Starting and with big shoes to fill, Malcolm Chimezie is showing up for BU men's basketball
The senior forward stuffed the statsheet against UAlbany. He's looked that good all year.
BOSTON — It did not take long, after he swatted back his seventh and final block Saturday afternoon, for Malcolm Chimezie to find the nearest wall. Screaming, the senior forward stomped his way towards the padded brick under Case Gym’s east basket, then threw himself into it.
It certainly felt like a moment. Perhaps a long-awaited release for a player who’s endured a trying journey.
And maybe it was. Chimezie, though, took a different route when asked about it minutes later in the press room.
“The coaches are always stressing energy,” he said. “So I just wanted to bring that towards the end of the game.”
It’s true, head coach Joe Jones and Co. demand energy. They demand buy-in on defense, too. Each of those are things a player stepping in for an injured starter (which Chimezie is) can always provide. So when he goes back and watches it, you know Jones will be thrilled with Chimezie’s block party, and the corresponding spirit it provided Boston University men’s basketball, in an 80-74 overtime win over UAlbany.
But make no mistake. Chimezie has been far, far more than just a “culture guy” bringing a spark while his team waits for its starting post-tandem from last season — juniors Otto Landrum and Nico Nobili — to fully recover.
Jones, so enthralled with Chimezie’s performance on offense, didn’t even realize his senior co-captain had racked up those career-high seven blocks.
“Seven blocks he had?” Jones said, interrupting his prior train of thought when presented with the information during his press conference. “Oh my god, wow. Wow. That’s a hell of a game.”
It was probably Chimezie’s best in Scarlet and White. He dished out a career-high five assists (to zero turnovers), corralled five rebounds and scored nine points while only missing one field goal. Whenever the Terriers needed to throw it to Chimezie in the post, he made himself available and had no issues finishing with a bucket, including with 36 seconds left in regulation, as BU trailed by two. Chimezie calmly sent the game to overtime with a baby hook over the smaller DeMarr Langford Jr., UAlbany’s physical transfer from high-majors Boston College and UCF.
“We know, one-on-one in the paint, not much people are stopping him right now,” sophomore guard Kyrone Alexander (26 points) said. “So we’re confident to throw him inside the paint, because we know we’re going to get a good result.”
It’s been a long, by-no-means smooth career for Chimezie, who made his sixth collegiate start in the season opener and has started every game since. He arrived at BU in 2021 from New York powerhouse Stepinac High School (the alma mater of North Carolina’s RJ Davis and former NBA lottery pick AJ Griffin, both of whom he played with). But he played only 12 minutes per game his first two seasons at BU on a veteran-laden team. When the Terriers started over last season, Chimezie was one of the few upperclassmen still around, but he began the year injured. He eventually returned in late November, coming off the bench, before suffering a season-ending injury in the penultimate game of the non-conference slate.
Now, here he is — a senior co-captain, asked to pick up the pieces for BU in the frontcourt as Nobili and Landrum (who averaged a combined 15.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 45.7 minutes per game last year) continue to nurse their respective injuries. All the while Chimezie recovers from his own major setback.
“It’s funny, I didn’t really know what to expect, because really, he wasn’t able to do a lot in the summer,” Jones said. “As soon as he came back, I’m like ‘Oh my god.’ His touch was better and more confident…man, that guy’s gotten a lot better. He’s good enough to go — he likes to go left — but he can go left and right. He’s hard to guard, man. And he’s stronger now than he was when he first got hurt last year.”
The 6-foot-8, 220-pound Chimezie is averaging 7.8 points per game (fourth on the team) on 60-percent shooting (second) this season. His sheer strength has always made him a handful on the block, but he was a raw offensive player before this year — he often appeared out of control with the ball in the post and was prone to missed finishes around the rim. Still, the potential was obvious; he just never had a chance to truly grow into it.
Chimezie is not all the way there yet, but he’s been as reliable an offensive player as any for BU this season. He’s one of the main reasons, in the midst of so many absences elsewhere, that Jones and the Terriers have been so reluctant to point to injuries as an excuse when the team has struggled.
Landrum (fractured ankle) played for the first time this season on Saturday, but Nobili, who’s been in and out of the lineup (shoulder), sat out for a second consecutive game. Of Nobili, Jones said, “he’ll be dealing with that all year… it’ll be hit and miss on what he can do.”
In other words — Chimezie’s heightened role isn’t going away.
“I’m confident in my abilities,” Chimezie said. “I put a lot of work in. Being strong, being skillful, it’s just an accumulation of all the years I’ve spent here just getting better.”
His improvements offensively will continue to be tested. Patriot League play doesn’t start for almost a month. Where the gauntlet of a college basketball season leaves him on that side of the floor remains to be seen.
The great thing for BU, though, is that Chimezie is still quite the player at the other end. Case in point, if you needed a reminder (which Jones, of course, did): those career-high seven blocks.
“When the guards do get beat, it gives a sense of security, knowing we got Malcolm in the backside to clean it up,” Alexander said.
And, of course, Chimezie will bring the energy.
That seventh and final block, the one that sent him stomping into the wall at Case Gym? It came with eight seconds left in overtime, as BU led by three possessions. The game was all but decided.
Still:
“Someone,” Chimezie said, “has gotta set the tone.”