Hoff’s Mailbag: Hoops Questions

This week’s mailbag focuses on basketball. As always you can submit any questions about recruiting, to the current roster and coaches or you can even ask our opinion on something. If you have a question please email Eric at EricHoffses@gmail.com or tweet him @EJHoffses

Question #1 comes in from @thomjoyce

Where is location of proposed Hoop facility?..has to be near Conte, will they stick it adjacent opposite Alumni..also when are we getting old BE rivals back on schedule, StJohns, GTown, Nova etc

The honest answer here is that Tim Brando jumped the gun a bit talking about the new hoops facility that’s coming. Here’s what we do know right now:

-No money has even been raised for a basketball facility yet. The money that needs to be raised for the football facility isn’t even complete yet

-A study is underway to determine things like location, costs, ect. It’s a good start but it’s just a start

-While I do see a basketball practice facility in the future it is in the pretty distant future. Basketball coaches aren’t selling recruits on this facility at the moment so it tells you how far off this thing really is

With scheduling Big East opponents I think it is something you could see in the future especially if BC starts to improve. However, BC is happy with the annual game against Providence and really isn’t looking to stack the non-conference because the ACC is already so tough.

Question #2 comes in from Dave Hernandez on email

Any predictions on Jairus Hamilton?

The announcement is coming tonight. I’ll just say that there are lots of recruiting analysts picking BC and where there’s smoke there’s fire. As someone who spent many years in the basketball recruiting world you don’t exactly make a habit of predicting a top 100 recruit to go to BC unless you have some sort of good information. Otherwise you look like a fool if he chooses a powerhouse program instead.

Question #3 comes in from @timbovery

When do we find out if Hawkins will get a medical redshirt/what’s the likelihood he gets it?

The likelihood is not as high as you’d think though as the medical part of the redshirt isn’t the issue. The issue is that he was ruled a non-qualifier by the NCAA in 2013-2014 and that is not an easy thing to get a waiver for. Hawkins has to prove that he didn’t qualify in ’13-14 because Wichita State gave him bad advice to attend a prep school in 2012-2013.

Question #4 comes in from @sportsguynewtv

How many in-conference wins do they need for a NCAA bid? 9?10? NIT?

When I look at the schedule I try to predict which home games BC should be favored and I see Georgia Tech and Syracuse as two of those games. The only road game which BC could be favored is at Pitt. If the Eagles take care of business in those three games then that gets them to 5 conference wins.

To get on the bubble BC would probably have to win at least three more and get up to eight wins. Realistically you’d think that those wins would come at home or against an average team on the road. The only road game which I see BC being a 5 or 6 point underdog is against NC State, which means the Eagles will have to do some damage at home. To get those desired three wins the most realistic scenario is for BC to get some combination of wins at home against FSU, VT, Miami and Notre Dame with a road win over NC State. Obviously beating all of those teams would put BC in the tournament. Four of those wins and I think BC looks pretty good to make it. Three wins and we are sweating it out Selection Sunday and most likely NIT bound.