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.
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14 comments:
this is the most insightful and well-written hoops recap i have ever seen on this blog. thank you.
I'm being nitpicky here, but it would be nice if Anderson developed that mid-range jumper
With two winnable games coming up, it would be nice to see this team build some momentum into the ACC tourney and next season
ATL is not a fan of the mid-range, but I agree with FST. Anderson is not big enough, strong enough or athletic enough to beat many of the ACC bigs who guard him, but the mid-range jumper is available. If he starts hitting it, it will help the rest of his offensive game.
Problem with password. Just teasing. Sorry.
Meant just testing.
Real "classy" Jay with your comment. Bill M. has enough confidence in his own writing abilities to arrange for a quality BC colleague (Will) to keep us informed while he is away...and enough respect for his blog followers to receive good content, such as today.
Go BC. Great things to look forward to. Imagine the possibilities if Clifford were healthy. Upside is others are playing more which will pay dividends in the ACC tournament & next year.
very good and useful tutorial it is.thanks for share with us.
Visalus
not a huge fan of the mid-range jumper either, but when you go on scoring droughts like this team does, you have to take what the defense gives you. If i recall correctly, Hanlan hit one to break one of the droughts, which seemed to energize the team
agree with the point about Hanlan creating. Donahue coaches with too tight of a leash, sometimes I think he just needs to let these guys play, make some mistakes, but open it up a bit so they aren't so passive all the time.
Joe, sorry, it was a joke. I know Will and love the blog. Did not mean to offend.
FST: what's your aversion to the mid-range jumper? I haven't read an explanation from ATL, either, and I'm curious. Two points is two points, except when it's three.
I understand the value of getting all the way to the hoop, where you've got a decent chance of getting to the foul line to salvage something from nothing or add a bonus point. But, I've also seen BC commit a lot of turnovers passing up the 8-footer to get those bunnies.
El Miz,
Read the Boston Globe sports section today . . . or see the story on Boston.com about the game. It proves and disproves your point. Seriously.
haha knuckle i had read that, and thinking back to the comment on the message board about Hanlan needing to be able to create more, it prompted my thought.
here is the comment for those who didn't read the article:
A year ago, Steve Donahue would have tried to throw out a life line.
The Boston College coach would have looked at the clock, which was running under 20 seconds, looked at the scoreboard, which had his Eagles trailing to Virginia, 52-50, looked at Patrick Heckmann, who had picked up his dribble after driving hard into a lane clogged with bodies, and Donahue’s gut would have told him Heckmann was in trouble.
“I would’ve called timeout,” Donahue said. “I would’ve said, ‘I just don’t trust him.’ ”
But Sunday he let it play out.
It was the second time in as many weeks the Eagles faced a team that was coming off an upset of Duke. They trailed by 11 with 10:24 left and by 8 with 4:47 to go. But it was a position they’d been in time and again this season.
“I sensed, ‘You know what? I think he knows what he’s doing here,’ ” Donahue said of Heckmann.
and that really encapsulates why, at the end of the day when you add up all the good and bad with this team (players, coach, etc), i am a net optimist. i think with this system and the way donahue coaches, the lack of upperclassmen and players who "know" what Donahue wants has really held us back. we have been in a lot of close games, competed with basically everyone, are improved from last year, came within one play down the stretch of knocking off a team that was ranked #1 at one point this year (Duke) and came within one play of knockin off a team that was #2 at one point (Miami).
this group of 5 sophomores and 2 freshman will be a group of juniors/soph next year, all of whom have seen a ton of minutes. we have a really dynamic player in Hanlan to build around, and some good talent around him -- Anderson, Odio, Rahon, Heckmann, and Lonnie have all had their moments this season, some more than others, some to more of an impact than others.
i also do think both Garland Owens and Dragicevic will contribute next year -- Dragicevic was already a rotation player on a major team at ND and will add another shooter, and Owens (from his video at least) is a very good athlete (on Odio's level in terms of length and bounce, altho only 6'5), and from his Twitter seems like a really good kid who spends a ton of time in the gym.
i'd still LOVE to add another recruit or two, and i think we should win the next 2 games to close out the year (and hopefully another 1 in the ACC tourney). all in all it's been a long 2 seasons but i think this team is trending in the right direction. the players will be better, the execution will be that much better, the trust from Donahue will continue to grow, hopefully a year from now we're a Tourney team.
The only frustration I have RIGHT NOW after watching most of the games is with Ryan Anderson.
When he makes a move to the basket he is looking more for a foul call than to actually score. If he tried to finish the play and not try and draw a foul he would the calls. He needs to TRY AND FINISH THE PLAY.
The refs are obviously reading him the way I am because he does not get as many calls around the basket as he should.
He was visibly frustrated on Sunday. If he intends to score around the basket then he will draw more foul calls.
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