Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Something special and something miserable

Olivier Hanlan is in the middle of a hot streak that has rarely been seen around BC. He scored 39 against Pitt despite getting double-teamed on nearly every possession. Yet his heroics were not enough as BC lost 71-65. The best thing about the past two weeks is that any concerns about Hanlan's shooting is over. His percentages from 3 and on FTs have improved and are reverting to his norms from the past two years. The guy is an elite offensive player, regardless of the coach, the system and certainly the players around him. This team is terrible. I would say just give the ball the Hanlan, but that is what they are doing at this point. The problem comes when the other guys have to play defense, grab a rebound or pass. BC was in a big hole early just from stupid plays from Brown, Heckmann and Clifford. If not for Hanlan this team would be completely unwatchable.

The depleted bench cannot score. We know that. But against any team with size, we are cooked. Carney plays hard but is over matched. Odio has athleticism, but is still not a complete player.

Heckmann is a mess. When he's off, he needs to get closer to the basket and help on the boards.

Brown's stats are bit misleading. He was our second leading scorer, but did not have a good night. The turnovers and whining to the refs hurt the team.

As the season comes to a close, I am going to keep watching to see what Hanlan might do next. I am also aware that these might be his last few weeks as an Eagle.

13 comments:

Tim said...

Over the last four seasons, BC is 16-51 in the ACC.

Big Jack Krack said...

And we wonder why Conte is empty?

Thomas said...

I don't wonder at all. We have shitty fans and a spread out alumni base.

Bravesbill said...

The fact that the entire team outside of Hanlan and Brown scored 6 total points is truly pathetic. This team will finish with a worse ACC record than last year's team even while having better players (Brown, Batten, a somewhat healthy Clifford). This is not a good indictment for Christian, who seems to be in way over his head like Donahue was.

mod34b said...

rotten

mod34b said...

Well, at 9-18, and ranked #129 on Sagarin, we are the most highly ranked 18 loss team in the country.

Christian has shown us nothing this year on the floor or the recruiting trail.

Yes, only his first year, and BC is ranked higher than the great sleazeball Bruce Pearl at Auburn that many here thought wouol dbe a good fit for BC (ha!)

WI_Eagle said...

This year's team does not have better players than last year -- materially worse actually. The delta is Anderson, Rahon, and Jackson vs. Brown, Batten, and Clifford. Anderson is massively better than Clifford. Rahon/Jackson combo is marginally better than Brown/Batten combo.

Bravesbill said...

Rahon was completely worthless last year. He regressed so much after his freshman year. I'll agree that Anderson was pretty decent, but he received a lot of criticism last year for his uneven performances. I still have no idea how this team has 1 ACC win but managed to beat Providence and Harvard earlier in the season, even when Hanlan wasn't playing well. What in the world happened since then esp. when Hanlan has been absolutely on fire?

GP11 said...

It's really a shame Anderson and Rahon left. They weren't perfect, but BC players typically aren't. Both were undersized for their positions and not the best athletes but a frontcourt of Anderson & Clifford with Heckmann and McGarity would have been competitive. Rahon would've given us the extra ballhandling we're missing right now.


The fact that this team is competing at all is pretty impressive. The losses are obviously frustrating. It worries me that Christian hasn't been able to pull one or two of these off but he's stuck with a short rotation and dead legs at the end of nights. The team is not mailing it in by any means though. I hope Hanlon gives it another shot. I could see him as a second round pick and giving it a go this year, but I don't see how he has much to lose as there's no way he'd be a first rounder.

It seems like we have a couple contributors coming in next year. If Christian can't get strong pieces in the 2016 class then I will be very concerned, but hopefully with a full summer to work with the returners and drill his system in place we'll see some more potential next year... and wins.

Tim said...

Thomas-
No, it's because our program has been non-competitive for 4 years. Look at some of the old youtube videos of BC beating Syracuse at home in 2001 and 2005 (there are probably other good highlights out there but those jump to my mind). Conte was packed and it was loud.

Thomas said...

Tim-

Even the Miami Dolphins have great fair weather fans. Great fan bases fill the stands regardless of the product on the field, court, rink, etc.

Hoib said...

I think the team this year is better than last year in spite of what the record says. Hanlan is much better than last year. The problem is the league is better. Lville has been added and most teams are playing as good if not better. 2 of our wins last year were against Va Tech. I don't see how people can be surprised by this. Donahue was a complete incompetant who prety much conducted a suicide bombing mission against our basketball program. This is going to be a long slog to recovery if ever. This will tell us if BC hoops really does have a fan base at all. I'm starting to have my doubts.

blist said...

Thomas, look around and you'll see every fan base degrades when the team is poor. 1966, the red sox were one of the worst draws in baseball. they went to the world series next year. 1996 they were in the bottom half of AL attendance; 2013 (when they won the WS), they had their worst attendance in 11 seasons. In the early 1990s those sad Yankee teams drew poor enough it seemed inevitable they'd leave the bronx. Heck, even a couple of years back Duke basketball started selling off student seats b/c their attendance kept falling. Those are three pretty good fanbases right there that have had problems.