Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Jerome Davis
Weekly Roundup: May 16, 2017
May 15, 2017 | Boston College Athletics, #ForBoston Files
No team is better at slamming the door than BC lacrosse.
Spring is always a unique time on a college campus. Though it's the beginning of nice weather, with temperatures rising and (hopefully) beaming sunshine, it's also the end. The academic calendar comes to a close, with year-end reviews and reflections occurring more often than live current events.
Exams might be ending with graduation right around the corner, but the sports calendar isn't quite ending. There's still one last, major gasp of breath in it. That was proven this past weekend when the lacrosse team rolled into Syracuse and won its NCAA Tournament bracket, advancing to the Elite Eight.
Boston College was utterly dominant in wins over Canisius and the host Orange. The Eagles outscored their opponents, 42-19, thanks to unrelenting second-half assaults. Against the Griffins, they were 9 with an 11-2 margin, and they followed it up with a 9-3 advantage against the Orange two days later.
In the second half of those games, they scored the first three goals, then gave up one or two before rallying to slam any hope of a comeback shut. Against Canisius, BC scored six goals over a 10-minute stretch early in the half. Against Syracuse, the team scored three in three minutes, then allowed only one over the next seven.
It exemplifies a season-long trend. This season, despite having the exact same number of shots in the first and second halves, the Eagles have 134 goals after the break. That's 18 more than the 116 they score in the first half. Â It's an uncanny ability to dominate teams and make halftime adjustments.
Led by head coach Acacia Walker, the team now has a unique and juicy opportunity to pave its own local road to a potential national championship game berth. The Eagles will host Southern California, who upset third-seeded Florida, 15-12, on Saturday in the Elite Eight. Should they win, they'll essentially remain at home for the Final Four. Foxborough's Gillette Stadium serves as the host for the Final Four this year, meaning it could be a virtual home game for the Eagles.
Should BC advance, it would meet either Navy or North Carolina - the same UNC team the Eagles nearly beat on a couple of occasions this season.
*****
Somewhere Barry Allen Smiles
Even though records are made to be broken, they have a way of seeming unbreakable. The longer it goes without being reset, the more mythological it appears. When records stand for generations, they become legends. When someone finally breaks them, those people have a way of becoming legends in their own right.
The men's 4x400 relay team broke a 50-year old record in its event, running at the ACC Championships in a time of 3:11.0. It broke the long-standing old record by nearly a full second, and it etched the team of Nicholas Nash, Darren James, Oliver Boucher and Obinna Nwankwo into history.
Earlier this year, Nwankwo told me that the goal was to score Boston College's first points in the ACC Championships. Given how elite the competition is in the league, it was a lofty goal, something of a shot at the moon. But in shooting for the moon, he wound up among the proverbial stars; though they didn't score in Atlanta, the Eagles set a new standard for excellence in their own program. Eventually, that can stand as the baseline for the next step future BC runners take.
*****
Thank You, Shea
Next season, the Boston College baseball and softball teams will move to new facilities on Brighton Campus. They'll have new, artificial turf fields already under construction and they'll represent new eras for both programs.
In the process, they'll say goodbye to their respective sides of Shea Field. This coming weekend, the baseball team will play its final home series at the Eddie Pellagrini Diamond against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, about three weeks after softball played its final home game against the Providence Friars. It's a fitting farewell against the Eagles' ancient rivals, a fellow Catholic school led by former BC head coach Mik Aoki.
Pellagrini Diamond has always had its own unique home field advantage. Early season games always had a way of intimidating southern-based teams with inclement weather and cold. If it's 50 degrees out, the shadows of Alumni Stadium always made the stadium feel that much colder and it was always fun to watch players from Florida or Georgia bundle up.
Later in the year, the Alumni Stadium parking garage delivered its own unique advantage. Over the last couple of years, as the baseball team pushed for the ACC or NCAA Tournament, large numbers of fans crowded the ramp of the parking garage. Given the stadium's configuration, the fans stood quite literally over the field of play, and their cheering delivered a loud, rowdy crowd rivaling any of the team's ACC rivals.
I'll always carry my own Shea memories, as will everyone who attended a game or played there. The way the crowd would roar is something that's always stuck with me and it's something I hope carries over to the new field. That the last series is against Notre Dame makes it special, and I hope, with graduation around the corner, that the students send the team onto their own future in their own way.
*****
"Lott" of Talent
Boston College defensive end Harold Landry is one of 42 athletes named to the 2017 Ronnie Lott IMPACT Trophy Watch List. It's the first of what we can assume will be a long year of hearing Landry's name mentioned among the nation's most elite name.
The award is named for Ronnie Lott, a Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back known for gritty toughness and determination. Considered one of the best safeties in NFL history, he was a four-time Super Bowl champion with San Francisco with his number retired by the 49ers franchise. In 1985, Lott infamously had the tip of his pinkie finger crushed making a tackle. Rather than have surgery, he instead had the fingertip amputated so he wouldn't miss any time on the field.
Luke Kuechly won the award back in 2011 and he seemed to turn out okay in the NFL. Here's to hoping so many more accolades come Landry's way as we transition into the summer and the eventual start of the 2017 football season.
Exams might be ending with graduation right around the corner, but the sports calendar isn't quite ending. There's still one last, major gasp of breath in it. That was proven this past weekend when the lacrosse team rolled into Syracuse and won its NCAA Tournament bracket, advancing to the Elite Eight.
Boston College was utterly dominant in wins over Canisius and the host Orange. The Eagles outscored their opponents, 42-19, thanks to unrelenting second-half assaults. Against the Griffins, they were 9 with an 11-2 margin, and they followed it up with a 9-3 advantage against the Orange two days later.
In the second half of those games, they scored the first three goals, then gave up one or two before rallying to slam any hope of a comeback shut. Against Canisius, BC scored six goals over a 10-minute stretch early in the half. Against Syracuse, the team scored three in three minutes, then allowed only one over the next seven.
It exemplifies a season-long trend. This season, despite having the exact same number of shots in the first and second halves, the Eagles have 134 goals after the break. That's 18 more than the 116 they score in the first half. Â It's an uncanny ability to dominate teams and make halftime adjustments.
Led by head coach Acacia Walker, the team now has a unique and juicy opportunity to pave its own local road to a potential national championship game berth. The Eagles will host Southern California, who upset third-seeded Florida, 15-12, on Saturday in the Elite Eight. Should they win, they'll essentially remain at home for the Final Four. Foxborough's Gillette Stadium serves as the host for the Final Four this year, meaning it could be a virtual home game for the Eagles.
Should BC advance, it would meet either Navy or North Carolina - the same UNC team the Eagles nearly beat on a couple of occasions this season.
*****
Somewhere Barry Allen Smiles
Even though records are made to be broken, they have a way of seeming unbreakable. The longer it goes without being reset, the more mythological it appears. When records stand for generations, they become legends. When someone finally breaks them, those people have a way of becoming legends in their own right.
The men's 4x400 relay team broke a 50-year old record in its event, running at the ACC Championships in a time of 3:11.0. It broke the long-standing old record by nearly a full second, and it etched the team of Nicholas Nash, Darren James, Oliver Boucher and Obinna Nwankwo into history.
Earlier this year, Nwankwo told me that the goal was to score Boston College's first points in the ACC Championships. Given how elite the competition is in the league, it was a lofty goal, something of a shot at the moon. But in shooting for the moon, he wound up among the proverbial stars; though they didn't score in Atlanta, the Eagles set a new standard for excellence in their own program. Eventually, that can stand as the baseline for the next step future BC runners take.
*****
Thank You, Shea
Next season, the Boston College baseball and softball teams will move to new facilities on Brighton Campus. They'll have new, artificial turf fields already under construction and they'll represent new eras for both programs.
In the process, they'll say goodbye to their respective sides of Shea Field. This coming weekend, the baseball team will play its final home series at the Eddie Pellagrini Diamond against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, about three weeks after softball played its final home game against the Providence Friars. It's a fitting farewell against the Eagles' ancient rivals, a fellow Catholic school led by former BC head coach Mik Aoki.
Pellagrini Diamond has always had its own unique home field advantage. Early season games always had a way of intimidating southern-based teams with inclement weather and cold. If it's 50 degrees out, the shadows of Alumni Stadium always made the stadium feel that much colder and it was always fun to watch players from Florida or Georgia bundle up.
Later in the year, the Alumni Stadium parking garage delivered its own unique advantage. Over the last couple of years, as the baseball team pushed for the ACC or NCAA Tournament, large numbers of fans crowded the ramp of the parking garage. Given the stadium's configuration, the fans stood quite literally over the field of play, and their cheering delivered a loud, rowdy crowd rivaling any of the team's ACC rivals.
I'll always carry my own Shea memories, as will everyone who attended a game or played there. The way the crowd would roar is something that's always stuck with me and it's something I hope carries over to the new field. That the last series is against Notre Dame makes it special, and I hope, with graduation around the corner, that the students send the team onto their own future in their own way.
*****
"Lott" of Talent
Boston College defensive end Harold Landry is one of 42 athletes named to the 2017 Ronnie Lott IMPACT Trophy Watch List. It's the first of what we can assume will be a long year of hearing Landry's name mentioned among the nation's most elite name.
The award is named for Ronnie Lott, a Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back known for gritty toughness and determination. Considered one of the best safeties in NFL history, he was a four-time Super Bowl champion with San Francisco with his number retired by the 49ers franchise. In 1985, Lott infamously had the tip of his pinkie finger crushed making a tackle. Rather than have surgery, he instead had the fingertip amputated so he wouldn't miss any time on the field.
Luke Kuechly won the award back in 2011 and he seemed to turn out okay in the NFL. Here's to hoping so many more accolades come Landry's way as we transition into the summer and the eventual start of the 2017 football season.
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