Despite the Brad Bates announcement taking all the headlines, the Boston College Men's Basketball team held it's Media Day yesterday.

First, Steve talked about the team. A problem fans had with last year's team was strength and conditioning; this would often show in BC's weak rebounding numbers and late-game collapses.

"Our overall strength and conditioning is much better. We won't have to worry about that in the last five minutes of a game." -Donahue

A second issue that was prevalent last season was BC's inability to run. Steve spoke on how the team's offense would look this season:

"We have to play faster to play Boston College basketball." -Donahue

I would be all for this. He also spoke about the improvement of the team:

"We've come a long way, but we know where we need to improve." -Donahue

Probably the most interesting quote of the afternoon was when Steve was asked why BC dropped UMass from their schedule.

"It didn’t seem like it was a priority for anybody upstairs," Donahue said. "I get more people wanting us to play Harvard to be quite honest with you."

"We’ve got to play other teams, and we have obligations," Donahue said. "There was like three or four other things that came in, and we had to make a date and there was no date."

Steve also brought up the possibility of a Basketball Beanpot, which Steve and most coaches there agreed would be a good idea:

"I grew up in Philadelphia, there was a tradition with the Big Five for years and years and years. I think somehow, you’ve got a start with step one," Donahue said. "I think trying to play everybody every year, more than that, I’d like to it to be an event like the Beanpot, where we say, ‘Hey, this is what we do, we’re going to play,’ whether it’s here or it’s at the garden or it’s somewhere."

And, of course, Steve commented after the session on the hiring of Brad Bates:

"I'm excited like everybody else. He comes with an incredible background. I love that he worked at Vanderbilt in particular."