They Had It All Along
With Saturday night’s 78-66 win at Rutgers, Boston College gained a share of the Big East regular season championship in its final season in the conference. By virtue of their 75-70 win at Connecticut on January 5, the Eagles will have the top seed in the Big East Tournament.
Prior to this season, no one imagined this would happen. Despite returning four starters from a 24-11 team that barely lost in the second round to national runner-up Georgia Tech, the Eagles didn’t receive a single vote in any preseason poll and were picked fifth in the Big East preseason coaches poll. But even those who felt this team was a little better than they were selected probably never imagined that this team would start the season with a Big East record 20 straight wins en route to a 13-3 conference record, tying for first and setting a school record for regular season wins.
“They’re the only ones who believed they could be Big East champions,” head coach Al Skinner said after Saturday’s game.
The Eagles have been talked down all season long by numerous critics, but that’s just served as more motivation. They always felt they could win their games, even when they had close calls against teams like Yale and Holy Cross. They didn’t play the world’s toughest schedule – their Big East slate didn’t include playing the very best teams twice, which may have been a ploy by the Big East to keep them off national television – but the reality is that they won games, and that’s what counted, and their strength of schedule still ranks higher than all but four Big East teams. For that matter, it is still a stronger schedule than that of Illinois, which lost only its final regular season game, and Kentucky, a team being talked about as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament ahead of the Eagles.
“We didn’t have any bad losses,” Skinner said. “We competed every night, we were in there – we had chances to lose games, and we didn’t. This has been an outstanding regular season for us.”
The Eagles’ win on Saturday at one of the toughest places for a visiting team to play showed their resiliency after being pounded by Pittsburgh just five nights earlier. The inconsistent Panthers simply dominated the Eagles in the second half to break the game open, with the Eagles almost looking overmatched. As was the case with all of their losses, this one brought out all the detractors in full force, proclaiming the Eagles to be “overrated” or saying that the loss “exposed” them. But each time thus far, they have bounced back the next time out and beyond, and not to prove the detractors wrong – as we’ve seen, they’re called “detractors” for a reason, as nothing will prove them wrong – but because they want to win. (In fact, these same people will surely note that the RAC hasn’t been a place for Scarlet Knight wins this year, as they just completed their first losing season at home since 1987-88 – but that doesn’t mean it is an easy place to play.)
“We definitely have to get a win, we can’t go in losing two straight,” said sophomore forward Jared Dudley after last Monday’s loss.
Dudley was named a first team All-Big East and shared the league’s Most Improved Player award with Connecticut’s Marcus Williams. He was symbolic of Saturday’s win, as he had his worst game of the season against Pittsburgh before putting up 21 points and 11 rebounds, including 3-4 from three-point land, at Rutgers on Saturday night. Dudley, whose feel for the game is almost becoming legendary, is a prime reason the Eagles are where they are right now.
“There’s stuff you just can’t coach; you put him on the floor and ask him to make plays,” Skinner said of Dudley.
The Eagles have assaulted the school record books this season with a team no one would have imagined they would do it with. No one on this team was highly-recruited, as is often the case – the Eagles can’t recruit in the home area very much because there isn’t much high-major talent in the Boston area. They also don’t go for players that other big-time schools are heavily recruiting, as they know they don’t stand much of a chance against traditional national powers that are always on national TV. So instead, they get creative, and Skinner’s staff, notably associate coach Bill Coen and assistant Ed Cooley, do a tremendous job of finding players who fly under the radar and can fit into their system. Senior Jermaine Watson has his own take on it.
“Everyone’s hungry and everyone loves to play basketball, that’s something you can’t teach,” he said of this year’s squad. “I think the coaches have done a great job going out and getting guys that have that fire inside.”
The 24 regular season wins are a school record, while the 13 Big East wins match it. The 20-game winning streak to start the regular season is also a school record. With the Eagles not being loaded with big-time talent, this is clearly a testament to how they play the game, as well as the job the coaching staff has done. Skinner was rewarded with his second Big East Coach of the Year award on Tuesday, and there’s no question he deserved it. This team is clearly a reflection of the coach, and the players see it as much as anyone watching this team. They have kept the team’s focus as narrow as it needs to be; they consistently talked during non-conference play about winning the non-conference games; once Big East play started, they consistently talked about having success in the Big East.
With the Big East Tournament starting, the Eagles have one last goal in the conference, and that’s to win another title. The current group of seniors came in right after the last Big East title in 2001, and would surely like to end their careers with another one. They are in a prime position as the top seed, as no team without a first round bye has ever won the Big East Tournament.
“No one expected BC to be where we’re at right now,” said Dudley. “It’s been like a dream come true, what we’ve done this year, but we’re not done yet. We want to win a Big East title, and that starts Thursday at Madison Square Garden.”
