Eagles Hit Their Stride as ACC Beckons
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – With the ACC season upon us, Boston College has clearly picked a good time to hit its stride.
Now a full squad with the return from suspensions of Akida McLain and Sean Williams, the Eagles are coming alive as evidenced by their last two wins. They crushed Rhode Island 78-56 on the road, then came home to win their sixth straight Commonwealth Classic with a 91-62 thumping of UMass on Tuesday. The Eagles look to be clicking on all cylinders now, and with all but two games the rest of the way being against ACC foes, the timing is just right.
“We’re definitely improving, there’s no question about it,” head coach Al Skinner said after Tuesday’s win. “If we’re going to have success in this league, we’re going to have to get better, there’s just no question about that. I think we recognize that, and guys want to continue to work at it. I told them in the locker room, the real season is about to start.”
Williams is still clearly a bit rusty, and likely won’t be starting anytime soon, but he can be a real difference-maker and that showed on Tuesday night. Along with freshman guard Tyrese Rice, he helped key a 17-2 run in the first half that turned a 21-20 nail-biter into a big lead, and the Eagles never looked back from there. Just like last year, he doesn’t necessarily have to play many minutes (he played just ten due to foul trouble) or score points (two against UMass) to impact the game significantly.
Add in McLain, who is contributing at both ends and especially at the top of their press, and the Eagles now have a deep frontcourt. Stars Craig Smith and Jared Dudley have more support besides improving sophomore center John Oates, who will likely continue to start in the foreseeable future. Smith and Dudley continue to have workman-like efforts, and they can play more natural positions on a regular basis now, as they still have size when Oates comes out of the game.
With the frontcourt filled out, the Eagles have a nine-man rotation. The backcourt has improved, as Skinner cited the continued improvement of freshmen Rice and Marquez Haynes. Both come in the game and keep the Eagles going, something they lacked last year off the bench.
“We’ve got a rotation now, with four guys coming off the bench. They give us a lot of energy and give us the ability to run,” Smith said.
Rice’s shooting when coming off the bench can change a game, as it did on Tuesday. He’s still progressing as a ball-handler, as evidenced by some carelessness late in Tuesday’s game, but the strides are there. It hasn’t been uncommon for him to be paired with Haynes, who is more of a playmaker, or steady senior co-captain Louis Hinnant, whose assist-to-turnover ratio is nearly 2.
The shooting of Rice, as well as junior Sean Marshall, is likely to continue to be a positive for the Eagles with the frontcourt in better shape. Marshall scored 21 against Rhode Island and 18 against UMass, shooting a combined 15-27 from the field and 6-12 on three-pointers. He also added four assists in each, and should continue to benefit from the frontcourt depth while his improved overall offensive game becomes more evident.
“I worked hard over the off-season just trying to focus on parts of my game that I could bring to Boston College to contribute more aside from just shooting threes,” said Marshall. “It’s starting to pay off, and it just helps the team because it helps me be more consistent and it helps the team be more consistent.”
The Eagles can sense that they’re coming alive, knowing that they have to keep it up. They suffered a tough loss against Maryland in their ACC opener last month, but as Skinner noted, this is a different team and they are playing at a different level right now. They are eager for ACC play to resume, and look ready to do the work necessary to have the kind of success that many projected for them prior to the season.
“Now we’ve got everybody back, and we’re ready to make our run,” said Dudley, who is quietly leading the team in scoring and rebounding while also having a better than 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
The Eagles resume ACC play on Sunday at rebuilding Georgia Tech.
