BC-UNC preview

For the first time this year, BC's back is against the wall. A sixth win is a crucial benchmark and we only have two shots left. BC is a home dog, but that shouldn't matter. Good teams win games like this and it is critical for O'Brien to get into a bowl game for Year 1. Last week -- like so many of our losses -- had some positives. Now we just need a complete game...and a win. 

What's on my mind (not totally related to this game)
Watching the snow Thursday night in Cleveland had me lamenting that we don't have a signature snow game in BC history. But beyond not having some fun big BC win in a driving snow storm, we just surprisingly haven't had that many snow games. Freezing games? Sure. But not many picturesque snow games. And the most recent one we had -- Notre Dame -- was utterly forgettable. (Saturday will likely be wet but not cold enough for snow.)

Three Simple Keys
1. Don't give up on the passing game even if it is wet and rainy. One of the main reasons to make the QB switch was to give the passing game a spark. Don't forget that this week if the weather is bad.
2. Slow Hampton. He can't go off like he did last week against Wake.
3. No special teams problems. Same story, different week.

Gambling Notes
-- The Heels lead the series 4-2
-- North Carolina has won three straight in the series
-- BC is 6-4 against the spread
The current line is BC+3

Factoid
UNC has not lost at Alumni.

Scoreboard Watching
Pitt-Louisville. I am hyper focused on our sixth win, so I am trying to observe some sort of vibe off of Pitt that will make me feel better about next week. It would probably be good for BC to see Louisville crush them this week.

BC is in trouble if...we don't stop the run. This is not a bend but don't break game. We need plenty of three and outs and that starts with stopping the run.

I hope to see...a good home crowd there the whole game. Many of the students didn't come back after halftime of the Syracuse game. This is game is important. It should be close. Fans need to stay and make some noise.

Bottom Line
I think BC has a balanced attack and gets everyone involved. The D has its opportunistic turnovers and enough stops that BC wins comfortably and becomes bowl eligible.  
Final Score: BC 35 UNC 24 

Game Day: North Carolina

No comments this year.

What you need to know

Weather: Mid '60s, no rain

Radio: SiriusXM 193

TV: ABC

BC-North Carolina Preview

I don't know if we can consider last week magic. If you take your BC colored glasses off, it was more of a case of escaping with a win after a sloppy day. But those are the types of wins that often lead to a special season. You need some luck. You need some growing pains. And you need a little bonding among the players and coaches. The emotions of last week will be gone by kickoff, but maybe the learning and luck will still be there. We need both to pull off the upset.

What's on my mind (not totally related to this game)
I don't know how plugged in the regular readers are to what's happening on campus, but BC is generally making more restrictions related to COVID. Based on their moves, I don't know if we will see students at sporting events any time soon. I also don't know what new and returning students even think of the BC experience right now. Going to and covering BC sports were big parts of my experience. I feel for those who miss it. I hope they realize how special this Hafley season might be. Even though they can't be in Alumni, being around it still might provide some great memories.

Three Simple Keys
1. Figure out the run game. We've done a lot on the ground so far and it has been a mixed bag. The basic stretch looked good. Some of the counter trey stuff was a mess. I liked Jurk running. I didn't like the direct handoff stuff to Levy. My suggestion is keep it easy to manage with some zones and option reads. Everything else can be put on the backburner for now.
2. Help the DBs in the red zone. Leaving Sebastion or any of the corners out on an island is dangerous. We don't have that level of talent there right now. Either give them more help or bring so much pressure that the passing is off.
3. Get back to stripping the ball out. Hafley said it was a priority. That showed against Duke. Last week the guys weren't seemingly as active. This week they need those takeaways.

Gambling Notes
-- UNC leads the series 2-5
-- UNC has won two in a row
-- North Carolina is 1-1 at Alumni
The current line is BC+13.5

Factoid
Mack Brown has coached more than 300 games, but this will be his first trip to Alumni as a coach.

Scoreboard Watching
Clemson v Virginia will be interesting. We all know Clemson is great and will probably be our toughest game. However, ending the season with UVA will also be tough. Seeing how the 'Hoos handle Clemson might give us an idea of just how tough.

I hope to see...better tackling. This might seem like silly thing to harp on, especially with how COVID put limitations on spring ball and game prep, but there were plenty of missed tackles against Texas State. The game shouldn't have been as close as it was. If BC makes five more tackles, half those drives end without even getting into BC territory.

BC is in trouble if...Jurkovec holds the ball too long. While the OLine has been very inconsistent, many of the sacks are also on Jurkovec for holding onto the ball too long and not throwing it away. He can't keep taking drive killing sacks.

Overall
This game will be tough. We looked out of sorts last week and certainly not capable of hanging with one of the better teams in the ACC. But my hope is the wakeup call from last week leads to a cleaner, better game this week. I think this goes back and forth and BC holds on to win another close game at home.
Final Score: BC 28, UNC 24

UNC kills BC on boards

BC has made a habit of playing much better in the second half of games. That didn't work out so well against North Carolina Tuesday night. The Tar Heels built an early lead by dominating BC on the boards and never looked back. BC mounted a min-comeback in when Bowman hit a few 3s in a row, but nothing ever really serious.

Beyond the rebounding issues, the D wasn't good either. Carolina had a ton of easy baskets and Luke Maye had his way with Pop and JCR.

Whenever we face a team with a defined style (UVA, UNC) it can get messy. We play their way and are depth usually becomes an issue. A high scoring, uptempo game against a talented team like UNC was going to be tough. Our lack of D and bad shots didn't make it easier.

The good news out of the game was Tim Brando mentioning BC's new basketball facility. Jarmond has been talking to donors about it (including Tuesday's Monan Donor call), but there hasn't been a public statement from the school. It would be a basketball dedicated practice facility and would put us in line with the rest of the conference. Like the Football facility, it would show the recruits and basketball world that we are serious about competing in the ACC. Now that the cat is out of the bag, I am sure the school will explain something shortly.

Another ACC Champ

North Carolina just won the National Championship. We now play in the conference that is home to the football and basketball champions. It might seem like BC will never be in position to win either championship, but being in the ACC is a huge benefit as we try to take the programs to the next level. If you are ever going to win anything big, it will be through recruiting and developing those players under intense competition. By playing champions annually, BC has a direct barometer of where they are with regards to the best teams in the country. Right now we are not doing enough. But by coming up short, the pressure increases. Hence the change in AD. And there will be more changes if Addazio and Christian do not start competing.

Getting crushed by the eventual champions can be deflating. Some long for the good ol' days or think that if we were in a mid-major conference, we could be more successful. I don't agree. As frustrating as this can be, I want to be associated with the best. I want to know how far we have to go. When we do turn things around, it will make things all that much more satisfying.

Basketball can't close gap against UNC

BC played hard and made it interesting at times, but they never led during the game and couldn't pull out the upset against UNC. The Tar Heels are a good team with a lot of talent. That is the main story. But as to why BC lost this one: it came down to rebounding and turnovers.

The rebounding was frustrating to watch too. Every time BC cut the lead, UNC would seemingly extend it again off of a rebound. The offensive boards weren't great either. It seemed that BC was so focused on defending the transition, they gave up some second chance points.

Bowman scored 33 and Robinson chipped in 18. Conte was filled, but too many in attendance were wearing blue.

BC is back on the court Wednesday night. Nothing is a must win, but the team could use another confidence booster.  

Almost

BC played their best basketball in weeks but still couldn't do enough to upset North Carolina. I admit I believed. When Carter made his 3 with just over two minutes left, I thought it was going to be our night. But even down the stretch BC made familiar mistakes (losing assignments on D and forcing bad shots on O) that cost them the game. Adding to the woe of the loss, Turner went down during the game with a bad looking injury.

As much as we might want to take away a lot of positives and hope from this game, you cannot. BC's been outplayed and overmatched in all their other ACC games. Play three more close games and then I will feel like we are seeing progress.

I feel for the fans who were there. They almost got to see something special.

The next chapter comes this weekend. Who knows what to expect.

Carolina crushes BC

If you are looking to add to our the list of frustrating moments, how about know that any early game lead will fade. Saturday's loss to UNC had the prototypical breakdown. BC led early despite turnovers. Then UNC made a run and never looked back. BC cannot hang with any team -- let alone the No. 2 team in the country -- with an offense like this. Even if Carter gets hot, the rest of the offense is so mistake prone and terrible on the boards, that you know things will go wrong.

What's also frustrating is how many turnovers we got from our upperclassmen. How are these guys not more aware? 

I don't know what else to write. Even if we upgrade the talent, Christian still has a lot to fix with how his teams approach and manage these games.

BC runs out of steam against UNC

It was a nice little run there. BC rattled off four straight conference wins amidst Olivier Hanlan's scoring binge. But it wasn't going to last forever...and didn't as UNC controlled most of the game in BC's 81-63 loss. Back-to-back games are tough for deep team. For thin squads like BC, they are brutal. BC didn't get any points from their bench until the game was well out of hand late in the second half.

With the loss, the season is over. BC finished 13-19, 4-14 ACC and 1-1 in the ACC Tournament. That's disappointing to me based on my preseason expectations, but I am encouraged enough with what I saw to think Christian might be a decent coach. I will have more recaps on the season in the coming weeks.

With specifics to this game, here are a few thoughts:

-- Who is the real Dennis Clifford? For two years we kept hearing that a healthy Dennis Clifford would have been a difference maker. With the player we saw as a freshman, that made sense. He was a legit 7-footer with some good offensive skills. Now I don't know what we have. He showed flashes this season and worked hard on D, but I don't know what he can be. He just got man handled the past two days on the boards. Many times by smaller men. The rebounding was better against UNC, but still not enough.
-- Terrible refs. It wasn't the reason we lost the game, but the ticky tack fouls on Heckmann didn't help. You would hope that there was some consistency in a tournament like this. But things were all over the place.
-- Hanlan starts cold. He got his his points and played well enough, but his shots weren't falling early. That contributed to the halftime deficit.

The ACC Tournament doesn't really mean much when you are 12 seed. But I have hope. I have hope that things will matter soon.

Tar Heels too big for BC

The first 20 minutes gave me hope. BC capitalized on UNC's mistakes and handled their runs. For a moment it felt like this might be the game. Yet the Tar Heels controlled early in the second half. BC made another charge late but it was not enough. The announcers gave BC plenty of credit for doing a lot with a little, but that doesn't make this any less frustrating. A few other thoughts:

-- We miss Magarity. He sat out again with a concussion and it made a difference. Magarity is not a great defensive player, but we could have used his size and his ability to draw out big men.
-- Awful outside shooting. We need Hanlon and Brown to chuck it. It is our only offense. But we are not going to win many games going 5 for 23 from 3.
-- No bench. With Magarity out of the rotation, it hurts our depth, but only getting four points from the bench is terrible. Owens and Odio have to have more impact on the game. They are both athletic enough to be better around the rim.

Not enough in North Carolina

I am sensing a pattern in our ACC games. BC keeps it relatively close but makes too many mistakes and the favored team pulls away. That's what happened in Saturday's loss to UNC. The big issue this game was BC's carelessness with the ball. Turnover after turnover killed momentum and possessions. BC's failure at the foul line didn't help. The game was so frustrating that Donahue threw a tantrum late after a questionable foul call and didn't get the Technical. Only after continuing his rant did he finally get the "T."

The were some encouraging signs. Once again, we made a good bit of "3s" and kept it close. Hanlan drew a lot of fouls driving to the basket. The spacing was better than it has been for much of the season and we leveraged the success from outside for some good cuts and drives.

As the losses pile up, I will keep looking for silver linings. Even if Donahue isn't coaching this team next year, most of the roster will be back. I want to see improvement and effort...and hope.

BC-Virginia Tech preview

Suddenly this season has a bit of pressure. Expectations were raised by the solid first six games. Last week's mess has people wondering if BC can get to bowl eligibility. In a way this Virginia Tech team is the perfect opponent now. They are favored and will still be a tough game, but their offense is so sluggish even a loss will probably be close and not crushing like last week.

What's on my mind (not totally related to this game)
Many professional circles feel like a "small world" but college coaching really is small. Take Virginia Tech Offensive Coordinator Scot Loeffler as an example. After working with Addazio at Florida, he took the OC job at Temple in 2011. The success he and Addazio had opened the door for him to be OC at Auburn. Addazio filled the Temple job with Ryan Day. While the 2012 season wasn't as successful for Temple as the prior year, Day's BC background did help Addazio and his transition to the BC job. Loeffler along with the other coordinators at Auburn was out of a job when Chizik was fired. Now he's coaching at VT and going against his old boss.

Three Simple Keys
1. Finish the drill against Logan. The Florida State game turned when we didn't wrap up Winston on his bomb before the half. Logan is like that...only bigger. I don't think he is a good QB, but he can capitalize on broken plays. BC needs to take him down when we get the chance.
2. Improve field position. Last week we didn't do the offense any favors by starting so many drives deep in our own territory. That needs to change this week. I don't expect Dudeck to break any big punts, but he needs to do little things to help the net punting. Willis also needs to come out strong on his KR.
3. Play action pass. It is the only way we are going to get them out of crowding the box. The guys are getting open. We just need Rettig to get them the ball and for them to hold on to it.

Gambling Notes
-- BC is 4-3 against the spread this season
-- Virginia Tech has won five in a row vs BC
-- Addazio is 3-1 at home this year.
The current line is BC+5


Factoid 
This will be the sixth BC Coach Frank Beamer has faced. With the way colleges churn their coaches, I doubt we will see another rival coach put in 25+ years against us.

Scoreboard Watching
From an ACC standpoint, the game is FSU-Miami. As a barometer of what BC faces, I think Wake-Syracuse is much more important. Wake has improved since we played them and the Orange are faltering.

I hope to see...
One of the younger guys step up. Spiffy is our first big injury of the year, but that should be an opportunity for one of the other player makers to fill his spot. Dudeck will probably get more passes his way, but why can't Jackson or Crimmins or one of the other guys make some plays?

BC is in trouble if...
Rettig doesn't get out of his malaise. By this I mean that he completes more than 50% of his passes, doesn't turn the ball over and doesn't take more than three sacks. That's a lot to ask against this defense, but it is the only way BC is going to win.

Bottom Line
It feels like the UNC loss emptied the bandwagon a bit. I realize we have serious problems, but I remain upbeat about this matchup. Despite their defense and talent, Virginia Tech has not played very well this year. I think it will be low scoring and BC will make fewer mistakes. I think Chase breaks out of his funk and we take the lead in the second half.
Final Score: BC20, Virginia Tech 13

Second viewing thoughts and grade report: UNC

This wasn't a game we gave away with bad clock management or a missed kick. It obviously didn't come down to one play. But it was frustrating watching it back, because UNC did not play that well. Not as well as the score indicates. Instead BC kept shooting itself in the foot. This echos what Addazio said after the game, but when he watches it back, I imagine he will have steam coming out of his ears. There were that many plays -- fumbles, bad sacks, defensive players falling down, bad punt returns, etc. -- that added up to a big loss.

Offense: D+

We have plenty of issues on offense but Rettig is getting most of the blame. In this case it was justified. He is now holding the ball way too long. There were some positives in relation to his pocket awareness. He was willing to tuck and run more than he has all year. And most of the runs were net positives. But too many throws were late or not thrown at all. Talk of making a QB change is very premature. If we are going to make a bowl, it will be with Rettig's arm.

I was wrong about Rettig prior to the season. I was really wrong about Andre Williams. He's gotten so much better as the season goes on. The touchdown was nice, but he had a huge hole. However, he had a series of runs between the tackles where he ran hard and moved through traffic. For many years Williams was bad between the tackles. If he didn't have space, he wasn't able to adjust. Now he can weave a bit and is still very hard to take down. The only real issue with Williams was the early fumbled exchange. Rouse got a few snaps in garbage time. Willis was on the field more, but didn't get involved in the offense.

The offensive line was good. They got good push on running plays and at different points everyone was asked to pull or run. The pass blocking was also good for the most part. They gave Rettig time on most throws. Patchan allowed a sack, but was good for the most part (despite his penalties). Gallik also let in some rushers. Williams and White both played well.

Amidon had a few nice catches but could do much after the catch. He also dropped a catchable third down. But we need to get him more touches. What happened to using him on end arounds? Naples had a nice catch early. Jackson and Evans both had chances to catch balls but the throws weren't great. I blame it a little on them and on Rettig. A better QB-WR connection would have them coming back to the ball. Dudeck missed his one chance at a catchable ball.

I don't know what to make of Day's gameplan against UNC. We ran the ball well enough, but couldn't build on the passing game. A big problem in my opinion was passing on passing downs. If we run, run and leave us in a passing 3rd down, the defense knows what's coming. We are at our best when we can pass off of play action or rollouts on first and second down. It worked somewhat early. Why move away from it? Why not use some of the shotgun with short crosses that Rettig and Amidon like early in a possession? Get them in rhythm. Teams are flatout challenging BC now. It is going to be on Day to salvage our passing attack. It wasn't effective this week.

Defense: C+

The defensive line was probably the best part of the D. Ramsey played well and brought pressure. Appiah made plays for the first time in a long time. Mihalik made some good plays early. Edebali did well closing.

Steven Daniels is so much better than he was at the start of the year. We knew he was a big hitter, but he's doing a better job covering a lot of space. Divitto had a better game. He's not getting tackles for a loss, but is tackling well. KPL made some plays early but wasn't as active late. Little had a huge play in his debut.

Sylvia was the first BC player to get tossed for targeting and I am okay with that. The replay looked like he was slowing down a bit, but he still led with his head/shoulders without using his arms. If you are really going to break up a touchdown, you need to wrap up or reach in. A knock out hit might get the WR to drop the ball, but that is no longer legal. It will be interesting to see how he adjusts from here. The rest of the DBs had a similar situation from other weeks. They were decent tackling but not great in coverage. Asprilla got burned early turning the wrong way. Williams fell down on a touchdown.

The defense wasn't the real problem but the results weren't great. It didn't feel like a Don Brown day. BC certainly brought pressure and generated some huge drive-killing sacks, but most of the time their QBs were given way too much time. Our multiple looks and guys faking the blitz didn't seem to bother either of their QBs. Like I said with Day, teams now know a bit more what to expect. Brown needs to keep mixing things up or just blitz even more. The blitzes were what worked best.

Special Teams: C

Freese's punts were fine and our punt coverage was fine. Freese also had a solid kick off and made his FG.

Willis handled all the KRs and was fine. He didn't get a big break on any but made good decisions and ran hard.

Spiffy had some issues on the punts. He let one sail way over his head and then had some questionable decisions on returns. Dudeck was fine on his one punt return.


Overall: C-

The offense couldn't score. The defense allowed long, multi-play drives and the special teams didn't do anything special. Our gameplan was to get control early and grind it out. That was the problem. We didn't have a Plan B. Or at least a Plan B we could execute. We adjusted a little on D by bringing more pressure. On offense we couldn't come up with anything.

I appreciate Addazio's candor. UNC probably has more talent, but they didn't overwhelm us like USC did. BC made too many mistakes to win. That happens to all coaching staffs. The key is how Addazio regroups and gets the team to play better.

I know there is a lot of focus on Rettig. I've been blogging enough to see plenty of QBs struggle. This is not a Porter-Ryan or even a Shinskie-Rettig. I think this is more like Crane-Davis, where your backups are not the answer. So now the offensive staff needs to find something that works. It is triage time. If they don't, we will have many more games like this.

House of Horrors

One day we will win in Chapel Hill. Today certainly wasn't the day as BC lost and fell to 3-4 on the season.

The defense had its moments. So did Andre Williams. Rettig didn't. There were plays to make but he either missed his targets or took bad sacks. I don't know if he's lost his confidence or trying to do too much, but it wasn't pretty. The good news is that there is still much to play for...all we need is the offense to get back on track.

I will have second viewing thoughts and grades late Sunday.

In-game comments post: UNC

Can we finally win at Chapel Hill? Does this start a strong second half of the season? Or do we come back down to Earth? It should be interesting. Leave your thoughts and comments below.

You can also follow me on twitter.

Game Watches: North Carolina

While this may have more affiliates than usual picking up the game, it is still region to region. If you cannot get it at home, check out one of the local Game Watches. Add your Chapter's information if it is not included below.

Chicago Game Watch
Nic and Dino's Tripoli Tap
1147 W Armitage (Armitage Brown/Purple Line L)
Chicago

Dallas Game Watch
Christie's Sports Bar
2811 McKinney Ave Suite 22
Dallas, Texas

Houston Game Watch
J. Blacks Feel Good Kitchen & Lounge
110 S. Heights Blvd.
Houston

Las Vegas Game Watch
Firkin on Paradise
4503 Paradise Road
Las Vegas

New York Game Watch
Joshua Tree
513 3rd Avenue (between 34th and 35th Street)
New York, N.Y.

Philadelphia Game Watch
Fox and Hound - Center City
1501 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, Penn.

San Diego Game Watch
The Beer Co.
602 Broadway
San Diego, Calif.

San Francisco Game Watch
Shanghai Kelly’s
2064 Polk St (between Pacific Ave & Broadway St)
San Francisco, Calif.

Washington, D.C. Game Watch
Irish Whiskey Public House
1207 19th Street Northwest
Washington, D.C.

BC-North Carolina preview

Addazio made a point that we are starting over with the second half of the season. Maybe North Carolina is taking the same approach in the hope of putting behind their 1-5 start. When the schedule came out this seemed like one of our tougher games. Now I don't know. There is still talent in Chapel Hill and they've been in some of their games. Let's hope they don't finally put things together this week.

What's on my mind (not totally related to this game) This week proved that the college football community has really short memories. We were a good story after giving Clemson a scare. Then we're off and Clemson gets crushed. Suddenly we are dropping in Power Rankings and a big underdog (considering we are facing a 1-5 team). I don't want pats on the back for being 3-3 but I think BC should win this week and should finish strong. We have our issues, but so does everyone else.

Three Simple Keys
1. Disrupt Eric Ebron's from running his routes. This is the matchup that scares me. Ebron is good. Really good. Probably the best Tight End we will see all year. Our Linebackers (and even some of our Satefies) are not great in pass coverage. My suggestion is blitz heavy at Ebron so that he has to stay in to protect.
2. 3rd down defense. North Carolina can grind it out like we do. If we are going to dictate tempo and be ball control, he have to have the ball. The key is stopping them on 3rd down and keeping their possessions short.
3. Get Willis involved in the passing game. Against Clemson, he proved again that he is good in space. I would love to see a few more screens to him or another wheel route like his first TD.

Gambling Notes
-- Larry Fedora has never lost more than six games in a season
-- BC is 1-7 against the spread in our last 8 road games
-- Addazio is 0-2 on the road as BC's coach
The current line is BC+7

Factoid
North Carolina is the only ACC we have not defeated as the away team.

Scoreboard Watching
I could be way off in my assessment but I think Virginia Tech is terribly overrated. I don't think Duke will beat them, but I do think it will be close. We can learn a lot about the Hokies based on how they handle this game.

I hope to see...
Offensive balance. Addazio preaches it, but we haven yet to really see it on the field. So far one aspect works, while the other trudges along. That shouldn't happen with a good offense. I think we are now at the stage where we know what works and what doesn't. It is on Day to build an effective gameplan around those elements that are working.

BC is in trouble if...
We don't force turnovers from Williams and Renner. These guys both have the ability to make big plays and keep plays alive. The flipside is the occasional carelessness. We need to mirror our Wake Forest game and get the ball off of their mistakes.

Bottom Line
I know they're favored. I know we've never won in Chapel Hill. My rational side knows that their "close losses" to VT and Miami aren't all that different from our close losses to Clemson and FSU. Yet I still feel fairly confident about this game. I think we are pretty conservative and avoid critical turnovers and grind it out. Maybe UNC gets a late TD to make the game appear closer than it was. BC wins and sets themselves up well for the second half of the season.
Final Score: BC 27, North Carolina 20

When will we turn the corner?

I know I've been down on this team lately, but how can we not be? Forget about losing close games or having off shooting nights. Tonight it felt like the guys didn't even come to play. We are playing North Carolina on national TV at home and the guys were sleep walking. Other than Hanlan and Odio, did anyone else give off the impression that they were ready to play and thought we could win? Worse I don't know what Donahue can and should do at this point. He mixed up the lineup and minutes tonight and it didn't work.  Clifford has been good change of pace lately but only played four minutes tonight. The apologists can talk about how young the team is or the holes in the roster Donahue inherited, but that doesn't matter now. Guys need to get better. Effort needs to get better. Coaching needs to get better. We have another chance Saturday. Let's hope things start to click. Other thoughts on the game...

Likes
-- Hanlan's aggressiveness. I think he needs to drive on every possession. The motion around the perimeter is not leading to good shots.
-- Odio's blocks. He'd be a great asset as an energy guy on a decent team.

Dislikes
-- Van Nest's near the basket. I was hoping he'd be a spark, but he wasn't tonight. We need front line minutes but he's got to be more aggressive and grab more boards.
-- Anderson settling for mid range shots. I am sure he's getting worn down, but he's at his best on the low block.
-- Lonnie Jackson chucking it. We know he's streaky but today it felt like he just threw some of them up there.

Signs of life in lopsided loss to UNC

That was as good of a 23-point loss as you'll see from BC basketball these days. I was most encouraged that the guys didn't fold. We've seen plenty of BC basketball teams give up during blowouts. These guys didn't. I was also encouraged that they went on some runs against an elite team. It was more validation that certain members of the team have ACC-level talent. The issue remains that they cannot put it all together for 40 minutes. Here are my thoughts. Leave yours below.

Likes
-- Ryan Anderson scoring inside. Even though he was giving up size, Anderson did well inside. He showed good strength and good touch. It was his 3-point shooting that suffered.
-- Dennis Clifford's defense. For the first time against a good team we got physical. Clifford made an effort on the boards and helped shutdown some UNC possessions.
-- Productive minutes from Moton. As Daniels emerged the past few weeks, I wondered if we would see more of Moton. Today he played well. He was good defensively and in transition.

Dislikes
-- Not enough movement towards the basket. We spend way too much time passing around the perimeter. When we cut, we had success. Donahue needs to get these guys thinking about cuts...especially with an aggressive opponent like UNC. The shotclock violations were maddening.
-- The turnovers. Some of it was pressure but a lot of it was sloppy play.

"It was this close..."

There were no moral victories or real victories for BC in Chapel Hill. At this point 'moral' victories don't help your resume. But there were some good takeaways in BC's tight loss to UNC. We now have to close strong and get to nine conference wins. But I think we can do it. Here are my thoughts.

Likes
-- Going for the win. After the game there was some second guessing regarding BC's final shot. A two-pointer forces OT, while Reggie took a long 3 with little time left. But he is our best player. He just made a big shot and his dribble was able to get separation on the final attempt. If it goes in, BC steals the win.
-- The transition D. After last game, Donahue obviously made this a point of emphasis. It hurt us on offense (we only had 8 offensive rebounds!) but the trade off kept us in the game.
-- Attempting 27 3s. We were terrible from 3 today (25%) but I like the attitude. We weren't going to beat them inside, so why not chuck it. If anything I think we've shied away from the 3s too often in our losses.

Dislikes
-- Still no answer for Zeller. The doubling wasn't very effective this time around. If we make the tourney, a team with any sort of size is going to give us trouble. Zeller is not as good as we've made him look this year.
-- Hesitation from the role players. Cahill, Paris, Elmore and Moton all had space at different times on the perimeter that they passed up. If Jackson and Trapani are cold, these guys need to try to hit some 3s...especially if the defense is laying off of them.
-- Paris's day. Not only has he cooled off as a shooter, but his productivity and efficiency is not where it was early in the season. His turnovers were killers.