NBA Draft Decision Time For Boston College's Reggie Jackson
by Brian Favat on May 4, 2011 7:58 AM EDT
in Boston College Basketball
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The deadline to remove your name from the NBA Draft in this Sunday, May 8. All indications are that BC's Reggie Jackson will keep his name in this year's Draft field, despite receiving mixed feedback. ESPN's Andy Katz thinks Jackson will do just that, listing Reggie along with Tobias Harris, Terrence Jones, Brandon Knight, Isaiah Thomas, Klay Thompson and Tristan Thompson as players that NBA personnel don't expect to return to school.
Without Jackson on next year's roster, SB Nation Boston predicts doom and gloom for the Eagles (emphasis added):
"The breakdown is relatively simple: with Jackson, BC could be a 15-win team, but without him, a seven-win season seems likely. Again, that's not a put down on the rest of the players on the roster, or head coach Steve Donahue for that matter, who did an excellent job in his first season at the helm.
It's simply fact. To win in any level of basketball, a team needs talent. Jackson is a pretty talented athlete, no? Remove Jackson from the equation, and you have nothing but the unknown."
Now Jackson is, in fact, a pretty talented athlete. But projecting just a seven win season without him? C'mon. Even this year's Wake Forest team managed to win eight games, and the Deacons completed the worst ACC campaign in over 20 years (1-15).
Do I think there will be a drop off without Jackson? Sure. But I don't think that next season will be hopeless. Hardly.
Donahue brings in a very talented recruiting class, and will likely add a scholarship to the roster after Jackson makes the jump to the NBA. The non-conference sched will probably ease up next season, too. This past year, BC played just three non-conference teams with an RPI of 200+, second fewest in the ACC behind only Carolina. I'd imagine there are seven wins just on next year's non-conference schedule alone.
Finally -- and Tobacco Road purists can "earmuff" it for me here -- it's not like ACC men's hoops has been setting the world on fire the past few seasons. And improve still seems a couple years out. Georgia Tech, N.C. State and Miami will all be breaking in new coaches. Maryland is likely to lose Jordan Williams. Virginia Tech loses a lot of talent and leadership with Jeff Allen, Terrell Bell and Malcolm Delaney all graduating. Virginia will continue to de-emphasize revenue sports in favor of the Olympic sports. Outside of North Carolina and Duke, the conference will again be wide open.
I certainly wouldn't put it past Steve Donahue to surprise again in the ACC, even with a roster of players that haven't played significant minutes at the college level. Trust the process.
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do i think 7 wins is low... quick answer yes....but
Let’s not forget that with Reggie- we also lost 3 other starters + 2 bench players.
Joe Trapani
Corey Raji
Biko Paris
Josh Southern
Honorable mention (Courtney Dunn)
At first glance i’d hope we pull off 10 wins, but putting all our eggs in the california recruiting basket will either really help us or really hurt us.
BCRAJ
Good points, but don’t forget that we are replacing them with actual players this year, and not just some people on campus who happen to be able to shoot a basketball. Matt Humphries may open some eyes given the Donahue system, and I really think Ryan Anderson is going to be a special player. If one of these other kids is halfway decent, we are talking 11-12 wins easy this year. I refuse to admit gloom and doom before they even hit campus.
hey im not saying we are a lost cause
but we are super dependent on these kids coming in as freshmen. I don’t what the ratio is for impact freshman- but out of 5/6 coming in, I’m thinking we can only really expect 2 to contribute at a starter level, which leaves 3 spots for existing players. Here’s hoping Humphrey wows us, and stays healthy.
While the hype is around Ryan Anderson, look out for Caudill. High IQ center- we haven’t had one of those at BC since well Nate Doornekamp :)
Has anyone seen Anderson play, my concern is with his lack of athletic ability (lift, quickness), but then again I had the same concerns with Jduds early on.
Yesterday's Chad Ford Article...
says that Reggie should stay in the draft. Ford expects Jackson to kill it in the upcoming draft workouts and move as high up as the lottery.
Question
Looking at the future…past next year…wouldn’t it be better for the team to take its lumps next year w/o Reggie? If Reggie comes back, I feel like there will be a lot of standing and watching what Reggie does. Just trying to think of a positive spin if he decides to bolt.
ive thought about this before…its not the worst logic. If Reggie leaves early, then every recruit and underclassmen gets a ton of playing time and are forced to become “the guy” instead of deferring to Reggie in every crucial moment of the game (end of a half, out of a timeout, shot clock running down, inevitably the last 7 minutes of every game, etc.).
obviously, i still want reggie to come back, but this may give Donahue a chance to develop these young guys and make them stars sooner rather than later…
looking at it from another perspective, what if reggie leaves early and we are terrible and Donahue cant get any recruits? another thought…
Question
If Reggie does leave, I think it will be a tough season with the recruits coming in now, but does anyone know of any other recruits or possibly transfers BC might get.
Some bright spots of Reggie leaving
1- Freshman will get more playing time especially at guard and develop a little quicker
2- Not really a result of Reggie leaving but he dosent have to teach his entire system to the team
3- Reggie wont have to do everything on offense (it ties into no. 1)
Negatives
1- Who will lead the team
2- EXPERIENCE
3- Who will be the energy guy like Reggie who can make the nice dunk or big defensive play
HAND DOWN MAN DOWN- MARK JACKSON
One more than Shaq. You can take that to the bank- Kobe Bean Bryant
The only predicament is, deciding what to put on....The Big Boy. VAN GUNDY!!!! hahahaha
The freshmen will be getting a lot of PT whether or not Reggie stays. It’s not like Reggie is taking up 3 spots in the starting lineup…
I know a lot of it is trying to see the positive in it, but this team would be better served if Reggie stayed. I don’t blame him for his decision if he ultimately decides to leave, but this team will not be better off with Reggie leaving.
"An offensive lineman from BC comes with a guaranteed pedigree stamp" - Wash. Post
yea not even long term
the team would benefit from having his leadership during their freshman year so that the burden does not pass to heavily onto their shoulders, and then come more comfortably step up as sophomores when he leaves
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