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Men’s
basketball
Resting on laurels won’t win any, coach tells returning champs
By Brian Fitzgerald
Like last year, the America East defending champion BU men’s basketball team returns to the court with high expectations. But you won’t find coach Dennis Wolff tripping down memory lane by playing 2001–2002 highlight videos to his players.
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| Billy
Collins (MET’03) averaged 12 points and 8.1 rebounds a game
last year. Photo by Tim Winn |
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“What I’ve tried to say to them from day one is that it’s
a new year,” says Wolff. “What happened last year is in the
past. If we spend time living in the past, we won’t have a chance
to accomplish what we want to accomplish this year.”
The Terriers’ top eight scorers are back, so they have every reason
to anticipate another successful season and another NCAA tournament appearance.
But Wolff knows that a team resting on its laurels can lose its focus.
And right now the players are setting their sights on Stanford, a team
that sent five players to the NBA in the past three seasons. The preseason
NIT tournament game in Palo Alto, Calif., on Monday, November 18, will
be televised on ESPN2. Tipoff is 9:15 p.m.
The prime-time start will draw an audience of fans who have been starving
for college basketball since March to the nation’s premier early-season
tournament, which includes such powerhouses as Kansas, North Carolina,
and Florida. “We’ll be traveling across the country to play
a program that has a great tradition and a good coach,” says Wolff.
“It’s going to be a difficult game, but it’s a great
opportunity for us to play a team like that on national television, on
one of the first nights of the college basketball season. In terms of
publicity and exposure for our program, it’s very good.”
Stanford, which finished second in the Pac-10, doesn’t have a marquee
name this season. Curtis Brochardt and Casey Jacobsen turned pro; Tony
Giovacchini and Kyle Logan graduated. Wolff knows, however, that a team
that has made eight straight NCAA tournament appearances has enough key
players to make it nine. “They’ve lost players, but they still
have Julius Barnes and Josh Childress,” he says. Barnes averaged
10 points a game last year, and Childress scored in double figures in
10 games — all but 6 of them off the bench. Childress, a 6’8”
sophomore, can also hit the boards with a vengeance, averaging 4.8 rebounds
a game last season.
With increased playing time, the sky’s the limit for some of Stanford’s
underclassmen who had to take a backseat to teammates who joined the ranks
of the NBA this year. “Many of those guys are extremely talented
players who were highly recruited and had to bide their time a little
bit,” says Wolff. Now they’re in the driver’s seat.
Even against a much-heralded team, it wouldn’t be a morale-builder
to begin the season on the losing end of a blowout — which is how
the Terriers ended the season last year with a first round 90-52 loss
to Cincinnati in the NCAA tournament. But playing tough teams builds character.
The Terriers have one of the most difficult nonconference schedules in
America East, including games against Boston College on November 26, George
Washington on December 11, and Florida State on December 28.
BU will be up for the tough games, because in Wolff’s eight years
at the helm, he says, he would be hard-pressed to remember being in a
position of returning so many significant athletes. “We do have
a lot of talented players,” he says, “but for me the key issue
in regard to whether or not we’re going to be successful is our
chemistry.” BU fans’ first taste of Terrier action this year
was a November 3 exhibition win, 92-79, against One on One, a team that
features former college players from various East Coast colleges. Jason
Grochawalski (MET’04) led BU in scoring with 18 points. In talking
about the game, Wolff didn’t mention team chemistry, which usually
gels later in the season, but he says that when the Terriers played unselfishly,
they were successful. “We looked about the way a team looks in the
first exhibition game of the season,” he says. “There were
some good things, and there were things that we need to improve upon.”
Four BU players scored in double figures against One on One, underlining
the fact that the team has quality shooters. At guard, Chaz Carr (CGS’03)
last year had one of the best seasons in BU history. And Matt Turner (MET’03),
who sat out the season six games into the schedule with a dislocated shoulder,
proved that he still has his scoring touch with 14 points. Billy Collins
(MET’03), with an MVP-type season under his belt, “is playing
at an even higher level this year,” says Wolff. “He’s
one of the best players I’ve coached at BU. He’s improved
his shooting, and he plays well on both ends of the floor — a very
unselfish kid.”
Scoring aside, Wolff says, the key factor in succeeding this year will
be defense. Last season, BU finished 10th in the nation in field goal
defense, at 39.0 percent. “Any successful team that I’ve coached,
whether it has gone to the NCAA tournament or not, has always guarded
well,” he says. “That’s a big statistic. If you’re
holding a team to 40 percent or below shooting from the floor, you’re
doing a hell of a job, and you’re going to give yourself a chance
to win.”
Even size, which BU is not known for, got a boost with the injection of
6’9” freshman center Matt Czaplinski (CGS’02), who redshirted
last season, and 6’9” Jacob Kudlacz (CAS’03), who played
sparingly. “They’re going to give us a bigger presence inside,”
says Wolff. “They both have the chance to be good players, but they
need some experience.” Fortunately for them, BU is an experienced
squad that has gone to the NCAA tournament and wants to go again.
“We have a chance to be a good team,” says Wolff. “If
we coach the players the right way, and they play together the way we
hope they will, we can accomplish our goals.”
15 November 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations