In three weeks, the men’s basketball team will head to Boston University for the America East conference tournament. With his team currently tied for seventh with Stony Brook and Hartford, head coach Al Walker is refocusing his Bearcats’ goals for that weekend.

‘The bottom line is, obviously, we can’t come in first or second,’ Walker said. ‘We want to finish higher than seventh. That would be very disappointing, to have to play in the eight-nine game.’

Playing in the eight-nine game is not something any team strives for, and would be disappointing to anyone. But coming off a year in which they finished second in the America East, and in a year where parity has been evident, with no teams consistently blowing the rest out of the water, coach Walker cannot put a silver lining on where the Bearcats stand.

‘I’m very disappointed with where we’re sitting right now,’ he said. ‘There’s no team in this league that’s the dominant team that’s going to come out and kick your tail.’

The Bearcats will look to climb up the standings with a regular-season visit to Boston this Thursday, with tip-off set for 7 p.m.

In the teams’ first meeting this season at the Events Center on Jan. 11, the Terriers’ Omari Peterkin dominated the inside with 12 rebounds ‘ six offensive ‘ and three blocks. Shutting down Peterkin will be one of the keys for the Bearcats, Walker said, but with almost every interior player struggling, it won’t be easy.

‘The five-spot is still a big question,’ Walker said. ‘Nothing’s clean at the five-spot.’

Even though the rotation has tightened in recent games ‘ Minja Kovacevic did not play against Albany, and Jaan Montgomery played just three minutes ‘ Walker said he will look to his bench early and often. Giovanni Olomo will continue to start despite having twice as many personal fouls (65) as points (30) this season.

‘This is a big game for Minja and Jaan because of Peterkin,’ Walker said. ‘When Jaan was the starter, he ended up having to sit because he just wasn’t getting it done. If Minja would be a little more consistent in practice, he’d be getting some more minutes.’

Olomo, the team’s starting center, has 11 blocks on the season. Point guard Mike Gordon, generously listed at 6-feet, leads the team with 12 blocks. To put things in perspective, in 2003-04, Nick Billings led the Bearcats with 105 swats.

While the Bearcats struggled on the inside in the last meeting, the outside game also failed as the Bearcats shot 5-for-22 (23 percent) from downtown. Rich Forbes led the Bearcats that night with 16 points, but Forbes’ playing time has waned as his defensive struggles have continued.

‘Richie might score 12, but he’ll give up 16,’ Walker said. ‘I’m not trading 12 for 16. He has to get better on the defensive end.’

Keeping the ‘instant offense’ sixth man off the court has significantly boosted the minutes of the starting guards. Gordon is averaging 37.7 minutes per game in conference play ‘ two more minutes than any other Bearcat has ever averaged in Al Walker’s seven-year tenure, including Anthony Green, Brandon Carter and Andre Heard (35.4 minutes per game in 2005-06).

‘As long as Mike’s not in foul trouble, I don’t think any of us are saying, ‘Boy, Mike is dead tired,’ Walker said. ‘I don’t think that is impacting on the basketball game at all.’

The game can be heard on WNBF radio on www.bubearcats.com starting at 7 p.m. The Bearcats return home for their penultimate home contest on Sunday for a 1 p.m. tip against Maine.