Boston College Men’s Basketball takes on Northwestern: Preview

Welcome to the Big 10 – ACC Challenge, where the records don’t matter and you should all be watching Michigan-Louisville instead. This year’s P5 Conference Matchup pits your Boston College Eagles (4-4) against the Northwestern Wildcats (3-3) in a clash of teams that finished near the bottom of the conference last year.

Where

Conte Forum

Chestnut Hill, MA

When

December 2, 2019

7pm EST

How to Watch

Catch this game on ESPNU (check your cable listings) or watch it on WatchESPN!

How to Listen

WEEI 850 AM

Previewing the Wildcats

Northwestern hasn’t started out particularly well, dropping games to Merrimack (5-4) of the NEC and Radford (2-4 in the Big South) who opened their game with a 17-0 run against NU. They’re not great offensively, averaging just 66 ppg and shooting 40% from the field (which is also about what the Eagles shoot, for the record). Like really, there’s nothing that jumps out even statistically and I’m not about to watch 6 Northwestern game’s to see the tape.

They’re not great defensively either. F Pete Nance is the best athlete of the group and Anthony Ganes can get into the passing lanes for some steals, but if there’s a game that one would think that BC should find (and stay) a rhythm against it should be this one.

Player to Watch Out For

Tough to see any player having an offensive explosion (the leading scorer, Nance, has 12.2 ppg) so let’s just pick the dude with the highest 3-point percentage? That’d be Miller Kopp, who’s 10/24 on the year from deep despite playing nearly 30 minutes per game. I guess him?

How Does BC Win?

Well first they don’t go on long scoreless runs in the second half. Again and again I am confounded about how this team can be so competitive in the first half before totally collapsing in the second half. A lot of this has to do with turnovers (BC has a 17.3 TO/game over the last three games, which is about 1/5 possessions). Don’t make dumb mistakes, don’t try to do too much (which the Eagle ball handlers have done many times this year), and don’t try to get into a shootout when offense is not your strength. I think BC needs to shift to a more grind it out style, or at minimum just slow down and run their offense.

Prediction:

BC 68 – NU 65