I’ve seen Jose Juan Barea play, and I’ve heard the supposed knocks on Northeastern’s star point guard. He’s not a team player, he isn’t exactly a giant and he chucks shots like whoa …
But damn if he can’t win a basketball game.
In fact, he might need to Saturday, when the junior and his Husky pals travel to top-seeded Vermont Saturday in their first America East title game since 1995, attempting to win their first conference crown since 1991. Vermont, on the other hand, is seeking its third straight AE title.
Northeastern (21-8) lost twice to the Catamounts (23-6) this season. In the first game, without star freshman forward Shawn James for academic reasons, Vermont’s three-time AE Player of the Year Taylor Coppenrath hung 28 points on NU. In the second game, at Vermont (where the bad guys are 12-0 this season), Barea and the Huskies led for much of the game before a late run gave the 72-64 win to the hosts.
Northeastern hasn’t lost since its last trip to Vermont’s Patrick Gym, rolling off eight victories by an average margin of nearly 19 points per game.
Still, containing “Butch and Sundance” — Coppenrath and point guard T.J. Sorrentine — is no small task. While Coppenrath led the conference in scoring with 24.7 points a game, Sorrentine is a former AE Player of the Year and his team’s second leading scorer with 18 points a game.
Northeastern is no slouch, though.
James was the conference’s Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. He led the nation in blocks a game (5.72), was third in total blocks (117) and was just 22 off the AE record while playing just 21 games. Barea’s backcourt partner, senior guard Marcus Barnes, is a third-team All-America East member and one of the best outside shooters in the country.
All of which should make for an intense, even contest between a couple of talented teams with good coaches — and another great step for Northeastern, which won 20 games this season for the first time since 1992-93 and has improved its win total each of coach Ron Everhart’s four seasons.
“It feels like our team, our whole staff and everything around us is a lot better since when I got here,” Barea said. “We had a chance last year and we blew it (Northeastern lost to underdog Hartford in the quarterfinals, 79-75). It feels good to get a chance to go to Vermont and play in the championship game. It’s gonna be fun.”
Fun, indeed.
“Vermont is a nationally respected program,” Athletic Director Dave O’Brien told News staffer Jeff Powalisz. “The crowd will be loud and raucous. Our student-athletes will be up to the task and I think 600 of us will bring a lot of noise. We’re on ESPN, it’s a great opportunity for the university to get national visibility. If we win, it’ll secure us a spot in March Madness.”
Which is just where Barea comes in. His freshman year, the 6-foot Puerto Rican drilled a deep three at the buzzer to advance the Huskies past Maine in the AE tournament. Earlier this season, he scored NU’s final 14 points and 19 of its last 20, including a fallaway trey to beat the buzzer and bring the Huskies back against Cornell University, 88-85. In the first game of the current conference tourney, Barea tied the school record with 41 points, as NU cruised past Stony Brook. He then helped Northeastern earn a spot in the final with a 28 point, 11 assist, eight rebound effort against Maine.
All signs point to a special tourney for Barea, capped by an even more special championship game — and it might be his last, with a spot in next year’s NBA Draft seeming more likely by the day.
“With our fans following us up to Vermont, we could accomplish something we haven’t done in a while,” O’Brien said. “We’re moving to the [Colonial Athletic Association] next year, and this would be a wonderful way to begin a new chapter in our history.”
Yeah, it would. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t count out the little guy with the penchant for taking over games.
He’s just crazy enough to jump NU back to the glory days.
– Jack Weiland can be reached at [email protected].
