SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

Boston College Chronicle

EAGLES TOPS IN ACC

By Kinsey Ramsey

Boston College’s basketball team finished their regular season schedule with an overall record of 26 wins against 5 losses. The Eagles’ ACC 17-3 record resulted in a tie with Duke for 1st place in the ACC. But BC will be the #1 seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament.

Here are the ACC standings:

Boston College: 17-3, 26-5, #3 in polls, #1 NET ranking
Duke: 17-3, 27-5, #2 in polls, #5 NET ranking
Notre Dame: 13-7, 22-9, #10 in polls, #13 NET ranking
Florida State: 11-9, 17-13, Unranked, #33 NET ranking
Pittsburgh: 11-9, 17-13, , Unranked, #60 NET ranking
North Carolina: 11-9, 18-13, Unranked, #55 NET ranking
Virginia: 10-10, 14-15, Unranked, #65 NET ranking
Clemson: 10-10, 18-12, Unranked, #56 NET ranking
Miami (FL): 10-10, 18-13, Unranked, #53 NET ranking
Louisville: 9-11, 17-14, Unranked, #62 NET ranking
North Carolina St.: 9-11, 16-15, Unranked, #109 NET ranking
Wake Forest: 8-12, 14-15, Unranked, #124 NET ranking
Georgia Tech: 6-14, 14-17, Unranked, #92 NET ranking
Syracuse: 5-15, 13-17, Unranked, #159 NET ranking
Virginia Tech: 4-16, 8-21, Unranked, #292 NET ranking

The Eagles will be at full strength for the ACC Tourney, but the Athletic Department announced that sophomore PG Leonard Meliet, the team’s leading scorer, has decided to declare for the pro draft that will occur this summer. Coach Aura acknowledged Meliet’s decision and said, “Leonard has been a leader on our team in both seasons he’s been here. He’s been nominated for the Norton Award both years and this season was a semi-finalist for the award. We’ll miss Leonard next season but are proud that he will be going to the pros and anticipate he will have a long and successful professional career.”

Leonard Meliet’s regular season stats for Boston College: 68 games, 68 games started, 30.5 mpg, 16.0 ppg, 4.7 apg, 3.6 rpg, 1.0 spg, 0.7 bpg, 45.1% FG%, 40.5% 3P%, 76.2% FT%; ACC 2nd Team All-Conference as a freshman, ACC 1st Team All-Conference as a sophomore.

[PointGuard]

Fred Aura

What do we do about Mike Braxton?

I met with my assistant coaches today to discuss Mike Braxton. Mike is a freshman PF who was a highly ranked recruit. He came to us needing development and refinement of his skills, though. We have played him some, although he’s only averaged 5.3 mpg, 1.2 ppg, and 1.1 rpg. His shooting percentage has been low. But he has excellent potential. We started him at SF in our last regular season game. He played 23 minutes, scored 5 points, and hauled down 3 boards, but hit just 1 of 5 field goals, so while not bad, not great either.

As the season has progressed, he’s expressed unhappiness about not starting and playing more. His relationship with the team and coaches is extremely low. His negative attitude could possibly infect others, although because he’s not really made friends with anyone on the team, that’s not been the case thus far. He was appreciative toward me about getting the start, but there was no uptick in his relationship with teammates.

We discussed our options with respect to Mike. It’s very likely he may opt to transfer. That would result in our having 3 rather than 2 scholarships to fill this coming year. If he transfers, we could possibly fill one of those scholarships with a transfer player…or we could hold on to it and go after an extra high school recruit. We’re relatively deep at PF so we’d look to strengthen another position.

There was discussion about possibly cutting Mike now and thus opening a scholarship that could be filled before the end of this season. Since there’s a strong possibility that he will decide to transfer, that’s an attractive option. It also would give us a chance to go after a strong C recruit that we’ve been maintaining contact with who would sub for Courtland Reese this coming season and be ready to take over as a starter when Courtland graduates after next season.

But cutting players isn’t something I prefer doing. And should Mike not transfer, he could become a very strong player for us, if not next season as a sophomore, then most certainly as a junior and senior.

The other problem with cutting him and immediately opening a scholarship to fill is that now Leonard Meliet has declared for the draft, we have already have an additional scholarship to fill this season. Our remaining recruiting budget is extremely low and that works against us successfully going after two recruits.

Long and short…we decide to not cut Mike and see what he does. We will offer the scholarship that opened due to Leonard’s declaring for the draft to one of two C recruits that we’ve been actively recruiting this spring.

[PointGuard]

Boston Herald

ACC TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Day 1:

#15 seed Virginia Tech-85, #10 seed Louisville-70. Lowly Virginia Tech came out on fire and never looked back. They built a 23 point lead and led by 18 at the half. With a surprising offensive and defensive display, the Hokies totally throttled the Cardinals. SG Tony Harrington and C Reggie Evans both scored 20 points for the Hokies with Harrington also recording 10 rebounds and Evans getting 4 boards, 4 assists, and 5 steals. PF Josh Miller hit for 15 points plus had 8 rebounds.

#14 seed Syracuse-75, #11 seed North Carolina St.-66. Syracuse led from start to finish. The Orange led by just 5 points at the half, but owned the first part of the 2nd half, building a 25 point lead. The Wolfpack fought back to narrow the gap, but simply ran out of time to erase such a large lead. Syracuse was led by SG Steve Darby’s 18 points and PF Jason Hamilton’s 12 points and 9 rebounds. SF Dusty Stowers scored 19 points for North Carolina St.

#12 seed Wake Forest-74, #13 seed Georgia Tech-69. Even though Wake Forest led the entire game, their biggest lead was just 12 points. With the Yellow Jackets staying close, this was an exciting game all the way to the end. C Fred Simpson and SF Donald Howard both scored 15 points for the Demon Deacons with Howard also pulling down 8 boards and Simpson recording 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals. Topping the scoring for Georgia Tech were C Scotty Brunson and reserve C Travis Hemsley, both of whom scored 16 points.

[PointGuard]

Boston Herald

ACC TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Day 2:

#5 seed Pittsburgh-82, #12 seed Wake Forest-74. Wake Forest led by as much as 6 points in the first half, but by the half trailed the Panthers by 3 points. The second half was close most of the way, but Pittsburgh began pulling away late in the game. All 5 Pittsburgh starters scored in double figures, led by SF Lee Jenkins 19 points and C Matt Swanson’s 13 points and 10 rebounds. High point man for the game, though, was Wake Forest’s Ryan Harris who poured in 24 points.

#6 seed North Carolina-88, #14 seed Syracuse-65. North Carolina took care of business from the opening tip-off to the final buzzer. By the end of the first half, the Tar Heels has established a 17 point lead. Their lead ballooned to 29 points at one point in the 2nd half. C Stephan Monroe scored 20 points for North Carolina with PG Jamie Law dishing out 11 assists. SF Tyrone Graves was the only member of the Orange to score in double figures and he had just 11 points.

#7 seed Virginia-93, #15 seed Virginia Tech-78. The Hokies stuck with the Cavaliers early in the game, but by the end of the first half, Virginia had taken control and led by 18 points. They simply held Virginia Tech off in the 2nd half to cruise to an easy victory. Virginia’s bench scored 49 points, led by guard Lawrence Bailey’s 18 points and forward Jason Demanby’s 10 points and 11 boards. C Reggie Evans scored 21 points and SG Tony Harrington hit for 20 points for Virginia Tech.

#9 seed Miami (FL)-79, #8 seed Clemson-72. The lead shifted continuously back and forth through the entire first half with Clemson coming away with a narrow single point lead at the break. The game continued to be tight in the 2nd half, but the Hurricanes edged away from the Tigers late in the game. Miami’s PG Chris Skiffer scored 19 and had 7 assists. C Jeremiah Brown and SG Darius Wilson scored 14 points each for Clemson.

[PointGuard]

Boston Herald

ACC TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Quarterfinals:

#4 seed Florida State-65, #5 seed Pittsburgh-52. There were 9 lead changes in the first half. Florida State came out of the half with a slim 36-33 lead. But the Seminoles applied a stout defense in the 2nd half, limiting the Panthers to just 19 points allowing Florida State to gradually pull away. SG Evan Martin scored 14 points and PF Brett Blizzard had 13 points and 9 rebounds for Florida State. Pittsburgh’s PG Shahar Benson scored 13 points.

#6 seed North Carolina-71, #3 seed Notre Dame-54. Even though the Tar Heels took the lead immediately, they weren’t able to shake the Fighting Irish in the first half. North Carolina steadily pulled away throughout the entire 2nd half. C Stephan Monroe and PG Jamie Lane again led the way for North Carolina with both scoring 14 points. Reserve C Kareem Turner topped the scoring for Notre Dame with 16 points.

#2 seed Duke-71, #7 seed Virginia-66. The first half was a dog fight with Duke escaping with a slim 3 point lead at the break. Duke came out and opened a 14 point lead in the 2nd half and then had to hang on as Virginia blazed back late in the game. Leading the Blue Devils to victory was C Brian Taylor with 15 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks. PG Anthony Hart scored 16 points for the Cavaliers.

#1 seed Boston College-95, #9 seed Miami (FL)-87. Boston College beat the Hurricanes by 24 points earlier this season, but was just a 2-1/2 point favorite coming into this game.

The Eagles had a shaky first couple minutes but then opened a small lead. But a scoring drought midway through the first half allowed Miami to take a 4 point lead. PG Leonard Meliet brought the Eagles back into the game with a barrage of 3 pointers. The Hurricanes shot well to hang in until BC opened a 49-42 halftime lead.

The Eagles expanded their lead to 12 points early in the 2nd half, but again the middle of the half was unkind to BC. Miami stormed back to take a 1 point lead. The Eagles edged back into the lead. But with a minute to go Miami was but 2 points behind. Leonard Meliet then sank a long 3 making the score 89-84 with 54 seconds to go. He was fouled trying to hit another 3 on BC’s next possession and sunk all 3 free throws to put the Eagles up by 8 with 35 seconds remaining. Meliet hit yet another 3 with 12 seconds to go and Boston College escaped with a 95-87 win that was closer than the final score.

Leonard Meliet finished with 23 points. SG Corey Graham tossed in 19 points. C Courtland Reese had 15 points and PF Danny Toliver added 10. The top scorer for Miami was C Travis Telly with 16 points.

Following the game, Coach Fred Aura said, “I give lots of credit to Miami, but we really need to pick it up if we’re going to go further in this tournament. Fortunately, Leonard (Meliet) saved us at two critical points in the game. He hit a series of big time shots at a point in the first half when we looked terrible and had fallen behind that kicked our team in the butt. Throughout the 2nd half Miami employed exceptionally tight defense on him to bottle him up offensively, but when the game was on the line at the very end, he scored 9 points in the span of 44 seconds to ice the game for us. I said that I’d miss him next season since he’s declared for the pro draft. Now you can see why.”

[PointGuard]

Boston Herald

ACC TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Semifinals:

#2 seed Duke-69, #6 seed North Carolina-62. The Tar Heels looked like they’d blow open the game in the early going as they built a 13 point lead. But Duke came back to life to go up by 3 at the break. The Blue Devils held a lead throughout the 2nd half, during which 3 starters for North Carolina fouled out, and won what was a very hard played defensive battle by both teams. The Blue Devils were sent to the line 17 more times and scored 10 more points on free throws than the Tar Heels. Duke was propelled by PF Dave Chavis’ 23 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks. North Carolina’s top scorer was SF Del Bender who had 15 points on 6 of 8 shooting.

#1 seed Boston College-92, #4 seed Florida State-65.

Boston College used a tenacious defense coupled with hot hand shooting to steadily pull away from Florida State throughout the first half. SG Corey Graham popped in 16 points and C Courtland Reese added 10 enroute to the Eagles’ 50-28 halftime lead.

The Seminoles cracked the Eagles’ defense in the 2nd half and gradually whittled away at BC’s lead. With 7-1/2 minutes to go, Florida State was within 10 points of the Eagles. But the refs paraded BC players to the foul line to enable the Eagles to smash the Seminoles.

Leading the way for Boston College was SG Corey Graham with 25 points. C Courtland Reese scored 12 and SF Mike Braxton chipped in 10 points. But after the game, it was revealed that Braxton sprained his ankle late in the game and will likely be unavailable for the championship game.

“It’s embarrassing to say we won the game at the line, but that’s a fact. That’s the most foul shots a team I’ve coached has ever had. I’m not surprised that Florida State Coach Issiah Charles poured his frustrations out against the officials. But the number of free throws we shot overshadows that we played a strong game offensively, defensively, and on the boards. It was a good tune up for the championship battle with Duke,” said Coach Fred Aura.

Championship:

#1 seed Boston College-87, #2 seed Duke-85 (OT).

The ACC championship game pitted #1 ranked Duke (29-5, 17-3) against #3 ranked Boston College (28-5, 17-3). Duke entered the game with a 14-game win streak including a win over BC. The Eagles had beaten the Blue Devils earlier in the season, so this constituted the rubber game between the two teams.

Duke simply overwhelmed Boston College throughout the entire first half. The Blue Devils hit 56% of their FG’s and 44% of their 3’s, outrebounded the Eagles 17-10, and defensively held BC’s shooting to 38%, blocked 5 shots, and forced 15 turnovers (many of which they turned into driving layups). The result was Boston College finding themselves in a 49-26 hole at the half.

Coach Aura lit a fire under the Eagles during halftime. Their defense stiffened and they began hitting shots. With 10-1/2 minutes to go they had reduced Duke’s lead to 60-52. Two minutes later the gap was down to 62-58. Then with 37 seconds on the clock, BC had narrowed the gap to 79-76, but the Blue Devils were in possession of the ball. SG Corey Graham intercepted a pass and fired it upcourt to SF Michael Millford for a driving layup that reduced the lead to a single point. BC fouled and Duke’s PF Dave Chavis sunk both free throws. After a time out with 4 seconds on the clock, the Eagles inbounded the ball to PG Leonard Meliet who lofted up a prayer from midcourt at the buzzer…the prayer was answered to tie the game at 81-81, capping a monumental comeback and sending the game to overtime.

The OT was a nail-biter. Defense predominated. BC gained a 2 point lead twice but both times Duke was able to tie the game…the last tie when the Blue Devils hit a jumper with 13 seconds to go. With 5 seconds to go, Boston College called a time out and tried to isolate Meliet. But Meliet was double teamed near the right corner. He could only force up a 15 baseline jumper which settled cleanly through the silks with just 1 second left. Duke called a time out and inbounded the ball but couldn’t get off a shot. Boston College capped a comeback of historic proportions to be crowned the ACC Champion.

Coach Fred Aura said, “After a disastrous first half, I really just stressed two things in the locker room…DEFENSE…and YOU CAN DO IT. And the guys responded amazingly well. We took a big gamble by employing such a tight defense that could easily have resulted in several of our players fouling out. Our guys were in their faces the entire half but avoided making too many fouls. Again we let Leonard Meliet take the shots to tie the game and send it to OT and then to take us home for the win in OT. He went 2 for 2 and you just can’t ask more from a guy than that.”

Boston College’s starters scored 79 of the team’s 87 points…21 for SG Corey Graham, 19 by C Courtland Reese, 16 from PG Leonard Meliet, 14 by PF Danny Toliver, and 9 for SF Michael Millford. SG Jerry Henry was high point man for Duke with 18 points.

[Wayne23]

WOW!!!

[PointGuard]

WOW!!!

Yeah I was astonished by this game. I kept thinking...oh, the Eagles are getting a bit closer, that's nice...oh, the Eagles are getting a lot closer, but the run will end before they can catch up...oh, they're tied, fantastic shot by Meliet...oh, overtime, well they'll fall apart in OT...oh, they're doing it, but they can't really win ...oh, they actually won, and Meliet did it yet again.

Well actually, there were other more colorful words than "oh", but you get the idea.

[PointGuard]

2nd Assistant Coach Chris Evans (recruiting)

After our win over Florida State, we received a call from the recruit we had offered the scholarship that Leonard Meliet will be releasing by going to the pros. C Tim Cotton, a 6’10” senior from Asbury Park, NJ, announced he will be joining us next year. We’d been in frequent contact with him even when we didn’t think we’d have a scholarship to offer. Tim is averaging 15.9 ppg, 10.5 rpg, 3.0 apg, 3.1 bpg, and 2.0 apg. He’s an outstanding inside shooter and a great rebounder. He plays very strong defense and is a very good shot blocker. He has good passing skills. His coach says he’s a hard worker who doesn’t miss practices and doesn’t cause problems. He’s a solid 4-star recruit who is ranked as the 67th best recruit in the nation. We expect he will come in ready to contribute (and be a hedge in the event Mike Braxton transfers). By the time he’s a sophomore, Tim will be a solid replacement for Courtland Reese.

Together with 5-star PG Bobby Grannum and 4-star SF Maynard Gardner, Tim rounds out our recruiting for this year. I’m ecstatic.

[PointGuard]

Boston College Chronicle

EAGLES’ SEASON SUMMARY

By Kinsey Ramsey

The Eagles season began by a hard-fought victory over Seton Hall and concluded with a thrilling come-from-behind overtime win over Duke in the ACC Championship game. In between there were a lot more highs than lows and some magical moments. The Eagles completed an extremely successful regular season, capped by winning the ACC Tournament. BC’s season record was 29-5. They went 17-3 in the ACC to tie Duke for 1st place. Then they defeated Duke in an exciting overtime finish in the ACC championship. In both the Media Poll and Coaches Poll the Eagles were ranked 3rd. They had the best NET ranking.

Boston College averaged 82.9 ppg which was 6th best in the nation. They only gave up 71.3 ppg to their opponents (142nd best). Their 35.1 rpg was 10th best. They averaged 18.0 apg (95th best).

Player Stats:

MPG: Leonard Meliet-31.4; Corey Graham-28.1; Courtland Reese-23.6; Danny Toliver-22.2; Michael Millford-20.4; Winston Minahan-13.6; Jason Caldwell-12.5; Keith Kolder-11.4; Rashon Thorn-10.4; Darius Hein-7.9; Adrian Moss-6.9; Mike Braxton-6.6; Greg Kidd-6.5.

GS: Leonard Meliet-34; Corey Graham-34; Danny Toliver-34; Courtland Reese-33; Michael Millford-26; Keith Kolder-3; Mike Braxton-3; Darius Hein-2; Jason Caldwell-1.

PPG: Leonard Meliet-16.3; Courtland Reese-15.1; Corey Graham-14.7; Danny Toliver-7.5; Michael Millford-6.4; Jason Caldwell-5.2; Winston Minahan-4.3; Rashon Thorn-3.1; Greg Kidd-3.0; Keith Kolder-2.6; Darius Hein-2.3; Adrian Moss-2.1; Mike Braxton-1.8.

RPG: Courtland Reese-8.0; Danny Toliver-5.3; Winston Minahan-3.1; Leonard Meliet-3.0; Corey Graham-2.9; Jason Caldwell-2.9; Michael Millford-2.6; Keith Kolder-1.8; Greg Kidd-1.7; Adrian Moss-1.5; Darius Hein-1.4; Mike Braxton-1.3; Rashon Thorn-0.6.

APG: Leonard Meliet-5.8; Corey Graham-2.7; Michael Millford-1.7; Courtland Reese-1.5; Rashon Thorn-1.5; Darius Hein-1.0; Danny Toliver-0.9; Keith Kolder-0.8; Adrian Moss-0.7; Jason Caldwell-0.6; Winston Minahan-0.5; Greg Kidd-0.4; Mike Braxton-0.3.

BPG (top 5): Courtland Reese-1.1; Leonard Meliet-0.7; Danny Toliver-0.5; Michael Millford-0.5; Jason Caldwell-0.5.

SPG (top 5): Corey Graham-1.4; Leonard Meliet-1.0; Danny Toliver-1.0; Courtland Reese-0.9; Michael Millford-0.8.