Weekly Roundup: March 21, 2017

A long time ago in a past life of mine, a coach once told me that the journey defines championship teams better than wins and losses.

Playing for Boston College hockey means playing with national championship expectations and aspirations every season. Given the events of their respective offseasons, however, tempered analysts' and experts' thoughts about the Eagles. This was going to be the year, they said, that BC would go quietly into the night, a one-year respite from a maroon and gold colored national radar.

Instead, BC became a factor straight up until the bitter end. The women's team won both the Beanpot and Hockey East, the latter in dramatic overtime fashion (twice!), then qualified for the Frozen Four. While there, the Eagles fought top-ranked Wisconsin to within 17 seconds of overtime. That's the same Badger team, by the way, that starts the Patty Kazmaier Award winner in goal.

On the men's side, we watched the Eagles lose a half-dozen or so student-athletes from last year's Frozen Four roster. At the end of February, they were outside the tournament thanks to a seven-game winless streak. But they managed to push to the Hockey East Championship game despite five fellow conference opponents sitting in front of them in the Pairwise Rankings. In that final game, they never quit, scoring a late goal and coming within a millimeter of a crossbar from tying the game with 10 seconds left.

Both teams belied expectations thanks to players and coaches that never stopped believing. In every conversation and interview, Katie Crowley indicated to me just how much she loved coaching this particular team. She talked often of the players' willingness to accept all roles, a trait that's endearing to any coach. There was something of a beaming pride there, and they leave their program in better shape for future teams than anyone originally thought possible. When the program wins its first national championship, everyone will celebrate for that reason.

Jerry York, meanwhile, spoke about his team's tenacity, how the players bounced back, and how the playoffs are the best time of the year. He had that enthusiasm that comes with a coach proud of his team and excited to be behind the bench. The players responded in kind by advancing to TD Garden and within a game of winning a championship in the toughest, best league in all of college hockey.

Modern college hockey is designed for parity and it's becoming harder and harder to win a conference championship. There have been three different Hockey East champions in the past three seasons and the rise of teams like UMass-Lowell and Northeastern, in a highly-competitive, 12-team postseason means we're unlikely to see a run like when BC won three in a row, five out of six, and six out of eight years. The Eagles will contend, as they did this year when they finished in that three-way tie for first in Hockey East, thanks to an infrastructure built by the players in support of a legendary head coach. It's safe to assume, then, that the days of the "three-team race" are well over. Every game, from the start of the season to the last whistle, is just as important as any other and any team is truly capable of winning on any night.

In the end, history won't reflect these Eagles. Their names won't hang in TD Garden and other teams will wear rings. But I've rarely been more impressed by two hockey teams. The journey proved that they had championship hearts in spades.

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Sleeper Status Unlocked

There's only so much room in the spotlight, and with football spring practice lining up opposite the postseason hockey runs, some teams inevitably are moved out of center stage. But if you haven't caught on with the softball program, there's still plenty of time to jump on the bandwagon.

BC took two out of three from Virginia to open ACC play and currently sit four games over .500 at 15-11. The Eagles are 6-2 in their last eight games and have rebounded nicely from a four-game losing streak they endured in Fort Myers.

The conference schedule is hyper-competitive and the top three teams in the league are part of a runaway elite class in the nation. Florida State, North Carolina and Louisville are a combined 15-0 in league play and the Seminoles top the national rankings with only one loss through their first 30 games. NC State is in fourth and its a one-loss team after running through both Syracuse and Virginia. This weekend, BC will draw a Pittsburgh team knocking on the top 25's door.

"We know Pitt is a good team, a top-25 team early this season," head coach Ashley Obrest said. "With that said, we need all phases of our game to be at our best. We told our girls that starting last Wednesday, we were going to go hard in each practice and push them to elevate their game."

The 11-team conference doesn't utilize divisions, meaning the Eagles have to compete with everyone. That makes their recent success, including last year's fourth-place finish, pretty impressive.

"(The girls) have responded and really taken their approach to a new level, which is needed to be a great team in the ACC," Obrest said. "We have a vision of where we want to be come May and June and now is when we need to kick it up a few gears."

We'll talk more about the softball team in the coming days, especially Tatiana Cortez, who is on the verge of breaking many slugging records.

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The World Is Watching

Kudos are in order for Andrew Chin. The former baseball left-hander threw two-thirds of an inning against Australia during Round Robin Pool B play last week in the World Baseball Classic while playing for Team China at the Tokyo Dome in Japan.

Asia is a baseball hotbed widely mentioned on par Latin America. The Nippon Baseball League in Japan is good enough to spark emotional debate about if it's equal with Major League Baseball, and Chinese Taipei/Taiwan was a Little League World Series powerhouse with 17 championships in 27 years. China, on the other hand, is very much in its baseball infancy. As a result, international players of Chinese descent can help grow the sport by performing and bringing recognition on the world stage. It's likely to take time, but if China can develop baseball roots, it's because of players like a former New Yankees draft choice who once dazzled in Chestnut Hill.

The World Baseball Classic comes to a close on Wednesday with the championship, but this year's tournament was electric. Pool play in particular turned out to be great fun, with national pride pushing the emergency of previously-unknown names in unique uniforms.

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The Times They Are A-Changin'

Every football season seems to have one overarching theme. Last season's Boston College year, for example, stressed development every week as players learned how to execute in specific situations while also becoming bigger, stronger and faster. It began the process of putting together the database by refining some rough edges of a team.

It already seems like this year is going to be about infrastructure. Steve Addazio touched on this during his pre-spring press conference, when he said his team was no longer young. Offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler took it a step further when he talked about the offense's second practice at the end of last week.

"It is very encouraging," Loeffler said. "If you go back and look at the videotape from day one and day two a year ago, you would almost cry. This year is totally different - we look like a totally different football team and have a long way to go still, but it is encouraging."

There's a long way to go still, and there are going to be mistakes and slip-ups since it's only the second year of the system. The process is beginning, however, of building infrastructure as the Eagles learn how to run more complex plays quicker, with more tempo, and with deeper-yet-faster understanding.

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Be The Ball, Danny

The last time I went golfing, I went through an entire box of golf balls and somehow managed to shank one off of a tree back into my body. I really wish I was joking, but I have witnesses proving that I could lose balls that I hit right down the middle of the fairway - or at least that's where I claim to hit them. It's probably why, along with a host of other reasons, I wasn't a Division I athlete.

Matthew Naumec, on the other hand, is very much a Division I student-athlete and a very good one at that. He finished fourth at the recent Pinehurst Intercollegiate Tournament hosted at historic Pinehurst No. 8 in North Carolina. The leader through two rounds, he finished with a +7 score of 200 to complete his fifth straight top-five finish dating back into the fall season. In the process, he finished tied for best score on par five holes, finishing -2. Along with Naumec, senior Patrick Oleksak finished tied for 23rd and freshman Christian Cavaliere finished tied for 37th.

Pinehurst is one of the most revered golf courses in the United States. The home of seven previous Major Tournaments, Payne Stewart won the 1999 US Open at the No. 2 course months before he passed away in a tragic plane accident. It's one of those courses where just playing is an honor in the sport, so a good, memorable finish can stay with a golfer forever.

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