The worst season in BC Basketball history came to an end Tuesday afternoon with the Eagles lost to Florida State in the ACC Tournament. BC looked good early, but foul trouble, lack of rebounding and some bad D allowed Florida State to pull away. Normally I would say something about the seniors or mention some coaching issues, but come on. What's the point? Christian sort of threw in the towel when Clifford fouled out. Why should we care?
There are rumblings of a Globe story focusing on BC sports coming out this weekend. I don't know how much of the alleged feature will focus on basketball, but this season's failure is not confirmation that BC cannot win. This was always going to be a transition year and a likely low point. Despite early gossip of the team's collective talent, it clearly never came together. Throw in some bad breaks, bad efforts and too much norovirus and you have the Season from Hell.
It will be interesting to see how Christian deals with this collapse. I hope he buckles down, finds more talent and does a better job bringing them together. I don't advocate firing a coach after just two seasons, but this year is a huge warning sign that he might be a terrible fit. Next year needs major progress and improvement.
A Boston College sports blog capturing the highs and lows of being a BC fan living 1,000 miles from Chestnut Hill.
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18 comments:
So you're saying we aren't going to make the tournament this year.
couple of positives: 1) we never have to watch Eli Carter play again 2) we can't get any worse
To use a phrase from another time
"Our long national nightmare is over"
I was wondering if this season was worse than 1998-1999 when we only won 6 games. Then I went back and looked at the schedules. We played actual teams that year and even managed to win three straight Big East games. So yes, I agree. This is the worst season since that one at the very least. Troy Bell entered in the 1999-2000 season and then the next one saw us win the Big East. That may be a lot to hope for, but improvement is always possible.
I see no reason to believe next year will be any better - could very well be another 0 for. In past down years or transition years - at least we competed and showed progress. Hope. Losing Carter is addition by subtraction, but Clifford is a big loss and I don't see anyone stepping into that leadership void. We have 3 ACC level players on the roster at best. Make no mistake, this is a train wreck of historic proportions.
The thing I don't understand about Bates is his lack of self preservation. I mean there he was in the middle of Ohio at a mid level mac school with a very good job but not setting the world on fire. A huge opportunity comes along at a better school in a major conference in a great location and he aces it. He lands a job most would dream of having with a huge salary - a job that could easily bring him even better things down the road. He's not an idiot and has to realize that his future depends heavily on the highest visibility programs doing well. You'd think that he would have been far more careful in selecting coaches, riding herd on them and demanding sufficient investment by the school to support these programs. Secondly, if once he was there he felt that Leahy's limitations would make it near impossible to succeed - then he needed to get around those limitations or, at the very least, adroitly make it public (even at the risk of his job) that he was constrained by certain limitations. Having done that after realizing he could not succeed at BC under Leahy - he should have then taken another job somewhere else where he felt he could succeed.
So either none of this occurred to him - and he stupidly took this job and his career for granted - or he lacked the political skills to protect himself and his career. I mean - when you get a great job like this - you really really want to keep it. Like most jobs - you have to try fairly hard to get fired for cause.
I wish Clifford had one more year, not simply because the team will need him but because he had such a crappy run and was finally healthy enough to start delivering on his potential and maybe getting some joy out of it. He deserved better than to finish like this.
The warning sign that Christian might be a terrible fit was his resume, which had "mediocre carpetbagger" written all over it. Unfortunately he probably has to be retained for another year because I don't see anyone better wanting this job right now. An ACC coaching position would clearly have allure for an up-and-comer, but it's tough to see anyone with any aspirations taking a chance on us considering the lack of talent on this team. Even a great coach might only win 7 or 8 games next season.
Agreed re: Clifford. As I stated on Twitter, I don't recall another player, BC or otherwise, who progressed as much as he did throughout the season. He looked horrible in the early parts of the season and by the end, he was CLEARLY the best player on the court and would have started just about anywhere in the country.
Absolute shame the injuries kept him from developing earlier, but I do think he'll be able to carve out a pro career now...something I would have scoffed at just a couple months ago.
"2) we can't get any worse"
There are still non-conference games that could be lost.
Bates, Addazio, Christian, Johnson seem incapable of selling BC to ACC caliber recruits in basketball and football while York, Crowley, Kelly, Foley and possibly Gambino among others seem to have found the key. Success clearly breeds success, breaking the cycle of losing seasons is extremely difficult when you must rely on your historical success as one of the prime motivators for exceptional recruits. It will take a superhuman effort on the part of our losing teams to turn the corner and change the aura of our basketball and football programs. Consider the number of legacy athletes in basketball and football we have lost to other teams, young men and women whose families more than likely know the most about BC athletics, the competency of the coaching staff and the potential for post season success. For the BC basketball, and football programs the immediate future seems very bleak, very bleak indeed.
http://deadspin.com/boston-college-senior-has-just-the-saddest-favorite-col-1763714863
Nappy
Maybe it isn't such a good job. You make many good points about Bates. Without knowing the constraints, if any, that he is forced to work under it's impossible to know how much to blame him. People are throwing blame all over the place, which is to be expected when you set a record for infamy that will never be broken, but other than just guessing, how is blame to be accurately placed? I've asked before, and I'll ask again. I'd love if someone w/ knowledge of the full workings of BC's athletic decision making process could illuminate us as to how it works. However it works I hope major efforts are being made to change it.
http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/2016/03/09/crying-senior-has-the-saddest-memory-his-basketball-career/mDOvAWE7McqXIz1VdNJgpM/story.html?p1=story_hp
Tim, that was a tough thing to see. Clifford has had a lot of obstacles in his career and he really persevered. And ended up with this team. Ouch. Tough way to end a career. The resilience he showed in coming back and getting through a brutal season will help him in post-college life. I wish him all the best. I wish he had better memories of senior year. Let's hope his last memory of getting his degree is the one that endures the most.
As I said before, this mess is all fixable with good people. I think BC presents a great opportunity for any coach with drive and grit. And that includes the current coaching staff. I'm neither sold nor lost on Daz. He has brought in some very capable help on the coaching staff. He knows its hugely important to him and his career that he turn this thing around. Let's see what he does next year. I'm a bit more concerned with Christian. On the plus side - he does have good assistants. Basketball is not as daunting as football - just 5 guys - and you need just a couple of special kids to make an impact. Christian has a lot at stake career wise - so does Spinelli. They need to sell the PT opportunity to a couple of good kids. They probably get one more year. If either fail again - BC is a great opportunity for other coaches as long as we have an AD who knows what he is doing and a highly supportive university President with winning expectations. I am much more concerned about the AD (and possibly Leahy) - and if it was up to me that is who I'd be focusing on at the present time. To the extent there are unreasonable constraints imposed by Leahy (and I have no way of knowing that) - those have to be removed and a new set up has to be put in place to oversee the AD and his department. And then they need to find a far more capable AD with a proven track record. The biggest concern I have is whether the Jesuits just want to go in a different direction re athletics. If they want us to be more like an Emory than a Notre Dame - then that is their prerogative and risk. But they need to shit or get off the pot on that. I'm afraid though that we are more likely to become another Loyola, Fordham or St. Louis if they have their way.
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