Sunday, December 12, 2010

BC beats Maryland, starts the ACC season right

Look past the Boston College Eagles at your own peril.

Not that Maryland necessarily WAS sleeping on the Eagles, mind you, but for those who contend that BC is heading for a disastrous season, well, so far, you're incorrect. The Eagles took down the Maryland Terrapins in College Park on Sunday evening, 79-75, to give Steve Donahue his first ACC win. Corey Raji was sorely missed in the previous games, and did he ever come through for the Eagles by burying a clutch 3 with 37 seconds to go, putting BC ahead for good.

This was a 75-68 projected loss according to KenPom, so you'll take it, if not for the fact that it is a big conference road win for this team. They're now 8-2 (1-0) and heading into a little bit of a soft stretch with Bryant and Bucknell before Christmas. After that, Rhode Island (Dec. 29) have not played up to expectations so far, which means there's a chance for BC to run off a few more wins in the near future before they eventually return to conference play in January. The Eagles are building a resume now, too, having wasted tournament contenders like Texas A&M and Maryland, and collecting wins over the Big 12, Pac-10, Big Ten, Big East, and now their own conference (with hopefully at least 7 or 8 more to come if they want to be in tournament position). You can't make it to the NCAAs in December, but you can blow it, and so far, BC isn't. Without that Yale loss, BC is probably getting votes in the polls. Hell, we still might get a few tomorrow, since the Terps are no pushover.

This team is exciting and playing with quite a lot of effort. They are surely to be commended for their hard work, as are Coach Donahue and his associates. This is probably the most fun we've had watching BC basketball since we had guys like Dudley and Rice together on the floor. This team isn't as talented as that one, but they give it their all and have definitely picked up their game since last season.

BC sports the second-best overall record in the ACC at present, behind 10-0 Duke, and have put together a very nice ten game start (outside of the Yale disaster). I'll post up an article this week about what's at stake for BC this year in an ACC that has good but beatable teams aside from Duke. It's still very early, but it doesn't quite look like a 10th place kind of season, does it?

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