Boston College Basketball: Can Eagles reach NCAA Tournament?

Can they actually do it?

Just five of the 16 team members are upperclassmen. The Eagles lost their only senior, graduate forward Deontae Hawkins, to a knee injury on Dec. 8 after just eight games. At the time of the injury, Hawkins led the team in rebounding (9.1) and was third on the team in scoring (13.4).

While the loss of Hawkins definitely hurts, the good news several players have stepped up. Robinson is averaging 22.4 points while shooting 54.7% from the field and 48.8% from long distance during conference play. In the meanwhile, not only has Bowman upped his scoring production during conference play (18.7) but he is grabbing 8.7 rebounds in seven ACC games.

Those two are not the only ones that have increased their production. 6-foot-11 sophomore Popovic, a 6-foot-11 sophomore, and Mitchell, a 6-foot-8 freshman, also have shown significant improvement as the season has moved forward — which is exceptional news with the Eagles lacking depth overall.

Popovic, who has two games of double-digit rebounds this season, has scored 10 or more points in five of the seven conference games. Mitchell, who has seen his minutes increase since Hawkins’ injury, has been up-and-down this year as expected. Mitchell has collected all three of his double-doubles over his last nine contests and has six double-figure rebound games on the season.

BC has quite a manageable schedule remaining with the ACC being a little down overall this year. The Eagles do not have any more games against the top-five conference teams. They still have home and home games with Syracuse, Miami, and Notre Dame.

The Eagles also have home games against Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. As well as road trips to NC State, Pittsburgh, and Florida State, who BC defeated at home on Jan. 23.

So, it looks like the Eagles have a legitimate chance of NCAA Tournament bid as 19 or 20 regular season wins seems realistic. Especially if they are able to split their three home and home series that they have remaining. At the very least, the Eagles should get an NIT invite unless they completely collapse.

BC is rated as the 78th best team in the nation by Team Rankings and 75th by ESPN’s BPI. The Eagles are 1-3 against teams ranked in the top-25. The Eagles are also 11-1 at home and just 1-5 on the road.