Erik Johnson resigns and why you should care

I know most of don't really follow Women's Basketball but Erik Johnson's resignation (force out) is important news for BC sports in general. It is clear that the mistakes of the past two ADs are no longer being ignored. Johnson was well liked. He was a "BC guy." But he simply didn't win or even compete enough to keep around. Now Jarmond gets to make a hire and signal to the BC fan community what he is looking for in a coach.

The next coach should win. BC has enough young talent on the roster. There is plenty of local talent and there is no reason we can't compete in the ACC. Johnson was brought in to recapture the success of the Inglese years. He couldn't, but the bar is not too high. It can be done again. Unlike Football and Basketball, the geography of the school nor the facilities or admissions office hamper us to the point we can't compete in the ACC. New England talent alone could keep us in the top half of the conference. 

Johnson also closes the chapter on Gene's last hire. Like other sports Gene blew up, BC is still trying to recover to the consistency and winning we had a decade ago. But unlike Football and Basketball, Gene got to screw up Women's Basketball three times. He fired Inglese, hired Crawley, fired Crawley and then brought in his old buddy and Inglese assistant Johnson. None of it worked. 

I don't know enough about Women's college basketball to know what direction Jarmond will take, but it will be hard to get much worse. This is now Jarmond's chance to see how hiring at BC works and he can be ready to make tots people are about. 

Women's Basketball drops another game

The Women's Basketball team got blown out at home by Syracuse this weekend. With the loss they fell to 1-7 in ACC play. Cuse is a fine team but not some dominant power right now. Yet BC can't hang with these teams very long.

I know the casual BC fan barely cares. I can't pretend that I live and die with the team, but we shouldn't be this bad. Like hockey, this is a sport where we can and should be a consistent winner. We will see how much Jarmond cares when the season is over.

Something to watch in 2018: a coaching change in Women's Basketball

When Martin Jarmond was hired, we assumed that the first coaching decisions he might have to make would be in Football or Men's Basketball. Instead it looks like he might have to address Women's Basketball first. I haven't written about it much, but the current season is off to a disaster. BC sits at 5-9 (0-1) and has shown little promise heading into the heart of ACC play.

Coach Erik Johnson -- who was one of Gene D's last major hires -- is now 66-101 (17-66). I don't pretend that a lot of people care about BC Women's Basketball, but letting the program flounder like this is a wasted opportunity. BC can and should be competitive in Women's Basketball. The cliche challenge we face in Football and Basketball -- recruiting -- is not as much of an issue for Women's Basketball. There is plenty of local talent and you are not battling the one and done mentality (and buying of players) of Men's Basketball.

Jarmond has nothing to lose with making a change and actually can use the hiring/firing to learn how a coaching change actually works at BC. There won't be as much meddling or scrutiny, but it will still deal with the BC politics of the process.

The importance of Women's Basketball's strong start

Because I tend to focus on football first and men's basketball second, there are plenty of BC teams I overlook. Both Hockey teams are elite and hardly get talked about here. But the focus of this post is another great team: the BC Women's Basketball.

It might be premature to call the team great, but they are off to a great start. They are tearing up their non-conference slate and their only loss came in a Holiday Tournament against Oklahoma. At this current pace, there is no reason to think they won't be ranked by the start of ACC play.

But aside from their hot start, BC fans should care about BC Women's Basketball because they recovered from a recent low point.

For all of Gene's bad hires, his worst might have been Sylvia Crawley. She left BC with an overall winning record, but the program fell apart under her reign. There wasn't much talent left when Erik Johnson took over. Johnson started to patch things up with recruiting and transfer, but his first three season as the head coach at the Heights were frustrating and full of losing. Now it looks like the team has turned the corner. If they are even close to .500 in ACC play it will be Johnson's best season at BC.

The lesson of Johnson though is that we as fans need patience. The lesson for other struggling BC coaches is that they need to recruit, recruit and recruit. Recruiting Women's Basketball prospects to BC is a different sell than other sports, but it is all about effort and passion.

Johnson's former BC boss Cathy Inglese also started slow at BC. But once she turned the corner, there was a long stretch of very good basketball. Let's hope Johnson matches that and our other lost programs do too.

Predicting Murphy's impact and other links

Transfer QBs are fairly commonplace in college football these days. If the depth chart gets too crowded or the coaching staff changes, QBs look for better fits. A transfer QB is my biggest reason for optimism this season, yet Murphy is only considered the 6th most important transfer QB.

Like Soaring to Glory, I expect a bounce back year from Sean Duggan. He showed flashes his first two years, but was a non-factor last season.

Al Louis-Jean signed a three-year rookie deal with the Bears. Who would have thought he'd get this far in the process?

Incoming Women's Basketball transfer Kailey Edwards originally committed to Erik Johnson when he was still at Denver. Edwards will have to sit out the 2014-15 season.

Sailing placed 4th at the APS National Championship Team Race.

Women's hoops wins ACC Opener and other links

While we've all focused on the disastrous Men's season, many (including me) have overlooked the Women's Basketball team's great start. Sunday they beat Virginia Tech. It was their seventh straight win.

Auburn might take a page from BC's playbook against Florida State.

Boston's new Mayor Marty Walsh is a proud BC alum. You can tell by his choice for his inaugural.

Stephanie McCaffrey brouhaha and other links

BC suspended women's soccer star Stephanie McCaffrey for he twitter jokes regarding Jerry Sandusky and Penn State. She will miss BC's NCAA tournament game against the Nittany Lions. I feel like this is a slight overreaction by BC. Clearly what McCaffrey did was stupid and in poor taste, but would she have been suspended if we were playing some program other than Penn State? Let's say BC was playing PSU in football and she made a Sandusky joke on twitter to her brother (Football's James McCaffery) and her team was playing Stanford in the NCAAs. Would she still be suspended? I hope BC wins the game so that McCaffrey's dumb jokes don't cost her teammates. Lesson to all college athletes: think before you tweet!

The men's soccer team is out of the NCAA Tournament after losing to Northeastern.

Erik Johnson got his first win as BC's women's basketball coach. He also added three new recruits.

I know some of you are aware of BC's relationship with JB Harvey, but this article shows how much the team has done for JB and his family.

Hockey starts weekend on a good note and other links

They hockey team began Notre Dame weekend on a winning note by beating the Irish 3-1.

If you didn't read it earlier this week, here is the moving story on Women's Basketball Coach Erik Johnson's return to Boston and dealing with the loss of his son. Johnson's team lost their season opener.

Soccer players Kyle Bekker and Charlie Rugg, and Derrick Boateng earned 2012 All-ACC honors.

Women's soccer defeated Hofstra 2-0 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Here is Romo's pep talk for the football team.

Interview with Erik Johnson and other links

BC posted an video interview with new women's basketball coach Erik Johnson. It seems like he has the right approach to turning the program around.

Donnie Fletcher couldn't have gone this far without his aunt and uncle. Also note how important Ben Sirmans was in recruiting him. Sirmans was the lead recruiter on Kuechly too.

Jerry York answered some questions from the BC Chronicle.

Soccer MVP Kate McCarthy is playing Lacrosse this spring.

More praise for Chris Kreider.

BC held a Draft party last night. It seems like a good idea to raise interest and please donors. Maybe they do it again when we have another first rounder.