SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[Wayne23]

What about the Big Dance? Did I miss something?

[PointGuard]

What about the Big Dance? Did I miss something?

Welllll, aren't you impatient?
Sooooo, OK, here's a second posting for the day:

Pauly McManus, Eagles superfan

I’ve been going to BC games for 15 years. From when they were ACC doormats to now when they’re ACC champs. Now that their season during which no other Division I team won more games than the Eagles 29 wins, the Eagles residing atop the ACC standings, and BC winning the ACC Tournament, it’s time for the NCAA Selection Show. It’s a forgone conclusion that the Eagles will be a #1 seed in one of the regions, but it’s still exciting to watch the show and hear that. I got a friend coming over to watch the show with me. He’s really a UCONN fan, so has no interest in where BC is seeded and it’s been a down season for UCONN so they won’t be going to the Big Dance, but he’s been impatiently waiting for the show to begin. Really I think he just can’t wait for the beer and snacks to start.

NCAA Tournament:

#1 seeds: Boston College (East Region); Duke (Midwest); Illinois (South); Mississippi (West).

ACC teams in the Big Dance:

Boston College, #1 seed in the East Region will play the winner of the Eastern Kentucky/Loyola (IL) play-in for a #16 seed.
Duke, #1 seed in the Midwest Region will play #16 seed Nevada.
Florida State, #11 seed in the Midwest Region will play #6 seed Georgia State.
Notre Dame, #4 seed in the South Region will play #13 seed Albany.
Miami (FL), #10 seed in the South Region will play #7 seed New Mexico.
North Carolina, #9 seed in the South Region will play #8 seed Texas Tech.

ACC Teams in the NIT Tournament:

Clemson, #3 seed in the Midwest Region will play #6 seed Murray State.
Louisville, #8 seed in the South Region will play #1 seed St. Bonaventure.
Pittsburgh, #2 seed in the South Region will play #7 seed Utah Valley.

It sure felt good to hear Boston College’s name called out for a #1 seed. Since they’ll be in the East Region, I’m going to try to latch onto some tickets for me and maybe my impatient friend, Wayne.

[Wayne23]

Okay then!

[PointGuard]

Boston Herald

NIT RESULTS

Round 1:

Clemson-90, Murray State-66
St. Bonaventure-78, Louisville-76
Pittsburgh-67, Utah Valley-59

Round 2:

Wisconsin-83, Clemson-65
Pittsburgh-83, Stony Brook-57

Round 3:

St. Bonaventure-84, Pittsburgh-71

Championship: Arizona-55, St. Bonaventure-46

NCAA RESULTS

Round 1:

Duke-80, Nevada-54
Georgia State-80, Florida State-66
Boston College-99, Eastern Kentucky-59
The Eagles went ahead 25-8 with C Courtland Reese scoring 14 points and hauling down 6 rebounds. BC continued to roll over the Colonels throughout the first half. When the half ended Boston College was on top 52-28. Reese scored 23 points and had 11 rebounds in the half. Even with BC’s entire bench getting time on the court, the Eagles continued to dominate Eastern Kentucky throughout the entire 2nd half, finishing with a thorough drubbing of the Colonels. Reese scored 35 points and had 16 rebounds. SG Corey Graham hit for 19 points plus had 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals. PG Leonard Meliet had 13 points, 10 assists and 4 blocks.
Texas Tech-78, North Carolina-75
Notre Dame-87, Albany-60
Miami (FL)-75, New Mexico-72

Round 2:

Duke-80, Villanova-73
Arizona State-75, Boston College-54
Boston College jumped out on top 8-2, but Arizona fought back to take a small lead that they held for most of the half by controlling the boards and employing a staunch defense. With 5 minutes to go the Sun Devils expanded their lead to 7 points. BC came back, though, to go to the locker room with a 35-34 advantage. Arizona State started the 2nd half with a 13-2 lead that put the Eagles down by 10 points. BC struggled to chip away at the lead but could get no closer than 5 points. Then the Eagles offense went stone cold in the last 9 minutes and totally self-destructed as they failed to score at all the final 5-1/2 minutes of the game, allowing Arizona State to bury them. The only Eagle to score in double figures was C Courtland Reese with 13 points. Coach Fred Aura said, “We knew the Sun Devils had a good defense, but it was far better than we imagined. When you hit just 33% of your shots and 15% of your 3’s, lose the battle of the boards 43-23, and make 21 turnovers, there’s no way to win. Plain and simple…Arizona State played great, we played lousy.”
Notre Dame-97, Memphis-93
Texas-82, Miami (FL)-70

Round 3 (Sweet 16):

Duke-64, Nebraska-53
Notre Dame-91, Texas Tech-73

Round 4 (Elite 8):

Duke-72, Nevada-Las Vegas-58
Notre Dame-72, Texas-53

Round 5 (Final 4):

Temple-69, Duke-60
Notre Dame-73, Mississippi-60

Round 6 (Championship):
Temple-80, Notre Dame-77

[PointGuard]

JJ Conroy, BeanTownSports Blog

After what appeared to be a very successful season, the Boston College Eagles plummeted back to Earth with a massive THUD! The Eagles played a basic non-entity the opening round of the NCAA Tournament and not unsurprisingly busted the Eastern Kentucky Colonels back to Privates. But their round 2 opponent, Arizona State, proved the Eagles to be lacking. Yes, Arizona State. The same team that finished in 6th place in the Pac-12. Against THAT team Boston College was impotent. They looked weak through most of the first half, but a small run at the end of the half, gave hope…albeit false hope. Because the Eagles came out in the 2nd half with no offense and no defense. As the Sun Devils unraveled the Eagles enroute to an opening 13-2 run, what did Coach Aura do? No time out to settle his team or give them a kick in the butt. Then with 9 minutes to go in the game and the Eagles trailing by just 6 points and at a point when they needed to come on strong to drive to a comeback win, what happened? The team simply fell apart. Their offense sputtered and eventually completely came to a shattering stop. The Eagles gave up in the final 5-1/2 minutes…scoring ZERO points for the 330 LONG-G-G seconds, letting Arizona State not only slam the door but pour on the coal and toss the Eagles to the curb. Again Coach Aura had no answers for his team. Even though he was pacing the sidelines, he may as well have been sitting on his hands for all the good he did. It was embarrassing to watch and a complete humiliation for Boston College.

So now talented PG Leonard Meliet leaves school early and heads to the pros, taking with him the leadership that was often responsible for regular season wins that got BC to the NCAA Tournament. That’s not a harbinger of hope for the coming season. In fact with the capabilities shown by Duke and Notre Dame in the NCAA Tourney this year plus North Carolina’s phenomenal recruiting success this year (signing the #1, #10, and #11 ranked recruits), it looks to me like the Eagles are likely to descend to 4th place (or lower) in the ACC this coming year. And after next season C Courtland Reese graduates. which will leave a large hole in the middle their offense. With Coach Aura not showing an ability to lead and direct when the going gets tough, it’s not a pretty picture.

[Wayne23]

HATE it when that happens. You work your butt off to have a successful season and then have a disastrously off night and exit early. The taste of ashes in your mouth for the whole off season.

[PointGuard]

Mary St. James, Boston College Athletic Department Publicist

Three Boston College basketball players earned prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference awards:

SG Corey Graham: ACC Freshman Player of the Year
PG Leonard Meliet: ACC 1st Team All-Conference
C Courtland Reese: ACC 1st Team All-Conference
SG Corey Graham: ACC 2nd Team All-Confernece

Reese and Graham return next year to lead the Eagles. Meliet has opted to declare for the pro draft.

“These three players performed extremely well for us all season and their awards are well-earned,” said Jason Braxton, the Athletic Director for Boston College.

[PointGuard]

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director

Our basketball team played exceptionally well all season so their early exit from the NCAA Tournament was a surprise. Coach Aura achieved 3 of the goals I had set for him: (1) no academic ineligibility; (2) win 20+ games; and (3) win the ACC conference tournament. But he failed to accomplish 2 other goals I had set: (1) improve school prestige…actually it dropped from 63 to 60; and (2) reach the NCAA Tournament Final 4.

We’re still happy with the job he’s doing for us. He laughingly said, “I got contacted by Kansas about their head coaching job. While they have an impressive basketball history, who in their right mind would accept the job when they have 3 more years remaining on their ban for post-season tournament play and 4 more years of being prohibited from offering any scholarships.” Even though several other colleges with strong basketball programs are interested in his services, he prefers to remain at Boston College. David Woodruff, his 1st assistant coach, has accepted the head coaching job at George Mason. And Rob Rowland, his 3rd assistant coach, has decided to retire from coaching. So Fred will have a big job to hire two new assistants.

He requested an increase in his budget. I took his request to the board. The board did their normal thing and denied the request saying they felt the existing budget was adequate. Coach Aura was very disappointed.

[PointGuard]

Coach Fred Aura

I was sorry to lose both David Woodruff and Rob Rowland from my coaching staff. They both did great jobs and worked well with me. But I’m happy David got a head coaching job. And Rob’s retirement wasn’t totally unexpected. He loves to hunt and fish and this will give him the opportunity to do it as much as he wants.

I looked over a number of possible replacements. I finally decided to offer jobs to two coaches who I thought would work well within our program. Both offers were accepted. So my new 1st assistant coach will be Darrell Montgomery. He previously was the head coach at Detroit Mercy. That was a very tough place to coach and be successful so his won-loss record isn’t a reflection of his coaching prowess. Actually I believe that being a 1st assistant at BC is a step up for Darrell. He has excellent player development skills and will be my practice coach. He’s also a very skilled recruiter but Chris Evans, my 2nd assistant coach, will continue to handle the recruiting duties here at BC. Chris has performed well every year. My new 3rd assistant coach is Jeremy Anderson. He comes to us from Wake Forest where he was also a 3rd assistant. Jeremy has far less experience at the collegiate level, but has great scouting skills and his scouting for Wake Forest last year means he has good knowledge of the ACC.

Since we have 3 incoming freshman players and a transfer player (Glen Robinson) who will become eligible to play for us this coming year, it’s important for Darrell to develop these players and work them into our team. On the recruiting front, we only have 2 scholarships to fill this coming year, but Chris will have a big challenge since our 2 players that are graduating a year from now are Courtland Reese and Winston Minahan. I’m confident that Jeremy will be a great scout and develop strong scouting reports for us this coming year.

Looking ahead to next season, I believe we will have another strong team.

Although losing Leonard Meliet to the pros is a big loss, I feel that the experience Rashon Thorn has gained this year as a freshman here will improve his PG play. We also have a 5-star recruit in Bobby Grannum who will compete strongly for a starting role at PG.

At SG we have Corey Graham returning for his sophomore year after playing extremely well this past year. Adrian Moss will also be a sophomore this coming year and has shown he’s an excellent shooter. We also have Glen Robinson who has practiced with us this past year after transferring from Cincinnati where he scored well.

Incoming freshman Maynard Gardner could possibly be our starting SF, but Keith Kolder is returning and he started for us occasionally this past season and should be an even stronger player this coming season. Darius Hein played some for us last season at SF, and I think Glen Robinson could play some SF for us this year. So we just have to see who steps it up the most.

We’re deep at PF with Danny Toliver (who started for us this past year) plus Winston Minahan, Darius Hein, and Mike Braxton challenging for starting roles and substantial minutes. Should Mike Braxton transfer, we will look over the transfer group to see if there are any good candidates who we can entice to come here…if not, we’ll have an additional scholarship to offer this coming year.

And at C we have Courtland Reese returning for his senior year. Tim Cotton, the recruit we landed this spring, should be a good backup to Courtland.

So, while I look forward to some vacationing with the family next month, I’m also excited to see how the team develops this coming year.

[PointGuard]

2029-2030 SEASON

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director

We just got word that the three recruits we signed last season have been evaluated as the 11th best Recruit Class in the country. We’re floating on cloud 9 about that. Coach Aura and his recruiting guru, 2nd assistant coach Chris Evans, did a great job.

But we weren’t the only ACC team to do well with recruiting. North Carolina landed 3 outstanding recruits that resulted in a ranking as the 2nd best recruit class in the country. Pittsburgh’ recruits were considered to be the 8th best. Other ACC team with recruit classes not that far beneath ours were: Louisville-12th, No. Carolina St-18th, Duke-22nd, Syracuse-33rd, Notre Dame-39th, and Wake Forest-51st.