonesing for a championship

By Craig Meyer and René Reyes/DFP Staff

As the players jumped raucously in jubilation, as the fans rushed the court in utter bliss and as the confetti streamed down from the rafters to the Agganis Arena floor, the Boston University men’s basketball program was experiencing a dream fully realized.

After clawing back to take down Stony Brook University in the America East Tournament championship game, the Terriers were headed to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in almost a decade and were part of a March Madness montage usually reserved for other, more successful schools.

Amid the celebration and chaos, however, stood a man who had watched the game from behind the bench, a man who, unbeknownst to BU players, coaches and fans, would be the person who with the responsibility of harnessing this success as the program’s next head coach – Joe Jones.

Having just completed his first season as the Boston College associate head coach, Jones made the trip east down Commonwealth Avenue to watch his good friend Patrick Chambers coach the Terriers and at the time, never could have imagined he would soon be in Chambers’ position.

But now that he is, he couldn’t be happier.

“I wanted the job really badly,” Jones said. “When the job opened, I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity. It’s the best job in the league and that’s the kind of job that you want as a head coach, so when that job opened up it was an absolute no-brainer.”

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.

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