Photo by: Joe Sullivan
"Progress Is Progress" As BC Heads Into Holy War On Hardwood
December 03, 2021 | Men's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
Notre Dame kicks off the ACC schedule for the Eagles.
The results of Boston College's first seven games under Earl Grant required a little extra context prior to Monday night's game against South Florida. The Eagles were 4-3, but to the casual onlooker, the games played out exactly as expected. The wins against mid-major competition were reasonable for any power conference team, while the losses appeared when BC stepped out of those games to play teams perceived as better or stronger in their present form. Two of the three losses were against the same team, but the uphill battle remained the same despite a change in venue from a road game to a neutral site.
Those final scores flowed like a gentle river current, which is why nobody could predict the oncoming rush of rapids from the Monday night game against the Bulls. Envisioning a win over a symmetrical opponent wasn't impossible, but pleasant surprise still permeated after the Eagles dominated down the stretch of a 15-point win over an AAC opponent.
"To be honest, all the games are the same to me," Grant said after the win. "Whether you're home or away, you try to come up with a great plan, and you want to go out and try to execute the plan. There are times you execute and play really well and lose, but you know if you play the game the right way, then it is what it is [because] sometimes you're going to play great and still lose. We were able to win a game at home for our fans, and hopefully we can continue to build and get people excited by playing the right way and moving the program in the right direction."
Beating South Florida wasn't on par with a potential game against a top-ranked opponent, but the measuring stick changed with the Eagles' win over the Bulls. They were the first team to score 60 points against USF, and four players scored double figures against a team that pushed a nationally-ranked Auburn team to its limit. T.J. Bickerstaff scored 10 points for the fourth time this season, and his eight rebounds marked the fifth and sixth games of the year with at least seven and five boards, respectively.
Jaeden Zackery only scored three points, but he limited turnovers and added three assists for his fifth game with multiple helpers. It was the first time he didn't score 10 points in four games, but his helpers were part of a larger, 15-assist game that included seven from Makai Ashton-Langford.
"We started passing and really cutting hard," Ashton-Langford said. "We got the defense to react. They got tired because every time you cut hard [to the basket], the defense is eventually going to start getting lazy. Then on the other side, we can get a back door [pass] or a throw to [Quinten Post] and James [Karnik]. They then got aggressive in the paint and tired [the defense] out."
It was one of the most complete team efforts of the season, and each player played their respective role to perfection. There were items to work on, but the effort and energy showed how everyone fit into Grant's system if they bought into the controllable intangibles of heart and energy.
Langford largely stayed off the foul sheet while offering crucial, critical defense, and his renaissance continued the stabilization of the backcourt unit with Zackery. Their ongoing distribution and facilitation at both ends of the floor opened opportunities for both Bickerstaff and Makai's brother DeMarr Langford Jr., while James Karnik led all scorers with 12 points after he physically asserted himself against the USF defense.
"It's a game of runs," Grant said. "We had about two minutes where we had miscues or didn't make the right play, and we didn't execute. We gave [USF] some life, and they cut the lead to six, then cut it to four before we settled down and kept it simple on offense. We just started to execute better, but we hunkered down on defense. Brevin [Galloway]'s corner three to get it back to seven was crucial. TJ had a dunk or a layup that got it back to nine. We changed to a matchup defense instead of playing man-to-man, and we switched to burn some time off the clock to make plays that we needed to win."
Overcoming deficiencies is a part of every basketball team in every game, but BC handled South Florida like a veteran team and not a team with a handful of games under a new coach. Even with older players who have experience in college basketball, the Eagles haven't played much basketball together, and the wins and losses don't truly indicate the work done off the court in practice or in the film room. Gelling those players togethers takes time, and the fruits of those labors aren't always guaranteed.
Beating USF, though, is a modest step in the right direction. It builds momentum and progress, and it sets a tone for Friday's ACC opener against Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are favored, but the perceived mismatch is constructed more from the history between the two teams than the actual, in-game matchup. It's a lopsided rivalry dating back to Notre Dame's arrival in the ACC, and not even the four-game split over the last two years could do much to change that narrative.
The analytics crowd hates BC's chances in this game, but some of the numbers are propped up by Notre Dame's circumstances. The Irish are 3-2 but still rank in the top-50 of the KenPom rankings because their losses were both close and against better-seeded teams. They only lost to St. Mary's by three and dropped their last two games by six and by 10 to Texas A&M and Illinois, resulting in a top-45 spot for a team that beat Cal State-Northridge, High Point and Chaminade.
The three wins were by an average of 17 points, more than double the average loss margin, which is why, specifically, both the Basketball Power Index and the statistics skew towards Notre Dame for the conference opener, but even poking holes in the numbers isn't a worthwhile practice. It's an explanation or a reasoning, but it does nothing to determine the outcome of the upcoming game, a game in which Grant simply hopes winning becomes the byproduct of the progress and process of building a program.
"Progress is progress," Grant said. "I've been trying to make progress with this group, and we're very aware that we have a lot of climbing to do. We have a lot of work to do, but I'm glad we were able to find a way to get on the winning side of it. Now we just have to keep improving. We didn't have many turnovers, and we made the right call at the right place. I thought the guys were very mature with late game execution [against USF], and that was progress from what I've seen in the last couple of weeks."
BC and Notre Dame tip off on Friday at 6 p.m. from Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on national television on the ACC Network and can be streamed via ESPN's platform available online and via mobile devices. The game can also be heard via the Boston College Sports Network from Learfield, broadcast locally on WEEI 850 AM.
Those final scores flowed like a gentle river current, which is why nobody could predict the oncoming rush of rapids from the Monday night game against the Bulls. Envisioning a win over a symmetrical opponent wasn't impossible, but pleasant surprise still permeated after the Eagles dominated down the stretch of a 15-point win over an AAC opponent.
"To be honest, all the games are the same to me," Grant said after the win. "Whether you're home or away, you try to come up with a great plan, and you want to go out and try to execute the plan. There are times you execute and play really well and lose, but you know if you play the game the right way, then it is what it is [because] sometimes you're going to play great and still lose. We were able to win a game at home for our fans, and hopefully we can continue to build and get people excited by playing the right way and moving the program in the right direction."
Beating South Florida wasn't on par with a potential game against a top-ranked opponent, but the measuring stick changed with the Eagles' win over the Bulls. They were the first team to score 60 points against USF, and four players scored double figures against a team that pushed a nationally-ranked Auburn team to its limit. T.J. Bickerstaff scored 10 points for the fourth time this season, and his eight rebounds marked the fifth and sixth games of the year with at least seven and five boards, respectively.
Jaeden Zackery only scored three points, but he limited turnovers and added three assists for his fifth game with multiple helpers. It was the first time he didn't score 10 points in four games, but his helpers were part of a larger, 15-assist game that included seven from Makai Ashton-Langford.
"We started passing and really cutting hard," Ashton-Langford said. "We got the defense to react. They got tired because every time you cut hard [to the basket], the defense is eventually going to start getting lazy. Then on the other side, we can get a back door [pass] or a throw to [Quinten Post] and James [Karnik]. They then got aggressive in the paint and tired [the defense] out."
It was one of the most complete team efforts of the season, and each player played their respective role to perfection. There were items to work on, but the effort and energy showed how everyone fit into Grant's system if they bought into the controllable intangibles of heart and energy.
Langford largely stayed off the foul sheet while offering crucial, critical defense, and his renaissance continued the stabilization of the backcourt unit with Zackery. Their ongoing distribution and facilitation at both ends of the floor opened opportunities for both Bickerstaff and Makai's brother DeMarr Langford Jr., while James Karnik led all scorers with 12 points after he physically asserted himself against the USF defense.
"It's a game of runs," Grant said. "We had about two minutes where we had miscues or didn't make the right play, and we didn't execute. We gave [USF] some life, and they cut the lead to six, then cut it to four before we settled down and kept it simple on offense. We just started to execute better, but we hunkered down on defense. Brevin [Galloway]'s corner three to get it back to seven was crucial. TJ had a dunk or a layup that got it back to nine. We changed to a matchup defense instead of playing man-to-man, and we switched to burn some time off the clock to make plays that we needed to win."
Overcoming deficiencies is a part of every basketball team in every game, but BC handled South Florida like a veteran team and not a team with a handful of games under a new coach. Even with older players who have experience in college basketball, the Eagles haven't played much basketball together, and the wins and losses don't truly indicate the work done off the court in practice or in the film room. Gelling those players togethers takes time, and the fruits of those labors aren't always guaranteed.
Beating USF, though, is a modest step in the right direction. It builds momentum and progress, and it sets a tone for Friday's ACC opener against Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are favored, but the perceived mismatch is constructed more from the history between the two teams than the actual, in-game matchup. It's a lopsided rivalry dating back to Notre Dame's arrival in the ACC, and not even the four-game split over the last two years could do much to change that narrative.
The analytics crowd hates BC's chances in this game, but some of the numbers are propped up by Notre Dame's circumstances. The Irish are 3-2 but still rank in the top-50 of the KenPom rankings because their losses were both close and against better-seeded teams. They only lost to St. Mary's by three and dropped their last two games by six and by 10 to Texas A&M and Illinois, resulting in a top-45 spot for a team that beat Cal State-Northridge, High Point and Chaminade.
The three wins were by an average of 17 points, more than double the average loss margin, which is why, specifically, both the Basketball Power Index and the statistics skew towards Notre Dame for the conference opener, but even poking holes in the numbers isn't a worthwhile practice. It's an explanation or a reasoning, but it does nothing to determine the outcome of the upcoming game, a game in which Grant simply hopes winning becomes the byproduct of the progress and process of building a program.
"Progress is progress," Grant said. "I've been trying to make progress with this group, and we're very aware that we have a lot of climbing to do. We have a lot of work to do, but I'm glad we were able to find a way to get on the winning side of it. Now we just have to keep improving. We didn't have many turnovers, and we made the right call at the right place. I thought the guys were very mature with late game execution [against USF], and that was progress from what I've seen in the last couple of weeks."
BC and Notre Dame tip off on Friday at 6 p.m. from Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on national television on the ACC Network and can be streamed via ESPN's platform available online and via mobile devices. The game can also be heard via the Boston College Sports Network from Learfield, broadcast locally on WEEI 850 AM.
Players Mentioned
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