SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Thu Jun 17, 2021 3:43 pm

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director

None of our players received awards this season. James Lilly was robbed…he should have been on the all-conference team.

Coach Aura accomplished 3 of his goals (winning at least 15 games (we won 21), having no players with academic ineligibility, improving team prestige (improved by 3 up to 54). He didn’t accomplish two others (finishing in the top half in the conference standings and getting to the NCAA tournament…but we did have a very good run in the CIT tournament). In fact, we’d probably have been a one-and-done if we’d gone to the NCAA Tournament, whereas the team’s play in the CIT tourney provided a lot of excitement and enthusiasm within our school and for our fans. Overall it was a pretty successful season and a big step up on how we’d been doing in recent years.

Some really good schools have shown interest in talking with Fred Aura about taking their head coaching jobs, but Fred told me he has no interest in leaving.

In early April we landed our 3rd and final recruit, Josh McFadgon. He’s a 6’1” PG who played JC ball in Whiting, Indiana, so will come to us as a junior next season. He averaged 15.7 ppg, 6.3 apg, 4.8 rpg, 2.0 bpg and 2.8 spg this season. He’s got fantastic passing skills and is an excellent outside shooter. He is a good ball handler, a good scorer, and is very athletic. Most importantly he is a hard worker and hasn’t had injury problems. He’s a 4-star player who was the 93rd ranked recruit.

Josh will join two other 4 star recruits for us: SF Sam Dickens who was the 59th ranked recruit who averaged 19.2 ppg, 4.4 apg, 7.5 rpg, 2.0 bpg, and 3.3 spg in his senior high school season in Noble, Maine and C Courtland Reese who was ranked 84th nationally and averaged 16.4 ppg, 4.4 apg, 8.3 rpg, 3.8 bpg, and 2.6 spg in his high school senior season in Windham, Maine.

Two assistants left to try to get better jobs (1st assistant Kevin Abney wanted a head coaching job and 3rd assistant Robert Wilson was looking to move up in the assistant coaching world). Kevin didn’t get a head coaching job but moved over to Boston University where he will again be 1st assistant. Robert didn’t get picked up by another Division I team, so he took a first assistant coaching job with a Division II team.

We hired two excellent new assistant coaches. David Woodruff will be our 1st Assistant Coach and handle player development/practices. He was previously the head coach at Youngstown State. Rob Rowland will be our 3rd Assistant Coach responsible for scouting. He comes to us from UC Irvine where he was also 3rd assistant.

Fred requested a budget increase. The board authorized a $2,250 increase. I don’t think it was as much as Fred had hoped for, but our board hasn’t been in the habit of increasing budgets. So its that much more he can spend on recruiting this coming season.

That takes care of the 2025-2026 season. I’m already looking forward to next season.
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Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Sat Jun 19, 2021 1:51 am

2026-2027 SEASON

Janeka Aura (wife of Coach Aura)


As soon as the kids got out of school, our entire family flew to Norway to go on a cruise through the Norway fjords. It was a beautiful trip and a chance for us all to decompress. Fred, in particular, was under a lot of pressure this last year as he tried to advance the program. The ACC season was extremely demanding and when the team had a rather long losing streak, Fred took it hard. The team’s performance in the CIT tournament helped put a positive spin on the season, though.

Our kids have sports camps this summer. Omari (who will be a high school senior this coming year) and Malik (who will be a sophomore) both are going to great basketball camps. Devany will be a 4th grader and is going to a soccer camp.

My job with BC’s School of Nursing is going great. I really enjoy it. Things slow down a bit in the summer so that’s a nice respite. That means I can spend more time with my mother who is still battling cancer.
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Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Sun Jun 20, 2021 1:02 am

Chris Evans, 2nd Assistant (Recruiting) Coach

We have 3 seniors graduating after this coming season. We don’t have enough money to buy the Premier (Gold) scouting reports, so opt to purchase the basic National and Atlantic East reports. We will attend the Indy Elite Camp and the Big Apple Showcase. We will focus on landing a PG and an interior player and with the 3rd scholarship we’ll go after the best available guard.

I believe we had a good recruiting year last season. Hope I'm not being over-confident, but I think that due to my increased experience, an even closer working relationship with Coach Aura, our team's solid performance last season, and an even more lasered focus this year, we can do even better this season. When I mentioned this to Coach Aura, he laughed and said he liked my optimism but will just take it week-by-week and see how things turn out. He then said, "Land us a top-25 ranked recruit and dinner at Abe & Louie's Steakhouse is on me."
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Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Sun Jun 20, 2021 7:40 pm

Coach Fred Aura

It was a real confidence-builder when a couple excellent programs showed interest in my possibly becoming their head coach. I was flattered, but felt I’d made a commitment to Boston College to get their program back on track and challenging within the ACC. We’ve begun but we’re far from achieving that yet, so I just had to thank the colleges that showed interest but let them quickly know that I wasn’t ready for a change at this point. Additionally, I know that Janeka wants to remain close to her mother to help during her cancer treatment…and Boston is where we need to be for that.

I’m excited by the 3 recruits we signed last season. I expect all three to strongly compete for starting roles and make us a much stronger team.

But it’s become obvious that C Damon Smith still hasn’t developed to a point where he will play for us this coming season. He was used by us last season only in a few mop up roles. I finally made a decision to cut him and look for a transfer player. Our team prestige will take a small hit due to our cutting a scholarship player, but so be it.

We missed out on the primary transfer player we were pursuing, but landed Winston Minahan, a 6-6 PF from Sonora, TX who played a limited role as a freshman for Texas Tech last season but with further development has good potential. Working out with our team for this season while he’s ineligible to play in games should help him prepare to compete for a starting job the following season when he’ll be a sophomore eligibility-wise.

Our next challenge is to identify and sign three excellent recruits. Our recruit class from last season was rated as the 45th best in the nation, but that applied to just the two high schoolers we signed. The JC player we signed wasn’t factored into this. If he had been, I think the combination of our 3 recruits would have improved our rating by 15-20 places. It’s a big challenge, but my goal is for us to be in the Top 25 in Recruit Class Rankings next year. We’re going up against a lot of programs with a heckuva lot bigger recruiting budget than we have and who can purchase the best reports, attend any and all camps, and spend, spend, spend on activities throughout the recruiting season. Chris, my recruiting coach, accepted my challenge but not before also pointing out that there were a lot of other programs with much bigger names and higher prestige and reminding me that our high academic standards also make things more difficult. But I know Chris’ confidence was buoyed by last season’s recruiting success so he’ll kick butt to go after great recruits. Of course, Chris also has a top-notch steak dinner coming if he inks a top-25 ranked recruit.
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Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Mon Jun 21, 2021 5:43 pm

Boston College Chronicle

LILLY IS NORTON AWARD CANDIDATE

By Kinsey Ramsey


Boston College’s James Lilly has been nominated for the 2nd straight year as a candidate for the prestigious Norton Award. As a sophomore last season, Lilly led the Eagles to 21 victories, averaging 14.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg, and 2.4 apg.

Coach Fred Aura said, “It’s an honor to be nominated, but James certainly has shown he’s one of the best collegiate players so the nomination is well-earned. Not only is he a very good scorer, he’s an excellent defender who is able to go up against and limit the best opponents, and he gets more than his share of blocks and steals. I’ve never seen a guard who is a better rebounder than James. He has the ability to get great positioning. Even at just 6’0”, James isn’t afraid to mix it up and often takes rebounds away from much taller opponents. He plays like he’s 6 or 8 inches taller than he is. He’s unselfish on the court and often finds teammates with more open shots rather than taking the shot himself. He’s a hard worker who gets along well with his teammates. To top all this off, James has a 4.0 GPA.”
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Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Tue Jun 22, 2021 2:55 pm

Chris Evans, 2nd Assistant (Recruiting) Coach

We did it! It’s early October and we have verbal acceptances from recruits for all 3 available scholarships. And not just any recruits, 3 very strong recruits!
In early September Leonard Meliet, a 6’5” PG from Gladewater, Texas surprised us by accepting our offer so quickly. We beat out Oklahoma and Brigham Young for his services. He’s a 5-star recruit and is ranked 21st of all recruits. He was within the top 25 at the Indy Elite Camp. The guy is a scoring machine with outstanding inside shooting skills and is a very good outside shooter (including from 3-point range) as well who averaged 22.2 ppg as a HS junior. He handles the ball well and is a fantastic passer who dished out 8.2 apg last season. He’s an excellent rebounder (4.7 rpg as a junior) and defender who is an adroit ball hawk (4.5 spg last season). He’s extremely athletic and his HS coach has told us he has a tremendous work ethic.

Then a week later, we got word that another guard…Phil Thompson, a 6’3” PG from Trinity, Alabama…accepted our offer. Florida and Clemson were our main competitors for him. Thompson is the 28th highest ranked recruit, rated as 4-star but is very nearly a 5-star recruit. Phil is a very good outside shooter who averaged 19.7 ppg last season. Like Meliet, he’s an outstanding passer (7.8 apg as a junior) and an even stronger ball handler. Similar to Meliet, his stealing skills are exciting (5.8 spg last season) and overall he’s an excellent defender. Phil’s a very good rebounder (5.0 rpg as a junior). He had a decent but not spectacular showing at the Indy Elite Camp, but his HS coach said he rarely missed practices and has a tremendous work ethic.

Both Meliet and Thompson were impressed by our being in the ACC. Meliet’s parents are graduates of the University of Texas and Sam Houston University, so we’re happy to have gotten him to come north to the Boston area. Thompson’s mother graduated from the University of Alabama and playing close to home was very important to him, but our facility’s and Coach Aura’s approach to discipline were definite factors in winning him over. Coach Aura and I feel that both of these guys will really strengthen our team and could play either PG or SG for us. Both are B students in high school. So while we feel they will both meet our high SAT minimum, we’ll have to wait until late January to be sure.

We missed out on several high-rated big men to whom we offered scholarships as they chose more prestigious programs. Finally in early October, we made an offer to a 6’7” SF from Charlottesville, Virginia and he accepted. Keith Kolder is the 106th rated recruit, a solid 4-star recruit. Holder has a 4.0 GPA in high school and academics, facilities, and location were areas that swayed him to come to BC. Keith is a solid shooter from anywhere on the court who averaged 16.1 ppg as a junior. He’s very strong defensively and is a good passer for a SF. He’s not been a good rebounder in high school (3.0 rpg last year), so that’s something we need to work on with him. But he has a great work ethic so that’s a plus. He didn’t stand out at the Indy Elite Camp and had a decent, yet unspectacular, showing at the Big Apple Showcase. With Sam Dickens, who is a freshman for us this year at SF, Keith is unlikely to be a starter at SF until he’s a senior unless Dickens slots into PF for us at some point, but we feel Kolder could be an excellent 6th man at both SF and SG.

We had a 6’10” C from Massachusetts who really wanted to play for us. He isn’t a highly ranked recruit, but we feel he could be a real sleeper. We almost pulled the trigger on making a scholarship offer to him, but then decided it was a crap-shoot while Kolder seems to be a guy we will be able to count upon.

We’re very excited about the recruits we landed. If both Meliet and Thompson qualify academically, I think we definitely have a Top 25 recruit class nationally and probably a top-3 recruit class within the ACC.

Ohyeah, and if Meliet meets our SAT minimum, it's a steak dinner at Abe & Louie's for me paid by Coach Aura since Meliet is the 21st highest ranked recruit. :D
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Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Wed Jun 23, 2021 5:55 pm

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director

Our schedule for this season is complete. We have 9 pre-conference games. Since I was able to schedule 8 of those at home, I expected Coach Aura to be ecstatic. But I was wrong. He explained that he has now seen both sides. As coach of a low prestige school, he typically had a very high percentage of his team’s pre-conference games as road games. He said his AD explained that many teams were unwilling to play Towson at home. Once his team got strong, teams were disinclined to play the Tigers at home, even much better teams since those didn’t want to rack up a loss when they were more likely to gain a win if Towson played on the opponent’s home court. And he said that now he sees how teams in power conferences like the ACC can dictate that a high percentage of their pre-conference games are played at home, thus increasing the likelihood of wins. He said that while he appreciated my efforts to schedule a bunch of home games and he understood that it meant increased revenue for the college, he didn’t feel it adequately prepared the team for conference games. So he got me to change each home game to a upgrade it to a much higher competition level. I’m pretty sure I created some enemies with AD’s for the teams that were cancelled off our preliminary schedule since it meant they had to try to find a new opponent on their schedule. Here’s the re-worked pre-conference schedule (prestige level is in parentheses) (BC’s prestige level is 52):

BAYLOR (55)
OKLAHOMA (69)
VANDERBILT (63)
CREIGHTON (67)
SAN DIEGO STATE (65)
BRIGHAM YOUNG (67)
STANFORD (65)
@ Cornell (our annual non-conference rival game) (26)
MISSISSIPPI STATE (61)

Coach Aura also said that we need to discuss a future change to our rival game opponent and suggested I contact Providence about becoming ours beginning next season. He thinks the Friars are a more equal competitor and that a nearby Catholic college is a more logical rival.
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Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Thu Jun 24, 2021 4:06 pm

David Woodruff, 1st Assistant Coach

Last year as head coach for Youngstown State we were 17-15 and went to the CIT Tourney. But at 63, I realized that I really preferred handling player development rather than the many varied roles of a head coach. So when the job came open here with Coach Aura, I jumped ship. Getting a chance to work with the talent level on the Eagles has been a blast. The past month of practice went smoothly. Now we’re ready to start the season.

Turns out all 3 guys BC recruited last season will be starting. All 3 were impressive but of course are still learning our sets and getting accustomed to playing together. Hopefully their talent will override that deficit early this season until they gain sufficient experience.

Starters:
C-Courtland Reese, 6’9” freshman: looked good in practice, good inside scorer, strong rebounder, solid defense.
SF-Sam Dickens, 6’8” freshman: scores well from inside and mid-range, great rebounder, very strong defensively.
PG-Josh McFadgon, 6’1” junior (JC transfer): good passer and ball handler, can score well from mid and long range, good rebounder for a guard, able defender.
The two repeat starters are:
SG-James Lilly, 6’0” junior: very good scorer from outside but also drives well, exceptional rebounder for his size, great defender who gets a lot of steals and blocks, good passer.
PF-Marvin Reese, 6’6’ junior: played both PF and SF last season, shoots well from all over the floor, good rebounder, solid defensively.

Bench:
Guards: Willis Lofton will be coming off the bench rather than starting this season. Jon Ray, Samuel King, and Jason Dunn also provide good depth.
SF: Michael Millford and Earl Betts again will be good subs.
Interior: Jason Caldwell will be a reserve instead of a starter, Steve Ross again will be a trusted sub. Dickens, Millford, and Betts can also fill in at PF.

The media has picked us to finish in 9th place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but I think we have the talent to finish well up in the top half of the standings.
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Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Fri Jun 25, 2021 11:14 am

Nov. 16, 2026: Baylor Bears (0-0) vs Boston College Eagles (0-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Coach Fred Aura


We picked off 2 passes and forced another turnover on Baylor’s first 3 possessions and took a 6-0 lead with each of our 3 new starters (Courtland Reese, Josh McFadgon, and Sam Dickens) scoring. Nice start to the season. We went on to take an 18-5 lead with 12:26 to play. I knew we were quicker this season, but we turned several of our 6 steals by that point into breakaway lay-ins and dunks. Our crowd was going crazy. After expanding our lead to 22, late in the half our defense got soft and we got sloppy making several turnovers. When the half ended we were on top 40-26. PF Marvin Reese paced us with 13 points in the half.

Our play in the 2nd half was rather shoddy but we held onto a large lead and were never threatened. We came away with a satisfying 75-62 win. We outshot Baylor 47% to 39% and controlled the boards 34-27.

SF Sam Dickens scored 18 points. C Courtland Reese hit for 15 points plus pulled down 8 boards. PF Marvin Reese put in 13 points and PG Josh McFadgon finished with 10 points. SG James Lilly fouled out after scoring 7 points and grabbing 6 rebounds.

Our 3 new starters (McFadgon, C. Reese, and Dickens) performed like they’d been playing college ball all their lives…a combined 43 points hitting 14 of 23 FGA’s, 18 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks and McFadgon, our PG, had NO turnovers in the 29 minutes he played!).

Unlike last season, our bench didn’t perform particularly well. They were on the court about 1/3 of the time, but scored just 12 points and had only 7 rebounds. But they’re a solid bunch, so I expect they’ll do better in the future.

Unusual occurrence that happened in this game: Marvin Reese was fouled on two separate occasions while attempting 3-pointers. He sunk all 6 free throws that ensued. He attempted one more 3-pointer…got that one off cleanly and it swished through the basket.
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Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Sun Jun 27, 2021 3:14 am

Nov. 19, 2026: Oklahoma Sooners (1-0) vs Boston College Eagles (1-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Roy Means, fan


I love college baskeball. While I don’t have a season ticket I try to get as may Eagles games as I can. Last season I got so excited by how BC did when they came up just short of winning the CIT championship. That’s carried over to this season and the Eagles crushing of Baylor kept my excitement at a fever pitch. I read that Oklahoma totally shut down their first opponent this year, Western Carolina…holding them to 44 points and stifling their shooting so that the Catamounts hit just 26% of their shots. BC needs to break the Sooner defense.

The teams fought it out for the first 5 minutes with BC holding a slim 7-6 lead. But it was nearly all Eagles the next 5 minutes as they spurted out to a 19-11 lead. The Eagles expanded their lead to 15 and led 38-26 at the end of the half. Strong defense by the Eagles forced the Sooners to turn the ball over 9 times and hit just 37% of their shots. BC also dominated the boards 23-15. C Courtland Reese scored 8 and had 5 rebounds.

BC rapidly pulled out to a 51-30 lead in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half. PF Marvin Reese was injured…I’m not sure what the injury was but they took him to the locker room. The Eagles waltzed to a 78-59 victory by outshooting Oklahoma 49% to 35%, out-rebounding the Sooners 39-31 and holding a 16-13 turnover advantage.

C Courtland Reese was the Eagles leading scorer with 17 points plus he had 9 rebounds. SG James Lilly had 13 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 4 steals and a block. Reserve SF Michael Millford scored 12 points in 15 minutes of play.
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