The status report on Tuesday morning shows the football Eagles still punching tickets to Boise and the hoopers on a free-fall down the rankings from 6th to 13th.
Let's start with Sunday's game. It's as if the schedule makers had a sense of humor when slating BC's first ACC game at probably the toughest place to play in the conference. The Maryland faithful are like nothing the Eagles have seen in the Big East and the Conte Forum fans should take notes on how to impact a basketball game.
That being said the Eagles were considered the better team coming in to the matchup. It just never really played out that way. Maryland consistently led and while the Eagles always came back to pull within a handful the Terps always answered, leading by 3 four times in the early going of the second half.
Maryland's dominance but inability to pull away prompted the NESN's color man to say, "Maryland seems like they should be ahead in this game by a lot, but BC has a way of somehow keeping themselves in it."
After BC briefly took the lead 51-49 the game went back and forth the rest of the way leading to 5 lead changes and ultimately the agonizing conclusion. After BC played "foul game" to extend the clock the game seemd to be in hand for the Terps when they led 73-68 with 8 seconds remaing. Then Tyrese Rice hit a running 3 pointer to pull the Eagles within 2. With the game on the line Maryland inexplicably failed to get the ball in bounds, rolling it across the paint untouched and out of bounds on the other side giving BC renewed life. With 2.2 seconds BC took the ball out of bounds from the left corner of their end needing a basket to force overtime but like Maryland they threw the ball away, sending it down the court untouched all the way to the other baseline before a Maryland player caught up with it.
After the conclusion the Maryland fans stormed the court mistakenly thinking that they had defeated the #6 team in the country when they had really just defeated an overrated team in over its head in the hostile confines that come with ACC road games.
One of the major issues in this game as well as the Michigan State game was free throw shooting. The Eagles shot an abysmal 5-15 (33%) from the line. Jared Dudley went 0-4, mostly down the stretch with the Maryland student section clearly affecting him. After his misses he would pace around and glance up at the raucous students only giving them more fervor. Maryland on the other hand shot 19-29 from the line. A 14 point differential in free throws will be more than enough to bury a team everytime.
BC's first team All-American Craig Smith filled up the stat sheet with 23 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. However, once again he vanished down the stretch, this time because he fouled out with .57 seconds to play, his last foul coming on an out of control drive to the basket where he clearly should have pulled up and shot a jumper. Once again he was unaware of time and score, a player of his alleged caliber knows that his team cannot afford to lose him in a close game with a minute to play and avoids contact, Smith has yet to realize that. All 5 of his fouls came in the second half. As per usual his last basket came with over 6 minutes left to play. On the defensive end he was torched by Ekene Ibekwe for 21 points.
Smith's front court mate Jared Dudley struggled in what was likely the harshest environment he has ever played in scoring only 12 points on 6-15 from the field and the afore mentioned 0-4 from the line. I do not hold Dudley too accountable for his play, watching the game you could see the passion as he threw his body around. He was playing harder than anyone else out there and it was obvious, his shots just were not going down. The only play that I take issue with came when BC was down 71-67 with 11 seconds to play. Dudley launched a 3 from the corner that missed everything by a long margin. He needs to know in that situation that the outside jumper just is not working for him and either pass off to a better shooter or take it to the basket and force contact.
Similarly to Smith time, score, and situation seem to be an issue for Dudley and for the team as a whole. Trailing 70-67 with 30 seconds to play Rice failed to foul D.J. Strawberry, one of Maryland's questionable throw shooters for almost 9 seconds, deciding instead to play straight up defense. Louis Hinnant finally came over from the far side and stopped the clock with 21 seconds remaining. Rice simply was not aware that Maryland no longer had to shoot the ball as the shot clock was off and that every second that ticked off was precious time BC needed to mount a comeback. Al Skinner needs to do a better job of preparing his team for late game situations or his team will continue to struggle in these pressure packed ACC matchups that almost always come down to who executes the best in the clutch.
The next 5 games for the Eagles should all be cupcakes, giving them an opportunity to figure out the missing pieces before their next ACC road game at Georgia Tech on January 8th. Checking on the B-Slant's predictions:
They'll probably start out strong (no worse than 5-1 against Dartmouth,
Shawnee State, Buffalo, Drake, Oklahoma State / TCU, and Sacred Heart) but won't blow any of those teams out. They'll stay in low teens in the rankings. Smith
will be averaging 16 points and 6 rebounds per game. Their defense will be stout
(but not great without Williams) but their offense will be stagnant.Then they'll
play the top 5 worthy Michigan State team and get demolished by 30 on ESPN.
They'll fall after that game to somewhere in the mid to high teens. Then 5 days
later they'll lose to Maryland in a relatively close, boring game at Maryland
and fall in the rankings to the high teens or low twenties. Smith will have one
good and one awful game in those two, keeping his averages the same and showing the country that he was not worthy of the pre-season All American status.
Sure they did not get blown out by Michigan State and there is no way that playing in College Park, Maryland in front of those fans could ever be boring but otherwise I'd say I was pretty close. Smith is averaging 16.4 points and 8 rebounds instead of 16 and 6. Proving yet again that even the worst prognosticators (I am a terrible one) can predict the outcome of major Boston College sports.
Which leads me to my next point. Why are they so predictable? In light of BC's bid to the Potato Bowl a raging debate amongst students, alums, and Bostonians has begun about the reasons BC has ended up in such a disappointing spot for an 8-3 team. Among many opinionated folks the blame is squarely placed on the shoulders of athletic director Gene DeFillipo, an almost cartoonish character in the BC community. I think that ultimately this is accurate but only in a trickle down effect.
The real blame for this bowl bid belongs to Tom O'Brien, but his continued tenure as head coach is DeFillipo's fault. As a fan of any sport there will always be decisions that make you scratch your head and say, "What the heck was he thinking?" However, when something develops, like an obviously necessary change at quarterback from Quinton Porter to Matt Ryan, and every fan seems to know what needs to be done and the coaching staff does not then you have a problem. Fans are fickle, often wrong, and of course know less about the game than the coaches, but this time we were all right and everyone but O'Brien and his staff knew it. That type of shortsightedness is what is holding this program back and has been for the duration of O'Brien and his offensive coordinator Dana Bible's tenure at BC.
You have to give them credit, they have changed the football landscape in Chestnut Hill but their philosophy of conservative play calling and old school football has taken the Eagles as far as they can go. The only way for this team to break out its middle of the pack mold would be to bring in a new coaching philosophy. The academic standards are not getting any easier so the talent will improve only marginally as BC enters the ACC so the only logical thing to change is the archaic and stubborn coaching staff.
In addition to the problems with their philosophy quite possibly O'Brien's greatest failure as a coach is his inability to get his team ready to play every week. Yes, they have had some great wins under his leadership but every year they completely fail to show up against an inferior opponent. The players have changed over several times and the trend continues so the only person to blame is the only person still invovled, the coach. Failure to have your team psychologically ready to play every game is an inexcusable coaching weakness and for the past 2 years it has cost the team and the fans dearly. Instead of a BCS bowl last year and a southern bowl this year the Eagles have received bids to essentially 2 road games in Charlotte against UNC and in Boise against Boise St.. With predictable wins over Syracuse and UNC BC is a different program all together and the inability to make those steps should be enough to see the removal of Tom O'Brien.
While I am no great fan of Gene D.'s, he cut 2 teams that I had personal connections to in my time at BC (water polo and lacrosse) and the feeling was that my team (swimming) was next on the chopping block, you have to give him credit for 2 things. He has courage and vision. He sees the ACC in the big picture and knows that it is a better athletic league and long term it will be beneficial at least to the big time sports to play under brighter lights. He read the writing on the wall and saw that the Big East was heading down in a hurry and made the necessary moves to avoid going down with the sinking ship. This year 8-3 in the ACC is much more impressive than 10-1 in the Big East would have been. Many AD's would have feared the alienation from the league, the press, and all type of nay-sayers. DeFillipo saw through that potential and pulled the trigger on what will be in the end one of the most important moves ever made for BC athletics.
That being said, if his vision is limited to gradeur in the ACC then he will continue to contribute to the problem with the football and basketball programs. The MPC Computers Bowl is not his fault but if he allows Tom O'Brien to continue to strangle this program with his tight fisted conservative attitude the resulting continued mediocrity will be on his head. He needs to look inward to solve this problem and to avoid its recurrance rather than outwardly blaming the southern bowls for passing BC over and the ACC for not forcing their hand.
In addition to DeFillipo the other scapegoat for the Smurf Bowl seems to be BC's apathetic fans. Can you really argue with this? The games are half empty at kickoff, the fans are quiet in comparison to other ACC programs, and the passion simply does not resonate from Alumni Stadium. This problem is 2-fold.
1. Much of a college's fan base is made up of alums. Most of BC's alums attended the school in the days when the football program was hardly the success it is today. They attended the school in an apathetic environment due to the lack of a competitive program and their apathetic attitude persists even now that the team is competitive. They, as much as the students show up late, leave early, and focus on tailgating. These older fans should allegedly be leading the fan base by example, if they fail to do so how do you expect 20 year old kids to lead the way?
2. BC football exists in spite of a repressive environment set upon it by the school and the community. Chestnut Hill hates the BC football program. The town hates the traffic, the noise, the drinking, and everything involved with big time college sports. They actually refuse to issue the school a permit to hold games on campus for the whole season. Each Monday after a game day the school meets with the town and after the meeting they decide whether the town will issue a permit to the school for the next game. Thus, the absurdly short tailgating hours, the excessive pressure on the fans by the police, and the no-tolerance attitude surrounding the whole event. Fans that fight through traffic for hours to park on their $5000 Shea Field parking spaces do not want to be pestered and hustled off the field by mounted police half an hour before game time. The 2 hour pre-game rule is absolutely absurd and is I think the main reason that the stadium stands half empty at kickoff. Fans want to enjoy the whole spectacle of the game which includes tailgating and they want to feel as though they are getting their money's worth for the absurd parking space fees, grills, food, and beer. After sometimes less than an hour after traffic etc. fans begin to be nagged by the unending arrogance of the BCPD but do not feel ready to pack it up and head in. Extend the tailgate to 4 hours and almost surely the stadium will be fuller and rowdier than ever.
That will probably never happen, but it should be something that Gene D. is willing to work on rather than his political maneuverings. There are problems as the Heights for sure, and if Gene D. proves unwilling or unable to fix them then it's time to say, "Thank you, but like Tom O'Brien you can only take us so far," and close the door on this chapter and move forward. Maybe then we will see a less predictable product on the field and on the court.
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