Photo by: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Underdogs No More
March 14, 2024 | Men's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
BC's win over Clemson made its intentions widely known for the rest of the ACC
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass -- The first round of any college basketball tournament feels more like a group stage celebratory feel than its later rounds. The overarching storylines backdrop the games against the biggest and best teams available for the second or third day, and it's not until the arrival of those "better teams" that the seriousness melts away the happy-go-lucky environment of those first days.
Few teams advance to deeper days after playing in a first round, so the first day angles its eyes towards the second round entry of higher seeds likely to play in a quarterfinal or semifinal game. On rare occasions, the first round team wins, but it's akin to a first day upset by some prohibitive underdog in the NCAA Tournament.Â
First round teams aren't supposed to advance, and they certainly aren't supposed to demolish a better seed in a conference tournament. Yet two years after BC snuck into the ACC Quarterfinals by winning its first two games, Boston College head coach Earl Grant walked into his locker room after a 21-point win over sixth-seeded Clemson with simple words for his team:
"They say we're underdogs. I say we're under God."
Just like that, the most dangerous team in the ACC Tournament was born.
"I'm thankful," Grant said in his opening statement of the ACC's postgame press conference. "I'm happy for our players, just the efforts they've been putting in for multiple years, just to see the fruit of their labors, that they can get rewarded from all the labors and the hard work they've put in. I thought they played great, they played hard, they were connected, and we showed a lot of grit. I'm just proud of the players and really happy for our program."
Tuesday night's game offered one of the best individual postseason performances in program history when center Quinten Post gobbled through Miami's smaller lineup for a 30-point double-double, but the Eagles understood that center P.J. Hall and forward Ian Schieffelin were two rebounding machines that allowed Clemson to double down whenever Post and Devin McGlockton touched the basketball.
Both earned top ACC honors earlier in the week, and both Hall, an expected All-ACC First Team selection, and Schieffelin, the league's Most Improved Player, got Post and McGlockton to commit three combined fouls in the first half by attacking the rack on both ends of the floor. The two calls forced Post to the bench with nine points and enabled Hall to score nine points on 4-of-6 shooting - an identical field goal line to the 11 points produced by Syracuse transfer Joseph Girard III - but it never broke the spirit of a team that immediately shifted into a team-based outer game built around guards Jaeden Zackery and Claudell Harris, Jr.
"We just weathered the storm," Grant said. "The first time we played Clemson, we had six players. We had a stomach bug hit, and Quinten didn't play. Six guys went out and played as hard as they could, and we lost the game, so I think that helped.
"Sometimes adversity and negativity is supposed to be bad," he explained, "but sometimes you grow from it. So I think those experiences allowed us to grow, so when we got in that situation tonight, nobody flinched. Nobody panicked."
Playing in the ACC postseason sparked Harris in particular, and the feisty Charleston Southern transfer made the most of his spotlighted appearance by scoring 14 points with four rebounds in the first half. Zackery joined him in double figures with a hard-fought 10 points and five boards, and once Post re-entered the game for regular duty in the second half, BC turned into a guard-centric team that allowed the 7-foot center to pick apart Clemson's double down defense with his passing to the tune of five second half assists.
The lead, in turn, never shrunk to single digits when the Tigers made an inevitable run at the start of the second half. They'd been held to 37 percent shooting in the first half but made a stand out of the locker room after a series of mini-runs that included consecutive points made, but killing the momentum with a 5-0 run by Harris and a future 6-2 run built around Harris, Hand and free throws by Armani Mighty kept Clemson at arm's length. A later 3-0 run brought the Tigers back within 14, but an 8-0 run in the final minutes slammed the door shut with a commanding 20-point victory that included 38 minutes with BC in the lead.
"We were just playing BC basketball, holding them to under 60," said McGlockton. "That's what we do, and when we hold opponents under 60, we're going to win."
"I think everybody just played really well," Post added, "especially Donald Hand Jr. from the bench. Really proud of him. I think Elijah Strong gave us great minutes, and I think me and Dev really held our own down there. I think they're a really physical team, and we matched their physicality tonight. And it showed."
Post still finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and seven assists - and three fouls after preventing Clemson from getting him into deeper trouble in the second half - but his individual-best from one night earlier melded with Harris and Zackery, who became the first teammates to score at least 22 points in an ACC Tournament game since Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman scored 26 and 24, respectively, in a four-point win over N.C. State in the 2018 bracket held in Brooklyn, to lead the Eagles into the quarterfinal round for the second time in Grant's three years.
"You would like to be off the first day," Grant admitted, "and sometimes you think that rest is good, but getting that first game under your belt can help, as well. I think it was just momentum. We played great yesterday. We had a lot of confidence coming into this game. I think the momentum helped us."
That momentum now hopes to carry into a quarterfinal game against a third-seeded Virginia team that didn't expect to rematch with a BC team that gave it fits and starts earlier this season. In a twist of fate, the after-dark matchup on Thursday echoes the four-point decision from a 9 p.m. Conte Forum start earlier this year, but it now represents something bigger for an Eagle side looking to solidify its postseason resume by achieving its first 20-win season in 13 years.
"They play very tough on defense," Post said. "I think we played a great game against Virginia the first time. They're kind of thin up front a little bit, so that gave me some opportunity to get down low and score some points, but the key to me is Reece Beekman. He's a really good player who hurt us in the first game. We've got to find a way to stop him. I think if we do that, and we play the way we played offense tonight, we have a really good shot at beating those guys."
Boston College and third-seeded Virginia tip-off at 9:30 p.m. from Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. The winner advances to face the winner of the game between second-seeded Duke and tenth-seeded NC State, which bulldozed Syracuse with an 83-65 victory ahead of BC's game on Wednesday.Â
Both games can be seen on ESPN as part of another four-game slate on the Worldwide Leader. In the other quarterfinal matchups, top-seeded North Carolina plays Florida State at noon on ESPN, followed by Wake Forest and fourth-seeded Pittsburgh at 2:30 p.m on ESPN2. The later games start at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. with coverage back on ESPN. All games can be seen online through the network's Internet and mobile streaming device app family.
For the BC game, radio coverage is available via the Boston College Sports Network from Learfield, locally in Boston on WEEI 850 AM.
Few teams advance to deeper days after playing in a first round, so the first day angles its eyes towards the second round entry of higher seeds likely to play in a quarterfinal or semifinal game. On rare occasions, the first round team wins, but it's akin to a first day upset by some prohibitive underdog in the NCAA Tournament.Â
First round teams aren't supposed to advance, and they certainly aren't supposed to demolish a better seed in a conference tournament. Yet two years after BC snuck into the ACC Quarterfinals by winning its first two games, Boston College head coach Earl Grant walked into his locker room after a 21-point win over sixth-seeded Clemson with simple words for his team:
"They say we're underdogs. I say we're under God."
Just like that, the most dangerous team in the ACC Tournament was born.
"I'm thankful," Grant said in his opening statement of the ACC's postgame press conference. "I'm happy for our players, just the efforts they've been putting in for multiple years, just to see the fruit of their labors, that they can get rewarded from all the labors and the hard work they've put in. I thought they played great, they played hard, they were connected, and we showed a lot of grit. I'm just proud of the players and really happy for our program."
Tuesday night's game offered one of the best individual postseason performances in program history when center Quinten Post gobbled through Miami's smaller lineup for a 30-point double-double, but the Eagles understood that center P.J. Hall and forward Ian Schieffelin were two rebounding machines that allowed Clemson to double down whenever Post and Devin McGlockton touched the basketball.
Both earned top ACC honors earlier in the week, and both Hall, an expected All-ACC First Team selection, and Schieffelin, the league's Most Improved Player, got Post and McGlockton to commit three combined fouls in the first half by attacking the rack on both ends of the floor. The two calls forced Post to the bench with nine points and enabled Hall to score nine points on 4-of-6 shooting - an identical field goal line to the 11 points produced by Syracuse transfer Joseph Girard III - but it never broke the spirit of a team that immediately shifted into a team-based outer game built around guards Jaeden Zackery and Claudell Harris, Jr.
"We just weathered the storm," Grant said. "The first time we played Clemson, we had six players. We had a stomach bug hit, and Quinten didn't play. Six guys went out and played as hard as they could, and we lost the game, so I think that helped.
"Sometimes adversity and negativity is supposed to be bad," he explained, "but sometimes you grow from it. So I think those experiences allowed us to grow, so when we got in that situation tonight, nobody flinched. Nobody panicked."
Playing in the ACC postseason sparked Harris in particular, and the feisty Charleston Southern transfer made the most of his spotlighted appearance by scoring 14 points with four rebounds in the first half. Zackery joined him in double figures with a hard-fought 10 points and five boards, and once Post re-entered the game for regular duty in the second half, BC turned into a guard-centric team that allowed the 7-foot center to pick apart Clemson's double down defense with his passing to the tune of five second half assists.
The lead, in turn, never shrunk to single digits when the Tigers made an inevitable run at the start of the second half. They'd been held to 37 percent shooting in the first half but made a stand out of the locker room after a series of mini-runs that included consecutive points made, but killing the momentum with a 5-0 run by Harris and a future 6-2 run built around Harris, Hand and free throws by Armani Mighty kept Clemson at arm's length. A later 3-0 run brought the Tigers back within 14, but an 8-0 run in the final minutes slammed the door shut with a commanding 20-point victory that included 38 minutes with BC in the lead.
"We were just playing BC basketball, holding them to under 60," said McGlockton. "That's what we do, and when we hold opponents under 60, we're going to win."
"I think everybody just played really well," Post added, "especially Donald Hand Jr. from the bench. Really proud of him. I think Elijah Strong gave us great minutes, and I think me and Dev really held our own down there. I think they're a really physical team, and we matched their physicality tonight. And it showed."
Post still finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and seven assists - and three fouls after preventing Clemson from getting him into deeper trouble in the second half - but his individual-best from one night earlier melded with Harris and Zackery, who became the first teammates to score at least 22 points in an ACC Tournament game since Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman scored 26 and 24, respectively, in a four-point win over N.C. State in the 2018 bracket held in Brooklyn, to lead the Eagles into the quarterfinal round for the second time in Grant's three years.
"You would like to be off the first day," Grant admitted, "and sometimes you think that rest is good, but getting that first game under your belt can help, as well. I think it was just momentum. We played great yesterday. We had a lot of confidence coming into this game. I think the momentum helped us."
That momentum now hopes to carry into a quarterfinal game against a third-seeded Virginia team that didn't expect to rematch with a BC team that gave it fits and starts earlier this season. In a twist of fate, the after-dark matchup on Thursday echoes the four-point decision from a 9 p.m. Conte Forum start earlier this year, but it now represents something bigger for an Eagle side looking to solidify its postseason resume by achieving its first 20-win season in 13 years.
"They play very tough on defense," Post said. "I think we played a great game against Virginia the first time. They're kind of thin up front a little bit, so that gave me some opportunity to get down low and score some points, but the key to me is Reece Beekman. He's a really good player who hurt us in the first game. We've got to find a way to stop him. I think if we do that, and we play the way we played offense tonight, we have a really good shot at beating those guys."
Boston College and third-seeded Virginia tip-off at 9:30 p.m. from Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. The winner advances to face the winner of the game between second-seeded Duke and tenth-seeded NC State, which bulldozed Syracuse with an 83-65 victory ahead of BC's game on Wednesday.Â
Both games can be seen on ESPN as part of another four-game slate on the Worldwide Leader. In the other quarterfinal matchups, top-seeded North Carolina plays Florida State at noon on ESPN, followed by Wake Forest and fourth-seeded Pittsburgh at 2:30 p.m on ESPN2. The later games start at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. with coverage back on ESPN. All games can be seen online through the network's Internet and mobile streaming device app family.
For the BC game, radio coverage is available via the Boston College Sports Network from Learfield, locally in Boston on WEEI 850 AM.
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
C
/ Men's Basketball
F/C
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballMen's Basketball: UMass Postgame Press Conference (Dec. 10, 2025)
Thursday, December 11
Women's Basketball: Bryant Postgame Press Conference (Dec. 9, 2025)
Wednesday, December 10
Rowing: Christmas Music
Tuesday, December 09
Rowing: Favorite Thanksgiving Food
Tuesday, December 09
