Rhode Island 78, Boston College 72: Eagles Fall To Rams In Double Overtime
by Brian Favat on Jan 2, 2012 4:00 PM EST
in Boston College Basketball
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PrintIf I were to tell you that the Eagles would limit Rhode Island to just 29.6 percent shooting from the floor, you'd have to feel pretty good about BC's chances to pull out the win this afternoon. But if I was then to tell you that that 29.6 percent shooting came on a total of 71 shots from the floor, you might think twice.
The Eagles were dominated on the glass and committed far too many turnovers to win this afternoon, ultimately falling 78-72 in double overtime to the Rhode Island Rams. Rhode Island held a 46-33 edge on the glass, including a whopping 22-6 edge on the offensive glass.
If not for some late game heroics from BC's Patrick Heckmann, this game might have been decided in regulation.
Ryan Anderson led all Eagles scorers with 18 points and 14 boards, his third double-double of the season. Dennis Clifford (12 points), Lonnie Jackson (12), Jordan Daniels (11) and Patrick Heckmann (11) also finished in double figures.
Rhode Island's Billy Baron scored a game-high 25 points on 4-11 shooting from three, while the Rams bigs Orion Outerbridge (11 rebounds, 8 offensive) and Jonathan Holton (9 rebounds, 4 offensive) killed the Eagles on the boards all afternoon.
The Eagles were far too sloppy on offense to come away with the victory. BC committed a total of 16 turnovers on the afternoon, and Rhode Island capitalized, scoring 12 points off 10 Eagles' first-half turnovers. At the half, the Eagles had 10 turnovers to just nine assists.
BC also got called for a total of 23 fouls on the afternoon, while Rhody played for much of the second half in the bonus. The Rams attempted 35 free throws (27-35 for 77.1 percent) to BC's 11-of-16 (68.8 percent) shooting from the line.
Donahue went with a starting lineup of Jordan Daniels, Ryan Anderson, Lonnie Jackson, Dennis Clifford and Patrick Heckmann this afternoon, the first time this season that Matt Humphrey didn't get the start. This is probably the lineup that Donahue should stick with going forward. Humphrey seems to play a bit better coming off the bench -- 3-of-6 from the floor, including 2-of-4 from three -- though all indications are that he appeared frustrated when his teammates didn't get him the ball in the second half.
With the loss, the Eagles fall to just 5-9 overall and start conference play this Saturday against North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
We may lose to Carolina by 50.
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Boxing Out
BC’s overall defense has been poor - especially in boxing out - for at least 6 years.
Overall perimeter defense is poor too.
No big time 4 & 5 star talent in Hoops and Football being recruited at the Heights, but Stevie D. can coach and develop, but he needs some big time recruits.
Forget football. Even with 8 4 and 5 star recruits, Spazoo is a pathetic loser.
Rhode Island held a 46-33 edge on the glass, including a whopping 22-6 edge on the offensive glass.
16 more offensive rebounds means your team is soft as Charmin.
There’s no reason that Cahill should be logging 19 minutes. Not to pick on the kid, but his production continues to plummet and he’s not the future.
Throw anyone else out there. Whatever Cahill adds in terms of on-court leadership is counterbalanced by an extreme lack of production.
Editor, BC Interruption
by Brian Favat on Jan 2, 2012 4:19 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Cahill adds nothing to this team.
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I get that he came back and provides some leadership (maybe), but Donahue is going to get a far greater return if he gives more minutes to the underclassmen.
This season is lost anyway. We should be playing the freshmen as much as possible going forward.
Editor, BC Interruption
by Brian Favat on Jan 2, 2012 4:59 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
He subbed Cahill for Anderson too, which definitely had an impact on rebounding.
by tmcgoldrick80 on Jan 2, 2012 6:54 PM EST up reply actions
and when he put anderson back in
it was for daniels, then he rotated those two while keeping cahill on
cahill can’t shoot or run the point as well as daniels and he certainly can’t rebound and provide a low key presence as well as anderson… i really didn’t understand the thinking there
Not This Year
Donahue will eventually get it done however this year will be trying to get 2 or 3 of his recruits to become quality players. Hate to say it but some on this roster shouldn’t be playing D-1. Hopefully most of the rest of the season will not be too painful to watch…keep the faith….better times are ahead….just not this year.
Offensive rebounds were the story in this game. Every time BC forced URI into a bad shot, the Eagles failed to grab the board and it gave the Rams a second chance. The entire second half was like this. it was incredibly frustrating.
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Things I liked:
1. Patrick Heckmann the end of the 2nd half, and both OT’s.
2. Ryan Anderson in the first half
3. Jordan Daniels ball control (that back court violation was awful though)
Things I didn’t like:
1. Dennis Clifford on the boards. URI’s domination on the offensive boards was unacceptable.
2. Offensive sets. How many sets ended with 5 seconds on the shot clock and a BC player with the ball beyond the arc? No inner movement for large portions of the game. This team is going to get swallowed up by ACC teams if that is the best they can do. They need to get the ball down low to Anderson and Clifford more.
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Things I didn’t like:
3) Clifford passing it back out on an offensive rebound down 3. Go up with it and dunk it big guy. C’mon bud, be aggressive down there!
Agreed
When he’s gets rebounds it seems like his first instinct is to go down with the ball. He just needs to go up with it. He’s got the size to do it.
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Things I didn't like continued
Pretty much dead on.
The rebounding (or lack there of) was the entire team. It’s been an issue all year, either these kids just don’t get how to box out and communicate or Donahue’s not spending enough time in practice on rebounding (my guess is that it’s the latter).
Dead on on the offensive sets. I’m losing faith in Donahue with each passing game. In the first half, BC was torching URI with pick and rolls with Ryan Anderson rolling to the basket. For some reason, Donahue stopped it and started his pass the ball to the corner for a three offense.
The worst moment of the game is after they made a nice stop and Billy Baron fell to the ground and didn’t get up. BC had numbers and Donahue made them stop to run half court offense. I know everyone is excited about the three’s but you have to be able to score in the paint to win basketball games.
If this team attacked the rim down the stretch they would have won, bottom line. URI shot 35 free throws to BC’s 16. That along with the pathetic rebounding is the reason they lost.
One last criticism, at the end of both overtimes Donahue was trying to run offense through Lonnie Jackson. I like Lonnie Jackson, he hustles and has improved more than any other player this year. He’s too slow to create his own shot. In those situations give the ball to Heckman, he’s the only guy on the team right now who can create.
The players aren’t the only ones who can take a learning experience away from this game, the coach can too.
by tmcgoldrick80 on Jan 2, 2012 6:52 PM EST up reply actions
exactly
the one exception is when we had that beautiful pick and roll to clifford somewhere near the end… besides that its not like we were even getting great looks at the 3 line, a lot of those big shots were forced as the clock ran down
forgot there was a game today-now i'm happy i did
This is a bad loss and completely undermines any ‘making progress’ argument for this team.
My guess is they don’t win another game and think single digit losses will be few and far between
by cwm2005 on Jan 2, 2012 5:29 PM EST via iPhone app reply actions
Comments from the fatally optimistic guy
Anderson is going to be special, he showed more glimpses of it during this game. Clifford has potential too, if he gets more aggressive and takes the ball to the hoop without going down. Oh yeah…and he’s got to stop missing layups. He also has to improve his ball handling skills, he had too many dropped passes. If he becomes reliable, he’ll be THE go-to-guy. Jordan Daniels looked quite polished for parts of the game,but then his lack of experience showed later on. He’s going to be a pro later on. I liked Heckman this game, he didn’t score as many points, but he was playing smarter and not throwing up garbage shots and wasting possessions this time.The team overall showed some good basketball smarts in getting the ball in the paint. They created a decent number of good opportunities. Rebounding was just awful, absolutely awful. Way too many desperation 3-pointers too, they need to get the ball to the inside and work with Clifford some more. Conclusion: yeah we lost but I was impressed with the way we played for the most part, and I think we are still progressing forward with the young guys improving each game. I’m enjoying it now because it may be tougher to spot next week.
This season I’d be surpised if we win more than 3-4 ACC games. Next season I think we will be middle of the pack in the ACC.
i'm in the same boat
even though we were playing a 2-12 team I still cant help but be optimistic about what some of these young guys can do. I really like Anderson. But I’m not so sure you’re right about clifford, if he seems soft playing against the teams we’ve faced so far imagine how he’ll be during ACC play.
Like Brian said in the post this is a lost season in regards to making any tournaments so I would like to see the Don stick with the five freshman starting rotation we had today. Each one of those five guys has a completely different skill set, and I think they complement each other well.
Gonna be honest ...
I am losing what little optimism I had for the rest of the season. Taking a look at the program from a macro level, I’m beginning to question why Gene decided to blow up BC basketball and start over when he did. Looks even more odd when you compare the situation to football, where we continue to retain the services of a coach who was far less successful than Skinner over the course of his career.
I’m not going to sweat the losses of Heslip, Sanders, etc. but it’s pretty clear that Skinner was still recruiting a level of player that is better than the guys Donahue is bringing in. I think we’d all take Heslip, Ravenel, Noreen, etc. over anyone else on the current roster right now.
But as was the case with every other coach fired by Gene, he won the PR battle by planting the seed that Skinner had given up on recruiting, etc. (Sounds familiar. Can’t remember where else I’ve heard this as a rationalization for firing a winning BC coach …)
I think at the very least Skinner deserved another year, and BC probably keeps Sanders, Ravenel and the recruiting class together. Would have made for a much more seamless transition for the next coach, instead of blowing it up and starting from scratch.
I’m willing to be patient with Donahue and the players he has brought in. This year could pay off down the line, but right now I don’t see why we had to go the nuclear route and blow up BC basketball when we did. The Eagles had at least a little momentum over the last few years that we could have capitalized on a very weak ACC the last few years. As it stands now though, the window of opportunity in the ACC is shrinking with Syracuse and Pitt on their way, and all these other non-Duke, non-Carolina programs improving around BC.
Again, no fault of Donahue. More on Gene, but tough to think about what could have been last two seasons had GDF not torn down the program only to slowly build it back up.
Editor, BC Interruption
100 percent right
I couldn’t agree with you more Brian.
This is more of a result of Gene than it is Donahue.
Andy Katz made a good point at the time Skinner was fired, if BC kept Skinner last year they would have made the NCAA tournament and Gene couldn’t fire him. Gene wanted him gone so he pulled the trigger after the 09-10 season.
There should have been no PR battle in the first place. Gene is like a jolted 16 year old girl that’s been dumped by her boyfriend. He’s gotta gossip and whine until everyone is on his side. Skinner would never have ripped BC. All Gene needed to say was it was time for a change. Skinner would have been quiet.
Bottom line, it was just no way to treat a coach who had worked at BC for 12 years and really turned the hoops program around (people forget but the situation Skinner inherited was way worse than what Donahue has). Skinner did a very good job at BC and was pretty classy his whole time here. I would sign any petition to fire Gene after how he treated Skinner.
Also, Gene probably should have brought in a coach from a mid major or the A-10. It’s a huge transition from the Ivy’s to the ACC. There’s a learning curve for Donahue too, not just the freshmen.
I always argued Cooley (and still do), because it’s tough to get kids to come to BC to play hoops. Cooley has experience selling BC to quality under the radar player and would have sold the program like Gene and the alumni wanted. BC is never going to get McDonald’s All Americans, Skinner and his assistants were the masters at finding under the radar guys who could play in the Big East/ACC.
If you have a guy, who has a history of selling BC and bringing in quality under the radar guys why are you hiring a guy with no scholarship recruiting experience that doesn’t have any ties to BC over him?
by tmcgoldrick80 on Jan 2, 2012 8:35 PM EST up reply actions
Donahue stressed the whole time how much better URI was without their top 2 scorers.
by EagleAboveTheRim on Jan 2, 2012 7:16 PM EST reply actions
Doanhue knows he is over his head
Donahue has come up with these 2 gems below and now this comment about 2-12 URI Look Donahue they played 3 freshman.
First he said it would take 50 FIFTY games to see these guys play well. Then he threw Lonnie under the bus for taking 2 shots the other day by saying he needed to learn how to free himself. Donahue is calling the sets you free him up, juts like Doc Rivers frees Ray Allen.
This is all on Gene
Sliding towards irrelevance
Keep this up and the ACC is going to call UConn before the end of the week
shadow roster
I enjoyed that article on skinner’s recruits- though a bit misleading about rakim
The profile of the program they landed w also shows they were quality players. Sucks that donahue couldn’t keep them
by cwm2005 on Jan 3, 2012 12:04 AM EST via iPhone app reply actions
why should i be patient?
Brian made some very valid points. There is no reason why we should be looking at ending the season with potentially 8 wins or less. I mean with a good sell job- we could have potentially kept heslip, noreen, reggie and ravenel, while bringing in clifford, anderson, jackson, heckmann, daniels as freshman. I would be so much more optimistic than i am now. (And yes Keeping reggie would have been hard, but he had seen heslip play and also the nba lockout)
I blame Gene for firing skinner, but i can’t just give the Don a pass. Donahue came into this a little naive. Recruiting for the ACC means you have to sell kids on the program. Talented players want to know you’ll focus the offense around them, or be an integral part.
Even if those recruits aren’ts getting 25 touches a game or labeled as a “superstar”, racking up wins, getting games on TV, they’ll deal. I feel selling this team first attitude makes it even harder to sell BC. 50-75% of this roster wouldn’t see any minutes for a major conference program. We need a talented player or two who can contribute or at least give me hope. I don’t really see anyone yet, that can rival (Craig Smith, Troy Bell, Tyrese Rice, Jared dudley, Reggie Jackson). They contributed or showed something so early, that you felt comfortable enough with them leading a team.
The more losses we rack up, the less relevant BC becomes. Will anyone remember the IVY league cinderella come next march- 2 years removed? What i am hoping for is that Don sees us get outclassed by UNC, and wakes up and realizes he’s got to make some changes when evaluting players and along the recruiting trail. Athletic ability will translate to better rebounding and better defense at the very least.
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