Legacy Game for QP Sends BC Flying Into Second Round

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Boston College and Miami are not natural rivals on a basketball court. They share a history dating back to the Hurricanes' admittance to the Big East, but the two teams had one meeting at the old Roberts Center before Miami became a conference opponent at the start of the 1989-90 season. They still don't share a geographic alliance or an ancient throwback beyond the 21st century, and the late years before both teams realigned into the Atlantic Coast Conference are littered with a number of dominating performances by an Eagles team that won the Big East championship and routinely ranked atop the nation's elite.

Lacking a shared history doesn't place Miami atop the list of BC's big time opponents leading into a season, but for some reason, the basketball gods saw the Earl Grant era as a the perfect vehicle for pitting the Eagles and Hurricanes together. For three years, the amount of shared memories, particularly at the end of a season, created magic on the hardwoods and built a rivalry spanning Massachusetts, Brooklyn, South Florida, and now Washington, D.C.

As recent as last year, a Miami team that went to the Final Four found itself taken to overtime by a BC team that missed the postseason because of non-conference slip-ups. The year before that, the Hurricanes ended the Eagles' Cinderella run through the ACC Tournament when a busted defensive coverage led to an uncontested layup as time expired in overtime. Even as recently as two weeks ago, BC won in South Florida for the first time in 14 years to spark a mini-rush to 11th place and a destiny rubber game between the two teams in the ACC Tournament.

Handed a third game against the teams, it wound up being the Hurricanes' last stand, but center Quinten Post daggered Miami's season on Tuesday night with a double-double that paced a 16-point victory in the ACC Tournament's First Round.

"He's a great player," said Grant after the team's win. "He's developed in the program. Came in pretty humble, wanted to be coached, wanted to get better. He got an opportunity to come off the bench his first year, and he just kept getting better."

Post's performance easily landed in Boston College's record books as one of the greatest offensive postseason nights by a single player, but there's a case that his 30-point, 12-rebound double-double eclipsed other names for a spot atop that hallowed list. A seven-foot center, he decimated Miami's frontcourt by shooting 10-for-18 from the floor while flexing outside for a 3-for-6 night on three-pointers. On two separate occasions, he broke Miami runs in the second half, and his last triple followed a Devin McGlockton layup to end a 7-0 run that brought BC's lead back to single digits.

Having that output offered a linchpin for a team that shot just under 50 percent from the floor, but his presence opened opportunities for shooters whenever Miami switched to a bigger lineup to double-down on the paint with a zone-based scheme. Even as he registered 13 rebounds, the rest of the starting five produced three additional players in double figures, and everyone who saw significant minutes grabbed multiple rebounds. Claudell Harris, Jr. and Jaeden Zackery in particular benefited with 28 combined points and 10 combined rebounds, but even McGlockton and Mason Madsen found themselves kicking into the game plan because Miami was forced to account for Post on nearly every possession.

"I think he has good teammates," Grant explained, and "they've been together for some years. He's got some new guys that he's connected with now, as well, I just think he wants to continue to play. I think he wants to continue. His brotherhood is probably the biggest thing, so he's been playing with good energy, good passion. He's been doing it all year, but I think that's the biggest thing, just the brotherhood and wanting to continue to play with his brothers."

"I would say it's been a big thing in practice," Zackery said. "We've been talking about rebounding down and box points. So the biggest thing we worked on is getting to the rim. We know that we have two of the best rebounders in the conference with Devin and QP, but we know we have great guards that can rebound, too, as it shows in the stats every game. So we've made a big point on just getting to the rim, being physical like the team we are, and just benefitting from it."

The end result built onto the legacy created when Tyrese Rice scored a program-best 32 points in a postseason game during a 2007 tournament matchup with, of all teams, Miami, and it furthered the notion that Post is the best big man to play for the Eagles in two decades. A former ACC Most Improved Player, he became the highest-rated All-ACC player since Ky Bowman took home Second Team honors after the 2018-2019 season, and his placement on the ACC All-Defensive Team made him the second such honoree in program history four years after Steffon Mitchell first grabbed the recognition.

The 47th member of the 1,000-point club, the Mississippi State transfer broke the number exclusively as a member of the BC team after recognizing his combined efforts as a 1,000-point scorer across two different programs, and while he won't place near the top of the program's overall record books, he is on pace to finish his career with numbers akin to Kenny Walls, Ryan Sidney, Nik Popovic, and Gerry Ward with an outside shot at getting near Jim O'Brien and Uka Agbai if BC can sustain an extended postseason run.

"First of all, he's skilled in every area of the game," said Miami coach Jim Larranaga. "He can shoot the three, he can post-up, he's got a great jump hook, but he's also a very unselfish player that finds the open man. He's a good passer, sees the floor very well. He rebounds at both ends of the court, and he defends the paint very well.

"We missed a free throw that would have cut it to seven," the coach added. "On the next possession, there was a lob, and he just deflected the pass right into his teammates' hands, and they went down and scored. All of a sudden, instead of eight, it's ten. And then we didn't score and it goes to 13 again. He is the catalyst for almost everything they do because he can play inside and outside, and your defense is constantly trying to figure out a strategy to slow him down. If you slow him down, that opens the perimeter players to launch threes."

BC now advances to face sixth-seeded Clemson in the Second Round of the ACC Tournament. The game is scheduled to begin with a late start at 9:30 p.m., and television coverage is available through ESPNU with online available through ESPN's family of Internet and mobile device apps. Radio broadcast will also be available through the Boston College Sports Network from Learfield, locally in Boston on WEEI 850 AM.

Legacy Game for QP Sends BC Flying Into Second Round

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Players Mentioned

Mason Madsen

Devin McGlockton

Quinten Post

Jaeden Zackery