Boston College Men's Basketball Wins Exhibition Over AIC 70-66
by EagleAboveTheRim on Nov 5, 2011 5:54 PM EDT
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The score won't make this season look promising, but it really doesn't show that the game was really never that close.
Great debuts for Dennis Clifford, who was 8-9 shooting and had 17 points. Patrick Heckmann was impressive too, as he had 16 points, but he made a few bad decisions on a few turnovers. Matt Humphrey and Ryan Anderson showed flashes, but they were way too inconsistent. The point guard spot will be a major issue leading up to Nov. 14 against UNH, as neither Moton and Daniels played well. John Cahill, however, played well, and was 3-3 from 3 point land. KC Cauldill was decent, but he looked a little slow.
As for the team, they had some points where they looked like an ACC Top 5 team, and some like a team filled with freshman. After AIC's D.J. Gutridge made a jumper to cut the BC lead to 1, BC scored 7 straight, higlighted by 2 dunks by Clifford (who is amazingly fast for a center, by the way). BC then went on a 13-2 run to go up 25-13, and went into the half up 33-21.
The second half, however, was a different story. AIC cut the BC lead to 5 with 10:20 at 52-47. Donahue's team went out and immediatly responded, however, by scoring 6 straight and they led 68-58 with 2:51. Donahue sent in the benchwarmers, and AIC went on a 8-2 run to close the game.
Overall, I thought BC showed many flashes into the future and played pretty well. At times, this group looked like the next great BC team, and at times they were chasing AIC. I think this is a good note to end on heading into November 14 against UNH.
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Some thoughts on some of the players
STARTING 5
Heckmann: Looks like your standard European wing. Good, clear, grasp of fundamentals, ability to knockdown the midrange shot or the 3, but gonna need to adjust to the speed and physicality of the American game, which is where the turnovers come in. You can just tell though that he’s had a much better bball education than almost any of the other freshmen, which is probably why he’s starting. Reminds me a lot of Haukur Palson on Maryland at the beginning of last year.
Clifford: Obviously put up big numbers, but has absolutely no defensive presence. This kid is gonna get pushed around big time if he doesn’t learn how to step up. Shied away from contact and relied on the fact that he was 4 inches taller than any opponent to just dunk over them. Good speed as someone mentioned above, but almost no ups (queue White Men Can’t Jump joke). Painfully obvious that he didn’t know how to take a charge (he turned sideways at one point when a guy was coming right at him and allowed an and-1) or block shots. All of this is correctable (aside from the jumping) but it’s the kind of thing that usually takes a couple years as opposed to a couple games.
Cahill: Same as last year. Good ball-handler, can’t create his on shot, but he can knock it down if he gets it.
Humphrey: He’s a 3 playing as a 4 and I think that might be getting to him. Tried to force too many shots. Obviously got a lot of talent but has to think smarter. Looked like he was trying too hard.
Anderson: Probably the best athlete on the team, but unpolished. A lot of early turnovers. It’s clear that there’s gonna be an adjustment factor here for Ryan. All the pieces are there for him, he just needs to put it together. He’s right where he should be for a player of his caliber, unfortunately the expectations being placed on him are far above anything that can be considered reasonable. He’ll be a “good” ACC player before his time is done, but right now he isn’t and it’s unfair to expect him to be right off the bat.
OTHERS
Rubin: Played sparingly, looked about the same as last year. Got away with a shove that left his defender on the ground and gave him an easy layup for his only points. Solid on defense and fundamentally.
Daniels: Turned the ball over a bit too much, but showed flashes of potential, and like Anderson, looked to be about where he should be, but dealing with unreasonable expectations.
Caudill: Impressed me with his size, but seems to be fairly slow in a few areas. He can be an impact big in the ACC if he can adjust to the speed of the game, but that looks like it’s going to be a big “if” for him
Moton: Pretty much same as last year.
Odio and Jackson: Hard to get solid impressions from these guys. Reserving judgement
Overall, this team could be great in 2 years but is gonna struggle until then and that’s natural. These aren’t 1 and dones, but they look to be solid players. Getting experience and learning from it and building off of it is gonna be huge. The biggest issue for them is gonna be adjusting to the speed and physicality of the ACC game.
by spideyguy0 on Nov 5, 2011 7:16 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
(Shoulda made this into a Fanpost)
Great insight Spidey.
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Please, if you don’t mind throw one together. It’s better insight than anything I could have written and I was sitting there with Conrad!
Writer at BC Interruption SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
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just noticed
About Humphrey, it should obviously say he’s a 3 playing as a 2, not a 4.
A Few other general thoughts
I agree with Spidey on his analysis.
Here are a few other thoughts:
Donahue has them outletting and pushing the ball after every defensive rebound. Looks like we will be playing at a little bit faster pace than last year.
Late in the game Donahue was doing some offensive / defensive switches. Anderson & Daniels in for offense and Odio & Moton in for defense.
In the shootaround, BC has everyone shooting 3’s including the big men Caudill and Clifford. Everyone was hitting the shot.
Cahill is like an assistant coach. He definitely was the floor leader whenever he was on the floor. Always seems to be in the right place at the right time.
Humphrey was pretty active on D and got a few tips. A little miscast handling the ball but I have a feeling they will pushing the ball to get right into the half court set so they won’t need a true point guard on the floor.
On a good ACC squad, I could see Anderson, Clifford and Heckmann being top 7-8 rotation as freshmen. Unfortunately they’ll be starters this year so they may struggle at times.
Odio & Jackson (strength), Caudill (agility / speed) and Daniels (decision making) need to get some work in to earn minutes.
Totally agree on Defense. The only guy that went hard on defensive rebounds was Anderson. Definitely something that Clifford needs to work on. Kind of wish we recruited an athletic shot blocker for the 2012 class. Would be a nice compliment to our current bigs.
Overall, I’m excited to see this team improve this year. Everyone can shoot & pass and if they can limit freshman mistakes, they could be a tough out on most nights.
agree with all of this
very good insight.
Great Commentary
This season should be treated as one big exhibition game as a result of having all of these freshman. Practice is no substitute for real game conditions. They just need to play and learn and gain confidence. Hugely important for fans to cheer them on by attending games and staying positive. This was a weird program for Don to inherit – a nearly all senior laden team. But you knew when we did not recruit a single player in 09 that it would have weird consequences on the balance of the club.
Point guard will be the biggest issue in my mind
They started the game with Humphrey running the offense and he just couldn’t do it at all. Moton continues to show very little to indicate he’s a rotation player. Despite his turnovers, I think Daniels has to be the PG. Right now, his feet are faster than his brain but the talent and playmaking is there. The whole defense was focused on him every time he was bringing up the ball. They have to throw him in and let him work out the kinks.
What about Cahill or Rubin?
Cahill would seem to be the obvious choice to start the year as the PG .Rubin seems to be behind in the rotation for some reason, but I always thought he made smart decisions running the offense. Humphrey is not a point, and can’t be looked at to run the offense. Moton can, be he doesn’t have starter skill at this point. Good backup point though,
Niether Cahill or Rubin can handle the ball
Nor pass. They are spot up shooters and Rubin has shown he is questionable at that. Rubin looks uncomfortable and lost on offense and provides nothing on defense.
Cahill is actually one of the better ball-handlers on the team right now and a pretty good passer. Rubin’s passing is questionable but he seems to have a fairly good grip on the offense. They are both defensive liabilities, but hey, so is most of the team at this point.
Not sure the need is there
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see Daniels step up and be our prototypical point guard but not sure we necessarily need one to be successful.
If we’re able to push the ball on missed shots and get into the offense, we should be fine without a primary ball-handler. The offense is designed for every player to be able to dribble, pass and shoot. Humpfrey, Cahill and Heckmann can all handle well enough to facilitate in this offense.
good point
The style that Donahue runs (at least the one from last year, this year seems to be a bit more tradtional, but we’ll see) doesn’t rely on a PG to facilitate the offense the way a lot of other teams do. But, a system like that is incredibly hard to run with almost all freshmen and it was evident Saturday with players constantly not seeing open teammates on the perimeter (Humphrey, Clifford, Caudill, and to a lesser extent Rubin were all guilty of this). The bigs are gonna need to learn how to kick the ball out, Humphrey has got to become more of a team focused player, and Rubin needs to improve his court vision in order to make that scheme effective.
Yeah it's all how the players adapt to the system
I agree could be a rough year with mostly freshmen in the system. You can tell that they are still thinking about what they need to do in the system and less just reacting from it. On a side note, I actually really liked when they got Clifford the ball at the top of the key and hope they utilize him and Caudill a little bit more there.
Also I may be in the minority here but I don’t see Rubin getting much time at all. When he was in there I thought the movement on offense was pretty bad with him standing stationary on the 3 point line (except for the push that set him free for his one layup.) Rather see L. Jackson get those minutes.
As long as there is improvement over the course of the season I’ll be happy. We shall see.
Looking for to New Hampshire on Monday!
I could see both Rubin and Moton falling out of the rotation completely
Their “veteran” status may buy them a few minutes at the beginning of the season but it’s tough to see what they bring to the table. Moton may be a better defender than some of the other players but brings nothing else and isn’t good enough on defense to justify minutes.
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