Boston College Basketball vs. Marist: Final Thoughts & Predictions

After a week off, the Eagles are back in action tonight against the MAAC's Marist Red Foxes. Let's take a look at the Red Foxes.

Game Facts

Game 6 vs. Marist Red Foxes

Monday, December 1, 2014, 7:00 PM
TV: ESPN3
Radio: WEEI 850 AM, BCEagles.com

Preseason Opponent Preview: Marist Red Foxes

Series History: 1-0, Boston College

Only Ever Meeting: W - Boston College 74, Marist 65 (November 28, 2000)

Roster Notes

Haven't heard anything on the status of the injured Eagles. I wouldn't expect Lonnie Jackson (calf), K.C. Caudill (knee), Idy Diallo (knee) or Darryl Hicks (ACL) to go tonight vs. Marist.

Projected Starters

G Olivier Hanlan, junior
G Aaron Brown, graduate
G Patrick Heckmann, senior
F Eddie Odio, senior
C Dennis Clifford, junior

Three-Point Preview

1. Don't Settle For Perimeter Shots Early. The Eagles settled for far too many perimeter shots in the loss to Dayton. BC needs to maintain possession and get good looks. If they start chucking up an inordinate amount of threes early in the possession, and they aren't falling (as they weren't in the Dayton game), that's gonna allow Marist to hang around in this one.

2. Get To The Hoop. I'd like to see Hanlan take the game over a bit more, slashing to the hoop and creating chances for his teammates. Hanlan's been pretty up-and-down this year. Sometimes he decides to take over the game late. Other times he defers to his teammates a little too much. This is the perfect matchup for a guy like Hanlan to take the team on his back and push the pace on offense.

3. Get The Ball To Clifford And Magarity In The Paint. Marist doesn't have a ton of height on the roster where BC, believe it or not, is one of the tallest teams in the country this year. I'm looking for BC to use its height advantage to get some easy points in the paint.

Steve Addazio* Previews Marist

It was great to have a week off. Obviously, it's much needed for us. We're pretty banged up and hoping to see some guys get back on the court sooner rather than later. But this was a good week for us. We came off a very disappointing game against Dayton in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, where I thought our players played real, real hard. The defensive intensity was certainly there, but the shots from the perimeter just weren't falling. It's very, very difficult to win against that quality of an opponent that way.

But we were able to spend the week off getting healthy, getting a jump start on our game planning. A focus on fundamentals. Back to fundamentals. Playing Boston College basketball. Ratcheting up the defensive intensity. Working on the perimeter shot and finding our identity on offense.

We're playing Marist tonight and looking forward to that game. I have all the respect in the world for Marist's coach, Mike Maker. Turned Williams into an elite outfit at the Division III level and is ready to take on the next challenge. The Red Foxes made a change at the top after a down year, but they still have loads of talent. Chavaughn Lewis, senior guard. Natural leader and heart of Marist's offense. Already averaging 19.4 points per game for the Red Foxes.

Then, later in the week, we have long-time rival Providence coming to the Heights on Friday. Throw out the record books when two rivals get together. But all that matters for us now is taking care of business tonight against Marist, and that's what's forefront in our mind. Two big games this week and the first one on the docket is Marist. I'm confident that Jim Christian will have the team as prepared as he can to go get that done.

Scoreboard Watching / Out of Town Notes

It's ACC/Big Ten Challenge week sans Boston College, even though the Eagles finished NOT DFL in the ACC this year because, reasons. Ohio State at Louisville on Tuesday and Duke at Wisconsin on Wednesday headline the event. Providence has the week off to prepare for Friday's game at BC. The Friars fell to Kentucky 58-38 on Sunday.

Gametime Song of the Week

The Black Keys - Your Touch. Need a little more touch on those three-point attempts, please.

Random Factoid

According to ESPN's Jeff Goodman, Marist offered Steve Donahue its vacant head coaching position over the offseason. Donahue thought it best to take a year off from coaching to regroup, but I wonder whether this game was on the books at that time. My guess is no, but that would've been another reason for Donahue to pass on the opportunity with the Red Foxes.

Dot Dot Dot

There have been some surprising early season losses in the ACC already this year: Wake Forest lost to Iona and Delaware State, Clemson lost to Gardner-Webb and Winthrop, and Virginia Tech lost to Appalachian State. But a loss in this spot would be just as bad as any of those with the possible exception of the Hokies' loss to Appy State. Gotta take care of the Red Foxes here.

BCI Predictions

I was the only one to predict all Puerto Rico Tip-Off games correctly (BC, Dayton, UConn, WVU and WVU champ). Yay me.

	BC-Marist	Pts.
Brian Favat	74-55 BC	6
A.J Black	60-45 BC	5
John Fidler	72-60 BC	5
hoyaeagle	74-59 BC	5
Jeff Martyn	74-58 BC	5
Dan Doolan	80-63 BC	5
CSOM_97	79-51 BC	5
Kwani Lunis	75-55 BC	4
Joe Gravellese	88-51 BC	3
Dan Rubin	78-63 BC	2
Grant Salzano	62-58 BC	2

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Leave your thoughts / predictions on Boston College-Marist below. Go Eagles!

* Steve Addazio actually didn't say these things