Tuesday, April 9, 2013

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.