Bates tries to build on Saturday's excitement and other links

Brad Bates used his latest "Letter from the AD's Desk" to sell people on coming to the final five home games. It is not a bad idea. Everyone's in a great mood about BC sports and the word of mouth from those who attended the game was great. Not every game will be as special and I think there are many factors in a home attendance issues, but a big one that has been overcome is our competitiveness. BC no longer has a sad sack as coach, so I think some of our fans can start to get excited about the games instead of feeling like they are wasting their time. Bates's focus was on the memories of Saturday night, but his office did add a new face this week. Bates hired Marcus Blossom as Associate Athletics Director for Business and Administration. On the surface this is not a major hire, but it is important for Bates. Even two years into his tenure many of the Athletic Department staff are holdovers. Bates did not clean house when he took over. The fact that so many stayed speaks to Bates' ability to win them over but also their love for working at BC. I expect we will finally see some top-level changes once Bates announces the Master Plan.

The story of Henry Hill fixing BC Basketball games will lead off the latest series of 30 for 30 films.

Brian St. Pierre St. John's team is off to a good start.

Here are the Game Notes and Depth Chart for the Maine Game.

Soccer lost to Harvard.

This article on Barry Gallup's role within BC Football is from last week, but still worth your time to read.

Betting scandal hits a different Catholic school

For those who have not been following the news, the NCAA is investigating University of San Diego's basketball program regarding possible point shaving. Any time this sort of thing pops up, it should send a chill up the spine of any BC fan.

Our basketball betting scandal of the early '80s was one of the more infamous (see Goodfellas and the SI cover). While the school recovered quickly, the legacy of that is still with us today because of the football scandal of the '90s. The football problem is especially momentous for me since I was a student at the time. TOB reminded the whole world of it in every media interview, so now gambling is tied to our sports reputation. Since then, things have been fairly serene when it comes to BC sports. My fear though is that we are so removed from the past scandals that another gambling issue could pop up again. In the NYT article linked early, a gambling expert speculates that as many as 30 NCAA basketball games a year could be impacted by shaving. Sadly I find that number perfectly believable. Even if it is not that commonplace, BC needs to pay extra attention to point shaving. If we were ever caught up in a third betting scandal, things would be terrible. Other programs would use it against us, some fans would stop supporting our players, and the media would tie us to gambling forever. Let's hope we have the right kids in place and the right adults monitoring their performance. Now just be glad that we are not San Diego.

Reading between the lines

BC is favored this Saturday night. Most sports books have it as a 2.5 or 2 point spread. What's the big deal about being favored? It is a very rare occurrence when we face Virginia Tech.

BC has played Virginia Tech 15 times with the first game coming in 1993. According to Phil Steele's records, we have officially been the underdog in every game since 2000.

I don't have point spread data beyond 2000, but if you look at game recaps from 1995 to 1999, you'll see that Virginia Tech entered each of those games with a higher ranking than BC. I would assume they were favored in all of those contests.

The last time I believe that BC was favored was 1994. It was Dan Henning's first home game...BC lost. Assuming that the very good 1993 team was also favored, that means BC has only been favored twice in 15 games.

Point spreads don't win games. They are merely a reflection of perspective (the betting public's and the oddsmakers'). I am glad to see it shifting in BC's favor.