CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Don’t look now, but there’s a big surprise near the top of the ACC standings. With only Duke sporting an undefeated record, one team in the logjam at 2-1 is the very young Boston College Eagles, who beat Virginia Tech 61-59 on Saturday to claim both home games that had a quick turnaround.
Before the season, and even recently before conference play started, the question was being asked: will BC win an ACC game this year? The easy answer was “yes”, especially since the ACC is not a great conference this year. After Duke, North Carolina and Virginia, there’s a noticeable drop-off. And as the Eagles progress over the course of the season, chances are they might knock someone off at home. It’s already happened, and with two straight wins they have likely surprised just about everyone except for the people in their locker room.
There’s only so much on can take from this start. After all, the Eagles did get blown out by North Carolina in the conference opener before rattling off the next two. They won at home and against two teams ripe to be knocked off in up-and-down Clemson and a Virginia Tech team that was a bit offensively challenged even with Erick Green (who missed the game with a sprained LCL in his left knee) healthy. But the wins, following the loss at North Carolina, also show that, as head coach Steve Donahue noted, that they are getting better at responding to adversity. That’s going to be a big plus for this team.
The young Eagles have bought into the offensive system Donahue wants them to play. They are generally moving the ball well offensively, although they have been turnover-prone. But when they’ve run the offense right, it has worked well and at times they have executed it wonderfully. More importantly, they have defended better than last season’s team, with the defense carrying the team at times. That was unthinkable last season.
“It’s been a fun group to coach,” said Donahue. “Everyone comes ready to play, and they do things consistently.”
You can see the development all across the team. Dennis Clifford is getting more consistent and is proving more and more to be a nice player to run the offense through. Lonnie Jackson is clearly a better player than he was in the first few weeks and is a legitimate shooting threat. Jordan Daniels continues to get better at the point, and Gabe Moton continues to fit the reserve role there. All of the freshmen still have plenty of room to improve, but seeing improvement now gives reason to believe more is to come.
There’s no question the Eagles haven’t suddenly become a team that looks like they’ll finish in the top four and wait until Friday to play in the ACC Tournament. A lot of basketball remains to be played and this team is still very inexperienced. They still turn the ball over more than 15 times per game (they had 19 on Saturday) and are getting out-rebounded by nearly six per game (they were out-rebounded 30-28 on Saturday). Their leading scorer, Matt Humphrey, is shooting below 33 percent from the field on the year and below 30 percent from long range.
Still, this 2-1 start can only help, and with it the team may be on their way to some over-achieving. A confident team is more dangerous than one lacking confidence, especially a young team that will basically be playing with house money all season long. Come February, when BC could be in a position to play spoiler against a contending team, they could develop into a team no one wants to play.
