Miami thoughts

As we watched the game back tonight after dinner, my wife kept asking: “were you worried here?” or “did you give up after that?” I kept answering honestly, “nah, I knew we still had time…” Now, I am not suddenly Joe Cool, but there was something about the way the game was playing out that had me frustrated but not really worried. Maybe because I had work to distract me. Maybe because I knew that season did not rest on the results of this game. In the end my faith was rewarded. My eyes were not rewarded as it was an ugly game and BC was lucky to win. Here are my thoughts:

Likes
-- The Tyrese Rice show. As stated by everyone, Rice carried this team. The good news is that he was able to create his own shot and his own points. He even grabbed a few of his own misses. Get used to this, because unless the Freshman step up next year, I think we’ll be seeing a lot of 30 point games from Rice in 2007.
-- Oates and Blair on the floor together. Oates is everyone’s whipping boy, but he played really well today. He hit his 3s. He finished close to the basket. His defense was better than his usual crap improved and he boxed out for the first time this season. Things also worked well the last ten minutes of regulation and then in OT when Blair was on the floor at the same time. BC’s defensive rebounding and defense around the baseline and basket showed signs of life. We should probably have them on the floor together against UNC.
-- Dudley’s second half and OT. The goose egg in the first half didn’t bother me. The lack of rebounds did. I don’t know if he flipped a switch at half or it was just a bad 20 minutes, but he was a different man in the second half. Yes, he got his points, but his defense was much better. He got some assists and most importantly controlled the baseline. Four separate times, Dudley closed off a Cane driving with a smart play (the two big ones were when Dudley slammed the ball off of an out of bounds Graham and his forcing Miami into a fling for their last shot in regulation).

Dislikes
-- Spears' 9 minutes. I hate killing the kid but he played like a Freshman Friday. He should spend his whole summer working on catching passes in traffic because he has real problems now. Against GT he played with purpose and went towards passes. Against Miami he was flat footed and was lucky he didn’t turn the ball over more.
-- Sean Marshall. He made a huge 3 but that was it. The guy was a non-factor. Typical of his problems: if he is not getting his points his defense suffers and his rebounding is non existent. He had 4 rebounds but none of them on the offensive end.
-- The final minute before halftime. I’ve been beating this point home since the first Clemson game. And again it became an issue against the ‘Canes. Down five with a minute left, two really bad possessions left us down 10 at the break. It comes down to sloppy basketball and bad defense. For such an experienced team this is unacceptable.

One other thing
Because I was at work, I listened to Ted and Bill in the pregrame, halftime and postgame, watched Vitale and Patrick on ESPN360 live and watched the game again at home with the Lincoln Financial team of Brandt and Mike Gminski. Ted and Bill did their usual solid job. The ESPN crew was terrible. All the usual hype and BS with very little substance or even paying attention to replays. The Lincoln Financial team was excellent. They didn’t bury BC nearly as much as ESPN. Their observations were fair. Even though he is a Dukie, Gminski might now be my favorite college color guy. He always picks up little things and doesn’t get caught up in the storyline nonsense.


This is one of those strange results. If we won with ease, no one would care. If we lost, we’d all be deflated. Instead we got a memorable comeback and win that leaves hope for UNC and hope for next week.

Survive and advance

We stole that game. Wow. A win is a win. I'll have more coherent thoughts later tonight. Now let's get some revenge against the Heels.

Live Game Feedback Post (for those of us at work)

Trying something new today -- opening up a post just for this game. I will be listening to Ted and watching later, so I'll welcome any comments that people want to make. To comment, you have to register with blogger/google. It is free and easy. We'll see how it goes.

Miami notes

Here are a few notes about today's game:

-- BC hasn't lost to Miami since 2000
-- Miami hasn't won consecutive games since December
-- Miami hasn't won consecutive ACC games since February 2006
-- BC hasn't lost in the state of Florida since 2000
-- BC is favored by 6

Alum news links

Pete Kendall is taking part in the NFL's program with Harvard Business School. In the article it mentions his desire to get into Harvard's full-time program. This is the type of stuff that Jags and Co should be using on the recruiting trail. Kendall who will have a nice long NFL career is also using his BC education to get into one of the best B schools in the world.

Doug Flutie is up for the College Football Hall of Fame. I imagine he'll get in with ease. Well deserved. People remember the pass, but forget that he broke nearly every passing record the sport had.

Revisiting Miami

Last season I previewed two teams before the ACC Tournament. I am rehashing the gimmick again this year.

We play the winner of Maryland-Miami Friday. BC was 3-0 against those two this year. In an effort to prepare for either team I am taking a look back at both. Here is the Miami flashback.

What happened?

BC swept the series, winning convincingly at home and then holding off a pesky Miami team in Coral Gables. The Miami home game was the first sign that something was up with Williams and McClain as both road the bench in the second half without explanation (at the time). In the second game Al distracted me with his t-shirt.

Since the game…
The Miami games were two bright spots of the season. We got killed at Clemson following the first game and hit our skid following the second contest. For the ‘Canes BC was just another team that pushed them around during their rebuilding year.

How will this game play out?
Miami has enough talent. They beat Maryland and Virginia and hung around in many of their ACC games. But they don’t scare me. I think we matchup well with Rice and Dudley and they even had trouble guarding Marshall as he cut to the basket. Beating a team three times in one season is hard, but I hope we play them.


Losing to Maryland would be somewhat acceptable. Losing to Miami would not. If the ‘Canes somehow upset Maryland and then beat us, our season would be over. Sure, we would still make the tournament, but a lousy performance against Miami would be a good indicator that we are on fumes.

Revisiting Maryland

Last season I previewed two teams before the ACC Tournament. I am rehashing the gimmick again this year.

We play the winner of Maryland-Miami Friday. BC was 3-0 against those two this year. In an effort to prepare for either team I am taking a look back at both. Maryland is up first.

What happened?

BC controlled throughout. Dudley had a monster night, but the game changer was Sean Williams. The Swatta blocked seven shots and grabbed 11 rebounds. Maryland had one of their worst shooting nights of their season.

Since the game…

Maryland sunk even further before rallying late this season. They enter the tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country. BC, on the other hand, followed Maryland with an uneven holiday schedule. Once ACC play restarted, BC looked great. Since losing Sean Williams, the team came back down to Earth and finished the season 6-6.


How will this game play out?

I think we match up well against Maryland…yet I dread this game. They are playing so well right now and we are not. They have no answer for Dudley one-on-one. But I would expect them to double and triple him like everyone else has the past three weeks. The key will be Rice and Marshall. Rice needs to play controlled and score. Marshall needs to slow down Strawberry.

We don’t need this win, but it would be a real confidence booster heading into the Big Dance.

Latest bracket and Kenpom's ACC tourney formula

Bracketology 101 posted their latest forecast. They have us as an 8. I actually don't mind, since none of the potential 9s scare me and I think we matchup well against a few of the potential 1s. We could give Ohio State, UCLA, and Wisconsin a game. Kansas is the one 1 who would kill us (again).

Kenpom breaks down the conference tournaments. Believe it or not, Duke's path is easier than ours.

4 Seeds in the ACC Tournament

Being a 4 seed can be a challenge. The odds say you'll take on the top seed before the Final. Now that the ACC has moved to byes for the top 4 seeds, being a four has a slight advantage. We'll see how it plays out this week. Below is the list of 4 seeds that have won college basketball's most prestigious conference tournament.

1954 NC State
1958 Maryland
1960 Duke
1983 NC State

So it has been 24 years since a 4 won it all. One other note: only 8 four seeds have even made the ACC Final.

Fanhouse post, Oates award and blogroll update

Things are getting back underway at the AOL Fanhouse. Here is an NFL Draft update on Josh Beekman.

Jared will get plenty of awards over the next few weeks. Section Six is probably the only one who will handout awards to Oates and Blair.

I've updated my blogroll with The Big Lead (a great Sports and Sports Media blog), Philly Sports blog The 700 Level (because the blogger is a BC guy) and frequent commentator bravesbill's new blog Bitter Eagle.

Who is the best player of the Skinner era?

The ACC named Jared the Conference Player of the Year. He is the second BC player under Skinner to win a conference Player of the Year award. (Troy Bell won it twice in the Big East.) So who is the best player of the Skinner era? I would still have to give it to Bell. Below is my ranking. Feel free to add your opinion. (I excluded Granger, Woodward and Curley since they were JOB recruits and only had one season under Skins.)


1. Troy Bell. The school and Big East’s All-Time leading scorer. Without Bell there is no Skinner era. Troy put the program on his back and gave us credibility, stability and a championship. Not as demonstrative as Dudley or a physical specimen like Craig Smith, Bell was just one of those guys who could score on anyone.
2. Jared Dudley. Statistically he didn’t put up the same sort of numbers as Smith, but I think his leadership and his efficiency are superior to anyone else who played under Skinner. If Bell is the guy who rebuilt the program, Dudley is the role model for anyone we ever recruit. No one gave him a chance but BC. He took that opportunity and ran with it.
3. Craig Smith. He might turn out to be the best NBA player of the Skinner era. He was not nearly as well rounded as Bell or Dudley, but he was a beast none the less. A great combination of touch and strength.


After the Big 3, I ranked the remaining guys below. This is highly subjective. I based it on a mix of talent, accomplishment and impact on the program. Rice could work his way up the list depending on how the next two seasons go.

4. Uka Agbai
5. Louis Hinnant
6. Tyrese Rice
7. Sean Marshall
8. Kenny Harley
9. Sean Williams
10. Ryan Sidney/Jermaine Watson* (Sidney was outstanding until he broke his jaw and lost his way. Watson took a while to blossom.)

Awards and links

Jared Dudley will be named the ACC Player of the Year. Well deserved (I'll have more on the best players of the Skinner era in a later post). Rice made second team all ACC and I think he has a very good chance to be first team next season.

The Big Lead is now one of my favorite blogs. Since most BC fans can't stand Duke, I thought people would appreciate this recap of Gregg Doyel needling Coach K.

Remember the mess the MAC created for our schedule? First we were going to play Ohio then it was switched to CMU. Well it seems like they are having similar problems this year.

The Skinner debate rages on

Al is not perfect. But let me address some of the stuff that is being thrown at him. I come off like an apologist in this, but I really do think he is a very good coach. Skinner has legit shortcomings, but I think fans are somewhat misguided in what they are harping on.

In-game coaching. How do you define this? 'W's are the best measure in my opinion. But how about how Al and our team reacts in tight games? If a game comes down to one or two possessions a bad “in game” coach would surely be exposed, right? Use of timeouts, drawing up plays, substitutions…if a head coach has a problem with those things it would come to light with the game on the line, right?

Here is our record in games decided by five points or less over the last four seasons: 29-10. Winning 75% of your close games seems to indicate good “in game” coaching.

Now Al is not demonstrative on the sidelines. But I assure you he is constantly yelling from his seat to the players and the refs.

One problem might be whole sale adjustments. The game gets away from us for whatever reason and Al seemingly does nothing. Well that is not going to change. Al will not drastically adjust what he is doing based on a short period of success or failure within the game. If a team wants to try to bury us with 3s and gets hot, he will let them keep shooting. He just believes things will even out and BC will benefit. If a team presses us from the get go, he believes that we’ll adjust and get some easy points. Now this may be frustrating, but look at our results.

Frustration with the flex. The flex is a simple, high school offense. So what? It is annually one of the most efficient productive offenses in college basketball. The flex is not and won’t be our problem under Al. If you want to get on his system -- take a look at the defense. It is annually one of the worst.

Talent. Once we lost Williams, we were down to two real ACC caliber players. Our shortcomings are on the staff, but they are addressing it. Our incoming class is the best in Al’s tenure. And given his success, we no longer have to rely solely on “diamonds in the rough.” Al and company have been great in finding and evaluating talent.

“40 hour week coaching”. This is another thing I don’t understand based on Al’s results. If he were somehow watching film all night would it have made a difference Sunday? I don’t think so. Every staff works differently. Al has sort of the leader/figurehead role with his assistants doing a lot of the grunt work. It is his formula and it works.

Al is not perfect. We’ve underachieved in the NCAAs. Discipline problems have been a recurring theme, but I think he is nearly perfect for BC.

I want BC to win it all every year, but calling our accomplishments mediocre and whining about Al’s style seems unfair. He is an excellent coach and unless something drastic happens, I will continue to defend him on this space.

Georgia Tech thoughts and pics

Rough game. But before I get into specific criticisms of this game, let me take a moment to defend the team and certainly defend Al. Basketball is a lot about matchups and styles of play. As long as Paul Hewitt is at Tech and Skinner is at BC it will be a tough matchup for us. Hewitt recruits athletic kids, coaches a suffocating style of defense and substitutes like a hockey coach. They take risks on steals and clutch and grab on every play knowing that only so many fouls will be called. This same sort of approach has frustrated us in the past (for example Pitt under Howland and UW-Milwaukee). But Al is willing to bet (and I am too) that our defense will settle in, that we’ll eventually adjust and get some easy baskets and we’ll beat them at the foul line. It didn’t happen Sunday, but Al has my trust. Also, I’ve seen a lot of posts on the blogs and message boards talking about uninspired play or lack of effort. Maybe it came off differently on TV but in person these guys were trying. They didn’t play well, but it wasn’t really an effort issue. Things were sloppy, Tech certainly got to them, but the huddles were focused and the guys were communicating well. And finally we played Tech at the wrong time. They are peaking now and are always tough at home. All these folks who are coming down on this team are coming off as spoiled to me. Virginia and Virginia Tech both finished their seasons with bad losses. This is the ACC. Every game is tough. But Al has produced in two years in the conference and this year did it with very little talent. He lost his second best player in January, yet we still finished in the top four of the ACC. I am not proud of this loss, but I am proud of this team and this coach. I still think we can make a little run here, but if we don’t, so what? This team accomplished a lot despite numerous short comings and provided some very exciting moments. Here are my thoughts related to this game:

Likes
-- Spears showing signs of life. I was worried about Shamari, but he came to play. He still had some issue with his hands, but in general played well and was not afraid to shoot when everyone else seemed tentative.
-- Blair finishing. He has the ability and strength to close down a dunk. That might seem silly to get excited about, but his counterpart (Oates) does not have the same ability. Next season, Blair should be able to contribute 10 or so points in our offense.
-- Sean Marshall fighting to keep us in it. Some are getting on Marshall’s case. He ran the floor hard, handled more than he normally would or should and hit two big 3s when we were floundering. Of course we came up short, but he stepped up when we needed something.

Dislikes
-- Rice’s recklessness. Tech forces a lot of TOs but some of Rice problems were pure sloppyness or moments of panic. Plus he killed us by not getting shots off as the clock ran down. He couldn’t get the ball to Dudley in good spots. He just did not have a good night.
-- Dudley’s rebounding. I know he got 6 boards, but it was not a good night. I don’t know if he is in pain or is tired, but he let a lot of guys push him around.
-- Everything about Roche. That was ugly. The kid looked so out of place. What is he bringing to the table? He needs to be ready for a kick out – not posting at the top of the key. And we had to go to the 2-3 when he was out there to protect him defensively.

Maryland might be the hottest team in the conference, but I like our chances. This team is in the tournament, but they need to regroup and need a few breaks.

Spring Training Pics from Bob V.

Thanks to regular reader Bob V for sending these pics of the BC-Red Sox game and Dice K's debut.

The smartest player to walk the Heights

How do you measure basketball IQ? It is fairly subjective, but I tried. We all see how Jared plays. He has that uncanny sense for being in the right place at the right time. But I couldn’t track how many smart timeouts Jared Dudley took or when he anticipated something on the court. One thing I could measure how many times he got fouled shooting 3s. While getting fouled on the three point line isn’t all brains (much of it is about a stupid defender), Jared’s ability to draw someone in and/or flop has been uncanny this year. (As a side note, it also has provided his highest note: FSU, and his lowest: missing 3 FTs against UNC).

This year Jared has been fouled eight times behind the line. Amazingly he has only taken 75 3s. 11% of the time he takes a 3, he gets to the line. Combine that with his 48% shooting from beyond the arc and he is producing positive possessions 59% of the time he shoots a 3. Amazing. Now I don’t advocate him chucking 3s all day. His ability to make them and ability to draw contact are a product of his great sense of the game.

Jared's legacy will be determined by the next month, but even if BC goes out with a whimper, we probably won't see someone as cunning as Dudley for a long time.

Friday links

In the Boston area and want to hear Jags speak? He'll be the featured speaker at a brunch following the 56th Annual Laetare Sunday Lenten Celebration. Not a bad deal for $25.

After the Donor Based Seating announcement I made the point that an added benefit was the ability to improve our Alumni Giving rates. Here is an article in the Wall Street Journal about schools manipulating their figures in order to improve rankings.

Finally, the women got bounced from the ACC tourney. Rough year.

Jags as OC: Game 5, Georgia Tech 1997

The latest in the series. I’ve received a couple emails about this and let me state that in no way do I think our offense will mirror Jags’ work in the late ‘90s. First of all Logan is calling the plays. Second TOB will not be involved. Finally, since leaving BC, Jags has expanded his knowledge base. I am looking back to see what he did then. If you look at the games you begin to see some patterns: great protection, great ground games, multiple pass catchers, a struggling backup QB, fewer big plays from the passing game. Will that all happen this year? Unlikely, but at least we all have a refernce.

Stat Line
First downs 15
Rushed-yards 31-175
Passing yards 182
Sacked-yards lost 0-0
Return yards 30
Passes 20-31-1
Punts 5-36.0
Fumbles-lost 1-0
Penalties-yards 10-77
Time of possession 28:00


This was a tough loss as Georgia Tech blew us out at home 42-14. Jags' offense played well considering they were still without Cloud, Hasselbeck and Dicosmo.

What can we learn from the game? Jags continued to generate big plays out of the running game. Lee took his first touch to the endzone for a 76-yard TD. (When was the last time any of our backs broke something big against a BCS opponent?) The success of the running game and the perfect protection are also signs that the offensive line was well coached. The passing game was nothing to write home about. Mutryn’s INT was returned for a touchdown and nothing stretched the field. Without Dicosmo the passing game became really pedestrian.

Like the Cinci game, scoring was an issue. Another fair critique is that the offense did not respond nearly as well with Mutryn under center.

Despite the continued losing, there were still good signs of Jags' capability. Also at this point Damien Woody really started to get noticed.

Maryland just guaranteed our Tournament spot

I’ve always believed that 10 regular season ACC wins was enough. Maryland’s late surge just made us a sure thing. If the Terps beat NC State this weekend they will probably finish the regular season as a Top 10 RPI team. This does two things for BC. First it gives us our best signature win. It also makes it nearly impossible for the committee to leave us out given our better ACC record and our head to head win.

The ACC teams are pretty set. Barring a miraculous run in the ACC Tourney, Florida State and Clemson are out. Nine conference losses are just too many. The only possible bubble team is Georgia Tech, but I think they need to finish at 8-8. They can beat BC and UNC, but I don’t see it happening.

And for anyone still doubting, this is our resume:

-- 6-6 against top 50 teams
-- RPI of 25
-- 10-5 in the ACC (with a chance at 11 wins)
-- Strength of Schedule: 9

The only true blight is the loss to Duquesne (current RPI of 215). Even Vermont is a Top 100 team. We are in. No questions now.

St. Joe's jumps on BC bandwagon; other links

I am all for non-alumni support, but this is unusual. It seems that St. Joseph’s is trying to adopt Boston College football. They are going to go so far as to buy tickets and coordinate events with our Athletic Department. I don’t think many BC fans will notice, but it wouldn’t hurt if St. Joe’s wanted to buy say 10,000 bowl tickets.

Here is a write up on Beeks at the combine.

Gene held another chat Tuesday. Can people stop with the Lacrosse questions? Under Title IX there is 0 chance it will ever come back.