By Christopher Dela Rosa/DFP Staff
Boston – Sept. 26, 2013 – On Thursday afternoon,
all of the head coaches of D–1 basketball programs in Massachusetts assembled
at TD Garden for the third annual Massachusetts college basketball media day.
Media day was preceded with a Coaches vs. Cancer breakfast,
in which the state’s first ever tripleheader featuring six Massachusetts D–1
schools was announced. The tripleheader
will take place at TD Garden on November 10th and feature games between BU and
Northeastern, Boston College and UMass, and Harvard University and Holy Cross.
The proceeds from the event will benefit Coaches vs. Cancer,
a nation-wide collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the
National Association of Basketball Coachers (NABC).
Following the breakfast and announcement, coaches were made
available to the media, and Full Court Press caught up with BU head coach Joe
Jones.
During that time Coach Jones spoke about leadership within
the team and what he expects from this year’s incoming class. Here’s what he had to say:
Jones on captains
this season:
“We should be in great shape. We have three seniors that were captains last
year so they got their feet wet when it comes to being leaders of the
team. Now they’re seniors and they’re
tremendous people. That’s the first
thing I’d say is they’re tremendous people, I think they handle themselves well
the right way, so guys will follow them.
They understand the ropes, they won a championship as freshman; they’re
great student athletes to have as your leaders.
We feel like we’re in great shape in that department and I feel like
they will be able themselves.”
Jones on sophomore Maurice
Watson Jr. as leader
“We’ve talked about that because it’s a little tricky. By nature he’s a leader because of the way he
is and the position that he plays. So
our captains are very comfortable with him being a vocal leader on the team so
that wont change, and that’s why I love our team, they have very good chemistry
and are very accepting.”
Jones on 2013–14
schedule
“I don’t know if there’s any game we’ve circled so to
speak. As much as we are anxious to
play, we think the non conference will gear us up for conference play and we
want to get better as the year goes on.”
Jones on what to
expect from freshman class
“It’s hard to say right now.
Dylan Haines hurt his wrist so he’s out.
We were hoping he could give us some added depth in the front court. Cedric Hankerson we think is going to have a
great career. How quickly he can get
comfortable with the things we’re trying to do, will dictate how much of an impact
he can make. I think both guys can make
an impact, how much though, remains to be seen.”
