SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

Back home with the Consignalli's:


Dom: [Mumble, grumble, mumble, grumble]

Stella: Dom! I'm tired of hearing those sounds. What's up?

Dom: Sorry, hon, but just got another email from Graham. It starts out with all kinds of praise. But then HE gets into offering ME advice of what food to offer at the Forum.

Stella: Well, why's that such a problem?

Dom: First, he's not a food guy, so why's he gotta butt in? But then it's his suggestion...SUSHI...eaten with FORKS!

Stella: (LAUGHING HILARIOUSLY) Yeah, that's a real hoot. Eating sushi with FORKS instead of chopsticks or your fingers? That's like telling an Italian to talk with bows rather than his hands.

Dom: Yeah, maybe I should fire off an email telling Graham how to run the Forum.

[PointGuard]

2nd Assistant Coach Chris Evans (recruiting)

While neither of our two recruits this season have set the world on fire in the classroom, both Bobby Grannum and Maynard Gardner did well on their SAT’s, scoring well above the minimum required here at Boston College. So I think they're both smart kids...but just not focused on that much on their high school classes. It was a relief to get the SAT scores notification.

We have no further scholarships to offer. But we're maintaining a small amount of money in our recruiting budget and continuing to communicate with a few available recruits just in case one of our players opts to declare early for the pros this spring and we need/want to try to land a last minute recruit.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 1, 2029: #12 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (16-6, 7-4) vs #4 ranked Boston College Eagles (18-3, 9-1) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

RyReys Blog, Ryan Reynolds

Notre Dame is solid defensively, giving up just 64.5 ppg (17th best in the nation)…and their 6.0 bpg is 11th best in the country. They’re a little bit better shooting team that us and score best from the perimeter, but we’re a stronger rebounding team. So we need to control the boards, force turnovers, and keep them from getting uncontested shots. Notre Dame has been streaky this season. Right now they’ve won their last 4 games. We need to win this since we’re going on a 3-game road trip next.

*For the 2nd straight game, SG Corey Graham picked up 2 quick fouls.
*Defense clamped down on Notre Dame and Eagles moved out to a 13 point lead midway through the half. PG Leonard Meliet was on fire.
*Let Notre Dame close the gap late in the half.
*At the break, up 39-32. Meliet scored 14 in the half.
*Game tied at 44-44 with 16-1/2 minutes to go.
*BC reasserted control by going on 17-4 run.
*Then late in the game, BC hit shots from all over the court to put game totally out of reach and trample the Fighting Irish by a final score of 79-58.
*Outshot Notre Dame 45% to 36% on FG’s and 48% to 29% on 3’s. Forced Fighting Irish to turn the ball over 20 times.
*PG Leonard Meliet had another high scoring game with 29 points. SF Michael Millford and C Courtland Reese each scored 12. The Eagles’ bench again got a lot of playing time.
*Top scorers for the Eagles this season are: PG Leonard Meliet at 16.7 ppg; SG Corey Graham at 14.7 ppg; and Courtland Reese at 14.2 ppg. Meliet has scored over 20 points in the past 4 games during which he’s averaged 24.5 ppg. Top rebounders this season are Reese with 8.5 rpg and PF Danny Toliver with 5.9 rpg. Tops in assists are Meliet with 6.5 apg and Graham with 2.4 apg.
*PG Leonard Meliet was named the ACC’s Player of the Week for the 2nd straight week.
*Boston College now has won 9 games in a row. Their 10-1 ACC record has them 2 games ahead of North Carolina and Duke which are tied for 2nd place.
*Boston College edged up another notch to 3rd in the Media Poll…finally one notch ahead of Duke. In the Coaches Poll Duke remains 3rd and BC is 4th.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 6, 2029: #3 ranked Boston College Eagles (19-8, 10-1) vs Virginia Cavaliers (10-11, 6-6) at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, VA

PF Danny Toliver

Coach Fed has me moving over occasionally to center during games lately when Courtland Reese takes a breather. I guess it’s a way of not cutting my playing time as Coach Fed increases Winston Minahan’s and Mike Braxton’s playing time. It’s all OK by me.

This is the only time we’re scheduled to play Virginia this season, so even though it’s an away game for us, we want to be sure we come away with a win. I’ll be going up against Seth Wallace, the Cavalier’s leading scorer.

We led 9-2 at the first media timeout. Coach Fed wanted us to keep the defensive pressure on. The refs were calling me and others tight on our defense on Wallace. So that forced us to back off some which allowed him to get some easy scores. But we were sizzling on offense, particularly Leonard (Meliet) and Michael (Millford). With 5 minutes left in the half, we were on top 39-21…we’d hit about 2/3 of our shots at that point. We finished the half with a 46-28 lead, outshooting Virginia 61% to 36%. We also totally dominated the boards (21-8). Millford scored 15 points and Meliet had 13. Wallace had a heckuva half, scoring 12 points. We need to put the clamps on him in the second half.

The refs tagged Leonard Meliet with his 3rd foul at the 18:34 mark. Virginia found the range in the 2nd half and cut the lead to 10 with 7-1/2 minutes remaining. Their home crowd was going wild. Coach Fed got on us during a time out. That relit our fire both offensively and defensively, and we quickly pulled away, silenced the crowd, and breezed to a 90-68 shellacking of the Cavaliers. We hit 57% of our FG’s, 47% of our 3’s, and out-rebounded Virginia 37-20. This extended our win streak to 10 games.

SF Michael Millford had a big game with 19 points. C Courtland Reese had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, PG Leonard Meliet hit for 15 points, SG Corey Graham scored 10, and I had 8 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks. And I was instrumental in holding Virginia’s Seth Wallace to just 2 points in the second half. I got a nice pat on the back from Coach Fed for that.

SG Adrian Moss sustained a sprained toe in the game. He’s likely to miss our next two or three games. He’s really ticked off since he’s been wanting to play more minutes. He tried talking the trainers and coaches into letting him play, but they’ve been adamant. All of us hate it when we get injured, but for a freshman sub, it’s an even more demoralizing event. When I was a freshman at Georgia Tech before transferring to Boston College, I injured my shoulder and hid the severity so I could continue starting. I paid a price for that by having the injury linger and also by having some sub-standard games. I’m not one of the most friendly guys on the Eagles roster, but Adrian is and he’s a really good guy. So I sorta surprised myself by empathizing with him and letting him know he’s got a lot of talent with a big upside potential so he’ll get a lot more playing time in future seasons. I’m not sure if that means I’m maturing or is just an aberration for me.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 8, 2029: #3 ranked Boston College (20-3, 11-1) vs North Carolina Tar Heels (15-8, 8-4) at Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, NC

Boston Herald

EAGLES OFFENSE CLICKS

The Boston College Eagles played their second game on the road in three days when they met North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The question of whether the Eagles might be worn down was quickly answered. Boston College spurted out to 14-1 and 21-5 leads. They held onto a double digit lead through the rest of the first half. For a second straight game the Eagles had hot hands. They hit 63% of their shots to lead 50-37 at the end of the first half.

North Carolina trimmed the lead to 9 points early in the second half. But Boston College would not let the Tar Heels get any closer. They pulled away again and held on to win 92-81 to extend their win streak to 11 games. The Eagles hit 53% of their field goal attempts.

PG Leonard Meliet poured in 25 points. C Courtland Reese had his second straight double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds. SG Corey Graham hit for 18 points, while reserve SF Keith Kolder added 10 points.

The win maintained Boston College’s two game lead over 2nd place Duke in the ACC standings.

[PointGuard]

At home with Fred (F) and Janeka (J) Aura:

J: Fred, I know you’re reviewing game films for your next game, but I need to talk to you about Malik.
F: Malik? Malik’s doing great. His grades are good. He’s starring on his high school basketball team. What more could you ask?
J: I won’t argue about his academics and basketball, but…
F: But?
J: But…I’m noticing some big changes in his attitude. He’s not willing to talk and is sullen around the house.
F: Hey, he’s a teenager.
J: Well, you’re not around the house all that much since it’s basketball season and so I think you’re maybe not as tuned in about Malik as you think you are. He’s spending all his spare time with Travis Buchanan.
F: Travis? He’s Malik’s teammate, so Malik spending time with him isn’t all that unusual. Besides we recruited Travis. I like him. He had a good campus visit and I did a home visit. Both his parents went to Boston College and they really wanted him to play for the Eagles. And we were right at the top of Travis’ schools of interest. Unfortunately, our primary focus wasn’t on interior players this year. So when we got commitments from our two highly ranked recruits, I just wasn’t able to offer Travis a scholarship. I think he and his parents were very disappointed. But he ended up accepting a scholarship to Georgia Tech, so he’s in good shape. The only bad thing is that we’ll have to go up against him on the court the next four years.
J: You may like Travis, but I’m not so sure about him. I’m just getting a funny feeling about him. I really wish Malik wasn’t so tied into Travis.
F: Honey, I think you’re overly concerned. Let’s just give Malik a little space and see how things go.
J: I’m sorry, Fred, but I just can’t close my eyes to things like you can. I’m not pressing Malik, but I’m going to stay very attuned to what’s going on with him, and I think you’d do well to do the same. Sometimes your family has to take priority over your team.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 10, 2029: #3 ranked Boston College Eagles (21-3, 12-1) vs Pittsburgh Panthers (12-11, 6-7) at Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, PA

Vince Ferris, Pittsburgh Panthers fan

Great start! The Panthers score the first 6 points. The Eagles don’t look so good, 3 turnovers already. Damn! The refs just called the second foul on our start PG, Shahar Benson…but we’re still ahead 12-8. That’s it!...2 fouls on BC’s PG Meliet…evens things up a bit…and we’re on top 25-19 at the midpoint of the half. Both teams are really knocking down their shots. Not good…BC captures the lead at 30-29 with 8 minutes to go. We fall behind by 4 but come back to get retake the lead at 36-35. We got the Eagles on the run…our guys are playing tough…we’re up by 7 with 3-1/2 minutes remaining in the half. Yeah! The half ends and it’s Pittsburgh-52, Boston College-43. The Panthers hit 68% of their FG’s and 60% of their 3’s…really kicking butt! SG Leroy Killion drilled in 16 points for the Panthers. BC’s C Courtland Reese had 10 points and 5 boards…heard he was good and he is.

BC scores the first 8 points of the 2nd half to cut the lead to a single point. But the Panthers then go on a 6-0 run to reestablish a decent lead. Killion can’t be stopped, he’s now got 20 points. This is a helluva game…score is 60-59 in favor of Pittsburgh with 13:19 to play. Then BC goes ahead by a point, but the Panthers strike right back to go up by 4. Refs are doing a number on our boys…helping the Eagles to go up 70-67 with just 10 minutes to go. But the Panthers don’t quit, they score the next 10 points. This is really a back-and-forth game though. BC goes back on top 83-82 with 2:15 remaining. Pittsburgh ties the game a minute later. We hit a one of two free throws with 44 seconds on the clock putting the Panthers ahead 87-86. The Eagles call a time out with 14 seconds to go. They set up a play but a 15 foot jumper goes off the front of the rim and Pittsburgh holds on to take down Boston College 87-86. Fantastic game. Every time BC took a small lead, Pittsburgh came back. The Panthers outshot the Eagles 59% to 54% and held a 29-26 rebounding advantage.

The Eagles had 4 players in double figures (C Jason Caldwell-16, SF Keith Kolder-15, C Courtland Reese-14, and SG Corey Graham-14), but SG Leroy Killion scored 27 points to lead the Panthers to victory.

[PointGuard]

Good News, Bad News

3rd Assistant Coach Rob Rowland

First the good news: PG Leonard Meliet was named as a semi-finalist for the Norton Award. Quite an accomplishment. But well-earned indeed!

On a different good news note: we’re #4 in the Coaches Poll, but now are #2 in the Media Poll…hard to explain the difference, but #2 is as high as we’ve ever been. We also have the best NET ranking of any Division I team.

Now the bad news: PF Mike Braxton didn’t get to play in our loss to Pittsburgh and then mouthed off to teammates about Coach Aura not liking him and that he should be playing instead of Danny Toliver. Pure BS. Unfortunately this isn’t the first time Mike’s done this. Coach Aura took him aside and really chewed him out. Surprisingly, Mike apologized and said he’d work on doing better. All we can do is hope he will improve. His comments aren’t going over well with most of the rest of the team, and he’s not been close with any of we coaches either. We’ve tried a variety of things to improve his mood and relationship with the team and us…other than giving him the starting job and lots of playing time he wants…but nothing has clicked.

So even though I think he has it in him to be an excellent player in the future, I really think he’s going to transfer away from us after this season so it’s won’t be for us.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 13, 2029: North Carolina State Wolfpack (15-10, 7-7) vs #2 ranked Boston College Eagles (21-4, 12-2) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

2nd Assistant Coach Chris Evans

We’re finally back home after 3 straight road games. Two strong wins and a tough loss, but Pittsburgh played great against us and uncharacteristically our defense cracked against the Panthers. So now it’s time to get back on track tonight. We barely edged in overtime when we played them earlier this season on their court.

We got off to a good start. We hit 8 of our first 13 shots while forcing the Wolfpack to make 7 turnovers and took an 18-9 lead after 6-1/2 minutes of play. We expanded our lead to 28-14 but then sort of stumbled our way through the rest of the half. At the break we led 48-37. We outshot NC State 57% to 40%. C Courtland Reese led our offense with 11 points.

We got sloppy in the 2nd half and the Wolfpack pulled tied the game at 65-65 with 9:45 to play and then when ahead by 3 with 8-1/2 minutes to go. There were several lead changes after that. With 2 minutes to go we led 81-79 but C Courtland Reese fouled out. We scored 4 points in the next 50 seconds. From that point it came down to us scoring on free throws and the Wolfpack hitting FG’s. We maintained the lead and won by a very narrow score of 94-89. NC State hit 13 of 25 from beyond the arc, but we knocked down 52% of our FG’s.

The Wolfpack had 6 players score in double figures. Our leading scorers were PG Leonard Meliet with 20 points, C Courtland Reese scoring 18, SG Corey Graham with 15 points, and C Jason Caldwell who added 11 points.

Coach Aura blasted the team due to our second straight game with lax defense.

The pollsters apparently were equally unimpressed with our defense. We dropped back down to #3 in the polls and Duke, which is now ½ game behind us in the ACC standings, replaced us at #2.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 20, 2029: Virginia Tech Hokies (6-19, 2-14) vs #3 ranked Boston College Eagles (22-4, 13-2) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Sports Report on WHDH TV’s 11 o’clock news:

Duke ripped Miami 90-76 tonight for their 9th straight victory. So a win by Boston College over Virginia Tech was a must for the Eagles if they were to keep from slipping a half-game behind the Blue Devils for first place in the ACC.

Following last week’s loss to Pittsburgh and soft win over North Carolina State, Coach Fred Aura started freshman Darius Hein at SF for the first time this season.

Virginia Tech gave Boston College everything they could handle for the first 17 minutes of the game. But the Eagles went on an 11-2 run in the final 3 minutes of the first half to go ahead 48-39 at the half. PG Leonard Meliet and C Courtland Reese combined to score 32 points in the first half.

Boston College held onto a lead throughout the second half but wasn’t able to shake the Hokies until the final few minutes of the game when the Eagles pulled away for an 89-71 victory.

When interviewed after the game, Coach Aura has this to say, “Virginia Tech came at us hard all night. We gave them far too many easy shots, so we’re going to have to continue to work on re-establishing a solid defense. We also just couldn’t keep a handle on the ball tonight. There’s no excuse for us making 22 turnovers…but the Hokies made an equal number so there was an equal amount of sloppy play on both ends of the court. Fortunately we got big nights from C Courtland Reese with 29 points, PG Leonard Meliet with 25 points, and reserve PF Winston Minahan with 11 points. But this was the third straight game in which we haven’t played well. We have two road games coming up later this week and then finish with home games against Duke and Louisville, so we need to get our game back together and fast.” When asked about his change to the starting lineup, Aura said, “Darius Hein has been playing exceptionally well in practice so he earned the start. While Darius is more accustomed to playing PF, he handles the SF position well and gives us more rebounding strength. I was satisfied with how he played, so I think he deserves another start. Then we’ll reevaluate to determine our best starting lineup for the remainder of our season.”