By René Reyes/DFP Staff
Matt Griffin mulled over the options in front of him.
He considered going to community college. He looked at several Division I and II schools. He even thought about taking a year off to hone his skills, namely his dribbling, free-throw shooting and trademark 3-point shot.
Griffin needed a change of scenery. Rider had posted a 34-24 record in his two years at the Lawrenceville, N.J., school, but his name had fallen well below where he wanted it to be on the Broncs’ depth chart.
He no longer fit into coach Tommy Dempsey’s offensive system at Rider.
“My game was more tailored toward running an offense and being a pass-first [point guard],” Griffin said. “Their system was more of scoring one-on-one. In order for me to play, I had to score more. It just wasn’t my style. I didn’t feel comfortable. So I knew in order for me to reach my potential, I’d have to try a different system in a different place."
Read more at dailyfreepress.com.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
From the FreeP: Pelage, O’Brien go through unique coaching experience
By Craig Meyer/DFP Staff
When Jeff Pelage and Jake O’Brien arrived at Boston University almost four years ago, they were no different than any other players getting ready to start their college basketball careers.
There were the same aspirations – improving their respective games, growing as players and, hopefully, experiencing a championship and the bright lights of the NCAA Tournament. Maybe more than anything, they were there to play for a coach who convinced them to come play for him rather than anyone else in the country.
But now, three and a half years, 132 games and countless hours of practice later, the pair can no longer say their careers have been average. Indeed, among thousands of Division I college basketball players, they are unique, as BU’s two-man 2008 recruiting class has had the bizarre if not downright dubious distinction of having played for three different coaches in their four-year college careers.
“It was just tough, it was just tough,” Pelage, a senior center, said.
While O’Brien and Pelage’s experience with coaching turnover has been far from typical, coaching changes aren’t all that strange. In fact, in the world of modern college basketball, they’re something of a necessary evil.
Read more at dailyfreepress.com.
When Jeff Pelage and Jake O’Brien arrived at Boston University almost four years ago, they were no different than any other players getting ready to start their college basketball careers.
There were the same aspirations – improving their respective games, growing as players and, hopefully, experiencing a championship and the bright lights of the NCAA Tournament. Maybe more than anything, they were there to play for a coach who convinced them to come play for him rather than anyone else in the country.
But now, three and a half years, 132 games and countless hours of practice later, the pair can no longer say their careers have been average. Indeed, among thousands of Division I college basketball players, they are unique, as BU’s two-man 2008 recruiting class has had the bizarre if not downright dubious distinction of having played for three different coaches in their four-year college careers.
“It was just tough, it was just tough,” Pelage, a senior center, said.
While O’Brien and Pelage’s experience with coaching turnover has been far from typical, coaching changes aren’t all that strange. In fact, in the world of modern college basketball, they’re something of a necessary evil.
Read more at dailyfreepress.com.
Mike Terry leaves BU, desires to be close to family
By Shep Hayes/DFP Staff
Boston University men’s basketball coach Joe Jones confirmed Mike Terry Jr. has been released from the program and intends to transfer at the end of the academic year, hoping to move closer to his hometown of Philadelphia.
The move was first reported by Sam Perkins of One-Bid Wonders.
“He asked for his release,” Jones said. “We granted him the release. He’s got an ill family member at home, so he’s hoping to get back closer to home.”
Jones said he stands fully behind Terry in his decision to move from BU and that the desire to be closer to his family was the major reason for the request and approval.
“I think that’s the major reason why,” Jones said. “He was looking to get closer. Anytime you have a family member you want to be closer to that’s going through a tough time, I totally understand. I support him 100 percent.”
Terry played in 27 games this past season for the Terriers, starting two and averaging 9.3 minutes per game. The 6-foot-0 guard shot 17-for-48 from the field and 8-for-16 from the free throw line. With 44 points, he was the fourth-lowest scorer for BU. He had nine offensive and 20 defensive rebounds, 13 turnovers and 13 steals.
In his freshman year at BU, under former coach Pat Chambers, Terry played in 29 games and started five. He totaled 27 points on 27.5 percent shooting, but recorded 44 rebounds.
Jones did not have any indication on what schools Terry is considering.
Terry is the second player to leave the team this offseason, following redshirt freshman center Mat Piotrowski’s departure last week. Terry's departure means that BU will have two open scholarships for next season. Jones was indecisive on his plans to fill the spots, though he did have a general direction of thought.
“I just want to make sure we’re doing what’s right for the program,” Jones said. “We’ll make a good choice, whether it’s going to be a transfer or hold off. It all depends on how we see young men fitting into our program.”
Boston University men’s basketball coach Joe Jones confirmed Mike Terry Jr. has been released from the program and intends to transfer at the end of the academic year, hoping to move closer to his hometown of Philadelphia.
The move was first reported by Sam Perkins of One-Bid Wonders.
“He asked for his release,” Jones said. “We granted him the release. He’s got an ill family member at home, so he’s hoping to get back closer to home.”
Jones said he stands fully behind Terry in his decision to move from BU and that the desire to be closer to his family was the major reason for the request and approval.
“I think that’s the major reason why,” Jones said. “He was looking to get closer. Anytime you have a family member you want to be closer to that’s going through a tough time, I totally understand. I support him 100 percent.”
Terry played in 27 games this past season for the Terriers, starting two and averaging 9.3 minutes per game. The 6-foot-0 guard shot 17-for-48 from the field and 8-for-16 from the free throw line. With 44 points, he was the fourth-lowest scorer for BU. He had nine offensive and 20 defensive rebounds, 13 turnovers and 13 steals.
In his freshman year at BU, under former coach Pat Chambers, Terry played in 29 games and started five. He totaled 27 points on 27.5 percent shooting, but recorded 44 rebounds.
Jones did not have any indication on what schools Terry is considering.
Terry is the second player to leave the team this offseason, following redshirt freshman center Mat Piotrowski’s departure last week. Terry's departure means that BU will have two open scholarships for next season. Jones was indecisive on his plans to fill the spots, though he did have a general direction of thought.
“I just want to make sure we’re doing what’s right for the program,” Jones said. “We’ll make a good choice, whether it’s going to be a transfer or hold off. It all depends on how we see young men fitting into our program.”
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
From the FreeP: MEYER: Gonzaga of the East? Not so fast
By Craig Meyer/DFP Staff
The following column is the fourth in a series of columns written by former Daily Free Press sports editors. Today’s column is written by Craig Meyer, who was the sports editor during the Fall 2011 semester.
In life, there are times when you’re so taken aback by something you’ve heard that you’ll never forget it. For some of us, it’s a piece of shocking news, like the death of a loved one or a similar tragedy. It could also be a statement that seemingly comes out of nowhere to grab you by the throat, be it offensive or outrageous in nature.
I’ve had my fair share of these moments in my lifetime, with one of them occurring my freshman year here at Boston University in the Agganis Arena Premium Club. It was there – as one of only a few students among a crowd of reporters, family members and BU Athletics officials – that a routine introductory press conference turned into something else entirely, courtesy of Patrick Chambers.
“I look at BU basketball like the Gonzaga and Xavier of the Northeast,” the newly-hired Chambers enthusiastically told the crowd.
It was a statement that would be bold and ostentatious for any low-major coach to utter, let alone one who had never been a head coach at the Division I level, but it undoubtedly set a tone for Chambers’ tenure at BU.
Indeed, with Chambers at the helm, BU basketball would be daring. It would be full-throttle and fast-paced.
But it would ultimately be built on a false pretense, for what he aimed to accomplish was something far easier said than done, something that can’t simply be accomplished in the matter of a few years or even a single coaching tenure.
At the risk of stating the obvious, BU basketball is not on the same level of Gonzaga University, Xavier University or any other elite mid-major program in college basketball. In fact, it’s not even close.
This isn’t a shot at the BU program because it’s not one that’s in a bad place. It’s routinely one of the best in the America East Conference and is just a year removed from appearing in the NCAA Tournament. Rather, this is a chance to re-evaluate Chambers’ statement, three years removed from the initial hysteria and excitement that surrounded it.
When Chambers said what he did, whether he intended to or not, he set a bar for the Terrier program, not only for his time at BU, but also for the future of the program. It’s an ambitious goal and one that every mid- or low-major program should hope for deep down, but it’s an utterly unattainable one for most anyone that tries, especially in such a brief period of time.
What has been accomplished by the likes of Gonzaga, Xavier, Butler University and Virginia Commonwealth University, among others, flies in the face of conventional college basketball wisdom. Not only that, but it is also the product of many years and even decades of hard work, diligence and perseverance.
Gonzaga is the original bracket-buster to many, the cuddly underdog that has sported the likes of Ronny Turiaf and Adam Morrison in the last decade. But it’s also the same school that, despite measured success and the efforts of players like John Stockton, took decades to make the school’s first NCAA Tournament.
Since its appearance in the Big Dance, of course, the Bulldogs have made the tournament every year since 1999, with five Sweet 16’s and one Elite Eight. But the point here is that it took more than 20 years and the work of three coaches for Gonzaga to become, well, Gonzaga. The same anecdote can be applied to any other top mid-major program – these things take time to build and grow.
It’s also something that has to survive turbulence and change, most notably with head coaches. Understandably, if a coach experiences a high level of success at a smaller school, he moves on to bigger and better opportunities. It’s something these mid-majors routinely have to deal with, and many falter when trying to replace an elite coach. But there are some that don’t, and that is the true mark of what differentiates the likes of Gonzaga and Xavier from the rest.
Gonzaga replaced Dan Fitzgerald with Dan Monson, then Monson with current coach Mark Few. VCU went from Jeff Capel to Anthony Grant and now to Shaka Smart. Butler went from Barry Collier to Thad Matta to Todd Lickliter to Brad Stevens. Xavier went from Pete Gillen to Skip Prosser to Matta to Sean Miller and now to Chris Mack.
It’s a point you probably could have understood after the first couple of examples, but it’s a good one to emphasize – success cannot begin and end with one coach. What we see from these schools is something that transcends the men on the sidelines, and that’s simply having a winning culture and a supportive administration. Again, not exactly something that can just be created on the spot.
It may go without mentioning that there’s a financial component to all of this, as many of these schools stay competitive and elite by ponying up to successful coaches. Both Stevens and Smart were rewarded with contract extensions that pay them north of $1 million a year and coaches like Few aren’t far behind that mark.
Taking all of this into consideration, it has to be asked whether BU has any of these necessary characteristics. Frankly, at this moment, it doesn’t.
In order for BU to get to that Gonzaga or Xavier level, the head coach will have to be paid more. Chambers made about $250,000 a year, which didn’t even make him the highest paid America East coach. Upping the salary for an accomplished coach is a tall task for an athletic department that already devotes significant resources to the hockey program, but it’s something that would have to be done.
Coaching turnover has also proven to be a problem for BU. It hasn’t been a matter of BU failing to attract top-notch young coaches, because they have, but it’s been that they have never been able to replace them. For all the momentum that was generated at BU under Rick Pitino and Mike Jarvis, it quickly fell flat once they left.
And while BU’s been one of the America East’s best teams for seemingly the past 30 years, the Terriers have made the NCAA Tournament just three times since 1991. Programs like Butler, Xavier, Gonzaga and VCU make Elite Eights, Final Fours and even national title games, so it’s hard to get too excited about a program whose claim to fame the last 12 years was losing to Kansas by 19 in the NCAA Tournament.
Perhaps for now, then, it’s good to temper expectations for this basketball program.
It’s important to remember that Chambers was in the business world before he got into coaching. Just by saying what he did, it doesn’t necessarily mean he felt it could be accomplished in a short period of time. Rather, he was making a sell to a new group of people and he did a damn good job of it, for with that remark, he went from an unknown commodity to the eager and giddy up-and-comer who dreamed of taking BU to mid-major greatness.
For now, BU trying to be Gonzaga or Xavier is a far-off fantasy and not something they can accomplish any time soon. I guarantee Joe Jones would acknowledge as much.
Instead of aiming to be the next great mid-major, try making the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons, something it hasn’t done since joining the America East in 1979. Then go for multiple bids to the Big Dance in a five year period. Then try to win a game. Perhaps then a conversation can begin about the progress of this program and how far it can go.
BU has a lot in place to one day become a power program at the mid-major level. It’s an elite school in a major city with a large student population and a top-notch facility in Agganis Arena to sell to recruits.
The pieces are undoubtedly in place and the potential is certainly there for BU. But, much like anything ever worth accomplishing in this world, it will take some time before we ever see Chambers’ dream fully come to fruition.
The following column is the fourth in a series of columns written by former Daily Free Press sports editors. Today’s column is written by Craig Meyer, who was the sports editor during the Fall 2011 semester.
In life, there are times when you’re so taken aback by something you’ve heard that you’ll never forget it. For some of us, it’s a piece of shocking news, like the death of a loved one or a similar tragedy. It could also be a statement that seemingly comes out of nowhere to grab you by the throat, be it offensive or outrageous in nature.
I’ve had my fair share of these moments in my lifetime, with one of them occurring my freshman year here at Boston University in the Agganis Arena Premium Club. It was there – as one of only a few students among a crowd of reporters, family members and BU Athletics officials – that a routine introductory press conference turned into something else entirely, courtesy of Patrick Chambers.
“I look at BU basketball like the Gonzaga and Xavier of the Northeast,” the newly-hired Chambers enthusiastically told the crowd.
It was a statement that would be bold and ostentatious for any low-major coach to utter, let alone one who had never been a head coach at the Division I level, but it undoubtedly set a tone for Chambers’ tenure at BU.
Indeed, with Chambers at the helm, BU basketball would be daring. It would be full-throttle and fast-paced.
But it would ultimately be built on a false pretense, for what he aimed to accomplish was something far easier said than done, something that can’t simply be accomplished in the matter of a few years or even a single coaching tenure.
At the risk of stating the obvious, BU basketball is not on the same level of Gonzaga University, Xavier University or any other elite mid-major program in college basketball. In fact, it’s not even close.
This isn’t a shot at the BU program because it’s not one that’s in a bad place. It’s routinely one of the best in the America East Conference and is just a year removed from appearing in the NCAA Tournament. Rather, this is a chance to re-evaluate Chambers’ statement, three years removed from the initial hysteria and excitement that surrounded it.
When Chambers said what he did, whether he intended to or not, he set a bar for the Terrier program, not only for his time at BU, but also for the future of the program. It’s an ambitious goal and one that every mid- or low-major program should hope for deep down, but it’s an utterly unattainable one for most anyone that tries, especially in such a brief period of time.
What has been accomplished by the likes of Gonzaga, Xavier, Butler University and Virginia Commonwealth University, among others, flies in the face of conventional college basketball wisdom. Not only that, but it is also the product of many years and even decades of hard work, diligence and perseverance.
Gonzaga is the original bracket-buster to many, the cuddly underdog that has sported the likes of Ronny Turiaf and Adam Morrison in the last decade. But it’s also the same school that, despite measured success and the efforts of players like John Stockton, took decades to make the school’s first NCAA Tournament.
Since its appearance in the Big Dance, of course, the Bulldogs have made the tournament every year since 1999, with five Sweet 16’s and one Elite Eight. But the point here is that it took more than 20 years and the work of three coaches for Gonzaga to become, well, Gonzaga. The same anecdote can be applied to any other top mid-major program – these things take time to build and grow.
It’s also something that has to survive turbulence and change, most notably with head coaches. Understandably, if a coach experiences a high level of success at a smaller school, he moves on to bigger and better opportunities. It’s something these mid-majors routinely have to deal with, and many falter when trying to replace an elite coach. But there are some that don’t, and that is the true mark of what differentiates the likes of Gonzaga and Xavier from the rest.
Gonzaga replaced Dan Fitzgerald with Dan Monson, then Monson with current coach Mark Few. VCU went from Jeff Capel to Anthony Grant and now to Shaka Smart. Butler went from Barry Collier to Thad Matta to Todd Lickliter to Brad Stevens. Xavier went from Pete Gillen to Skip Prosser to Matta to Sean Miller and now to Chris Mack.
It’s a point you probably could have understood after the first couple of examples, but it’s a good one to emphasize – success cannot begin and end with one coach. What we see from these schools is something that transcends the men on the sidelines, and that’s simply having a winning culture and a supportive administration. Again, not exactly something that can just be created on the spot.
It may go without mentioning that there’s a financial component to all of this, as many of these schools stay competitive and elite by ponying up to successful coaches. Both Stevens and Smart were rewarded with contract extensions that pay them north of $1 million a year and coaches like Few aren’t far behind that mark.
Taking all of this into consideration, it has to be asked whether BU has any of these necessary characteristics. Frankly, at this moment, it doesn’t.
In order for BU to get to that Gonzaga or Xavier level, the head coach will have to be paid more. Chambers made about $250,000 a year, which didn’t even make him the highest paid America East coach. Upping the salary for an accomplished coach is a tall task for an athletic department that already devotes significant resources to the hockey program, but it’s something that would have to be done.
Coaching turnover has also proven to be a problem for BU. It hasn’t been a matter of BU failing to attract top-notch young coaches, because they have, but it’s been that they have never been able to replace them. For all the momentum that was generated at BU under Rick Pitino and Mike Jarvis, it quickly fell flat once they left.
And while BU’s been one of the America East’s best teams for seemingly the past 30 years, the Terriers have made the NCAA Tournament just three times since 1991. Programs like Butler, Xavier, Gonzaga and VCU make Elite Eights, Final Fours and even national title games, so it’s hard to get too excited about a program whose claim to fame the last 12 years was losing to Kansas by 19 in the NCAA Tournament.
Perhaps for now, then, it’s good to temper expectations for this basketball program.
It’s important to remember that Chambers was in the business world before he got into coaching. Just by saying what he did, it doesn’t necessarily mean he felt it could be accomplished in a short period of time. Rather, he was making a sell to a new group of people and he did a damn good job of it, for with that remark, he went from an unknown commodity to the eager and giddy up-and-comer who dreamed of taking BU to mid-major greatness.
For now, BU trying to be Gonzaga or Xavier is a far-off fantasy and not something they can accomplish any time soon. I guarantee Joe Jones would acknowledge as much.
Instead of aiming to be the next great mid-major, try making the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons, something it hasn’t done since joining the America East in 1979. Then go for multiple bids to the Big Dance in a five year period. Then try to win a game. Perhaps then a conversation can begin about the progress of this program and how far it can go.
BU has a lot in place to one day become a power program at the mid-major level. It’s an elite school in a major city with a large student population and a top-notch facility in Agganis Arena to sell to recruits.
The pieces are undoubtedly in place and the potential is certainly there for BU. But, much like anything ever worth accomplishing in this world, it will take some time before we ever see Chambers’ dream fully come to fruition.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Mat Piotrowski leaves BU program
By Craig Meyer/DFP Staff
Redshirt freshman center Mat Piotrowski has left the Boston University men's basketball program, team official Scott Ellis confirmed to The Daily Free Press.
The departure was first reported by the website One-Bid Wonders.
Piotrowski, a 7-foot-1 center from Port Republic, N.J., averaged just 0.3 points and 0.5 rebounds in two minutes per game in the 2011-12 season. He was recruited and signed by former BU head coach Patrick Chambers.
While BU head coach Joe Jones did not comment on Piotrowski's future plans, noting that it's a decision that's "kind of personal" for his former center, he noted that playing time and style of play are things that are important for any player, just as they were for Piotrowski.
"For him, style of play, all of those things are going to be very important for him and every kid deserves to have a career where they’re getting an opportunity to get on the floor," Jones said. "Every kid wants to do that. He’s making a decision that’s best for himself to have that chance to go to a place that has a style of play that more fits his skill set and his abilities.”
Jones said that he and Piotrowski had talked throughout the season about what Piotrowski wanted to get out of his career and Jones said that he supports his departing player's decision and hopes for the best for him going forward.
"He and I had a very good relationship, a very open and honest relationship, and we had been talking throughout," Jones said. "I wish him the best. I want to see him have a great career.”
Redshirt freshman center Mat Piotrowski has left the Boston University men's basketball program, team official Scott Ellis confirmed to The Daily Free Press.
The departure was first reported by the website One-Bid Wonders.
Piotrowski, a 7-foot-1 center from Port Republic, N.J., averaged just 0.3 points and 0.5 rebounds in two minutes per game in the 2011-12 season. He was recruited and signed by former BU head coach Patrick Chambers.
While BU head coach Joe Jones did not comment on Piotrowski's future plans, noting that it's a decision that's "kind of personal" for his former center, he noted that playing time and style of play are things that are important for any player, just as they were for Piotrowski.
"For him, style of play, all of those things are going to be very important for him and every kid deserves to have a career where they’re getting an opportunity to get on the floor," Jones said. "Every kid wants to do that. He’s making a decision that’s best for himself to have that chance to go to a place that has a style of play that more fits his skill set and his abilities.”
Jones said that he and Piotrowski had talked throughout the season about what Piotrowski wanted to get out of his career and Jones said that he supports his departing player's decision and hopes for the best for him going forward.
"He and I had a very good relationship, a very open and honest relationship, and we had been talking throughout," Jones said. "I wish him the best. I want to see him have a great career.”
Monday, March 26, 2012
From the FreeP: Men’s basketball experiences plethora of changes during 2011-12 campaign
By Craig Meyer and Shep Hayes/DFP Staff
If anything and above all else, the 2011-12 season was one of change for the Boston University men’s basketball program.
For a program that did not experience a coaching change for 15 years, the Terriers adjusted to their third head coach in four years as Joe Jones took over the program from Patrick Chambers, who unexpectedly left in June to become the new head coach at Penn State University.
Gone was leading scorer and 2011 America East Conference Player of the Year John Holland, the player who single-handedly willed the Terriers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002.
It was expected to be a challenging season for BU, even though it was not-so-surprisingly selected as the preseason pick to win the America East Conference for the fifth season in a row.
Read more at dailyfreepress.com.
If anything and above all else, the 2011-12 season was one of change for the Boston University men’s basketball program.
For a program that did not experience a coaching change for 15 years, the Terriers adjusted to their third head coach in four years as Joe Jones took over the program from Patrick Chambers, who unexpectedly left in June to become the new head coach at Penn State University.
Gone was leading scorer and 2011 America East Conference Player of the Year John Holland, the player who single-handedly willed the Terriers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002.
It was expected to be a challenging season for BU, even though it was not-so-surprisingly selected as the preseason pick to win the America East Conference for the fifth season in a row.
Read more at dailyfreepress.com.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Transcript of end-of-season interview with coach Jones
By René Reyes/DFP Staff
On expectations coming into the season
“Coming in, the goal is always going to be to get to the NCAA Tournament. I don’t think that’s ever going to change. To be honest with you, I really wanted to, at the end of the year, feel like we played as good as we were capable of playing. That’s really what you want to get to. I felt like we had hit our stride in the middle of the conference season. We’re probably playing our best ball. The last stretch, I felt we were inconsistent down the stretch. That’s what you hope wouldn’t happen and that we’d be playing our best ball by the end of the season.”
On the progression of the team in general
“You can’t put your finger on it. If you look at your body of work and being logical about things, we probably had one of the tougher non-conference schedules in the country for where we are. We had the 79th hardest schedule in the country, as compared to Vermont that was 212 and Stony Brook was in the 300s. There was a crazy distribution between who were playing and who our counterparts were playing. I really thought we held together through a touch stretch of games. D.J. being injured going into the Vermont game didn’t help us. We weren’t at full strength the first game of the conference season at Vermont, which is a big game obviously. We got it going and played pretty well during the stretch. I don’t think you can put your finger on one thing why you didn’t achieve what you wanted to achieve. The bottom line I though when we really broke it down was we didn’t get timely stops when we needed them late in the game against New Hampshire, late in the game against Stony Brook and late in the game against Hartford. At Hartford, we didn’t get the timely stops and we didn’t really execute down the stretch or score late in games.”
On expectations coming into the season
“Coming in, the goal is always going to be to get to the NCAA Tournament. I don’t think that’s ever going to change. To be honest with you, I really wanted to, at the end of the year, feel like we played as good as we were capable of playing. That’s really what you want to get to. I felt like we had hit our stride in the middle of the conference season. We’re probably playing our best ball. The last stretch, I felt we were inconsistent down the stretch. That’s what you hope wouldn’t happen and that we’d be playing our best ball by the end of the season.”
On the progression of the team in general
“You can’t put your finger on it. If you look at your body of work and being logical about things, we probably had one of the tougher non-conference schedules in the country for where we are. We had the 79th hardest schedule in the country, as compared to Vermont that was 212 and Stony Brook was in the 300s. There was a crazy distribution between who were playing and who our counterparts were playing. I really thought we held together through a touch stretch of games. D.J. being injured going into the Vermont game didn’t help us. We weren’t at full strength the first game of the conference season at Vermont, which is a big game obviously. We got it going and played pretty well during the stretch. I don’t think you can put your finger on one thing why you didn’t achieve what you wanted to achieve. The bottom line I though when we really broke it down was we didn’t get timely stops when we needed them late in the game against New Hampshire, late in the game against Stony Brook and late in the game against Hartford. At Hartford, we didn’t get the timely stops and we didn’t really execute down the stretch or score late in games.”
Monday, March 5, 2012
From the FreeP: Partin falters in second half against Hawks
By René Reyes/DFP Staff
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The America East Tournament quarterfinal wasn’t particularly kind to Darryl Partin.
Resembling every bit of the 2011-12 Player of the Year he is, the senior swingman torched the University of Hartford for 11 points in the tilt’s opening half on an array of fadeaway jumpers and free throws.
He scored just six more points in the second frame.
At 10:54 p.m. on Saturday night, Partin gingerly walked into Chase Family Arena’s media room, looking dazed, and sat to the left of Boston University men’s basketball coach Joe Jones at the podium.
Resembling every bit of the 2011-12 Player of the Year he is, the senior swingman torched the University of Hartford for 11 points in the tilt’s opening half on an array of fadeaway jumpers and free throws.
He scored just six more points in the second frame.
At 10:54 p.m. on Saturday night, Partin gingerly walked into Chase Family Arena’s media room, looking dazed, and sat to the left of Boston University men’s basketball coach Joe Jones at the podium.
From the FreeP: Hartford squashes BU’s chance at back-to-back America East titles
By Luke Coughlan/DFP Staff
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — In its first America East postseason bout since it secured the conference championship in 2011, the third-seeded Boston University men’s basketball team saw its title defense stall out early as it fell, 53-49, to sixth-seeded University of Hartford.
Playing in the last of four America East quarterfinal games on Saturday, the Terrier (16-16, 12-5 America East) loss was the only upset of the day and sent the Hawks (9-21, 8-9 America East) to the semifinals against second-seeded University of Vermont on Sunday.
“I thought it was a very physical and hard-fought game,” said BU coach Joe Jones, who finished his first year as Terrier bench boss with the loss. “We are pretty shaken right now by the loss, but a lot of respect for [Hawks coach John] Gallagher and his kids. I thought they played very hard.”
Despite holding a six-point lead at the half, the Terriers succumbed to a late 15-6 Hawk run that turned a five-point lead with 6:14 remaining into a four-point loss. Terrier sophomore guard DJ Irving’s 12 points and five assists complemented senior guard and America East Player of the Year Darryl Partin’s game-high 17 points on 5-of-17 shooting, but the effort was not enough to out-do a double-double by Hawks freshman forward Mark Nwakamma (13 points, 16 rebounds) and a 5-of-10 shooting performance from freshman forward Nate Sikma.
Read more at dailyfreepress.com.
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — In its first America East postseason bout since it secured the conference championship in 2011, the third-seeded Boston University men’s basketball team saw its title defense stall out early as it fell, 53-49, to sixth-seeded University of Hartford.
Playing in the last of four America East quarterfinal games on Saturday, the Terrier (16-16, 12-5 America East) loss was the only upset of the day and sent the Hawks (9-21, 8-9 America East) to the semifinals against second-seeded University of Vermont on Sunday.
“I thought it was a very physical and hard-fought game,” said BU coach Joe Jones, who finished his first year as Terrier bench boss with the loss. “We are pretty shaken right now by the loss, but a lot of respect for [Hawks coach John] Gallagher and his kids. I thought they played very hard.”
Despite holding a six-point lead at the half, the Terriers succumbed to a late 15-6 Hawk run that turned a five-point lead with 6:14 remaining into a four-point loss. Terrier sophomore guard DJ Irving’s 12 points and five assists complemented senior guard and America East Player of the Year Darryl Partin’s game-high 17 points on 5-of-17 shooting, but the effort was not enough to out-do a double-double by Hawks freshman forward Mark Nwakamma (13 points, 16 rebounds) and a 5-of-10 shooting performance from freshman forward Nate Sikma.
Read more at dailyfreepress.com.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
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