Boston College Athletics
Men's Hoops Hosts AIC Thursday Night
November 05, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Game Notes
Gametracker
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - The Boston College men's basketball team will host American International College in an exhibition game on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Conte Forum. The game is free to the public.
FIRST LOOK AT THE EAGLES
• Boston College hosts American International for an exhibition game on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Conte Forum.
• The exhibition will utilize an experimental 30-second shot clock.
• First-year head coach Jim Christian leads the Eagles after spending two years at Ohio where he went 49-22.
• Boston College went 8-24 last year.
• AIC went 9-19 a year ago and also has a new coach in Andy Burkholder who was hired in September.
• The two teams have officially met twice on the hardwood with BC taking both meetings in 1947 and 1950.
THE 2014-15 SCHEDULE
• Last year's schedule was ranked the fifth-toughest in the nation by Ken Pomeroy. BC's opponents' defense ranked fourth in the country while their offenses ranked 18th.
• The Eagles played 10 teams that finished in the top 50 RPI last year, including seven in the top 25.
• Boston College played just four non-conference home games last year - this year it will play eight at Conte Forum.
• There are no true road non-conference games on the schedule. BC will face Massachusetts at the TD Garden again this year and will play three games in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
• The 2014-15 schedule features 12 teams that advanced to either the NCAA Tournament or the NIT - with 10 of those teams playing in the NCAA Tournament.
HANLAN NAMED TO COUSY AWARD WATCH LIST
• Junior Olivier Hanlan was named to the watch list for the 2015 Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award, announced Tuesday by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
• The watch list will be narrowed down to a final 20 in early February, then to a final five by early March. A premier Selection Committee has been appointed by the Hall of Fame to review the candidates in contention for the nation's top collegiate point guard award. The committee is made up of top college basketball personnel including members of the media, head coaches, media relations contacts and Hall of Famers. The Cousy Award winner will be presented the award on Championship Monday in Indianapolis at the Hall of Fame's Class of 2015 Announcement and Press Conference.
• Hanlan is one of seven ACC guards on the watch list along with Quinn Cook (Duke), Tyus Jones (Duke), Terry Rozier (Louisville), Angel Rodriguez (Miami), Marcus Paige (North Carolina) and London Perrantes (Virginia).
• Hanlan is the leading returning point scorer (18.5) in the ACC from last season. He was an All-ACC Third Team selection a year ago after ranking third in the conference in points, fourth in minutes (36.2), sixth in free throw percentage (.811) and seventh in field goal percentage (.447). Hanlan was also the 29th player in ACC history to reach 1,000 points as a sophomore.
• Previous winners of the Bob Cousy Award have included Jameer Nelson (St. Joseph's), Raymond Felton (North Carolina), Dee Brown (Illinois), Acie Law (Texas A&M), DJ Augustin (Texas), Ty Lawson (North Carolina), Greivis Vasquez (Maryland), Kemba Walker (Connecticut), Kendall Marshall (North Carolina), Trey Burke (Michigan) and Shabazz Napier (Connecticut).
THE RETURN OF CLIFFORD
• Junior Dennis Clifford hopes to be fully healthy for the 2014-15 season after battling knee issues the last two years.
• During his freshman season, Clifford played in all 31 games and made 25 starts. He averaged 26.9 minutes, 9.1 points and 4.7 rebounds.
• As a sophomore, the Bridgewater, MA product was limited on the court. He only missed three games, but he averaged just 14.6 minutes per game. He averaged 2.8 points and 3.2 rebounds.
• Clifford missed the first 14 games last year but made his season debut against Clemson. He played 12 minutes, and had three rebounds and a block.
• He was a huge factor in the win at Virginia Tech, playing 21 minutes and recording six points and six rebounds.
• The Hokies were 10-for-33 (.303) from the floor when he was in the game. They were 10-for-24 (.417) when he was on the bench.
• Virginia Tech was also 4-for-15 (.267) on layups, tips, or dunks when Clifford was on the floor.
• Clifford was unable to continue the season after that and received a medical redshirt.
THE SENIOR CLASS
• This will be the final year for five seniors who have been on the roster for the last four seasons: John Cain Carney, KC Caudill, Patrick Heckmann, Lonnie Jackson and Eddie Odio.
• Together, they have played in 345 games and made 129 starts in their careers.
• Jackson has averaged 8.0 points per game over his career and is a 39 percent shooter from beyond the arc.
• Heckmann has similar numbers with 7.4 points per game while shooting 36 percent from 3-point land.
• Odio and Caudill have also seen significant time on the court. Odio has averaged 3.3 points in his first three seasons while Caudill has averaged 1.8.
• Cain Carney has appeared in 21 contests.
RETURNING NUMBERS
• Boston College returns 66 percent of its scoring from last season which ranks third in the conference behind North Carolina and Virginia.
• Junior Olivier Hanlan leads the way with his 18.5 points per game last season which is tops in the ACC for returning players. Seniors Lonnie Jackson and Patrick Heckmann contributed 7.0 and 6.0 points, respectively.
• The Eagles also return 60 percent of its rebounding which ranks seventh in the ACC. Hanlan also leads the team in that category by averaging 3.4 per game.
• BC returns 60 percent of its starts from last season which is sixth. It had 95 of its 160 starts come back this year.
THE NEWCOMERS
• Boston College welcomes three newcomers to the 2014-15 roster - two fifth-year transfers and a freshman.
• Graduate student Dimitri Batten graduated from Old Dominion this past summer while classmate Aaron Brown came from Southern Miss.
• After redshirting his freshman year, Batten averaged 9.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists in the last three seasons for the Monarchs. He shot 40 percent from the field and 33 percent from the beyond the arc for Old Dominion.
• The Newport News, Va., product was the second leading scorer for the Monarchs in each of the last two seasons and led the team in 3-pointers in 2012-13. Batten scored in double figures 24 times last season and matched a career high with 25 points against North Carolina Central. He averaged 11.0 points and 4.2 rebounds last year.
• Brown played in all 36 games with 30 starts for Southern Miss last year, his only one with the program. He averaged 9.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. Brown ranked third on the team in rebounding and fourth in scoring, and also led the Golden Eagles in 3-point percentage (.391) which ranked eighth in Conference USA.
• The Hackensack, N.J. product began his collegiate career at Temple where he played for two seasons. Brown played in 61 games and made 10 starts while with the Owls. He played in all 32 games as a sophomore and averaged 6.4 points and 2.1 boards while shooting .415 (39-for-94) from beyond the arc. He played in 29 games and made nine starts as a freshman. Temple made the NCAA Tournament both seasons he was there.
• Freshman Idy Diallo was originally committed to California, but reopened his recruitment after the retirement of head coach Mike Montgomery.
• Diallo, a native of Senegal, was named to the All-California Interscholastic Federation Second Team last year after averaging 10.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. He also averaged 2.4 blocks, 1.4 assists and 1.2 steals last season.
• He was also named to the Cal-Hi Sports All-State Elite team. He led the 24-6 Phantoms to the CIFSS Open Division playoffs and was named MVP of the Camino Real League.
EAGLES IN THE NBA
• There are currently two former Eagles playing professionally in the NBA.
• Jared Dudley was the 22nd overall pick of the 2007 draft, taken by the Charlotte Bobcats. He played for the Phoenix Suns from 2008-13 before he was traded to the LA Clippers for the 2013-14 season. The Clippers traded him to Milwaukee in August.
• Reggie Jackson was drafted 24th overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2011.
• Other former Eagles playing professionally around the world include Troy Bell (Italy), Sean Marshall (Turkey), Corey Raji (NBA D-League), Tyrese Rice (Russia), Danny Rubin (Israel), Craig Smith (Israel) and Joe Trapani (France).
