BCI’s Top Moments of 2022: #3 - ACC tournament run gives BC basketball fans a little taste of March Madness

BCI’s Top 10 Moments of 2022

#10: Jerry York’s last win is an OT playoff game winner

#9: Chiara Maria Ferrari becomes first BC freshman to qualify for NCAA skiing championship

#8: Prince Aligbe walks it off in BC MBB’s opener

#7: Women’s Basketball Upsets #19 Notre Dame during Postseason Push

#6: BC Volleyball wins NIVC Championship Crown

#5: Zay Flowers Rewrites the Record Book

#4: Two-win Saturday: Football beats ranked NC State, while men’s hockey wins electric home game

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#3: ACC tournament run gives BC basketball fans a little taste of March Madness

Over the long, dark decade+ for BC men’s basketball since its last NCAA tournament appearance in 2009, one of the more depressing things has been that the Eagles usually haven’t even really been close. Other than a few one-offs like an upset against Duke or Syracuse, there hasn’t been much to generate any real excitement or sense of contention or relevancy for the program, and that obviously has hurt interest in and enthusiasm for the program.

The Jerome Robinson-Ky Bowman team’s push to the NIT was the last and maybe only time since 2011 that the Eagles were playing meaningful games in March.

This year, in Earl Grant’s first season at the helm of the Eagles, BC finished the year with a flourish, picking up two ACC tournament wins, then pushing a very good Miami team to the brink before losing in heartbreaking fashion.

The Eagles beat Pitt 66-46 in the tournament opener, which wasn’t really a huge surprise necessarily (it was the 13/12 game), but it was nice to see the Eagles crank it up and play a complete game during tourney time - BC’s first win in the month of March (!) since 2018.

James Karnik led the Eagles in scoring with 13 as BC cruised in to the second round, a matchup against 5-seed Wake Forest - a team battling for its NCAA tournament hopes.

The next day was the one that really opened some eyes around Eagle nation, as BC erased a 66-59 deficit with 4:53 to go to storm to the victory, featuring Brevin Galloway drilling a long-range three pointer to put BC on top briefly late in regulation. The game went to OT, in which the Eagles shifted into another gear and jumped out to a early lead and never looked back.

The following day, BC had a chance to spring another upset on 4-seed Miami, but a heartbreaking buzzer-beater by Miami ended the Eagles hopes, as they fell 71-69.

While a quarterfinal appearance isn’t necessarily something to throw a banner up for, this was a three day stretch in which some buzz and excitement returned to the program - something that seemed to carry over through the offseason and in to the start of 2022-23 for the fanbase and for Earl Grant’s growing program.

Here’s hoping we get more tastes of March Madness in the coming years - and perhaps a deeper run and even more meaningful March games.