Spread: VT by 12.5 (Wow!)

I probably owe an apology to boston college.  In my preview before the first match-up of these two birds, I said that bc could potentially be the worst team in ACC history.  That was based on these facts (these bullets are my exact workings from before):

• 10.7%: bc returned just 263 of their 2,440 points from a year ago.  And you thought we got hit hard!
• Of the 263 points returning, two of those guys were walk-ons, and another (Danny Rubin) averages just 7 minutes per game.
• They lost to holy cross, umass (by 36), saint louis, new mexico, penn state, boston u., harvard (by 21), and 5-20 rhode island.
• bc starts 5 freshmen, and believe me, this ain’t the Fab 5.  This is El Cinco Stinko.  Four of them are 3-star recruits, which isn’t bad but also not great, and the other, Heckmann, is from Germany… and he ain’t Dirk Nowitzki.  They have 9 freshmen out of the 15 guys on their roster.  Their 3 seniors are all walk-ons and their only junior is a transfer. Much like wake forest a year ago, this experience will help them, but it’s gonna be a blood bath this year.

I theorized they would be worse than wake forest’s team from a year ago, a team that went 1-15 and their average margin of defeat in those 15 games was 20 points.  Yep, I was wrong.  As I was writing that, the eagles defeated clemson.  I still was confident and guaranteed a victory.  Then, a few days later, bc took down the Hokies 61-59:

• Recap
• Quote-unquote-Highlights

Because we lost, I had to wear uva gear to our game at uva –  My Punishment.  The two seniors, Davila and Hudson, combined for 27 points but that was about it.  Eddie finished with 8, but 6 of those were in garbage time after the game was just about decided (don’t let the final score fool you — the game was close the entire time but bc was up 11 with 3 minutes to go and up 7 with 16 seconds left.  Clifford had 15, Humphrey 14, and Anderson 12 for the eagles, showing their typical balanced attack.

A week ago I told my buddies I was going to guarantee another victory.  And this was before the clemson game.  After all, we didn’t have Erick Green for that first meeting.  I was going to guarantee a win in this game or I’d wear a cheerleading outfit (skirt) to the georgia tech game/Hokie Celebration a week later.  But you know what, I can’t guarantee a win.  I think we will win, but after watching Tech’s lack of effort at miami, I have no confidence anymore.  And I’m tired of looking like an idiot.  So I’m backing off my guarantee.  But I’m still not apologizing to the eagles — while this team has well exceeded my expectations, and shown that Donahue is a heck of a coach, they still stink.  Their 3 wins just shows how bad the ACC is this year.

Anyway, here’s an updated preview of the eagles…

For a team that is mostly freshmen (and not highly recruited), they play hard and very well together.  They aren’t athletic, so they make it a half court game.  They execute their offense well and shoot a lot of 3s (since 33% from 3-point range is the same as 50% from inside the arc).  They hustle on defense and despite a lack of size (other than Clifford, their 7-footer, who plays like a big, slow, red dog) they are scrappy on the glass, winning the 50/50 balls VT hasn’t all year.

As I aluded to above, bc started 2-1 in conference much to my shock.  Then they lost 6 in a row.  But just when you thought they were starting to slide, they defeated the hottest team in the ACC Wednesday night, taking down florida state at bc 64-60, snapping the ‘noles 7 game winning streak.  Go figure.

While the eagles do have 3 wins in conference, they are 0-4 on the road in conference play.  They’ve only played 5 road games all season and lost all of them.  I’m still not taking the bait on guaranteeing a win, though.

OUTLOOK:

If you are looking for a high scoring, offensive game, then you are screwed.  These are two of the worst offenses in the ACC meeting up.  This game could just as easily be on ESPN Crapper as it could be on ESPNU.  Both teams average less than 60 ppg in ACC play, and are near the bottom in FG% and Offensive Rebounding %.  Tech shoots FTs well (best in the ACC), while bc is last at that, too.  At least both teams are decent 3-point shooting teams, and as always, the winner will come down to whomever shoots a higher 3-point percentage.

THE SERIES:

• Overall: bc 14-7
• At bc All Time: VT 5-4 (bc won last year)
• In ACC Play: bc 8-5 (bc has won 4 in a row)
• At VT in ACC games: VT 4-2

STARTERS:

Patrick Heckmann, their freshman from Germany who was averaging over 9 ppg, is out with mono.  But he had just 1 point in the first meeting.

Their entire starting lineup is guys in their first year playing for bc (Humphrey is a transfer from oregon).

STATS:

BORING FACTS ABOUT boston college (“Strength, skill, character”):