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2021-22 BC basketball post mortem

2021-22 BC basketball post mortem

11-19 reg season / 6-14 ACC / 2-1 ACC tourney

Preseason media predictions had BC coming in last by a WIDE margin. Nor had any BC players on any postseason honor list.

They beat 5 teams with winning records all coming in conference play. ND, Wake, Clemson, VT, FSU.

Here's a few interesting end of season Conference Stats.

No BC player finished in the top 20 of PPG. MAL finished just outside the top 20 with 12.4 PPG

Post and Karnik finished 19 and 20th in rebounds per. TJ didn't play enough games to qualify though his 7.3 per would have placed him 7th.

This one seems shocking to me on first consideration. None of the players qualified for FG% leaderboard due to lack of made shots... Leaderboard required 5 makes per. MAL was closest with 90 makes in 20 games. Karnik led the team at 56%. Post at 50%.

Assists - MAL at 13th with 3.4 per.

FT % - No one qualified. Board required 2.5 makes per game played. Karnik lead in attmps with 54. MAL had 53. Both made 40. JZ led in % at 82.

Steals - JZ 5th in conference with 1.85 per. MAL 8th with 1.55.

3pt % - haha! Board requires 2.5 makes per. Only 6 guys qualified. BG took by far the most at 143 at 23%. MAL next at 98 at 29%. JZ was the best. 71 tries at 45%. Rest of the guys who played were clustered around 20 attmps.

Blocks - Post finished 12th with 1 per.

Ass/TO ratio - MAL at 11 with 1.6.

O rebounds - Post 3rd with 2.6 and Karnik 7th with 2.3. Team missed a lot of shots...

D rebounds - No one in the top 15. TJ would have made it with enough games played.

Minutes played - JZ 11th with 34.8 and MAL 13th with 34.7. Buddy lead the league at 39. Jimmy was 3rd at 35.7.

Team stats

PPG 11th at 66.25 (Last season 71.3 overall)

PPG against 9th at 71.65 (Last season 79.5 overall)

Scoring margin -5.4 put them 11th

FT% - 72.1% put them 12th. Last season - 70%

FG% tied with NCST for last 41.4%

FG% defense - 45% put them 8th

3pt% - Easily dead last at 28%. UL next at 31.5%

3pt% defense - 38% put them 12th.

Attendance - 13th with 5,443 per above Miami and GT.

Team Highs

BC had the best FT shooting performance as a team 12-12 against UVA!

Double Doubles

Karnink 3

Post 2

TJ 1

MAL, JZ, Karnik were the only guys to play all 33 games

Now for some editorializing...

Record wise the team overachieved. I took the under on 2.5 ACC wins. So winning 6 conference games was good but not totally out of line with recent results. 2 years ago was 7, then 5, then 7 again. Now, we can't ignore that the ACC had a historically down year. Only 5 teams made the NCAA Tourney with only Wake being a bubble team. That's the lowest number since 2013 and 4 conferences had more bids.

The OOC schedule was super easy, which I do not blame them for at all. I think the only team that finished above .500 was St. Louis. And they still lost 5 of 10. The loss to Albany rivaled any debacle in the Donahue or JC eras.

Quick player rundown

MAL - I thought he was very good. He was the leader and I think the team fed off his energy and toughness. He led them in pts and assts. Yeah, he shot a low percentage but he was tasked with handling the ball at the end of the shot clock and was the only guy who could reliably create his own shot. I think a lot of those misses can be explained away. His ball handling was above average for an ACC point guard.

DeMarr - The HS rankings are a crapshoot. He came in as 4* ranked around the 100th best prospect in his class. He's not a star but the kid has some undeniable talent and range in his game. He can get to the rim and he developed a really effective midrange game. He is not a 3 pt shooter, averaging only about 1 attmp per game. But I like him. He has an ACC body and ACC athleticism. He needs to be more aggressive and hunt for his shot more. He was 2nd on the team behind MAL with 9.6 attmps per game. I'd have liked him around 12 per. He lead the team in overall minutes played at 34.7. He just needs to get in the gym and work on the 3 point shot and perimeter dribbling. I thought his rebounding, defense and ball handling were all above average for a small forward.

JZ - He performed quite well in the OOC portion of the schedule but struggled in the beginning part of the ACC window to the point where he was at best a neutral passenger. But he really picked it up in the second half. In his last 12 games he hit double figures 8x, including 18 3x and 19 once. He is a player. He led them in 3 pt % and steals. In between the 3 pt lines he was a force who had to be accounted for. I hope he's a good student and a good kid, maybe this will open up the JuCo's for the program.

TJ - Was an undeniable force on the boards and guarding bigs down low. He couldn't put the ball in the ocean, however. He didn't shoot very much which was fine this year because we had the other bigs who could score down low. But next year with Karnik gone he's going to have to be a more active participant on offense or he can't play so many minutes. 42% shooting by your power forward isn't good enough. The rest of the team can't carry a poor man's Stef Mitchell. Hell, the team couldn't carry Stef Mitchell on O, his replacement must improve.

Post - This was a find. He was sorely misused at MSS. Half his attempts there were 3's. He took less 3's per game this year in 13 more minutes per game and he hit them at a much higher rate. He played within the game and his limitations almost all the time. There were very few shots he took that I wondered what he was thinking. He was also tougher and chippier than I expected from a 7 foot Dutchman. It was great to see. He needs to work on his conditioning and defensive footwork so he can be fresher and out of foul trouble to get his minutes into the high 20's from the 21 he averaged this year. Was the only BC member who appeared on a post season award list - 2 votes for 6 man of the year.

Karnik - Will be missed. I didn't expect to type that at the beginning of the year.

Galloway - I appreciate the effort. He was clearly operating on one leg. I think we can all applaud his toughness. Heath in his stead would have lead to a few more victories but c'est la vie.

Kanye - His debut against Dartmouth was outstanding, scoring 12 points and displaying ACC level quickness. Unfortunately, he only scored 43 more points in the next 32 games. He's a fringe, depth player who needs to shoot 400 threes every day this summer to hope to play much more next year.

Gianni and JVB - Incomplete? What do you say about a guy who was fairly highly ranked or 7 feet tall but couldn't get on the court for a bad team? He showed so little on the court I'm not sure he should come back if playing basketball next year is more important to him than going to BC is.

Fred Scott - Poor Fred. I thought he could have helped.

Conclusion?

It was a fine year, one that they can build on. The team seemed to be creating an identity predicated on playing tough D and not backing down to superior on paper talent. They didn't give up down the stretch which we've seen the team do seemingly every year under JC. I like Grant, I like the intensity. Maybe don't stalk the officials down the court but its better than his more passive, perpetually perplexed and milquetoast predecessors who were just rolling out the balls.

But there's something to work with, the incoming class looks promising. The ACC tourney left me with a positive outlook and feeling for the program. I haven't felt this way since Skinner was fired. Congrats to the program, lets get to .500 in the conference next year!