SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

1st Assistant Coach David Woodruff

Injury Report: PF Marvin Reese broke his ankle while fighting for a rebound when another player landed on his leg when both crashed to the floor. Marvin is expected to be out 7-8 weeks. Big loss for us. We’ll experiment with 2 different options: (1) moving Sam Dickens to start at PF rather than SF and starting Michael Millford at SF; (2) starting Jason Caldwell at PF. We believe Sam can play well at either SF or PF. Michael had a very strong game coming in off the bench against Oklahoma. Jason was a strong starter last season.

2-Game Eval: Strong wins both times. I know they’re home games, but we weren’t playing pushovers. Out starters looked very good in both games. Our bench had a tough first game, but they came through in our second game, scoring 32 points and pulling down 15 rebounds. I like what we’ve been doing defensively thus far. We’ve worked hard on defense in practice and our guys have responded…very few defensive breakdowns. We’ve been able to keep both opponents off balance and our tight defense has made it difficult for them to get the ball in the hoop.

PF Marvin Reese

Man, I’m bummed by my broken ankle and having to miss a couple months of our basketball season. Things were really looking good for the team and me. Of course I’d played with James Lilly last season, but starting with the 3 new guys has been fun. They’ve brought a whole new energy to the team. The team’s still gonna do good, but not being part of that sucks. Doc says my ankle should heal up fine and I’ll be able to finish out BC’s season. Right now I have to keep weight off of the ankle so I’m sitting around and using some crutches when I have to move. But he says that soon I can wear a walking boot as the bones continue to heal.

This season I’m not the only Reese on the team. Many people assume Courtland Reese is my brother, but he isn’t. I’d never heard of him before he joined us. When she found out another guy named Reese was on the Eagle, my grandmother began doing some genealogical research. It turns out Courtland is a distant relative…a 3rd cousin I think she said. But he’s a part of the family that apparently my side has had no relationship with. Courtland and I now laughingly call each other “Cuz”. Some of our teammates call me Cuz1 and him Cuz2.

[PointGuard]

Nov. 23, 2026: Vanderbilt Commodores (1-0) vs Boston College Eagles (2-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

3rd Assistant (Scouting) Coach Rob Rowland

I’m enjoying the new job here at Boston College. The assistant coaches for UC Irvine shared scouting duties, so I got to do a fair amount but also shared practice duties. Here I help with practice but am the primary scout, so I feel like I’m away from the BC campus more than I’m here.

We’re taking on Vanderbilt. They’ve only played a single game thus far, beating Tarleton State 66-53. The Commodores primarily use a triangle offense, but since it’s early in the season they are playing with a lot of offensive freedom. SF Dalron Robertson scored 20 points and had 10 rebounds in their first game. So we need to control him. His younger brother, Loren Robertson, is Vanderbilt’s PG and is a competent floor general with a sweet outside shot. SG Kyle Dumas didn’t shoot well against Tarleton State, but will put up a lot of shots and has the ability to hit them. Vanderbilt’s C Jon Beaudean uses his bulk to do some effective rebounding. I don’t think the Commodores man-to-man and 3-2 zone defense will be as potent against us as it was versus Tarleton State. I like our chances but Vanderbilt won 20 games last season and got to the NCAA Tournament so we need to take them seriously.

Due to Marvin Reese’s injury, tonight we started Jason Caldwell at PF. Following a steal by SF Sam Dickens, Caldwell drove to the hoop and scored our first points just 32 seconds into the game. We went ahead 4-0 but fell behind 7-6. There were 8 lead changes and 4 ties, but we shot poorly (34%) which allowed Vanderbilt to inch ahead and take a 31-25 halftime lead. The Commodores also dominated the boards 21-11 but we held a 10-2 turnover advantage. SG Kyle Dumas scored 10 points for Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt continued to dominate early in the 2nd half, building an 11 point lead. Midway through the half, Coach Aura turned up the defensive pressure and called out our guys about their lack of aggressiveness on the boards. The team rallied and took a 49-47 lead with 7 minutes to go. The lead then shifted back and forth. With 3:17 to go we were tied at 58-58. Lilly dropped in a pair of free throws and Courtland Reese scored inside and our defense was rock solid giving us a 62-58 advantage with 1:23 left. Our defense was impenetrable (Vanderbilt scored just 2 points in the final 3:17 and those were on free throws)and we pulled away for a resounding 71-60 victory.

While we failed to control Vanderbilt’s Dalron Robertson who finished by scoring 23 points, we outscored the Commodores 36-15 in the final 10 minutes of the game. So it took us 30 minutes to unravel Vanderbilt’s defense, but when we did, we really caught fire. In the 2nd half we out-rebounded Vanderbilt 20-8.

Top scorers for the Eagles were: PF/SF Sam Dickens-14; SG James Lilly-13 (plus 8 rebounds); C Steve Ross-12; PF Jason Caldwell-10; C Courtland Reese-10.

[PointGuard]

Nov. 26, 2026: #11-ranked Creighton Blue Jays (4-1) vs Boston College Eagles (3-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

RyReys Log (Ryan Reynolds, blogger):

Nov. 25 blog:

Boston College has played some good teams thus far, but they will have their biggest test tomorrow night when #11 ranked Creighton comes to town.
Creighton beat #2 ranked North Carolina by 19 and #4 ranked Arizona by 10 and won the Paradise Jam Tournament this season. SF Andre Gooden is averaging 27.4 ppg and has scored over 30 points in 2 of the Blue Jays’ 5 games. Last season Gooden was named to the Big East All-Conference 1st Team.

Nov. 26 blog:

Earlier tonight, BC hosted the Creighton Blue Jays. Coach Fred Aura again started Jason Caldwell at PF due to the injury to Marvin Reese. Personally, I may have started Steve Ross at PF. In the past two games he’s scored a total of 21 minutes in the 22 minutes he’s been on the court plus he’s pulled down 7 rebounds. But maybe Coach Aura intended to save Ross as a super sub.

In the early going it looked like BC was going to control Gooden, but then he quickly sunk three 3-pointers giving Creighton a 17-14 lead with 12-1/2 minutes left in the first half. The two teams swapped the lead for the next few minutes but then the Eagles began to outscore the Blue Jays. BC edged Creighton in all team stats to achieve a 42-35 halftime advantage. SF/PF Sam Dickens scored 11 points, grabbed 5 boards and dished out 3 assists. For Creighton both SF Andre Gooden and reserve PF John Woodward each scored 11 points.

The Eagles opened a 10 point lead early in the 2nd half only to have Andre Gooden single-handedly erase it. BC edged ahead again but Creighton caught up and the game was tied at 59-59 with 8 minutes remaining. With 5:11 to play and BC up 67-64, SF Sam Dickens fouled out trying to guard Andre Gooden. The teams were knotted again at 75-75 with 2 minutes left. The Blue Jays sunk a 3 and then on the next possession 2 free throws to go up by 5 points. Courtland Reese jammed in a dunk to cut the lead to 3 and then BC rebounded when Creighton missed a shot. BC called a time out with 41 ticks on the clock. It looked like the Eagles tried to free up James Lilly for a 3 but he was too tightly guarded. He dumped the ball off to PG Josh McFadgon who faked a pass to Michael Millford and then swung it back to Lilly who had moved to the right of the lane. Lilly quickly put up a 14 footer that went cleanly through the hoop to make it 80-79 with 33 seconds remaining. Gooden got clear but missed a 3, and BC grabbed the rebound with 21 seconds to go. Another time out yielded yet another busted play forcing the Eagles to work the ball around the court. With 4 seconds remaining SF Michael Millford lofted up a 3 that dropped through the net giving BC a 2 point lead. Creighton called a time out but due to the Eagles full court press was unable to get the ball into the forecourt until there was too little time to get off a desperation last shot. Boston College escaped with a thrilling 82-80 win to preserve their perfect record.

Creighton’s SF Andre Gooden scored 29 points and had 12 rebounds. But Boston College got good scoring throughout their lineup. SF Sam Dickens scored 13, C Courtland Reese and PG Josh McFadgon each hit for 12, PF Jason Caldwell and SF Michael Millford each had 11, and SG’s James Lilly and Jason Dunn both scored 8. Reese also pulled down 10 boards.

Following the game Coach Fred Aura said, “This was a close game all the way. The way our guys came back from being down by 5 with just over a minute to play was impressive. Creighton is a really good team. I’m just glad we were playing them at home. It took a complete team effort for us to get by them. And Michael Millford’s winning shot with just seconds left was tremendous as was the way our defense kept the Blue Jays from getting off a shot in the final seconds.”

[PointGuard]

Nov. 30, 2026: San Diego State Aztecs (2-1) vs Boston College Eagles (4-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Jason Dunn, SG

Last season San Diego St. had a 26-11 record, was ranked #20 in the polls, and got to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tourney. C Marlon Hackett is averaging 17.7 ppg and 11.7 rpg. Last year he was on the Mountain West Conference (MWC) All Conference 1st Team and was the MWC Player of the Year.

We started slowly, but then just took care of business. Played good defense (holding the Aztecs shooting to 31% plus making them turn the ball over 10 times). Offensively we were hot hitting 61% of our FG’s and 57% of our 3’s. We also out-rebounded San Diego St. 18-14. By the end of the half we were on top 44-29. SF Sam Dickens hit for 12 points and PG Josh McFadgon scored 10. I played the final 7 minutes and scored 5 points.

San Diego St. scored the first 8 points in the 2nd half. We re-established a big lead but then let the Aztecs get back into the game midway through the 2nd half as they closed to within 67-60 with 7-1/2 minutes to go. With 4 minutes left our lead was down to 71-66. We were having trouble cracking the Aztecs 2-3 zone defense. But then we applied a lock-down defense and poured in some shots to win going away 85-68.

SF/PF Sam Dickens pumped in 22 points, PG Josh McFadgon had 16 points, and SG James Lilly scored 11 and had 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and a block. We held the Aztecs’ C Marlon Hackett to 11 points but he pulled down 14 rebounds.

Coach Fed liked that 10 of us scored in this game and that we controlled the boards 38-28. He wasn’t pleased that we made 19 turnovers, though.

[PointGuard]

Dec. 3, 2026: #14-ranked Brigham Young Cougars (6-1) vs Boston College Eagles (5-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Coach Fred Aura

Tough team coming to take us on. Tough time for our front line to break down. Marvin Reese is out for several more weeks, but in the locker room after our last game Jason Caldwell reported his hand was sore…turned out to be a sprained finger. He said he noticed it while playing. I got on the team about the necessity to let us know right away when they are injured. Then in practice yesterday, Sam Dickens came down with a sore back. Dickens and Caldwell will be able to play in tonight’s game, but aren’t 100%. Hopefully Courtland Reese and Steve Ross can play more than usual. We’ll start Dickens at PF, give him frequent rests, and monitor how his back holds up. Michael Millford will start at SF tonight. Caldwell will be on the bench but we’ll play him if necessary to spell our other interior players on the court. SF Earl Betts may also be used at PF for a bit. Injuries are a part of the game, so gotta make do. The Cougars have victories over DePaul and Auburn and just finished steamrolling Kentucky 101-85. Their top scorers are PG Harold King (16.6 ppg), SG Desmon Takaki (15.1 ppg) and C Trevor Murphy (14.7 ppg).

We came out hot, jumping out to a 13-4 lead in the first 4 minutes. Brigham Young then went on a 12-0 run that put us down by 3 points with 13-1/2 minutes left in the half. The Cougars slowly moved out to a 9 point lead. We came back to tie them and then Brigham Young totally crushed us late in the half. We went to the locker room trailing 46-34. The Cougars’ SG Desmon Takaki scored 15 points and C Trevor Murphy had 10 points. For us C Courtland Reese scored 14 points in the half.

Even though we tried to tighten our defense, the Cougars maintained a 10-15 point lead for much of the 2nd half. We made a run that got us to with 5 points at 74-69 with 5-1/2 minutes to go. But then BYU scored the next 7 points to put us back in a hole we couldn’t climb out of. We incurred our first loss of the season, falling by a final score of 90-80.

We outshot the Cougars 56% to 50% and controlled the boards 34-20. But we had 24 turnovers to just 12 by BYU and the Cougars hit 11 of 24 three-pointers. And the BYU trio of Takaki, King and Murphy scored 25, 18 and 16 points respectively. Out inability to stop them was our downfall.

For us C Courtland Reese finished with 27 points and 7 rebounds while PG Josh McFadgon and SG James Lilly both scored 13 points. Uncharacteristically, SF Michael Millford simply disappeared, getting off no FG attempts, missing both free throws he took, and only getting one rebound while turning the ball over 3 times in his 18 minutes of playing time. His replacements at SF did little better so it was sort of like playing with just 4 players. Sam Dickens had a subpar game as well so apparently was hampered by his aching back.

[Wayne23]

That Creighton game had to be fun!

[PointGuard]

That Creighton game had to be fun!

The last 10 minutes of the 2nd half (and particularly the final 2 minutes) were fantastic.

I love close games (obviously more when my teams wins).

[PointGuard]

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director

In the polls this weekend, Brigham Young lept up to #6 in Media Poll and #4 in the Coaches Poll following their wins over Kentucky and us this past week. Meanwhile we remained unranked even though our NET ranking is 5th best in Division I. North Carolina which is 4-4 now with 3 of their 4 losses being to unranked teams (their other loss was to Creighton, a team we beat) is ranked #23 in the Media Poll. The Tar Heels only strong win was a 2 point road win over Butler. North Carolina has the 152nd best NET ranking. 8 ACC teams are in the Top 25 in the polls.

[PointGuard]

Dec. 7, 2026: Stanford Cardinal (2-3) vs Boston College Eagles (5-1) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Boston Globe

EAGLES FLY PAST CARDINAL

Boston College’s offense struggled early trying to break Stanford’s 1-2-2 zone defense. But the Eagles’ defense then solidified. BC went on a 12-0 run midway through the first half to take a lead they held onto throughout the rest of the first half. The half ended with BC on top 36-30.

The Eagles moved out to a 14 point lead just 3-1/2 minutes into the 2nd half. BC would never relinquish a double-digit lead from there on and led by as much as 24 points. Boston College finished the game by giving the Cardinal a 72-56 pasting. The Eagles outshot Stanford 48% to 37% and held a 38-29 rebounding advantage.

C Courtland Reese led BC with 18 points. SF/PF Sam Dickens dropped in 12 points and PG Josh McFadgon and SG James Lilly both scored 10 points.

[PointGuard]

Dec. 13, 2026: Boston College Eagles (6-1) vs Cornell Big Red (4-6) at F. R. Newman Arena in Ithaca, NY

Father Paul Sedgewick, Jesuit Community at Boston College

It was my turn to be the priest accompanying the team on their road trip. It’s cold and icy in Ithaca. Fortunately we don’t have to be outside much. It’s very hilly here so I’m glad our bus driver is good at handling icy roads.

I’d heard that Sam Dickens and Samuel King had been arguing recently and that Coach Aura had tried to intercede, but both players had not been open to his counseling. I observed their abrasiveness to one another so when I had a chance I spoke briefly with each of them. Like Coach Aura, the responses were negative. Whereas Sam Dickens has been playing well, he has integrated poorly with his teammates. I’m going to keep my eyes and ears open, and when the time is right, I’ll try talking with him again. My message to the team before the game centered on the importance of teamwork and trusting and respecting teammates.

Since Cornell’s academic term has already ended and most students have gone home for the holidays, Newman Arena, which holds about 4400, seemed pretty empty.

The Eagles ground on Cornell the entire first half, out-playing the Big Red and steadily increasing our lead. Cornell cut the Eagles’ 17 point lead some at the end of the half, but BC still led comfortably by a score of 44-32 at the intermission. The Eagles totally owned the boards in the first half and C Courtland Reese scored 11 points.

Our guys seemed lethargic for the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half and Cornell cut the lead to 9 points. But that seemed to wake up the Eagles and they again forged ahead, building as much as a 23 point lead. They crushed the Big Red by a final score of 84-65.

SG James Lilly and C Courtland Reese both scored 15 points with Lilly also pulling down 8 rebounds and dishing out 4 assists. PF Jason Caldwell dropped in 13 points and SF/PF Sam Dickens and SG Jason Dunn each scored 11. Dickens grabbed 8 boards.