The uphill climb Boston College faces in the ACC has been illuminated all season. Just as the Eagles appeared to have built up last year to where they could make some noise this season, they lose a bona fide star to the NBA Draft early. Their season has played out as a mixed bag, although early ACC play has driven home the hard reality of how difficult this is. And then there are days like Sunday, when there is a little ray of hope.
Sunday was a good day at The Heights, even as snow hit the region and most sports fans in the area were waiting until 6:40 p.m. to care about a local team.
Boston College finally got their first ACC win, an 87-82 win over slumping Florida State. They didn’t just beat a bottom-feeder – they beat a team that looked like one of the best teams not named Duke or Virginia in non-conference play before coming back to earth of late. The irony is that after this, the Eagles and Seminoles have the same ACC record (1-4).
Boston College still has Ky Bowman, which is a good place to start. He had 37 points on the afternoon, and they were as evenly distributed as they could be as he had 18 in the first half and 19 after intermission. He also had nine rebounds, just missing a double-double. The Eagles rely on him immensely, as he averages 38.6 minutes a game and has only once all season played less than 35 minutes. In ACC play, he’s sat for exactly two minutes in the first five games.
Bowman has help, but only one appears to be close to the kind of All-ACC player he is. It’s not Jordan Chatman, who struggled early but could hardly miss in the second half as he had 15 of his 17 points in the second half. Chatman was 5-7 from long range and gave the Eagles the lead for good in the second half as he got hot. The guy with the potential, though, is freshman Wynston Tabbs, who had 12 points and not his best afternoon in all, but he had a big three-pointer with 24 seconds left to kill Florida State’s last-gasp rally.
Boston College has lost to teams like IUPUI and Hartford, but they have also knocked off Loyola-Chicago, Minnesota and now Florida State. They let one get away against Providence and almost had one at Notre Dame just over a week ago.
If they can win at Wake Forest on Saturday – no easy task, as NC State found out recently – they come home for two against Syracuse and Notre Dame. They have a chance to gain some momentum and perhaps become more of a factor in the ACC than their 0-4 start might imply. One thing that remains true is that the Eagles will have an uphill battle in a deep and powerful ACC, but battle they will.
Side Dishes
With Marquette winning at Georgetown earlier in the week despite having Markus Howard for only three minutes, you would think they would be in good shape with him healthy at home. He got good help from the hero at Georgetown, Sam Hauser, as the Golden Eagles took out Providence 79-68. Hauser had a game-high 25 points and seven rebounds, while Howard added 24 and nine rebounds to drop Providence to 1-4 in Big East play.
In the lone Big Ten game of the day, Iowa shot a scorching 15-21 from long range and 68 percent from the field in a 95-71 romp over Illinois. Three players scored 20 or more points, and none of them was named Tyler Cook, who had just seven as Joe Wieskamp (24 points), Isaiah Moss (21) and Luke Garza (20) combined to shoot 24-35 from the field, including 11-15 from deep. The Hawkeyes have now won five in a row as Michigan State comes to town on Thursday night.
Utah continued to dominate Colorado of late, although the Buffaloes made it a ballgame in the second half. Utah led 41-19 at the break and by as many as 28 in the second and held on for a 78-69 win, their 10th in the last 13 meetings between the two schools.
In the Missouri Valley Conference, Bradley rallied in the second half and then held on to get their first conference win, a 57-54 win at Southern Illinois. The setback is the Salukis’ fourth in a row as well. In the other game, Drake made a 13-point halftime lead stand up in a 74-63 win over Missouri State to even their mark at 3-3.
A couple of teams got wins on Sunday to get right into contention in their respective conferences. Monmouth improved to 5-2 in the MAAC with an 83-81 win over Iona, while Omaha tied South Dakota State at 5-1 in the Summit League with a 75-68 win over South Dakota. The Mavericks travel to take on the Jackrabbits next Saturday.
Florida has been up and down all season, and a tough team to figure out. On Sunday, the Gators announced some bad news, as forward Keith Stone is done for the season with a torn ACL in his left knee. The junior suffered the injury in Saturday’s win at Georgia and had started 13 of 17 games. The Gators have already been banged up in the frontcourt, so they will probably have to play a lot of small-ball and play differently the rest of the way.
Tonight’s Menu
With the holiday, the slate is not as light as usual and includes some afternoon games, while high school games in the Spalding Hoophall Classic take center stage on TV for much of the day as well.
- Four Northeast Conference games lead the way in the afternoon, with a fifth coming just before the evening as Saint Francis University travels to Bryant (5 p.m.)
- A Big Ten showdown gets the evening going as Michigan State hosts Maryland (6:30 p.m.), then Rutgers hosts Nebraska later on (8 p.m.)
- A big matchup in the ACC is on tap as Virginia Tech visits North Carolina (7 p.m.)
- The Atlantic Sun has a full slate on tap, led by a battle of two of the top teams as North Alabama travels to Liberty (7 p.m.)
- A Big East game is on the slate as Georgetown hosts Creighton (8:30 p.m.)
- In the Big 12, Kansas hosts Iowa State and Baylor travels to West Virginia (9 p.m.)
- A good Conference USA matchup is on tap later as Western Kentucky hosts Marshall (9 p.m.)
