Once again, Virginia Tech comes away from a game looking like a team on the verge, but not breaking through to pull off a win. Their 67-66 loss at Boston College is just the latest close loss for a team that’s been a little snake-bitten. Virginia Tech has lost seven games this season. Six of those losses have been by four points or less, with the aberration being their 25-point loss at Duke nearly four weeks ago.

A year ago, a game like this must have seemed so far away, so unimaginable for Sharaud Curry. It had to be a pipe dream, something he could only imagine happening at a time when his team was struggling without him, when they needed him. It was a game many imagined happening last year, certainly. There was a time when Curry was well on his way to becoming one of the top point guards in the Big East, emerging nicely as a sophomore. With that, there were high hopes for him as a junior and for his team. But they never materialized, the result of a well-chronicled foot injury that forced him to redshirt after playing just nine minutes last season.

Entering the season, Reggie Jackson projected to be the best of Boston College’s three freshmen. He looked the part early on, as it’s clear he’s a terrific athlete and has some offensive skills that should get better. But you could also tell early on that he was a freshman, and with the way Boston College plays, the learning curve that comes with playing college basketball isn’t always expedited.

Parkland High School was the site of the 14th annual Lehigh Valley Hoop Group Showcase on Sunday. It consisted of four games, the last two of which came right down to the end. The first game of the day was short on Division I prospects but not long on good shooting by one team. Victorious Emmaus, the alma mater of former Pitt big man Aaron Gray, shot 54 percent from the field and a scorching 10-17 from long range en route to their 84-74 win.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Alex Barnett remembered something his coach said about their Ivy League travel partner. Dartmouth last won at Harvard in 1999, despite having some chances since then to pull out a win at Lavietes Pavilion. Fifth-year head coach Terry Dunn was determined to change that, and, it turns out, his senior star had something to do with it.

Coaches talk all the time about playing for 40 minutes. You don’t win games playing 20, 30, 35 or even 39 minutes unless you’re significantly better than a team. Even then, a full 40-minute effort is what’s needed to get a win. Right now, that’s the big battle North Carolina State is facing, and their latest example is their 79-68 loss at Boston College on Saturday.

You can be forgiven for thinking that Boston University likes multiple overtime games. The Terriers have had two of them three days apart, winning in four overtimes against Stony Brook on Monday and surviving two overtimes against UMBC on Thursday for an 80-77 win. But the depleted Terriers could have used a break from the extra sessions.