ACC Basketball: Analyzing each team’s returning impact players for 2023-24
By Cade Haak
Boston College
Boston College has struggled greatly in recent years trying to compete in the deep ACC. It has been 5 seasons now since the Eagles finished with a winning record, but after a shaky past season where they finished one game under .500 things are finally looking up for BC. After last season where they were closer to finding success than they have been in years, they will now be able to return a majority of their key pieces from last year’s team. They are returning five players from last year’s roster that scored 5 or more points, one of these five being ACC Most Improved Player Quinten Post.
Alongside Post, the other of these four players are Prince Aligbe, Devin McGlockton, Jaeden Zackery, and Mason Madsen. Although each of these players should be expected to take a step forward with the departure of Makai Ashton-Langford, and DeMarr Langford, the two names with the most focus on them are Jaeden Zackery and Quinten Post.
In his sophomore season, Jaeden Zackery was able to show his worth in multiple ways on the court for the Eagles. Despite putting up nearly identical numbers to his freshman year at BC Zackery showed moments of potential that could put him amongst the best guards in the ACC. Since taking on a bigger role for the team Zackery’s overall efficiency took a slight dip in year two with the team, but when he was able to perform efficiently he proved his importance.
In games where Zackery was able to score 15 or more points the Eagles had a perfect record of 7-0. On top of his very solid offensive numbers where he added 10.7 points and 2.7 assists to the slate for BC he was also able to pull in 1.45 steals per game which made him one of the best perimeter pickpockets in the entire conference. With the addition of a great 3-point shooter in Claudell Harris Jr. to the roster some of the spacing issues that the Eagles faced should be fixed, and with that Zackery should be able to work his way inside the arc where he shot 46% this season.
Quinten Post is another player that should be able to take advantage of this new addition to help add another offensive dimension to the team. This past season, Boston College ranked 14th in overall scoring amongst the ACC. This stagnant offense largely stemmed from the lack of quality 3-point shots they were able to make as a team (they also ranked 14th in 3-point percentage.)
Despite the lack of spacing inside in his 19 games played, Post was still able to lead the whole team in points with 15.1 per game and rebounds with 5.6 per. He also put up these impressive numbers in the midst of a season where he was sidelined for just under half the team’s matchups due to a nagging foot injury. If Post is able to remain healthy in the upcoming season he will be one of the most dangerous centers to match up against in the entire conference. He showed last season that he has the versatility on the offensive end of the floor to be a matchup nightmare for many teams.
Post was the lone player in all of Division 1 basketball to post a shooting line of better than 50/40/80. This shows that with his 7-foot height not only can he post up and draw fouls, but he can also extend the floor and pull opposing big men to open up the floor for his teammates. A healthy Quinten Post could easily help the Eagles make a jump into the upper half of the conference, and finally break the skid of losing seasons they’ve begun to build.