Like the Wake game BC took a lead into halftime only to see the game get away from them in the second half. Many of the same problems plagued the team (decision making from our leader, defense, etc).
Not going to do likes and dislikes in this game since there wasn't a ton to love. I am glad Sanders put the Wake disaster behind him but he was MIA down the stretch.
Now the Duke game becomes that much more important. BC needs the win to stop the downward spiral. If we don't beat the Dukies, you can forget bubble talk.
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Love the blog, but I really only agreed with the title of this particular post.
Tyrese forced shots down the stretch, but this was because the other two offensive options were rendered obsolete. Trapani seemed drunk the whole game and played limited minutes, including zero in the final fifteen or so, and Sanders, unfortunately, appeared to re-injure his wrist at the beginning of the second half. Who's he gonna dish it to, Roche? It was up to him, and he did well enough, but we just could not. get. any. stops.
Sanders was MIA down the stretch because, again, he re-injured his wrist. There was a clear shot of him examining it in pain on the bench midway through the second half, and the lone time he touched it in the final ten minutes, he let Tyrese's relatively easy pass slip through his hands.
And the Duke game is big, yes, but a loss does not mean the end of the season. Florida State has established itself as the 5th best team in the ACC, and they come north in two weeks. A win over them, and teams we should beat (GA Tech, @ NC State) would still put as at 8 or 9 wins entering the ACC tourney.
I disagree Atl -- Forget the bubble talk with a loss to Duke? I believe that we would still be in at that point. 6-6 in conference with 4 to play. If we win 3 out of 4, 9-7 and 21 wins in the ACC should get us in. 8-8? Well, then we have issues, and we will need to show ourselves in the ACC tourney.
Very frustrating loss. At times it looked like we had this team only to have a lapse in defense or in defensive rebounding. When you play Roche at the 4, your obviously going to have problems with skilled big men and Clemson took advantage. It seems in the second half especially, they scored and rebounded at will in the paint.
It doesn't help that Trapani looked like garbage and had big problems inbounding the ball against the press. Also it appears Reggie has hit 'the wall'. I don't know if he is wearing down or what but his play is suffering right now.
On the positive side though, Dunn played his best game this season and gave great minutes. He deserved to be in there over Southern tonight.
The loss was about stops, plain and simple. BC had two defensive series late in the 2nd where they forced bad 3's at the end of the shot clock, could not secure the rebound and gave up easy scores seconds later. Plus, even if you give up a turnover against the press, you have to get back in transition to stop easy hoops, which BC did not do when the game was on the line.
Rice did not force the ball to get trapped in the corner off the inbounds at least ten times leading to a bunch of turnovers and easy hoops for Clemson. Rice is not the primary rebounder who should shut down offensive rebounds and the resulting easy follow-up layins. Just like Skinner, Rice is a lightning rod for criticism of this team and, just like Skinner, he rarely deserves the critcism he gets for things like shot selection and turnovers. He takes excellent shots and BC's offense is so good because he uses so many possessions, this fact is undeniable if you examine the numbers.
Rice was the only reason the team was in the game late in the second half. He scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half and got to the line multiple times when BC absolutely had to have points to stay in the game. His floater when BC was down 77-71 was a tough miss but really, noone else was contributing on offense in the second half. It was not a bad shot and if it falls, the endgame might have changed. Rice is an excellent offensive player and BC is going to sorely miss his cutthroat offensive game next year.
If BC loses to Duke, BC will absolutely still be on the bubble and probably on the right side of it. The committee does not knock teams out of the tournament for three losses in a row to three teams that will probably be seeded no lower than 4 each. If BC ends up 9-7 in the #1 RPI conference and wins 1 in the ACC tourney, they are in and probably with better than a double digit seed. The sky is not falling, this team did not win five in a row for no good reason.
I agree wholeheartedly with schammerfaced and matthew. Let the whole season play out before we give up on this team. They do need to get more stops.
i just love how teams know we struggle with the press. from the get-go clemson pressed, and we still look unprepared. the best was late in the first we cant get it in and roche calls a time out. immediately off the inbounds we turn it over and c lemson gets an easy basket.
the key of the game was defensive rebounding so we wouldnt face a set press and clearly no second chance points. we didn't secure the ball.
another nice stat to look into was all of c's starting five were well into double figures. everyone contributed.
we'll get it. we have periods of brilliance. our guys just need some swagger.
A LOT of empty seats for a game against the #12 team in the country.
Joe Bags, were you at the game? The stadium was mostly filled, at least both sides of the student section were. The upper corners left room to be desired, but,overall the attendance was more than acceptable.
I'm pleased to see others defending us even if we lose to duke and I completely agree. I wanted 1/3 and I still do, but we're definitely not out of it if we lose to them Sunday. We could be mentally hurt, but that's it. We're still in this.
There is no way that a loss to Duke bursts our bubble. A three game skid at three of the top fifteen teams in the country just means that we're not a top-fifteen team. Or top-twenty-five. But we already knew that. We just have to focus on righting the ship now. Even if we lose to Duke, there are still four winnable games left. We have to win three of them. Four and we're 10-6 (in the ACC) and in, barring a meltdown in the ACC tourney. 9-7 and we need a solid tourney win. 8-8 and we need two wins in the tourney. That is the formula. This isn't the BCS where teams are separated based on only a handful of games. The committee does weigh the second-half of the season more heavily, but that's already our better half of the season and, since we escaped the post-UNC swoon, we've beaten the teams we are supposed to beat. We just need to keep doing that. A win against Miami or, especially, Duke would certainly help.
Don't want to pile on, but have to agree with most of the above. And at the bare minimum the play of Dunn was something to take away.
While it was a frustrating loss, it really came down to a couple of short stretches where they just got out of whack, some poor defensive rebounding snd dare I say a couple of bad bounces.
All in all not a bad showing against a pretty good team.
I'd have to agree with Joe Bags regarding the crowd, although the students were well represented and into the game.
Our defenders were flat out physically intimidated by Sykes and Booker. BC did OK on the offensive glass because Clemson (like Duke) will overplay to try to force turnovers. I'd expect Duke to press some, especially if they are not ahead early.
It also hurt that as the shot clock was winding down, they insisted on collapsing Oglesby in the lane, even though he does not attempt layups or shots in traffic. He got 3 easy assists on plays that should have been forced shots or TOs.
BC will always struggle with teams that press and teams that can stretch the perimeter with 3s. Clemson does both (Oglesby hit that first one from 32 feet). The man-to-man defense was better than normal, but Dunn and Roche are clearly weaker off the bench.
17 minutes for Raji? Did he get hurt? I watched on mute. Sanders disappeared down the stretch because Rice played more iso and Sanders was either setting up in the corner or on the bench. He did a good job on Oglesby in the first half.
I think BC gets Duke this time... experienced team, yes, talented team, yes, but not nearly as tough matchup-wise as Clemson or Wake.
how in the world, knowing that clemson was going to press us the whole game, did we not have a better plan than bounce pass into the corner...right into where they wanted to trap. no picks, no one flashing strong to the middle. sad.
there was no reason for southern to be in in the second half. if he is not going to rebound, sit him. way too many second chance points. loved dunn's effort and biko continues to impress with smart, under control play and in your face D.
just cant get over the hump against these good teams....hopefully the stadium is full and everyone gets in there before tip off on sunday this time.
I didn't see the same cause for despair in this game. Clemson's better than us....I think we knew that going in. I thought there were still some positives here. I especially liked the effort down the stretch. We got down 10 with eight to go, like the Wake game, but this time didn't pack up the tents. Karen's absolutely right, that it came down to stops. You can't give up dunks with a second on the shot clock. And second chance points killed us.
The idea that the Duke game is now crucial is kind of ridiculous. It would be a great win, but we don't need it to get in. If we're 9-7 or better in the ACC, we're getting in regardless of what happens in the ACC Tournament. 9-7 is extremely attainable. People around these parts are always way too quick to push the panic button. So, we're not as good as Wake or Clemson....did anyone think we were?
Just a quick comment on the crowd. While it was not packed, the crowd was really into the game. They were loud from the start and really supported the Eagles. The students were quite loud down the stretch trying to help the defense get a stop.
While it would have obviously been nice to have a packed house, those that were there created a great atmosphere.
Let me clarify, the student sections were fine, and the people who did show up were into the game, but the corner sections were completely empty, not even 25% full, and it was waaaayyy to quick getting out of the Comm Ave. garage after the game.
I don't know what was going on with Trapani. We're up 6 points, and he does a piss-poor job hedging, lets the guy turn the corner, and effectively sets a pick on Sanders to give up a layup. Then the two straight turnovers inbounding the ball. 7 point swing right there. His defense and rebounding were really killing us last night. Roche did a better job, but he's pretty limited. I don't see why Raji can't play big minutes at the 4 if it's clear that Trapani is overmatched -- I wonder if it's just that Al always has either Trapani or Roche as the inbounder.
I also don't see why anyone would defend Rice after that second half. He made terrible decisions that kept us from capitalizing in transition, dribbled way too much, and took terrible shots. That play near the end where the other 4 stood around watching him dribble, throw up a heave falling out of bounds, then take his sweet time getting back leading to a wide open 3 pointer is his whole career in a nutshell. He doesn't do any of the little things that help you win. Also note that when Paris is in and Rice is off the ball, he has no idea how to use screens to get open. None. He just decides when its Tyrese time and runs to the top of the key to take a handoff.
I also did not understand why Big Al kept Jackson on the bench until less than 10 minutes were left in the second half. He didn't play that well, but in fairness we really had already let things fall apart before he was in the game. He was doing a great job defensively in the first half -- he's so quick to shut down passing lanes on the perimeter, it's really disruptive. As a freshman he's going to be up and down offensively, but he needs to be on the court more because of his defense.
You guys have got to be kidding if you think the student sections were acceptable. The student section on the BC bench side was pretty full, but two full sections were sitting down the entire game. On the trophy case side, there were a TON of empty student seats, and all those students in the red seats were sitting. not to mention, one of the upper deck corner sections on the Beacon St side is a student section, adn there were maybe 20 kids up there. Those in attendance were loud, but gimme a break, this was a top 15 team in teh country and BC had won 5 of 6 coming in. You guys have a lot to learn about a good student section.
The crowd was flat out embarrasing for such a big game. I had 4 clemson fans in front of me commenting on how they couldnt believe how many empty seats there were.
It was a great first half, from a viewing perspective. Great pace/tempo, creative scoring, serviceable defensive efforts -- both teams. I really was enjoying myself watching the first half.
2nd half - their athletes and size beat us. We couldn't get a defensive rebound, and our countless turnovers were forced by Clemson for the most part. I wish we had kept the pace going.
I'm disappointed we lost, but we showed plenty of positives at points in the night.
We'll get eaten alive in the NCAA, but boy I'd really love to make it. I have no problem with a "happy to be here" outlook for this year's tournament.
I'm too far removed now, but aren't the empty seats a sure sign of the Athletic Department's (GDF's)flawed ticket policies - especially for student tickets?
Can't blame the ticket office for student ticket policy. they've tried a # of different policies to increase student attendance, and none have worked. It continues to slip. Blame falls squarely on the students.
But you can bet your life every dork will be there on Sunday, and for most it will be their first game of the year. And that goes for the whalepants too
I like how someone can say the stands were "mostly filled," as if that's an endorsement of the support the basketball team gets in the best conference in the country. The local BC community--students and city residents--are doing nothing to change the perception of the school's level of enthusiasm towards its major sports programs. Nothing. That's just a fact. To say it was okay b/c the people who were there were "into" it is hardly the kind of concept needed to reinvigorate the passion up there. You need to sell out against a Top 12 team in a meaningful game late in the season. I have a feeling even free tickets wouldn't change anything. How sad.
As for the game, the inability to get stops was a big part of the reason for the loss, but forcing a shot 30 seconds into the shot clock is only good if 1) it's not wide open, and 2) you can get a rebound. Too many open shots. And worse, we have absolutely no inside presence. Southern plays smaller than he is. We have no height or muscle down low. When Trapani is looking around after fighting for a rebound--and losing the battle--as if to say, "where's my help?" then you know it's the biggest weakness on the team. At times, they look like my 1992 freshman intramural basketball team when we played the football team (and Ron Stone, team captain, was kind enough to "only" play his guards, the running backs and receivers). Overmatched down low to say the least.
The turnovers against the press mainly occurred right at the beginning of the second half, when we had a 5 point lead and had the opportunity to take control of the game. The timing of the poor execution is what killed us. When we did break the press, we got numbers and attacked, like they should. Too bad they can't do that more consistently. But it's not surprising, because I'm not sure what this team's personality is.
To say Rice takes excellent shots most of the time is simply not something I will ever agree with. Rice was not the only reason BC was in the game late...did you watch the first half? When he's not scoring, he's not helping. That last shot was a bad shot, plain and simple, but I don't blame him for trying to make something happen when Sanders was hurt and Trapani was thinking about maple syrup in Vermont. BC will only miss Rice next year if others don't step up. I think others will.
BC is who we thought they were. They lose to better teams (UNC notwithstanding), and beat worse teams. Kinda like the football team, really.
amartin is absolutely right. i refuse to give a free pass to the lack of student support. the student sections include ALL endzone seats, and many red seats are empty. the red seats that are full nearly always have students that actually sit through the game. how about the completely lifeless timeout cheers for "E-A-G-L-E-S" and "We Are--BC". clemson fans were laughing.
i will also not give a free pass to tyrese. numbers don't tell the whole story. with under five minutes to go, our offenses consists of tyrese in isolation nearly every possession....and other teams know it. he makes bad decisions and his last few shots were awful -- floaters without a prayer of going in. i would rather see paris or jackson miss an open jumper, than tyrese drive the ball into double and triple teams. when all those defenders collapse on him, someone is always open, but he's not even looking to pass the ball.
Someone needs to forward this article to Al and the team on how to beat the press.
http://www2.answerbag.com/articles/How-to-Break-a-Press-in-Basketball/49621612-0336-a133-3ff2-2da20cca9501
We have a habbit of inboundng the ball to the corner, to which the author says:
"Don't get trapped in the corner. Never ever inbound the ball into the corner, because then you will be surrounded by a four-sided trap and that's nearly impossible to escape."
He also says:
"Do not make a habit of inbounding the ball to the short corner next to where you are taking the ball out. Having the ball in this position is just an invitation for the defense to trap you and then you are screwed."
If we continue to run out of passing options other than the corner or get trapped when we do pass it there, we need to use our timeouts. Last night's game was a perfect example of how important that aspect of the game is. We just aren't tallented enough to compete with the better teams and commit those kinds of turnovers.
Morrina and CT, it is safe to say you and I completely disagree about Rice's play and I don't think either side is willing to budge much. All I really care about is getting to 10-6 or 9-7 in the ACC and getting into the dance. That would be a great way to end the season. The team will be that much more seasoned and ready to roll next year if they get exposed to the NCAA's this year.
Walter---you're all wet! "mostly filled"?! You got to be kidding me! I can only assume that you were not at the game and were watching it on a 10" analog TV?! Playing the 12th ranked team in the nation---and THAT's our crowd?! No wonder we are not viewed as "Big Time".
Most glaring weakness (and it has been for the past 3 seasons!)---with 6 "suits" on the bench, we can't come up with a "press break" that doesn't have us inbounding the ball (if we can get it in) to someone standing still in the deep corner. who stands there until they get double teamed?! I must give some credit to the decision to go with 3 guards against the press, which allowed us to attack it for good scoring opportunities. The down-side is we were more than "hurting" on the defensive boards.
Reggie has great potential, but he had 2 consecutive turnovers trying to dribble behind his back in transition (Tyrese also coughed it up doing the same). As vs. Wake, we physically did not have the "horses" to play 40 minutes---Clemson did---that is why they were #12, and --to quote CT--"BC is who we thought they were"!
Walter--you are so off the mark! "Mostly filled"??!!---I can only assume you were watching the game in your bedroom in your mother's basement on a 10" b&W analog TV? If you were there, you couldn't possibly have concluded the same. Here we had a game vs. the #12 team in the nation and we couldn't do better than that?! And we wonder why BC is not considered "Big Time"?!
Anyhow---to the game itself--again a great first half and still tied with 12 minutes+ to go until Oglesby hit the three and got fouled by Dunn---and the air went out of the balloon. We again did not have the healthy "horses", to match the physically talented opponents! That's why they are #12 and (CT had it right--so I quote, "BC is what we thought they were".
The greatest weakness is out "press break" offense! With 6 suits on the bench---that's the best we could come up with??!! ---and inbounds pass (if it wasn't stolen) to a guard in the deepest corner who waits to be trapped by 2 players a foot taller, and then.....U-G-L-Y! I must at least give credit to the adjustment of going with a third guard which allowed us to better attack the press for scoring opportunities.
Reggie is potentially a great b-baller--but had 2 consecutive turnovers trying to dribble behind his back in transition (Tyrese also did the same--with the same result). Rakim is a gamer who was obviously playing hurt. Trapani was in "some other place"---certainly not in Conte Forum. Raji was game but apparently still less than 100%. Biko has been a plus lately. Southern--willing, but lacking the quickness and stamina to compete for even 30 minutes. Roche?? Suffice it to say, he must have pictures?! He works hard on "D", is a "nice kid", makes a "3" every couple of games, but should be playing in the Patriot League.
We are what we are---still alive for the NCAA's--even if we lose to the despised Dookies! Go Eagles.
Karen, no hard feelings...let's just agree to disagree about Rice. I'm with you on getting to the Dance. The young guys would really benefit from the trip.
Morrina,
I absolutely agree with your post, definitely zero hard feelings. For me, this is all about the enjoyment of watching BC play and succeed and there is nothing that even compares with how enjoyable it is to have BC make it into the dance and win games there.
CT and amartin are absolutely correct, the BC students are an absolute joke. They don't support anything, even football the student section isn't completely full til kickoff or just after. They should be in their seats during warmups, I've heard numerous opposing fans bash the BC students because of poor support.
I know money can be an issue, but they don't even show up for the big games in hockey and basketball
Whoa, there's a lot of commentary all of a sudden on attendance, which is very interesting. I'll respond just real quick because I was just about to head out for a while.
I'm a junior at BC right now, and I was lucky enough to get a full season my freshman year, back when it was a real big deal. Some kid offered me $500 for them. That said, I was a sophomore last year (had a half season, but still went to almost all of the games) so I know the other extreme, too.
No one on this board can pretend that the attendance is in any way, shape, or form worse than last year. Maybe on a good day (and how many of them were there really last year?) the student sections on both sides were filled to 30% capacity. This year it has markedly improved, even if we are not up to my freshman year standards. So you can't tell me I don't know what's going on regarding our stadium attendance. I also have a full season this year, and it's been way way up.
Last night wasn't spectacular, but I don't think it was anything to get all up in arms about. Clemson may have been the number 11 team in the country, but they are still just Clemson and they don't carry the same name cache as Duke or UNC. That said, the Wake crowd was stellar, but they were #2 and not #11.
Ideally, should any of this matter? No, of course not. I would love to see BC sell out every sports event they feature regardless of who they're playing. But that's not reality. Compared to last year, we're doing much better, both in attendance and in record, and I think that's the most important thing.
Also, the VT crowd was sick, did you all just conveniently forget that?
The students could be better, but they were not the problem last night. The problem last night was the local fan support not coming out. I know the 9:00 start was tough for families with young children, but do we really rely on that many little ones to fill out Conte?
I'm also starting to think the DBS opponents were at least half right, DBS did lead to a significant group of regulars discontinuing their season tix and they are no longer attending games. I know DBS was a necessary evil, but more should have been done to keep this group of regulars attending.
I wouldn't put the lack of attendance showing on the students last night. The student sections were almost 100% full for a Tuesday Night 9 PM game. If you want to bark or put the blame on someone for the attendance, I'd put it on the local/alumni sections last night. They did a great job for the VT and NC State games, but they were noticably empty last night. There were about 2.5 sections in the corners of the upper deck area that were completely empty. Those are not student seats. While there were some empty seats in the student section, it wasn't extremely noticable (at least from where I was, and I was in the student section). I will admit that the alumni/locals stepped up their game for the first few conference home games, but this one was probably the worst attendance showing for the alumni/local group of fans for a conference game this year. All that said though, the place was still very loud for not being full to capacity. Also, we aren't the only ACC school that has attendance woes. GT and Maryland (who are supposedly "basketball schools" or are supposed to have better programs than us) were both very empty for games against us. It was pretty interesting though that we were able to basically sell out the NC State and Virginia Tech games, but we had an average attendance showing against the #11 team in the country. I guess the time slot and the day was an issue for some people. Also, I know this is hard for some of you to believe, but we aren't Duke or UNC, and unless we have a team that's projected to go deep in the tourney, we aren't going to get very many sell outs. The fact that we were able to sell out games against NC State and Va Tech is pretty remarkable though, considering that the product this year is a mid-tier, bubble ACC team.
Karen, completely agree. The NCAAs would be a great experience for all the young guys and would be a nice send off for Rice. I think you're right--we're hanging around in the NCAA conversation and, at this point, who really knows with this team?
Walter, you may indeed be right. This year's attendance might be better than last year's. But, it seems to me that as every BIG game comes and goes, I continue to hear apologists (and since you go, you're not who I would direct this toward) qualify the too-often mausoleum-sounding Conte with excuses like "it's not Duke or UNC," or "it was late," or "it was early."
Really, we can do better. In fact, we have done better. I know that when I was there in the early-mid '90s what the building sounded like when we played UConn, Seton Hall, or Providence, to name a few. I don't mean this as a tit-for-tat posting, but 1) we already have a poor reputation for attendance with conference opponents and 2) though at times the building sounded good last night, it often times too quickly and suddenly sounds like the deep recesses of space.
Just my opinion. I don't want to indict every student at BC, but what you might qualify as progress from last year, I would qualify as regression from the last 15 years.
There is NO reason not to be better. Not in the premier basketball conference in the country.
It's all pretty frustrating. I guess I'll just have to win the lottery, demolish Conte, and build a 3,500-seat high school-sized arena with stands on top of the court to get my way. And put every game at 6pm, not too early, not too late, plenty of time to drink afterwards. Or do homework. Whatever.
This is a mediocre team. Skinner has done very little to build on the tournament teams of the Craig Smith and Dudley days. I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't think they will accomplish much this season.
Sorry, but there are more qualifications.
We're a bubble team. We're mediocre. The product is average. We're not Duke or UNC (who is??). GT and UMD have problems, too.
Fact is, we might make the NCAAs! We're in the best and toughest basketball conference in the country. Our schedule is a who's-who of college basketball. You don't need to be in the Nat'l Championship conversation to attend a basketball game against a good team, do you?
Maybe my expectations are skewed. The more I read some of this, the more I'm convinced that must be true. I guess the status quo is okay, then.
But I know we can be better.
Walter,
Those are good points, I understand there are games with good attendance (VT, Wake, Duke this weekend) but those are big games. And the argument that we can't sell out every game, I don't buy that, but I understand why it is difficult because of how the Boston market is built. But, not selling out a game against a mid major is one thing, not selling out a conference game against a top 15 team is another.
I've been going to BC games for a long time, more hockey than bball, but the crowds, especially students, used to be loud and active. I mean for hockey we have a national champion, and national contender every year, yet many games the students don't fill the two ends. And there isn't a bad game on their schedule except maybe Merrimack.
Again, CT, we definitely have had better crowds than last night, but it was in no way silent. I was at the game last night, and I've been to every game not during a break, and it was one of the louder crowds we have had at Conte this year. The Virginia Tech game was a great crowd, and probably one of the best we've had for a sporting event all year. The NC State game was also very nearly sold out (around 8,000?). It may sound different on your TV, but again, look at us in comparison to the other ACC schools. I wasn't impressed with the noise of Wake's crowd watching the game on TV, but again, it could've been something with the TV sound, so what do I know? Did you guys see the crowd for the games at MD and GT? Isn't Maryland a "basketball school"?Saying those arenas were half-full might be generous. I know our crowds aren't great, but it's not like we are the only ones having attendance woes. Nothing is going to change anytime soon unless we suddenly become a "basketball school," which we are not right now and we will not unless we win multiple national championships. The diehards will always be there, but it's a matter of building upon that diehard fanbase or getting the more casual BC fan to go to more sporting events. Again, the problem last night was not just with the student sections, it was with the regular seats too, so let's stop blaming everything on the students.
Also, still on the subject of crowds, one thing that has always baffled me is the lack of people in Conte (for both Basketball and Hockey) and even in Alumni who do not wear Maroon or Gold when they go to a game. I feel like 50% of the crowd wears blue or some random color that has nothing to do with either team playing. You go down to Clemson, and everyone wears orange. You could tell where all the Clemson fans were last night at the game by their orange. It seems like people just refuse to wear BC colors, or don't own something BC colors. I wish there was something we could do about this, as well as something we could do to make our arenas sell out more often, but I have no idea how that would work. I hope people don't wear tons of blue against Duke because I'd feel like I'm in Durham on Sunday.
if these three games vs wake, clemson, and duke were spread throughout the season instead of consecutively, what are the chances that we are whimpering about this right now? these are games that we shouldn't win on paper and we haven't (or might not) win in practice. if you had told me before the season that we stood a decent chance of finishing 21-10 (9-7) with a win against UNC down there, i would have gladly taken it. that gets us into the tournament btw. so let's stop with all the "the sky is falling talk" and be happy that we are in the position that we are.
yes we have lost close games that we could have won, but if you don't realize that anything we get at this point is gravy, then you haven't been paying close enough attention.
Ry - I like your optimism for sure. 21-10 (9-7) would be great for this team.
That means we need 3 of the last 5. You're probably figuring losses to Duke and Florida State - so here is the big question. Will our team beat Miami and NC State on the road? We can't really even bank a "w" against Georgia Tech, but for the sake of this discussion we'll assume that's a win.
Duke 02/15/09
at Miami 02/21/09
Florida State 02/24/09
at North Carolina State 03/04/09 vs. Georgia Tech 03/07/09
All of this talk about the quality of the opponents or the winning percentage of BC in any conversation about attendance makes me furious. If you are admittedly a fair weather fan, than don't bother buying tickets, particularly if you are only going to show up when the game time suits your fickle schedule.
I reserve the same opinion for student vs. non-student fans. The fact is that I do see many students showing up and supporting the team, and they should not feel attacked. But I also see some students who show up and sit silently through the entire game, as well as a fair amount of empty maroon seats behind the courtside seats.
Discussion about needing to win national championships in order to get full fan support is beyond disappointing.
You're a fan. You have a team. Everyone has a team. You choose it at some point in your life because of where you went to school, or where you live, or some other random reason. It's fun. It's your team. Even better, you hate other teams. You love your team, so you go see them play whenever they have a home game. You go to the game and you yell at the other hated team, scream in delight for your team, rant at the referees, and lament every twist and turn in the game as if your life depended on it. It's.......fun.
Why is this such a hard concept for people? Where is your loyalty and pride? Stop making excuses.
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