Men’s Basketball Preview: Boston College @ Notre Dame

The Boston College Eagles (9-14) travel to South Bend on Wednesday night at 7pm to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (18-7) in a bid to repeat their upset from earlier in the season. Since the Eagles beat Notre Dame in their ACC opener, they’ve struggled to win and have just gone a very rough 3-9 in conference play. Notre Dame, on the other hand, has flourished to the top of the conference standings with an 11-3 ACC record.

The first time these two teams met this season, Earl Grant’s squad pulled off a surprising upset. A 73-57 final score made the game pretty much a blowout thanks in large part to the defensive intensity BC played with. Holding the Fighting Irish to 57 points was impressive. It’s especially impressive looking back now, as it’s only happened to Notre Dame 2 more times in 18 games, and one of those was against #9 Duke. Boston College will need to recapture that defensive energy if they want to sweep the Irish this season.

It will be a tall order for the Eagles, though. Notre Dame is shooting an impressive 37% from long range, good enough for 4th in the ACC, and the rest of their offense is an impressive unit, too. Dane Goodwin is their star freshman guard and offensive powerhouse, shooting an insane 47% from behind the arc and leading the team in scoring. Stopping Goodwin will be a key to the Eagles’ success.

Offensively, Boston College has been struggling to find a consistent groove and it will be an uphill battle to start doing so against Notre Dame. The Irish defense is one of the best in the ACC and gives up very little beyond the arc, so the key will be getting transition scorers like Makai Ashton-Langford going.

Prediction

I don’t think Boston College will recapture the energy they had in their ACC opener. They’re back on a losing streak and, while they haven’t been playing as dreadfully as they were early in the year, they still are struggling. Especially on offense.

Final: Notre Dame 75 Boston College 62