Spinelli on the way, Rahon potentially gone

Following rumors and speculation, it looks like Scott Spinelli's deal to join Jim Christian's staff is finally done. Spinelli has strong ties to the rejoin and has successfully recruited many New England players to Maryland. This is the type of recruiter Christian needs on his staff.

One of the things Christian and Spinelli can sell is playing time, because it looks like Joe Rahon is gone. Rahon's future has been in doubt for weeks, so today's report isn't much of a surprise. Supposedly he wants to be a true point guard and as long as Hanlan is around, he cannot be that guy. I don't know if this means Hanlan is returning, but either way, this is a big opportunity for Darryl Hicks. Hicks missed last season with a medical redshirt. Now he should get serious minutes. 

I wish Rahon the best of luck at his next stop, but I don't think he would have been critical to Christian's long term success.

A close win at Conte

The curse of beating Duke lives on.  Back in February, Maryland beat Duke and then went to Conte and BC won.  This afternoon Virginia arrived at Conte coming off a win vs. Duke on Thursday, and BC won this one as well 53-52 thanks to some last-second heroics from Joe Rahon.

For 38 minutes, the game had been looking as if it could be another cookie-cutter Conte game this season....BC was hanging tough against one of the better teams in the conference, but like the previous close games at home versus the likes of NC St., Miami, and Duke this one seemed to be shaping up to be yet another close loss.

But with the game on the line, the defense tightened up and Odio had a nice block which turned into a Hanlan fast break layup to pull us close.  UVA couldn't convert both FTs to give themselves a 3-point lead with 30-seconds left, and Joe Rahon made them pay by hitting a big three with 8-seconds left in the game to get us the 1-point lead and the win.

Here's hoping we can use this exciting win as a springboard to close out the regular season.


Likes
-- Rahon bounces back - after a couple previous outings with subpar shooting, Joe Rahon was a solid offensive contributor this afternoon.  He hit a couple threes in the first half to keep us in the game, had a nice set play on a baseline drive to get us back into the game with about 8 minutes left, and hit the clutch winner with 8-seconds left.  He lead BC with 15 points on 5-9 shooting.
-- Hanlan creating on offense - at times, he shows you a great ability to get himself open looks.  Because of that, I wish that sometimes he would take more control of the offense...especially in games when the team is struggling to penetrate off the perimeter like today.  There are stretches where he seems like too passive a participant in the game plan.  Still, his creative play towards the end of the first half and beginning of the second kept BC within striking distance.
-- Anderson vs. the double team - he had a poor first half handling the double.  But in the second half Anderson was able to distribute really well including finding Heckmann for a clutch three and Odio under the basket for a dunk with time on the shot clock expiring.


Dislikes
-- Another slow start - BC opened up the game shooting 1-6 from the field with 3 turnovers in the first 7 1/2 minutes of the game.  These slow starts are unfortunately becoming the norm more than the exception.  
-- Scoring droughts - UVA went on 8-0, 9-0 and 10-0 runs during the game.  We have to do better at letting teams make runs like this against us.  Just a little more offensive consistency would mean a comfortable win vs. needing a last-second shot to win it.
-- Perimeter defense - Joe Harris didn't have his best game by a long shot (4-11 from the field).  But the UVA team as a whole still shot almost 50% from three, and that in turn lead to a lot of easy Akil Mitchell baskets.


The Eagles don't have a lot of time to enjoy this win.  The team's next game is Tuesday at Clemson.  BC hasn't won a road ACC game since the conference opener at VT, and we've only won two road  games all season (the other being the Penn St. win in November) .  Beating Clemson would be nice way to build on today's win.