Photo by: Brent Greenberg
Anatomy Of A Comeback
January 18, 2022 | Men's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
Down 23, BC did its job over the final 32 minutes to beat Clemson in historic fashion
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- With just over seven minutes left in the first half of Boston College's game against Clemson on Saturday, guard Makai Ashton-Langford missed a pull-up jumper from just inside the 3-point line. Clemson guard Hunter Tyson tracked down the rebound, and as the Tigers ran the floor, the Eagles struggled to recover defensively. They looked out of sync, and they hadn't scored in over three minutes. The situation was exacerbating, and when Nick Honor floated a pass to PJ Hall, Jaeden Zackery stepped over to try and take a charge from the 6-10 sophomore big man.
Hall semi-missed receiving the pass, but he caught enough of it to heave a desperation shot at the basket as he tumbled into Zackery. The whistle blew, and as the game broke into a media timeout, the blocking foul on the Boston College guard felt like everything was going against the Eagles. They simply couldn't catch a break defensively, they couldn't score offensively, and the game was on the verge of getting out of hand early.
When the game resumed after the break, Hall stepped to the line and sank both his free throws to give Clemson a 34-11 lead. At that moment, ESPN's win probability estimated that the Tigers had a 99.5 percent chance of beating Boston College.
From that moment on, what amounted to the greatest comeback in modern Boston College basketball history unfolded at the Littlejohn Coliseum. Playing freely and without reservation, the Eagles slowly chipped away at the lead until, with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game, a Brevin Galloway 3-pointer did the unthinkable. Ten seconds later, a foul shot from Ashton-Langford extended BC's first lead of the game to two points, and as Clemson desperately attempted to disjointedly find its mojo. A desperation heave came up short and the Tigers instead walked off their home court with an undeniable, unbelievable defeat.
Boston College 70. Clemson 68. Final.
"We've had a couple of tough weeks where we lost some close games," head coach Earl Grant said after the game. "We showed some great perseverance and character. We were down big in the game and didn't execute our game plan in the first seven minutes. The crowd was really loud, the students were back, and with about 7,500 fans, it was very loud. It bothered us and we got down big, but then we just started chipping away. We got a hammer out and started chipping away. It was an amazing feeling in those last eight minutes when there was a high level of belief."
The dissection of a rally doesn't always need to include some momentous speech or highlight. There isn't always the clip of Antoine Walker sitting in a huddle yelling at Paul Pierce during the 2002 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, and there isn't necessarily going to be a Kevin McHale there to clothesline Kurt Rambis to fire up his team (though, to be fair, McHale would be ejected and suspended for a number of games if he did that in 2022).Â
Those types of grand displays are more for the flashy Hollywood types, and that's just not Earl Grant's style. His coaching metaphors are more about building foundations and climbing mountains, and if BC had lost, he likely wouldn't have focused too much on the negatives. He wouldn't have been happy or satisfied, but he would have broken down the loss as any other game on the team's schedule. He would have searched for positives after the game got out of hand, all while emphasizing why that happened in the first place.
So while Hollywood loves a good comeback, there wasn't some magical moment to BC's ability to stun Clemson at home. The Eagles were simply patient and emphasized their brand of basketball. The offense worked patiently and looked for an extra pass to establish an open shot, and the defense bore into its zone for gritty stops to stop anything resembling a transition opportunity.
In some ways, having that deficit actually made it easier to play that way. Nobody had to pay attention to the scoreboard or calculate how many possessions were needed to mount a comeback, and nobody focused on what needed to happen in the five minutes after the minute they were playing. Instead, BC simply went about its business and focused on one individual possession, then moved onto the next one.Â
That brought the lead down to 15 on consecutive 3-pointers by Galloway, and in the final minute of the half, it lowered again to seven on a quick, 8-0 run. It whittled the lead down to one by the halfway point of the second half, but that entrenched mindset to simply win possessions pushed BC past a panic point when Clemson ran the lead back to eight. BC finally broke through on Galloway's 3-pointer in the closing seconds, and at the end of the game, it ultimately ended in elation.
"We took better shots on offense," Grant said, "and we took care of the ball better, which eliminated a lot of the run-out scramble shots. We eliminated bad shots and eliminated turnovers, but then we gritted our teeth and just really got down to the defensive stance. We were connected and just played really gritty. I didn't know how much we were down. I knew we were down by a lot, but I didn't really pay attention to how much we were down. We just kept believing and kept chipping away and found a way to win."
"I played terrible in the first half," Ashton-Langford said. "I completely took responsibility for us being down so much in the first half with all the turnovers that I had, and my teammates, Brevin, JZ, my little brother [Demarr Langford] just kept me composed. I was able to fight through that first half drought and ended up coming with the win late. That felt amazing. That was an amazing feeling."
Just like that, the Earl Grant era wiped away several ignominious numbers staring at BC since the start of the season. The Eagles won a road game for the first time in over 20 games and won a game for the first after trailing both at halftime and with five minutes to go in regulation, as well for the first time in a game decided by five points or less. They finally broke through after suffering consecutive defeats that came down to the last possession.
BC broke a nine-game losing streak against Clemson by winning for the first time since March 5, 2013, a game somewhat ironically stamped as the Eagles' first-ever win at Littlejohn Coliseum. They also beat a team ranked inside the top-50 of the ESPN BPI for the first time this year and beat a team ranked inside the top-50 of the KenPom ratings for the second time.
It's a win that will have staying power, and it's one that will last a lifetime if BC can use it to launch forward even more into the Grant era.Â
"We just have to stick with each other," Ashton-Langford said. "We know what we did [against Clemson] worked, so we just have to stick with it and keep on grinding to get better and better each day, just pushing each other. That's all [the coaches] want us to do."
Hall semi-missed receiving the pass, but he caught enough of it to heave a desperation shot at the basket as he tumbled into Zackery. The whistle blew, and as the game broke into a media timeout, the blocking foul on the Boston College guard felt like everything was going against the Eagles. They simply couldn't catch a break defensively, they couldn't score offensively, and the game was on the verge of getting out of hand early.
When the game resumed after the break, Hall stepped to the line and sank both his free throws to give Clemson a 34-11 lead. At that moment, ESPN's win probability estimated that the Tigers had a 99.5 percent chance of beating Boston College.
From that moment on, what amounted to the greatest comeback in modern Boston College basketball history unfolded at the Littlejohn Coliseum. Playing freely and without reservation, the Eagles slowly chipped away at the lead until, with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game, a Brevin Galloway 3-pointer did the unthinkable. Ten seconds later, a foul shot from Ashton-Langford extended BC's first lead of the game to two points, and as Clemson desperately attempted to disjointedly find its mojo. A desperation heave came up short and the Tigers instead walked off their home court with an undeniable, unbelievable defeat.
Boston College 70. Clemson 68. Final.
"We've had a couple of tough weeks where we lost some close games," head coach Earl Grant said after the game. "We showed some great perseverance and character. We were down big in the game and didn't execute our game plan in the first seven minutes. The crowd was really loud, the students were back, and with about 7,500 fans, it was very loud. It bothered us and we got down big, but then we just started chipping away. We got a hammer out and started chipping away. It was an amazing feeling in those last eight minutes when there was a high level of belief."
The dissection of a rally doesn't always need to include some momentous speech or highlight. There isn't always the clip of Antoine Walker sitting in a huddle yelling at Paul Pierce during the 2002 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, and there isn't necessarily going to be a Kevin McHale there to clothesline Kurt Rambis to fire up his team (though, to be fair, McHale would be ejected and suspended for a number of games if he did that in 2022).Â
Those types of grand displays are more for the flashy Hollywood types, and that's just not Earl Grant's style. His coaching metaphors are more about building foundations and climbing mountains, and if BC had lost, he likely wouldn't have focused too much on the negatives. He wouldn't have been happy or satisfied, but he would have broken down the loss as any other game on the team's schedule. He would have searched for positives after the game got out of hand, all while emphasizing why that happened in the first place.
So while Hollywood loves a good comeback, there wasn't some magical moment to BC's ability to stun Clemson at home. The Eagles were simply patient and emphasized their brand of basketball. The offense worked patiently and looked for an extra pass to establish an open shot, and the defense bore into its zone for gritty stops to stop anything resembling a transition opportunity.
In some ways, having that deficit actually made it easier to play that way. Nobody had to pay attention to the scoreboard or calculate how many possessions were needed to mount a comeback, and nobody focused on what needed to happen in the five minutes after the minute they were playing. Instead, BC simply went about its business and focused on one individual possession, then moved onto the next one.Â
That brought the lead down to 15 on consecutive 3-pointers by Galloway, and in the final minute of the half, it lowered again to seven on a quick, 8-0 run. It whittled the lead down to one by the halfway point of the second half, but that entrenched mindset to simply win possessions pushed BC past a panic point when Clemson ran the lead back to eight. BC finally broke through on Galloway's 3-pointer in the closing seconds, and at the end of the game, it ultimately ended in elation.
"We took better shots on offense," Grant said, "and we took care of the ball better, which eliminated a lot of the run-out scramble shots. We eliminated bad shots and eliminated turnovers, but then we gritted our teeth and just really got down to the defensive stance. We were connected and just played really gritty. I didn't know how much we were down. I knew we were down by a lot, but I didn't really pay attention to how much we were down. We just kept believing and kept chipping away and found a way to win."
"I played terrible in the first half," Ashton-Langford said. "I completely took responsibility for us being down so much in the first half with all the turnovers that I had, and my teammates, Brevin, JZ, my little brother [Demarr Langford] just kept me composed. I was able to fight through that first half drought and ended up coming with the win late. That felt amazing. That was an amazing feeling."
Just like that, the Earl Grant era wiped away several ignominious numbers staring at BC since the start of the season. The Eagles won a road game for the first time in over 20 games and won a game for the first after trailing both at halftime and with five minutes to go in regulation, as well for the first time in a game decided by five points or less. They finally broke through after suffering consecutive defeats that came down to the last possession.
BC broke a nine-game losing streak against Clemson by winning for the first time since March 5, 2013, a game somewhat ironically stamped as the Eagles' first-ever win at Littlejohn Coliseum. They also beat a team ranked inside the top-50 of the ESPN BPI for the first time this year and beat a team ranked inside the top-50 of the KenPom ratings for the second time.
It's a win that will have staying power, and it's one that will last a lifetime if BC can use it to launch forward even more into the Grant era.Â
"We just have to stick with each other," Ashton-Langford said. "We know what we did [against Clemson] worked, so we just have to stick with it and keep on grinding to get better and better each day, just pushing each other. That's all [the coaches] want us to do."
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