{"id":40388,"date":"2024-02-22T11:12:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T16:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=40388"},"modified":"2024-02-22T11:13:57","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T16:13:57","slug":"bu-mens-basketball-shows-its-willingness-to-grow-once-again-in-dominant-win-over-american","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2024\/02\/22\/bu-mens-basketball-shows-its-willingness-to-grow-once-again-in-dominant-win-over-american\/","title":{"rendered":"BU Men’s Basketball shows its willingness to grow once again in dominant win over American"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sam Robb O’Hagan<\/em><\/p>\n

You have to give it to BU. The Terriers have made plenty of mistakes, but they keep getting right back up.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is becoming the story of this bewildering season. And head coach Joe Jones was not shy about this most recent chapter. The Terriers entered Bender Arena on Wednesday night behind a coach clearly frustrated with his team\u2019s effort in its prior two games, and Jones had good reason. BU was straight up punched in the mouth at Army in a loss a week ago and then, despite winning, was caught sleep-walking at numerous points throughout Saturday\u2019s matchup with Navy. \u201cWe just weren\u2019t really physical,\u201d Jones said after the win over the Mids.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was \u2014 put it this way \u2014 quite a bit calmer relaying that message to the media than he was to his team on the court.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can be better, and I\u2019m going to be looking for us to do that,\u201d Jones added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well. Consider that challenge accepted.<\/span><\/p>\n

BU (11-16, 7-8 PL) stormed out of the gates on Wednesday, pouncing on American (14-14, 8-7 PL) to gain a 17-point first half lead. The Terriers were everywhere defensively \u2014 dominant in the paint, handsy on the ball and physical off of it \u2014 and they were relentless. BU held the Eagles to just six points \u2014 six \u2014 in the first 14 minutes of the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe just played with a lot of heart and a lot of effort,\u201d Jones said after the 67-52 victory on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

BU\u2019s inability to defend opposing bigs was one of those points of frustration coming in, but the Terriers held forward Matt Rogers, only American\u2019s leading scorer and the fourth-leading bucket-getter in the Patriot League, to nine points on 2-of-6 shooting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was everybody,\u201d Jones explained. \u201cWe were switching everything and just battling him. It was the whole team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point, three different Terriers elevated to block the same shot.<\/span><\/p>\n

BU even picked itself back up within its pick-itself-back-up performance. The Terriers were lifeless coming out of the half. The 17-point lead shrunk to five three minutes into the second period, when senior guard Miles Brewster lost his man, allowing him to walk down the lane for an easy layup.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jones called a timeout.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMiles was great tonight, but to start that half, he was not locked in,\u201d Jones said.<\/span><\/p>\n

BU proceeded to blitz the Eagles on a 20-5 run. Brewster made back-to-back 3-pointers to punctuate it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe regained our composure,\u201d Jones said. One timeout was all it took.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brewster, by the way, has learned a thing or two about picking himself back up this season. The unquestioned leader of a young, inexperienced team, the senior had never even played 20 minutes a night in his first three seasons at BU. Now he was, as an assistant coach called him before the season, \u201cthe king.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It has been perilous, to say the least. Brewster leads the Terriers in scoring but has finished six games with five points or fewer. After his best stretch of the season, Brewster fell flat against Army and Navy, and his head coach noticed. \u201cWe\u2019re going to need him to be better,\u201d Jones admitted after the win over the Mids.<\/span><\/p>\n

And wouldn\u2019t you know it:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMiles was unbelievable tonight,\u201d Jones said. He finished with 16 points, made four 3-pointers and added two steals.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has become the embodiment of the Terriers\u2019 never-ending resilience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing with him is that he holds himself accountable,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIf you say to him, you need to be competing harder, you need to be fighting harder, he understands that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo then, it\u2019s easy for him to lead,\u201d Jones said, \u201cbecause he always has that growth mindset.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Guided along by Brewster, BU\u2019s willingness to grow has done wonders. And it\u2019s not just the Terriers ability to respond on a game-to-game basis.<\/span><\/p>\n

From a birds eye view, this season has been one giant setback followed by one even bigger response. The Terriers were completely broken offensively to start conference play. In the first five games, BU shot the most 3-pointers of any Patriot League team and made them at the league\u2019s second-lowest rate. But BU, young and inexperienced as it is, looked itself in the mirror and held itself accountable. The Terriers forced themselves to change \u2014 the guards willed themselves into the paint and the forwards asserted themselves in the post, regardless of the results \u2014 and now, with four games left before the Patriot League tournament, BU is consistently functional on offense. The brutal start could\u2019ve been a fatal blow. Instead, BU is standing on its own two feet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know who we are now,\u201d Jones said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Credit the Terriers for that. Credit this platoon of pupils \u2014 six of them Division I rookies \u2014 for holding themselves to a higher standard. They have been willing to learn in the face of struggles, big and small, time and time again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis group should be commended because they\u2019re so coachable,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThey will buy into the message that I\u2019m sending.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The buy-in has been one thing. The going-out-and-doing-it? Entirely another. Brewster played two ugly games and didn\u2019t lose an ounce of confidence; Anthony Morales, the only other healthy senior on the roster, dealt with bad injury luck all season, then dropped 17 points, collected 8 rebounds and took 2 steals on Wednesday. And the eight underclassmen around them, after being told they were out-toughed, out-strengthened and out-willed in the two games prior, showed up and mercilessly heckled their opponent for the better part of 40 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I say something,\u201d Jones said, \u201cthey do it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The reward for this latest effort is significant. BU won its second game in a row for just the second time this season and vaulted itself into fifth-place in the Patriot League \u2014 only a game behind a tie for third. The Terriers are officially in the thick of things.<\/span><\/p>\n

And they have only themselves to thank.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey just want to win,\u201d Jones said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sam Robb O’Hagan You have to give it to BU. The Terriers have made plenty of mistakes, but they keep getting right back up. It is becoming the story of this bewildering season. And head coach Joe Jones was not shy about this most recent chapter. The Terriers entered Bender Arena on Wednesday night […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21477,"featured_media":39610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1026,1027,19],"tags":[1129,69,1145,1149,1902],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40388"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21477"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40388"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40390,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40388\/revisions\/40390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}