Heights Hoops Update #5
By Andrew Linnehan
Boston College found themselves in the toughest week of basketball they’ll have to play all season as they welcomed in #16 Virginia and #9 North Carolina. Fresh off their redemption loss to Syracuse dropping them to 9-9 on the season (2-3 in the ACC), the Eagles were in a vulnerable spot in danger of falling deep into the cellar of the conference, a place they seem to have owned real estate in over the last few seasons.
Loss: #16 Virginia 71 Boston College 54 (9-10, 2-4 ACC)
I’ll go ahead and say it, the Virginia Cavaliers are in my opinion the best coached team in the ACC. That’s right. Not Roy Williams. Not Coach K. Not Rick Pitino. Not Jim Boeheim. But Tony Bennett (not the singer or bust former #1 overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers). Although Virginia has consistently been the best team in the ACC over the last three years, they do not draw in recruits equivalent to the talents that Duke, UNC, NC State, and others haul in. Bennett does not use his lack of high recruits as an excuse. Instead, he turns guys like London Perrantes (ranked 93rd recruit in his high school class) into a household name during the tournament, Malcolm Brogdon into one of the most efficient 3-and-D players in the NBA, and leads a team you’d never think of to the #1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.
Bennett’s recipe to success is to preach efficiency, offensively and defensively. Out of over 300 teams that qualify in all of college basketball, his disciplined teams surrender the 2nd fewest turnovers per game at 9.7 and third in assist to turnover ratio at 1.6. While they average just under 70 points a game, they do it at the 4th best national efficiency at 49.6% from the field. With exception to their bad overtime loss to Pittsburgh, the Cavaliers surrender under 58 points per contest in the ACC (for reference, BC surrenders 79.4). By committing so few turnovers, shooting efficiently, and defending with great discipline, Virginia not only competes with more talented teams in the conference, but they win those games against opponents including then #6 Louisville and #14 Notre Dame on Tuesday.
Because of Virginia’s impressive national rank in noted areas, the Eagles recognized that they would have their hands full. To be successful against this kind of team, it is crucial to limit mistakes like turnovers and blown defensive assignments.
However, Virginia also recognized what they needed to do in order to be successful against the youthful but talented Eagles: shut off Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman and dare someone else to beat them. This was Virginia’s defensive scheme since the tip, and Boston College struggled to find multiple significant sources of points to compete.
It wouldn’t do justice to say UVA won the turnover battle, but rather they bullied BC in turnovers to the point where they took the ball countless times and probably their lunch money too. They forced 16 turnovers (which is a slight improvement for BC compared to other games) but they only suffered 5 turnovers. FIVE! The entire game. To put that in perspective, Connar Tava also had 5 himself. I would hypothesize that nearly every game, the victorious team is the team with less turnovers. Boston College dug themselves a deep hole with mistakes and Virginia was relentless in finishing the burial. Virginia suffocated Boston College and cruised to a 71-54 win.
The Cavaliers maintained control for the entire game as it was a double digit game the entire game since about 3 minutes into the action. As mentioned earlier, the defensive gameplan made it imperative to limit Robinson and Bowman as they’re clearly the two most talented offensive players BC has. Robinson faced tenacious defense and would find every shot contested. He struggled tremendously in the first half as he accumulated just 1 point, but finished the game with 9 points on 4-14 shooting. As for Bowman, one of the hottest offensive players in the nation, his offense was stifled to the point where he could only manage one field goal attempt in the first half. He finished with 7 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. With Robinson and Bowman combining for 1 point in the first half and tallying just 16 between the two (both players averaging over 16 each since ACC play began), BC was in deep trouble and had to find offense elsewhere.
For the first time this season, BC’s leading scorer was Jordan Chatman. The BYU transfer had a career-high 16 points (6-9 FG), hitting 2 of his 4 3-point shots. Chatman, the purest shooter on the squad, can be viewed as BC’s third resort for bulk scoring due to his ability to shoot set shots or off the dribble. Chatman has a fluent stroke and actually has a better shooting percentage from 3-point range than conventional 2-point land. Chatman’s efficient night is encouraging for the Eagles going forward. Look for Chatman to continue shooting in coming games, particularly on nights that Robinson and/or Bowman are off.
One positive aspect of the night is their rebounding improved. Rebounding, defensively and offensively, has been a problem for the Eagles as they seem to get outrebounded on a nightly basis. However, BC outrebounded Virginia 34-26, 8 of which were offensive. The starting frontcourt for the Eagles took on the bulk of the rebounding responsibility as Connar Tava had a season-high 11 rebounds (and 12 points to get his first double-double) and Mo Jeffers chipped in 5. Nik Popovic continues to develop and strung together 8 rebounds as well.
Going into this game, I emphasized the importance of limiting turnovers. 16 turnovers is right on par with their average of 15.9 turnovers per game (ranking a whopping 332nd in the country). In their last 2 losses to Syracuse and Virginia, they have turned the ball over 36 times while their opponent just 11 times collectively. The first step in BC’s pursuit of improving to become competitive with every team in the conference is taking care of the ball.
Loss: North Carolina 90 Boston College 82 (9-11, 2-6 ACC)
This game against Hall of Famer Roy Williams’ boys would represent arguably the biggest challenge Boston College will face all season. The Tar Heels are on a roll, one where they’ve had no mercy on their last 5 opponents and have an average margin of victory of 20 points. This streak includes a 13 point win over now #6 Florida State, 17 point mercy whooping over Syracuse, and a laughable 51 point win over their instate rival NC State. Needless to say, UNC was hot coming in.
However, BC clearly stepped up to the challenge since the tip, something they were unable to do against Virginia. Jim Christian found ways to incorporate his studs in Robinson and Bowman in his offense, another thing that didn’t happen against UVA. They both were able to create shots from quick ball exchanges and picks from big guys to free up lanes to the basket or lead to uncontested jumpers. Bowman was having a shooting day similar to his eye-opening performance against Syracuse on January 1st. BC was ferocious on defense and aggressive on offense and went into halftime down 33-32.
Boston College was able to keep pace for the first 15 minutes of the second half as well, and the home crowd was getting a slight sniff of an upset brewing. The Eagles were riding the hot hand of Ky Bowman and relying on Robinson to contribute the rest of their buckets down the stretch. With 5 minutes left, BC found themselves in a one possession game.
Yet, the dominating height UNC possesses finally became too thick of a pill for BC to swallow. Kennedy Meeks was an absolute monster for the Tar Heels all day long. The monstrous 6’10” 260 lb center was just too much for Mo Jeffers to handle. UNC became reliant on Meeks as their source of offense down the line as he clearly had the biggest offensive advantage. He knocked down hook shots, tough layups, and dunks to finish with 20 points (9-16 FG) and 9 rebounds. Junior forward Justin Jackson hit shots the entire game, but primarily clutch ones down the line and finished with 22 points (6-16 FG, 3-6 3FG). Due to UNC’s size and length, they have been dominant on the boards all season, averaging 45.9 rebounds a game, the most in the entire nation. Considering rebounding is typically one of BC’s weaknesses, withholding UNC to 39 rebounds is fairly impressive. However, the Tar Heels still won the rebound battle 39-29, a major component to their victory. Behind the skill of Jackson and bulk of Meeks, North Carolina pulled out the 90-82 win.
Ky Bowman had another career day, as he put up 33 points (13-19 FG, 7-9 3FG) with 3 boards and 4 assists. He is now the only freshman in Division 1 basketball to have three 30 point games (33 vs Fairfield, 30 vs Syracuse, 33 vs UNC). Not bad for the kid Jim Christian had benched for Ty Graves to take the starting point guard role twice earlier in the year. Robinson had 18 points (7-21 FG, 2-7 3FG), 3 boards, and 3 assists. That means Bowman and Robinson combined for 40 of BC’s 68 total shots, and 20 of their 32 made shots. How’s that for shot distribution? (Answer: not good). Although this isn’t necessarily the shot distribution I’m sure Jim Christian was aiming for, it is better than having these two players accumulate 20 shots and just 16 points against Virginia. In order to be more successful, they must find a middle ground to ensure the incorporate secondary scorers more like AJ Turner (7 points), Jordan Chatman (8 points), and Nik Popovic (4 points).
Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about turnovers. Again, BC stayed on pace with their embarrassing rate of 16 turnovers a game with 15 against UNC. This is a slight improvement, but take that with a grain of salt, particularly since 8 of those turnovers were at the expense of Ky Bowman. In 10 of BC’s 11 losses, they committed more turnovers than the team they lost to (only exception was the loss against Wake Forest). Coincidence? That’s for you to decide.
The Road Ahead
Boston College (9-11) @ Miami (12-6) 1/25 9:00
Miami is a very vulnerable team. They’ve lost their last four of their last five games with their only win coming over an unordinary lame Pittsburgh team. They’re not incredibly impressive in any area. They shoot a decent 46.1% from the field and 37.2% from deep. Yet, I believe that a hot night from either Ky or Jerome would suffice over this weaker Hurricane team. Hopefully Ky Bowman’s encore to his hot game against Miami will be better than his encore performance of Syracuse against Wake Forest where he was 3-15 from the field and 1-8 from 3-point range. Once again, limiting turnovers and controlling the boards will be the areas of concern for the Eagles. Last time I put a team on upset alert (Syracuse the first time around), BC pulled it off. Let’s make it 2 for 2. Miami, you’re officially on upset alert!
Prediction: Boston College 75 Miami 68
Boston College (9-11) @ Virginia Tech (15-4) 1/29 6:30
Virginia Tech is an up-and-coming team in the ACC. They actually cracked the AP Top 25 after their impressive win over then #5 Duke in their ACC opener. They suffered losses from superior teams like Florida State and Notre Dame, but a perplexing 26 point loss to NC State showed they’re susceptible to off nights. Yet, they’re an efficient team that shoots about 49% from 3 and average just over 12 turnovers a game. They have a balanced attack of scorer that I believe the Eagles will struggle with on the road.
Prediction: Virginia Tech 79 Boston College 63