By Max Lederman

To quote the Boss himself, “…you can’t start a fire without a spark.” Don’t front, you all love Bruce Springstein.

Although Bruce Springstein probably wasn’t talking about basketball when he wrote “Dancing in the Dark,” we all know that no team wins without a spark plug. The Bulls had Jordan. The Sixers have Iverson. The Celtics have Pierce. And the Northeastern Huskies have Jose Juan Barea.

The freshman point guard currently leads the team with an average of 16.7 points per game, good for fourth in the America East conference. As he goes, so do the Huskies.

“Jose is definitely our floor general, but not just on the offensive end,” coach Ron Everhart said of his point guard. “I think the team feeds off of his defense just as much.”

There is no doubt about it; this kid is special. As a senior last year at Miami Christian High, the 5’11” native of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico averaged 20 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three steals per game. He was also named the team MVP, All-Dade County and All-State in his final year of high school. He helped lead the Victors to a 38-2 mark, which set a Florida state record for wins in a single season, and the 2002 1A Florida state championship. His team finished the season ranked eighth in the nation, according to ESPN.

After Jose captained the championship Puerto Rican team at the 2002 FIBA Pan American Junior Basketball Championship in Venezuela, and played for the state of Florida in the 2002 Florida-Georgia All-Star Basketball Classic, many other schools were after him. Marquette, Oregon State and North Carolina State recruited Barea, but he decided to come to Northeastern and help second year head coach Ron Everhart turn his program around.

What a job he is doing, not only leading the team in scoring but also in assists (94) and steals (41).

“He may be our leading scorer, but he is always looking to create opportunities for the other guys on the court,” said Everhart.

If you haven’t seen this guy play, go to a game. You will not be disappointed. Barea has an uncanny knack for getting to the hoop and has a loaded arsenal of behind the back passes and nasty no-lookers.

The bottom line for Barea is that he is a winner. He seems to just will his team to victory. On a team whose leading scorer averaged 11.4 points per game last year and has only one senior, there is no way that they should currently be in third place in the America East. When the Huskies started conference play with three straight losses all hope was lost, right? Wrong. These Dogs have come on strong behind the play of Barea.

His technical foul against Stony Brook last week was a perfect example of what kind of player he is. The Huskies were getting trampled by the Seawolves, but that didn’t matter to Jose. He was on a mission to win and got T’d up for talking smack to SBU guard Bobby Santiago after taking him to the hole and drawing a foul.

Although it may have come a little bit too late, that was the spark the Dogs so desperately needed. They went on to outscore the Seawolves 49-37 in the second half.

If that doesn’t convince you, let’s go back to Jan. 5, when NU upset cross town-rival and Big East power Boston College. You may be saying to yourself right now that BC is having a bad year and that the win means nothing, but you are horribly mistaken.

Barea had 19 points and 5 assists going head to head with Troy Bell, one of the nations best point guards. Bell is currently projected as going 25th in this June’s NBA draft, according to www.nbadraft.net. Barea held this prolific scorer to just 21 points, his third lowest output of the season, and took him to the hoop on what ended up being the game winning lay-up.

Barea is the current America East rookie of the week for the second straight week, and has been given that title an amazing five times this year. He’s only 18 years old, and the fact that he is already so good is flat out frightening. He has potential oozing out of his ears and seems to get better every game he plays. As long as Jose Juan Barea is out on the court for the Huskies, they will always have a chance to win. It may still be the first quarter of his career here at NU, but no first quarter has ever been so exciting. Stay tuned for the rest of the game, because Jose tends to heat up in the second half.