Boston College 84, Wake Forest 68: Eagles Win Big On Senior Day
by Brian Favat on Mar 7, 2011 8:30 AM EST
in Boston College Basketball
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PrintBrian: The Eagles let the Deacons hang around for the games first 8 minutes before using an 18-2 run midway through the first half to pull away en route to a 84-68 victory over Wake Forest. The win pushes BC's record to 19-11 (9-7 ACC) and gives the Eagles the no. 5 seed in this week's ACC Tournament.
BC seniors Corey Raji (21 points, 6 boards), Biko Paris (19 points, 4 assists) and Joe Trapani (17 points, 3 boards) had big nights in their final home game in the maroon and gold. The Eagles -- led by Biko's 6-7 three point shooting -- finally got hot from beyond the arc, finishing 12-22 (54.55 percent).
Let's get right to what everyone has on their minds: BC's NCAA Tournament resume.
The Eagles earned a rematch against Wake Forest in the 5-12 matchup on Thursday (2 PM, ACC Network). Should BC get past Wake, they would face Clemson on Friday at 2 PM. I maintain that BC is in with a second win over Wake Forest. Others disagree, saying that Friday's BC-Clemson matchup is an NCAA Tournament elimination game.
So which is it? One more win, or two (or more) for BC?
Jeff: I think we all agree that losing to Wake ensures BC of an NIT rather than NCAA berth. After that, BC needs to assure itself that they are among the top four considered by the committee out of the ACC. Going into the weekend, BC was the third best ACC school based on RPI but Florida State certainly has a better overall resume according to 99 percent of people.
Then BC should certainly get chosen over Virginia Tech after having beaten them twice this season and Virginia Tech finishing the season with two losses going into the ACC Tournament. Clemson, however, might be able to say the same in comparison to BC after Friday. If Clemson beats BC, they'll be able to point to two victories over the Eagles when fighting for one of those final at-large bids into the tournament.
Unfortunately, this may very well be only a four team league this season. I do not see any scenario where the league gets only three teams regardless off how crazy the events of the week play out, but it is difficult to see five teams and impossible to see six. Losing to Clemson will not mean certain elimination for the Eagles, but it could be real tough for them to get in. If they lose a close game, their chances improve. If they lose in blowout fashion, NIT it is.
The strange thing is that with two wins in the ACC Tournament, I don't think BC is even on the bubble come Sunday. With a victory over Clemson and a game against UNC on Saturday, the Eagles are safely in the dance. BC controls its own destiny right now as much as a bubble team possibly can without winning their conference tournament.
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MY percentages
Lose to Wake- 0% chance at the Dance.
Beat Wake, lose to Clemson- 50% chance but will definitely be in Dayton on Tuesday or Wednesday (that 50% could move a lot depending on other conference tourneys/bid stealers).
Beat Wake, Beat Clemson, any outcome of UNC- 98% chance of making the dance and probably not in Dayton barring a blowout loss to the Tar Heels.
I thing all Eagle fans are anxious but I think we are playing as well as we have at any point in the season. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, that Wake game we need to jump on them early. The other 11 ACC schools fans’ will be cheering for the Deacs and it is in North Carolina…
Yahoo's "Bracket Big Board"
very surprisingly has 6 ACC teams in.
UNC and Duke 2 seeds.
Florida St 10 seed
Boston College 11 seed
Clemson and VT 12 seeds
Too Pessimistic
ESPN.com & Yahoo both have 6 ACC teams.
Obviously this depends on the ACC Tourney plus others that could mess things up. But as long as there is no super upset in a conference tourney and a non-tourney team sneaks in, ACC should get 5. A BC win and non-blow out loss to Clemson should be enough.
Lunardi
Has the potential BC-Clemson game as an “elimination” game. I hope that’s not true b/c I still don’t like that match-up, but it’d be nice if BC could make the semi’s and take some of the suspense out of its selection.
Anyone know what BC’s RPI and SOS numbers will look like after another Wake Forest win?
Pre-Wake game
RPI 40, SOS 18
Still waiting for http://www.realtimerpi.com to update with yesterday’s win. Would give us a good sense of what the numbers would look like with another win.
BC Interruption, SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
Wow ...
RPI 45, SOS 28
Slight dip in RPI, 10 point drop in SOS. Playing Wake is killing our SOS.
BC Interruption, SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
At least playing Wake at a neutral site Thursday won’t hurt SOS and RPI as bad.
by Jeff Martyn on Mar 7, 2011 6:32 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
I hate the bubble
Wake is a definite win IMO. Clemson can go either way tho. I would love to beat Clemson and avoid the play in game but im 50/50 about that game right now. I think that a win vs Wake is enough to get us in (and if were lucky a bye in the first round) and the Clemson game is just to get a higher seed. I hope teams like Marquette, Michigan, MSU etc can get an early loss in their tournament.
HAND DOWN MAN DOWN- MARK JACKSON
We beat Wake, we're most likely in
Unless, like many of you said, we get blown out by Clemson. We should be able to beat Clemson, no reason why we cant. However, if VT does well and we lose to Clemson, that could mean bad things for us…
If y'all lose to us then you should fold the team.
In all seriousness…you will beat us handily.
I think you are in if you play Clemson close. Beating them would certainly get you in.
Wake Forest '12
Mother So Dear
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