The ACC preseason poll has come out, and Boston College's men's basketball team has been picked 9th of 12 in the conference. This is, I suppose, slightly better than when they were picked 11th of 12 last year and still went to the NCAA Tournament.
I bet the loss of Tyrese Rice convinced some (most?) voters that BC wouldn't be solid again this year. I seem to remember people saying about the New York Giants that "there's no way they're going anywhere this year without Tiki Barber" back in 2007, and things turned out just fine for his old team. Now, let's not get carried away with that example, BC's not winning it all (though it would be nice), but there is still plenty of talent on the team and it's not like Tyrese was the team last year. His senior year PPG was down 4.1 points from the 2007-2008 season and we started to see the emergence of guys like Joe Trapani and Rakim Sanders. Yes, Tyrese was still the leading man on the team, but he is not irreplaceable. The Eagles were in the dance last year, and the youth (Raji, Southern, Sanders, Paris, etc.) are now experienced upperclassmen who are capable of carrying the load.
The bottom line is that you shouldn't take too much out of this. These same people had the Eagles dead wrong one year ago. BC can, and hopefully will, prove them wrong again.
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