SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

Maury Rentzwick

Hey, it’s your resident gambler back at ya. Now that the March Madness brackets are out, I’ve begun my Gambling Madness. I’ll be placing bets throughout the entire Big Dance. But Boston College has made a believer out of me. So I’ve already place 4 bets on them.

1st…to beat the spread in their opener against Western Carolina. The odds are low on this so if the Eagles win I’ll make some pocket change. Then there are bets you can place on how deep a team will get in the tournament. The odds get better of course, the deeper in the tournament you bet on them to get. These bets are dangerous since you just never know what will happen and injuries can really mess things up. Anyway, I placed a big bet on the Eagles getting to the Sweet 16, a little smaller bet on them getting to the Elite 8, and yet a pretty small bet on them getting to the Final 4. Looking at their bracket, I’m pretty confident that the Eagles will win their opener against Western Carolina and their round 2 game against either Brigham Young (their likely opponent) or Kent State. Yeah, I know they lost to Brigham Young early in the season, but since then their 3 new guys this season (Courtland Reese, Sam Dickens, and Josh McFadgon) have gained a lot of experience on the team’s sets and playing against strong Division I opponents. Their next opponent trying to keep them from getting to the Elite 8 will likely be #1 seed Xavier. Xavier is ranked 6th in the polls and has freshman phenom SG Jeremy Strange who’s averaged 27.1 ppg this season, but I believe that BC can take them. I believe #2 seed Kansas would then be their opponent to beat to get to the Final 4. I’m not all that confident about BC getting by the Jayhawks who are ranked 5th in the polls (and probably should have been the #1 seed in this bracket), but I think they have a chance of doing so. That’s why my bet on BC getting to the Final 4 is pretty small. If they do, I’ll have piled up a bunch of winning bets and I’m gonna be rich. If BC falters in round 1 or round 2, I might have to sell my house.

[PointGuard]

Boston Herald

TOURNAMENT RESULTS FOR ACC TEAMS and CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES

CIT Results
1st Round:
Northern Kentucky-74; North Carolina St.-73 (Sims-18/5)

Championship:
Albany-90, Missouri-82

CBI Results

1st Round:
San Diego St.-70; Georgia Tech-57 (Byrd-21/5 Ast)

Championship:
Arkansas-82, Massachusetts-72

NIT Results

1st Round:
Miami (FL)-63; MD-Eastern Shore-62 (Stone-12/13)
UNLV-72; North Carolina-62 (Stokes-22/2)

2nd Round:
Miami (FL)-78; Central Florida-62 (Mueller-12/6)

3rd Round:
UNLV-81, Miami (FL)-63 (Jennings-16/7)

Championship:
Saint Josephs-62, UNLV-59

NCAA Results

Play-in for 12th seed:
Louisville-75, UCLA-63 (OT) (Odle-20/7)

1st Round:
Clemson-81; Merrimack-54 (Yeaton-20/16)
Virginia-93; McNeese St.-81 (Bryant-21/9; Lawson-21/6)
Louisville-93; Villanova-89 (Odle-21/5)
Syracuse-90; UCONN-73 (Hooks-30/7/6 Ast)
South Carolina St-73; Duke-70 (OT) (Tarkanian-24/11/4 Ast)
Boston College-78, Western Carolina-54 (C. Reese-19/6)
Boston College went ahead 22-2 in the first 8 minutes of the game. Western Carolina’s 2-3 zone then began to frustrate the Eagles and together with a rash of fouls and turnovers, BC let the Catamounts get back into the game. The first half ended with Boston College on top 43-31. SF Sam Dickens led the Eagles in the half by scoring 9, grabbing 5 rebounds, and dishing out 4 assists.
In the first 7 minutes of the 2nd half, BC re-established their 20 point lead. The Eagles defense held Western Carolina’s shooting to just 35% plus forced the Catamounts to make 21 turnovers enroute to an easy round 1 victory.
Topping the scoring for BC was C Courtland Reese with 19 points. SG James Lilly had 15 and SF Sam Dickens scored 13. PG Josh McFadgon dished out 9 assists.
Coach Aura said, “We came out loose and aggressive. But there were 10 minutes in the first half when we were tight and just didn’t play well. Fortunately our defense was solid tonight.”

Round 2:
Clemson-70, Western Michigan-54 (Yeaton-25/18/5 Ast, 5 Stl)
Virginia-85, Louisville-75 (VA: Lawson-23/10, Bryant-16 11; LVILLE: Church-12/9)
Michigan-92, Syracuse-87 (Hooks-24/5, Miller-18/9)
Boston College-65, Brigham Young-54 (McFadgon-14/0)
In a game that was expected to be a toss-up, Boston College came out with a stifling defense in the first half. Brigham Young could only make 22% of their shots and turned the ball over 13 times in the half. Unable to establish their interior game, BC hit enough mid-range jumpers to pull away to a 35-21 halftime advantage.
The Eagles lead ballooned to 21 points early in the 2nd half. But C Courtland Reese was sent to the bench when he picked up his 4th foul early in the half. Reese never returned to the game. The Cougars then took control of the boards and began eating into BC’s lead. SG James Lilly also was assessed his 4th foul midway through the half. With 4 minutes to go the Cougars hit a 3 that put them just 6 points behind. The Eagles rallied behind some good shooting by reserve SF Michael Millford (10 points in 11 minutes of play to keep Brigham Young from getting any closer. BC added to their lead when the Cougars were forced to foul in the waning minutes of the game.
Top scorers for Boston College were: PG Josh McFadgon with 14 points and SG James Lilly and SF Michael Millford with 10 points each.
“Our guys played some tremendous defense tonight,” said Coach Aura. “That allowed us to take control of the game from the very beginning. Even though the Cougars cut into our lead, we had built enough of a cushion to keep them from overtaking us.” When asked about their upcoming game, Aura replied, “Xavier has a tremendous SG in Jeremy Strange. He’s averaging over 27 ppg, so we’ll need another strong defensive effort to try to contain him and give us a chance to win.”
After the game it was disclosed that C Courtland Reese suffered an injury to his knee and C Steve Ross also has an injury to his calf that could limit their play in the Eagles’ Sweet 16 game against #1 seed Xavier.

Round 3 (Sweet 16):
Clemson-81, Virginia-74 (Clem: Yeaton-24/17/4 Ast/4 Stl/5 Blk; VA: Lawson-16/6, Bryant-10/12)
Xavier-78, Boston College-63 (C. Reese-19/6)
Xavier took it to Boston College as soon as the game started, gaining a 9-2 lead. BC fought to cut the deficit to 2 points, but then the Musketeers went on a run that opened a 16 point lead. The Eagles again narrowed the gap and by the end of the half it was Xavier-38, Boston College-31. The difference was due to Xavier scoring 7 more points at the free throw line and the Eagles inability to stop SG Jeremy Strange who poured in 20 points.
The Eagles cut the lead to 3 with 14-1/2 minutes left. Xavier then re-established a solid lead by scoring 8 unanswered points. The Musketeers went on to bury BC after that and ended the game with a 78-63 victory over Boston College.
Xavier’s SG Jeremy Strange scored 31 points. C Courtland Reese was the only BC player scoring in double figures and he scored 19 points.

Round 4 (Elite 8):
Clemson-75, Minnesota-68 (Williams Yeaton-25/11)

Round 5 (Final 4):
Clemson-90, Providence-69 (Williams Yeaton-30/10/7 Ast/8 Stl/2 Blk)

Round 6 (Championship):
Maryland-88, Clemson-72 (Taylor-19/4, Williams Yeaton-10/12/4 Blk)

[PointGuard]

Coach Fred Aura

Awards:

The ACC did well in the National Awards with Williams Yeaton of Clemson winning the Norton Award and all other major individual awards. Clemson’s Ty Allison was the National Coach of the Year. Four ACC players were named as 1st Team All-Americans (Williams Yeaton of Clemson, Dustin Bryant of Virginia, Dewayne Jennings of Miami (FL), and Adrian Hooks of Syracuse).

Our C Courtland Reese was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference 2nd Team All-Conference.

Next Season:

Getting to the Sweet 16 led to a number of very high prestige basketball programs showing interest in my becoming their head coach. But I want to continue at BC. The program is really taking shape and I’m looking forward to working with the returning players plus the new recruits this coming year. James Braxton, our Athletic Director, was happy with the performance of our team and congratulated me on meeting all 5 of his goals for me: Qualify for NCAA Tourney; Finish in top half of ACC standings; Win 20 or more games; No academic ineligibility; and Improve school prestige (it moved up to 55 from 52 at the beginning of the year). But my request for a budget increase was denied by the board.

I’m keeping my entire assistant coaching staff together for next season, so some good continuity.

We’re losing guards Willis Lofton and Samuel King and SF Earl Betts to graduation. To replace them we have 3 incoming freshman recruits; PG Leonard Meliet, PG Phil Thompson, and SF Keith Kolder.

[PointGuard]

2027-2028 SEASON

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director

Our recruit class was ranked as the 11th best in Division I. Duke and Syracuse were the only ACC teams with recruit classes ranked above ours. But Pittsburgh, Louisville, Notre Dame, Florida State, North Carolina, and Clemson were in the top 25 and North Carolina State, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech were in the top 50.

In addition to our 3 incoming recruits, PF Winston Minihan, who transferred to us last May and had to sit out last season due to the transfer, is now eligible to play for us this coming season. He maintains his sophomore status for

Bad news came early though. SF Sam Dickens has decided to transfer. He told us he doesn’t like his teammates and needs a change. No one can put a finger on why he failed to fit in with the team since he’s not a bad guy personally. He performed well for us in his freshman season and will be a big time player in his future collegiate career. I’m sure he will be picked up by a very strong program. His departure wasn’t a surprise, but his leaving is going to create a big hole in our roster. We hope to pick up a transfer player to fill the vacant scholarship, but of course he’ll have to sit out a year before becoming eligible to play for us.

[PointGuard]

2nd Assistant Coach Chris Evans (recruiting)

We have 5 scholarships to fill this coming year. We will purchase the basic versions of the Atlantic East Regional Report and the National Report. Our summer travel will be to the Indy Elite Camp and Big Apple Showcase. Since the administration didn’t approve a budget increase and our having a lot of scholarships to fill this year, we’ll have to be careful how we spend our money. We have 5 seniors on this year’s squad. We’d like to pick up 3 guards (preferably one of those being a JC player) and a big man plus the best available player we can get.

With the loss of Sam Dickens, we have an extra scholarship to fill, but expect that will be accomplished by singing a transfer player.

[PointGuard]

Transfer Season

Coach Fred Aura

A lot of transfers come with big-time attitude/personality issues. We stayed away from the worst of those.

We made an offer for a SG who only played a few minutes for Villanova as a freshman but who should be a real star. Unfortunately he decided to go to Kansas. We then made an offer to PF Danny Tolivar. As a freshman at Georgia Tech last season he started nearly every game and averaged 9.1 ppg and 6.5 rpg. Tolivar accepted our offer, will be ineligible this season, but should contest for a starting position the following season when he will be a eligibility-wise. He’s a good shooter from all parts of the court. Serendipitously he is well-schooled and experienced in our offensive and defensive sets. We’ll be working closely with him this season to keep his attitude positive.

Sam Dickens is transferring to Wisconsin. I wished him the best during his career with the Badgers (as long as they don’t play us). I’m sure he will be a major asset for Wisconsin. I still wish he would have stuck it out with us. We did everything we could to keep him, but he just never fit in with his teammates for some reason.

[PointGuard]

Boston College Press Release

Two Boston College basketball players have been selected as candidates for the prestigious Norton Award which is presented at the end of the season to the player who demonstrates the highest level of excellence on the court, in the classroom, and within the community.

This year Boston College’s senior SG James Lilly and freshman PG Leonard Meliet are candidates. Lilly, who is from Sprinfield, Mass, has been a team leader throughout his career at BC and has provided outstanding offense, defense, and rebounding for the Eagles. Meliet was highly recruited by a number of excellent basketball programs and chose to play for the Eagles. He’s from Gladewater, Texas.

Coach Frederick Aura said, “It’s really a high honor to be named to be a candidate for the Norton Award. Both of these players are very deserving nominees and I believe their performance this year will keep them in the running for the award.”

[PointGuard]

September/October Recruiting Results

2nd Assistant Coach Chris Evans (recruiting)

We had 5 scholarships to fill this year. With 4 of our 6 guards (including all 3 of our SG’s) graduating after this season, the pressure was on to not only recruit guards, but GOOD guards and guys who can contribute as soon as they get here. Our primary goal was to recruit 3 guards, an interior player, and the best other recruit we could lasso. Our secondary goal was to recruit a 5-star player and have all 5 recruits have a good chance of starting or filling key roles off the bench immediately.

Our principal focus was on the Atlantic East region, but we also had recruits on our list from all over the country. We cast a big net with 50 recruits on our list at all times throughout the summer and tried to get each recruit interested in our program and as many as possible listing us in their top 10. We were pretty successful with getting recruits to show at least some interest, less successful with getting as many as we would have liked to include us in their top 10.

When we got to September, we made offers to three 5-star recruits…all 3 liked what we had to offer, but ultimately opted for other schools. But we got verbal commitments from 2 recruits in mid-September, another by the end of September, a fourth in early October, and the fifth in mid-October. The effort consumed nearly our entire recruiting budget.

But here’s Recruiting Five:

SG Adrian Moss, 6’5” HS senior from Meriden, CT. Our first impression was that Adrian was very much controlled by his parents and we found out that his parents would love for him to come to BC even though they attended other colleges. So we were sure we could get him. But it turned out that while they had input, he was going to make the final decision. Playing close to home was his primary concern so that really helped us get him to commit to us. He’s an excellent rebounder (we hope as good as James Lilly has been for us). Other strengths include his being a good scorer, good outside shooter with strong passing skills. He’s a hard worker who had a decent showing at the Indy Elite camp and was in the top 25 at the Big Apple Showcase. As a HS junior last season he averaged 15.0 ppg and 7.4 rpg. He is ranked at the 47th best recruit nationally.

SG Corey Graham, a 6’1” high school senior from Greenville, KY was the next recruit to commit to us. Corey’s parents do exert extensive control and while one of their primary interests was location, they also ranked academics, conference prestige, and facilities high on their list so that helped us be a strong contender. Corey’s primary concern, other than location, was playing time and since all SG’s were leaving, he understands he has a good chance for that to happen. Corey is an outstanding scorer and a great outside shooter. Hes’s very strong defensively who gets a lot of steals. He has well-developed passing skills. During his junior year, he scored 21.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg, and 2.5 spg. Corey was in the top 25 at the Indy Elite camp, in the top 5 at the Memphis Hoops Summit, and is the 29th highest ranked recruit in the country. So while he’s not identified as a 5-star recruit, he’s darn near it.

PF Mike Braxton, a 6’7” senior from New Kent, VA was the 3rd recruit we gained. Mike’s primary concern is academics which fits right into one of BC’s strengths. Mike is a solid scorer who has excellent inside and outside shooting skills. He works the boards extremely well. He’s a good passer and on defense does a good job of shot blocking. His coach said he hardly ever missed a day of practice. Last season he averaged 14.2 ppg, 12.5 rpg, and 2.7 bpg. His Indy Elite camp performance was decent, but at the Big Apple Showcase he was in the top 25. He’s ranked as the 67th top recruit.

PF Darius Hein, who is a 6’7” high school senior from Carrington, ND was a bit of surprise to us when he accepted a late scholarship offer. We had kept tabs on him but not highly recruited him until just before Coach Aura did a home visit and made the offer. Academics and conference prestige played a significant role in his acceptance. He made a decent showing at the Indy Elite Camp and we got some good reports on how he did at the Houston Classic. His coach said he’s a hard worker who while not a leader, doesn’t cause problems. Darius is a very good scorer, particularly from inside. He’s a very strong defender and a good rebounder. Last season he scored 17.0 ppg and averaged 5.7 rpg. He is the 59th best ranked recruit.

PG Rashon Thompson is a 5’7” high school senior from Montross, VA. Rashon didn’t stand out at the Indy Elite camp but we liked what we saw of him at the Big Apple Showcase. Rashon was most motivated by location and coach discipline and let us know throughout the summer than he liked our program. But we let our blinders for liking bigger guards blind us to him for quite a while. But in September we took another look at him and then a closer look in October. His coach told us that Rashon is very talented and could be a very good college PG if he works hard and that he’s been injury free. He’s a very good passer and ball handler plus he’s an outstanding outside shooter who puts points on the board. Last season he averaged 15.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg, and 3.7 apg. As recruiting wound down, we pulled an offer for our last available scholarship to another player who was showing interest but looked to be a long way from making a decision and offered it to Rashon who accepted immediately. We think he’ll probably be a good backup point guard who can come in and provide stability to and control of our offense. He’s the 84th highest ranked recruit.

So maybe no standout star, but a very good group of 4-star players who we think can fit in well with our team. So I would put up our 5 new recruits up against any and all recruits by other colleges. We expect all 5 to score well enough on their SAT’s, but as usual will be holding our breath in late January until scores are announced.

When I look at this great set of incoming players, I’m conflicted. We have a new season starting up soon with a team that will be exciting and fantastic to work with. But the conflict comes because I also want to immediately start working these 5 new recruits. Guess my impatience is showing.

[PointGuard]

1st Assistant Coach David Woodruff

We have 3 incoming freshman players this season. Of those 3, it’s obvious that Leonard Meliet should be starting. Leonard has played PG in high school and is talented at that position. Could he start for us at PG as a freshman? Yes, but that would mean that Josh McFadgon would be relegated to the bench and that’s not really something we want. Leonard could also be a sound SG but we have James Lilly at SG and James will be our starter at SG. But when Sam Dickens transferred that created a hole at SF. Michael Millford certainly could start for us at SF and in fact, did so a few times last season. But Leonard Miliet is 6’5” and a very good rebounder, as well as being a good ball handler, passer and scorer. We feel that he could handle the SF position for us with Millford backing him up. So we had Leonard working out at SF in the summer camps he’s attended. and we’ll see how he fits in at the 3 when we begin practicing together as a team in October. A starting lineup of McFadgon, Lilly, Miliet, and the two Reese’s would be potent. If this works out, Leonard will probably also put in some minutes at PG in most games as well so that he develops at that position, readying him to take over at that position next season after McFadgon graduates.

[PointGuard]

ESPN Report

Following last season’s recruiting success, Boston College has landed 5 highly ranked recruits who will join the team next season. Their recruiting success this season is being called into question, though. Anonymous sources are asking how the school, in just the beginning of the 3rd year of Frederick Aura’s tenure as head coach, has gone from being one of the weaker recruiting schools in the ACC to one of the top recruiters. One of the sources commented, “Even though BC has had much better win/loss records the past two seasons than in the past and has moved up in the ACC standings, recruiting so successfully that quickly against the likes of Duke, Syracuse and North Carolina is next to impossible. I think something’s fishy and the smell is beginning to be noticeable.”

When asked about the reports, BC Athletic Director Jason Braxton retorted, “That’s just a bunch of sour grapes! I guess there are those within the ACC who are feeling the heat we’re now bringing and are getting scared of our competition.” When asked specifically about Coach Frederick Aura, Braxton said, “Fred did a helluva recruiting job at Towson. And believe me, before hiring him, we definitely vetted Towson’s recruiting efforts and found them to be all above board. Fred and his staff are damned good recruiters and have worked their tails off to interest recruits in Boston College and Eagles basketball. For anyone to suggest anything nefarious in what they’ve done is just pure hog wash and totally without merit. Case closed.”

Coach Aura said, “I really have no comment about mere anonymous rumors with no substantiation. We maintain detailed records of our recruiting efforts which we’d openly share with the NCAA should they inquire.”

The NCAA refuses to discuss recruiting investigations prior to announcing final findings and penalties. So it’s unknown if the NCAA has opened an investigation of Boston College basketball recruiting.