Brian: If the first half of the season is any indication of BC’s future success on the hardwood, it may be a long, long new year for Eagles fans. Despite defeating South Carolina on Wednesday, kenpom has the Eagles losing thirteen consecutive ACC games:
Sat January 9 | (16) Clemson | L, 78-64 | 9% | Away |
Wed January 13 | (3) Duke | L, 84-61 | 2% | Away |
Sat January 16 | (55) Maryland | L, 74-73 | 50% | Home |
Tue January 19 | (27) Miami (Fla.) | L, 72-61 | 13% | Away |
Sat January 23 | (43) Virginia Tech | L, 67-59 | 17% | Away |
Tue January 26 | (16) Clemson | L, 73-67 | 27% | Home |
Sat January 30 | (42) Florida State | L, 65-64 | 42% | Home |
Sat February 6 | (3) Duke | L, 79-64 | 8% | Home |
Tue February 9 | (34) Wake Forest | L, 75-64 | 15% | Away |
Sun February 14 | (42) Florida State | L, 69-60 | 17% | Away |
Sat February 20 | (36) North Carolina | L, 79-76 | 40% | Home |
Wed February 24 | (43) Virginia Tech | L, 63-62 | 43% | Home |
Sat February 27 | (24) Georgia Tech | L, 75-63 | 13% | Away |
This looks eerily similar to the 2007-2008 season where the Eagles lost 12 of their final 13 regular season ACC games. Tell me why this year will be different than 2007-08.
Jeff: This is a very depressing analysis. But, to look on the bright side, these predictors are simply based on the results in our first 13 games and do not account for injuries like when Sanders was hurt. If the South Carolina game was any indication, we are definitely an improving team and we are much better with a healthy Sanders in the lineup than without him. We can use other record predictors such as Real Time RPI which offers up a slightly more optimistic outlook for the Eagles (winning 2 of our next 13). The bottom line is that things do not look great for our basketball future and our team needs to play a lot better in order to sniff a .500 league record, let alone make the Big Dance.
Fortunately, after playing at Clemson and Duke in our next two ACC games, the Eagles have a stretch of 5 very winnable games starting with playing Maryland at home. We should be 2-2 in conference at that point with plenty of opportunities to notch some wins ahead of us. The other thing you must remember about this team is that they really play up to the level of the big name opponents - Rakim Sanders in particular. Despite how dismal these predictors look right now, no game is out of the question for this team to win as we saw last year when they won in Chapel Hill. It will be interesting to see how these predictors change, if at all, after we have a few more games under our belt with the new starting lineup.
Big Finish
Brian: Ryan Purvis has surfaced in Tampa Bay as he was promoted from the practice squad to the active roster. Will Purvis and the Buccaneers get a win over Matt Ryan and the Falcons in the season finale?
Jeff: No chance. The Falcons will win.
Jeff: The BC-USC game drew a 5.0 overnight rating, good for the third most watched game of last year's bowl season outside of the BCS. Will this help BC's chances of getting a better bowl draw next year?
Brian: Nope. Bowls don't profit off of strong TV ratings. Bowls profit off of butts in seats.
Brian: Orange County Register writer Michael Lev takes exception to the media giving the Emerald Bowl’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player award to BC’s Luke Kuechly. Your thoughts?
Jeff: Kuechly did have a game-high 16 tackles. But I can see his point, too.
Jeff: A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that 63 percent of college football fans want a playoff. Is this significant?
Brian: No. The format of college football's postseason has never been about what the fan wants.
Brian: Jared Dudley leads the NBA in three point shooting, hitting over 50% of shots beyond the arc. Impressive, right?
Jeff: Very impressive. Hopefully he doesn't start chucking up too many threes now.
Jeff: William & Mary is now 2-0 versus the ACC in basketball this year and 1-0 in football. Should Swafford put a league-wide ban on scheduling the Tribe?
Brian: Either that or offer William & Mary admission to the conference. Either way.
Brian: Last one, not to look past tonight's game, but the big men’s hockey game this weekend is #5 Boston College facing #2 Denver in the Denver Cup (in what is hopefully the championship game). Who ya got? What’s the final score?
Jeff: 3-2 Eagles. Go BC!