Thursday, March 30, 2006

Quick update

I've been on the road the past two days, so I apologize for the limited blogging and funky formats. Here are some recent articles and my thoughts on them.


Craig Smith had surgery on wrist Thursday. This sucks. Not because the would've, should've from the Final Four, but because it will cost him in the NBA draft. Craig is a tweener to begin with and any question marks will cause teams to look elsewhere. I think Craig can be an effective forward in the NBA. Now he'll just have to work that much harder.


Here is an article on Cory Schneider. It doesn't take a hockey genius to realize that BC championship chances rest on Schneider's shoulders.


CSTV held a Q&A with Jared McGuire. I never worried about Football or Basketball making the transition to ACC. Baseball is a different story. They struggled early. Hopefully they will finish strong.


Jason Lilly was not invited back for a fifth year and is now considering transferring. Looks like Delaware is a likely destination.


WZBC Sports finally gets some pub (even if it is only in the Heights). As a proud 'ZBC Sports alum, it is nice to see what these guys have done.


Finally Captain Coop wrote a brilliant TOB interview parody two months ago. Now it is making the rounds again as an April Fool's Day Joke. Here it is in its entirety.

From College Football Insider:

O'Brien Plans to Bring Eagles to New Heights

Kurt Washburn, CAFE Staff Writer

Yes, Boston College fans. Tom O'Brien heard all the Boise jokes. But starting this spring, the Eagles' head coach says the joke will be on the rest of the ACE.

"We really heard it from our fans when we got the MFC Computers Bowl bid," said O'Brien in a recent chat from his office in Chestnut Hill. "But in reality, we finished 3rd in the ACC and got passed over by the other bowls. This year, we're going to make sure that doesn't happen."

BC finished 5-3 in their inaugural ACC season, and 9-3 overall, with a win over Boise State in the aforementioned MPC Computers Bowl in December. But since that wasn't good enough to earn a more prestigious bowl bid, the Eagles plan to take matters into their own hands in 2006.

"The bottom line is that we failed to reach our goals as a team because we lost a pair of games during the regular season that we should have won," says O'Brien. "And as head coach, I take responsibility for that. We just kept things too simple and expected to win on talent alone."

O'Brien says that this year's spring practice will be spent installing more aggressive defensive schemes intended to force opponents into making plays rather than containing them. On the offensive side of the ball, coordinator Dana Bible thinks that having a solid returning starter at quarterback will allow him to open the offense up and expose weaknesses in ACC secondaries, which in turn will create opportunities for the Eagles to do what they have done best under O'Brien: run the football.

"With (Junior Quarterback) Matt Ryan back and comfortable with what we're trying to do here, we are going to spend the spring expanding our vertical passing game and working on ways to spread the field. That is the trend in college football, and we need to do that successfully to achieve our goals as a team."

O'Brien says that those goals are going to reflect another change this year for the Eagles, who are the only team in the nation with an active 6-game bowl winning streak. "We're very proud of our accomplishments with (the bowl streak). But this year, we need to put that in the background and focus on taking the next step, and reaching an upper echelon bowl game where we can challenge a top program."

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