Clock Strikes Midnight On Cinderella Story
March 11, 2022 | Men's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
Accomplishments run deeper than a one loss in Brooklyn.
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- It was the unthinkable moment at the worst possible time.
One day after beating Wake Forest in overtime, Boston College was once again in possession of the basketball at the end of an extra period. The darlings of the ACC Tournament battled Miami for nearly 45 minutes throughout their quarterfinal matchup, and a trip to the ACC semifinals beckoned with a matchup against Coach K's Duke Blue Devils. As time wound down, the Eagles held possession with under 10 seconds remaining in a 69-69 game.
It took less than an instant to turn those dreams into a nightmare. Makai Ashton-Langford missed a game-winning layup, and after a defensive rebound for the Hurricanes, a go-for-broke steal opportunity by Jaeden Zackery missed its mark and broke Miami's Charlie Moore into the mid-court. He looked up and saw Jordan Miller streaking towards the basket, and after he floated the perfect full-court pass, Miller's layup line shot fell virtually uncontested through the hoop with an agonizing sense of finality.
Miami 71. Boston College 69. The Hurricanes exploded off their bench, and BC, the valiant challenger, was left without its happy ending.
"Guys played really hard with a lot of energy and effort," said a clearly-dejected Earl Grant after the game. "They followed the game plan[but just came up a little bit short. Miami did what they needed to do to keep the game at one possession all throughout the night, and then at the end, they found a way to get a layup on us at the buzzer."
"It was surreal," added James Karnik, who watched the basket from the backcourt. "I couldn't believe it. I saw Miller leaking out, and I saw it opening, but in my mind, I was like, 'No, there's definitely not enough time.' Something's going to give, or he's going to miss it or something's going to go away because we fought so hard.
"I'm not trying to say I'm a fairytale believer," he said. "I believed we were going to win the championship."
Obvious, bitter disappointment hung on Karnik and the Eagles after the game, but unpacking what BC accomplished led viewers to a team that captured the hearts and minds of the college basketball world over its three-day odyssey. Having entered the tournament as the No. 13 seed, many expected this edition to bow out on either the first or second day. Instead, BC destroyed Pittsburgh before rallying from a double-digit deficit to beat a tournament team in Wake Forest.
That led to a matchup with Miami, a team BC played eight days earlier. The Eagles remained prohibitive underdogs, but a surging belief throughout the Barclays Center enveloped them by tip-off because nobody thought they would simply roll over. Least of all, the Hurricanes looked at the game with a tinge of anxiety, knowing any team at this point of the season could advance to play in coveted weekend games.
"We were in practice but saw the end of the game," Moore said. "We saw Boston College and knew they were a different team. They were playing hard. They were playing like they had nothing to lose out there. So we knew it was going to be a hard-fought game and a battle to the end."
Every metric pointed to a better Miami team at the start, but BC elevated itself at several intervals by outsmarting and outhustling the Hurricanes. Grant, the first year coach of the Eagles, switched between man-to-man and zone-based defenses against a speed-based offense, and his team, though clearly tired by playing its third game in as many days, neutralized both Isaiah Wong and Sam Waardenburg by refusing to let them slash and run past the defensive back line.
"We obviously did our film and our scout," Karnik said, "but it's different when you're playing a team for the first time. I think we all knew collectively what to expect in the second game. I feel like we did a tremendous job in our gaps to make sure the ball didn't get downhill. We stopped them in transition while limiting our turnovers. Those were big keys for us."
BC altered the pace with a more physical, methodical style. Five players scored in double figures, and both DeMarr Langford Jr. and Zackery saw 40-plus minutes of game time. Ashton-Langford added 39 minutes one day after he played 44 minutes against Wake Forest, and Brevin Galloway came off the bench to score 12 points in 27 minutes.
They, along with Quinten Post and Karnik down low, kept pounding and never let Miami run out in transition. The teams traded seven lead changes and led for almost the same amount of time while the remaining seven minutes of game time was spent in a tie situation. Both built and subsequently lost leads, but neither team built the kind of double-digit advantage that made either bench feel comfortable.
And in the end, both teams had opportunities to win the game as time expired. In the second half, a Miami miss in the closing seconds sprung Galloway for a desperation, half-court heave that bounced off the backboard and rim before deflecting away, and in overtime, BC's miss handed a last chance to the Hurricanes, which ended the game despite the 45-minute effort for a second straight game.
"Guys did a great job," Grant emphasized. "We had them in the 60's in regulation. We typically win when we hold somebody into the 60s. So somehow they got it to overtime, but we had it where we wanted in terms of our tempo, our plan. I thought we did a good job of making them play our game.
"A big key was keeping them out of transition," he added, "and we did. Then [Miller] got one at the end, a transition basket."
The loss ended BC's season and the first year of the Earl Grant era with a 13-20 overall record, but looking within those lines laid clear how much the new coach impacted the team. The style's approach of "gritty, not pretty" harkened back to an older era and a golden age in Chestnut Hill when the Eagles annually won 20 games and contended for an NCAA Tournament spot, and the team itself played with an underdog mentality built when analysts overlooked BC as a cobbled group of unproven unknowns. In the end, everything came together for a magical run in Brooklyn exemplified by the win over the Demon Deacons and the near-victory against the Hurricanes.
"We knew we had a hill to climb," Grant said, "and we've still got a hill to climb. But the three seniors who played this year actually helped us get from one place to another. We're not at the top, but we're not flat at the bottom, either."
Grant constantly tackled the journey from its base camp this year and eschewed common statistical measures centered around wins and losses. The wins mattered, but he melted the losses with a focus on the grind and the growth. The process mattered more than the results, at least for one season, and the seniors, understanding this was their final shot, recognized it was their responsibility to lay a foundation for future years.
By doing that, BC recaptured the imagination of a fan base long jaded by a decade spent chasing an unattainable, NCAA Tournament goal. The infamy, at times futile in its attempt to reach the bracket for the first time since 2009, cast a long shadow, but years now more than a decade into a rearview mirror no longer feel that far removed from a future belief that the drought is ending, once and for all.
"We ask our guys to get up, go to class, come to practice, take care of their bodies," he continued. "That's really what we've been doing to try to get them to be a dependable man. I think winning finds you when you start to becoming a dependable, everyday man. I think that's what happened to us. We've been fighting for it all year, and these last couple of days, it was just a group of guys that people can depend on."
"As a player who transferred in two years ago, the type of culture Coach Grant set from day one, I just have to commend him," Karnik added. "It's completely different. He made coming to practice enjoyable. The whole culture, the environment is so great from staff to managers to players. He did an amazing job coming in for his first year and I loved playing for him."
One day after beating Wake Forest in overtime, Boston College was once again in possession of the basketball at the end of an extra period. The darlings of the ACC Tournament battled Miami for nearly 45 minutes throughout their quarterfinal matchup, and a trip to the ACC semifinals beckoned with a matchup against Coach K's Duke Blue Devils. As time wound down, the Eagles held possession with under 10 seconds remaining in a 69-69 game.
It took less than an instant to turn those dreams into a nightmare. Makai Ashton-Langford missed a game-winning layup, and after a defensive rebound for the Hurricanes, a go-for-broke steal opportunity by Jaeden Zackery missed its mark and broke Miami's Charlie Moore into the mid-court. He looked up and saw Jordan Miller streaking towards the basket, and after he floated the perfect full-court pass, Miller's layup line shot fell virtually uncontested through the hoop with an agonizing sense of finality.
Miami 71. Boston College 69. The Hurricanes exploded off their bench, and BC, the valiant challenger, was left without its happy ending.
"Guys played really hard with a lot of energy and effort," said a clearly-dejected Earl Grant after the game. "They followed the game plan[but just came up a little bit short. Miami did what they needed to do to keep the game at one possession all throughout the night, and then at the end, they found a way to get a layup on us at the buzzer."
"It was surreal," added James Karnik, who watched the basket from the backcourt. "I couldn't believe it. I saw Miller leaking out, and I saw it opening, but in my mind, I was like, 'No, there's definitely not enough time.' Something's going to give, or he's going to miss it or something's going to go away because we fought so hard.
"I'm not trying to say I'm a fairytale believer," he said. "I believed we were going to win the championship."
Obvious, bitter disappointment hung on Karnik and the Eagles after the game, but unpacking what BC accomplished led viewers to a team that captured the hearts and minds of the college basketball world over its three-day odyssey. Having entered the tournament as the No. 13 seed, many expected this edition to bow out on either the first or second day. Instead, BC destroyed Pittsburgh before rallying from a double-digit deficit to beat a tournament team in Wake Forest.
That led to a matchup with Miami, a team BC played eight days earlier. The Eagles remained prohibitive underdogs, but a surging belief throughout the Barclays Center enveloped them by tip-off because nobody thought they would simply roll over. Least of all, the Hurricanes looked at the game with a tinge of anxiety, knowing any team at this point of the season could advance to play in coveted weekend games.
"We were in practice but saw the end of the game," Moore said. "We saw Boston College and knew they were a different team. They were playing hard. They were playing like they had nothing to lose out there. So we knew it was going to be a hard-fought game and a battle to the end."
Every metric pointed to a better Miami team at the start, but BC elevated itself at several intervals by outsmarting and outhustling the Hurricanes. Grant, the first year coach of the Eagles, switched between man-to-man and zone-based defenses against a speed-based offense, and his team, though clearly tired by playing its third game in as many days, neutralized both Isaiah Wong and Sam Waardenburg by refusing to let them slash and run past the defensive back line.
"We obviously did our film and our scout," Karnik said, "but it's different when you're playing a team for the first time. I think we all knew collectively what to expect in the second game. I feel like we did a tremendous job in our gaps to make sure the ball didn't get downhill. We stopped them in transition while limiting our turnovers. Those were big keys for us."
BC altered the pace with a more physical, methodical style. Five players scored in double figures, and both DeMarr Langford Jr. and Zackery saw 40-plus minutes of game time. Ashton-Langford added 39 minutes one day after he played 44 minutes against Wake Forest, and Brevin Galloway came off the bench to score 12 points in 27 minutes.
They, along with Quinten Post and Karnik down low, kept pounding and never let Miami run out in transition. The teams traded seven lead changes and led for almost the same amount of time while the remaining seven minutes of game time was spent in a tie situation. Both built and subsequently lost leads, but neither team built the kind of double-digit advantage that made either bench feel comfortable.
And in the end, both teams had opportunities to win the game as time expired. In the second half, a Miami miss in the closing seconds sprung Galloway for a desperation, half-court heave that bounced off the backboard and rim before deflecting away, and in overtime, BC's miss handed a last chance to the Hurricanes, which ended the game despite the 45-minute effort for a second straight game.
"Guys did a great job," Grant emphasized. "We had them in the 60's in regulation. We typically win when we hold somebody into the 60s. So somehow they got it to overtime, but we had it where we wanted in terms of our tempo, our plan. I thought we did a good job of making them play our game.
"A big key was keeping them out of transition," he added, "and we did. Then [Miller] got one at the end, a transition basket."
The loss ended BC's season and the first year of the Earl Grant era with a 13-20 overall record, but looking within those lines laid clear how much the new coach impacted the team. The style's approach of "gritty, not pretty" harkened back to an older era and a golden age in Chestnut Hill when the Eagles annually won 20 games and contended for an NCAA Tournament spot, and the team itself played with an underdog mentality built when analysts overlooked BC as a cobbled group of unproven unknowns. In the end, everything came together for a magical run in Brooklyn exemplified by the win over the Demon Deacons and the near-victory against the Hurricanes.
"We knew we had a hill to climb," Grant said, "and we've still got a hill to climb. But the three seniors who played this year actually helped us get from one place to another. We're not at the top, but we're not flat at the bottom, either."
Grant constantly tackled the journey from its base camp this year and eschewed common statistical measures centered around wins and losses. The wins mattered, but he melted the losses with a focus on the grind and the growth. The process mattered more than the results, at least for one season, and the seniors, understanding this was their final shot, recognized it was their responsibility to lay a foundation for future years.
By doing that, BC recaptured the imagination of a fan base long jaded by a decade spent chasing an unattainable, NCAA Tournament goal. The infamy, at times futile in its attempt to reach the bracket for the first time since 2009, cast a long shadow, but years now more than a decade into a rearview mirror no longer feel that far removed from a future belief that the drought is ending, once and for all.
"We ask our guys to get up, go to class, come to practice, take care of their bodies," he continued. "That's really what we've been doing to try to get them to be a dependable man. I think winning finds you when you start to becoming a dependable, everyday man. I think that's what happened to us. We've been fighting for it all year, and these last couple of days, it was just a group of guys that people can depend on."
"As a player who transferred in two years ago, the type of culture Coach Grant set from day one, I just have to commend him," Karnik added. "It's completely different. He made coming to practice enjoyable. The whole culture, the environment is so great from staff to managers to players. He did an amazing job coming in for his first year and I loved playing for him."
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
F/C
/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
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