UAB thoughts

We stopped the bleeding and put together a quality win. The best news of the day was Rice broke out of his funk

Likes
-- Second-half rebounding. This team is not talented enough to win games without controlling the boards. The first half was awful as UAB grabbed 8 more rebounds than BC did. Fortunately things improved in the second half mostly due to Southern and Trapani.
-- Rice getting hot. His outburst doesn't mean his slump is over. Team's are going to focus on him but he took over in the second half.
-- Reggie Jackson during crunch time. He fought for rebounds and buried a critical 3.
-- Sanders' scoring. He is still reckless at times, but he gave us some points when we were desperate and his pass to Raji in the zone was perfect.

Dislikes
-- Defensive rotation. The defensive stats don't tell the whole story. UAB missed plenty of open shots. Good shooting teams will kill us if we are so lackadaisical defensively.
-- Our lack of adjustments to Rice coming off the double screens at the top of the key. Clearly teams are going to shoot the big man out and double him. We need something effective out of that set to burn teams who leave one of the screeners open.

This wasn't a banner week for BC basketball. If anything they offset the questionable loss to St. Louis with a nice resume win over UAB. (If Purdue stays in the top 20, that loss won't look as bad.) Now we need to build on the second halfs from MSG, get Rice hot and tear through the non-conference schedule.

Purdue pics and other links

Thanks to Joe I for these pictures from the Garden.

The Globe takes a look at Dominique Davis.

The current seniors remember the Syracuse game well.

Matt Ryan is winning over the African American fans in Atlanta. (Thanks to all those who sent along the link.)

Thoughts on the St. John's win

Since this game was on ESPN 2, I'm guessing this was the first chance for most of you to watch the team. In my opinion the game had a similar feel to the Loyola game: BC's offense stalled for long periods, the defense was lacking and Rice's spark in the second half helped BC pull away. Here are my quick thoughts. Share yours in the comments.

Good stuff
-- Rice scored with ease and took over the game when he needed to in the second half.
-- Ravenel looks good early and moves well without the ball
-- The team runs better than any recent Skinner team
-- We actually pressed a bit and caused problems for the the Red Storm
-- Trapani is more athletic than I thought he would be

Concerns
-- The team remains sloppy with the ball
-- The defense had issues in half court
-- Outside of Rice and Trapani, no one has shown that they can create their own points
-- Dunn looked overmatched when our other bigs got in foul trouble.

Thanks to Chris for capturing the mood before tip-off. For Eagle fans in the New York area, please come out and support the team at the Garden next week.