Boston College Basketball: Can Eagles reach NCAA Tournament?
The Boston College Eagles have been one of the biggest surprises in the ACC.
Boston College is off to its best start since the 2010-11 season. The Eagles (13-7,3-4 ACC) have already matched their highest win total under current coach Jim Christian. The Eagles entered this year having posted a 29-67 record in Christian’s first three years. They went 13-19 overall and 4-14 during conference play in 2013-14, Christian’s first season with the team.
BC is coming off a 77-69 loss to Louisville on Sunday. Jerome Robinson led the Eagles with 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting against the Cardinals. It was the Eagles leading scorer’s 18th double-digit scoring game of the season.
Ky Bowman added 16 points and six rebounds against Louisville though he also committed seven of the team’s 16 turnovers. Jordan Chatman and Nic Popovich added 12 points apiece. Steffon Mitchell hauled in 11 rebounds, marking his sixth game of double-figure rebounds, while Popovich grabbed nine boards.
BC began the season with three straight wins and five victories in their first six games. Following two straight losses, the Eagles closed out their three-game road swing with a win over Hartford to improve to 6-3 on the season.
BC got its biggest win of the season win of the season with an 89-84 upset victory over then No. 1 Duke on Dec. 9. The Eagles would run off three more wins before suffering back-to-back close losses to Virginia and Clemson. Both of those teams were ranked at the time of the games.
Prior to the Louisville game, BC had won three of their previous four games. The Eagles are currently tied for eighth in the ACC.
BC ranks in the middle of the pack of the conference in both scoring (75.9) and scoring defense (70.8). However, the Eagles are 11th in scoring margin at plus-5.1 a game.
BC ranks 10th in the ACC in shooting percentage at 45.0%. And while the Eagles are tied for eighth in three-point percentage (36.4%), they are tied atop of the league in three-point field goals with 172.
BC is not great in any other offensive area. The biggest area that needs improvement offensively, is getting to the free throw line. The Eagles are shooting 72.5% from the charity stripe, but they have gotten to the free throw line just 356 times, which is the third fewest in the conference.
Defensively, BC is holding opponents to 41.3% shooting from the field and 32.8% from long distance. The Eagles have the fourth best defensive three-point percentage, although they have allowed the third most treys (160). They are also a good rebounding team. Their biggest problem, defensively, is that they don’t create turnovers. The Eagles rank second to last in the conference in creating turnovers at 12.4 a game as they are last with 4.6 steals a contest.
Boston College has not been invited to the NCAA Tournament since 2009. In fact, the last time the Eagles reached the postseason was in 2011 when they were invited to the NIT.