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Boston College Basketball: Charting The Eagles Scholarship Situation

Where we at? How do we get there?

By Brian F.
Rich Barnes

With yesterday's news that Boston College guard Olivier Hanlan will forego the NBA Draft and return to the Heights for his junior season, let's take a look at the hoops scholarships situation heading into year 1 under head coach Jim Christian:

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18
1 Darryl Hicks Fr_mediumG_medium Darryl Hicks So_mediumG_medium Darryl Hicks Jr_mediumG_medium Darryl Hicks Sr_mediumG_medium
2

 Garland Owens So_mediumF_medium Garland Owens Jr_mediumF_medium Garland Owens Sr_mediumF_medium OPEN
3 Will Magarity So_mediumF_medium Will Magarity Jr_mediumF_medium Will Magarity Sr_mediumF_medium OPEN
4 Olivier Hanlan Jr_mediumG_medium Olivier Hanlan Sr_mediumG_medium OPEN OPEN
5 Dennis Clifford Jr_mediumC_medium Dennis Clifford Sr_mediumC_medium OPEN OPEN
6 Eddie Odio Sr_mediumF_medium OPEN OPEN OPEN
7 KC Caudill Sr_mediumC_medium OPEN OPEN OPEN
8 Lonnie Jackson Sr_mediumG_medium OPEN OPEN OPEN
9 Alex Dragicevich Sr_mediumG_medium OPEN OPEN OPEN
10 Pat Heckmann Sr_mediumG_medium OPEN OPEN OPEN
11 OPEN
 Jeremy Miller Fr_mediumF_medium Jeremy Miller So_mediumF_medium Jeremy Miller Jr_mediumF_medium
12 OPEN OPEN OPEN OPEN
13 OPEN OPEN OPEN OPEN

The good news of the scholarship front, if there is any, is that Christian should get another year out of both Darryl Hicks and Dennis Clifford -- both of which were lost last season to injury. That will certainly help balance the scholarships a bit and give BC at least one less spot to fill in the 2015 class, assuming a healthy Clifford returns to the team.

Christian currently has three open scholarship spots on this year's roster barring a Rahon change-of-heart. It will be interesting to see what Christian does here. BC could certainly use at least one incoming freshman in this year's class to dull the pain of having to replace up to seven scholarship players in the 2015 class.

For it's when we come to 2015-16 where the program falls off the scholarship cliff. Christian will have to replace at least seven scholarship players. Eight scholarships if Hanlan turns pro a year early, which, if he has the season we think he's capable of having next season, seems more likely than not at this point in time. BC does add power forward Jeremy Miller in 2015 and will be left with a scholarship roster that includes Hicks, Owens, Magarity, Hanlan, Clifford and Miller.

If Christian is going to turn things around, the program has to get out of the business of completely turning over the roster once every four years. Luckily, the loss of Anderson and Rahon helps quite a bit here.

While it's rather late in the game, if Christian can grab one or two recruits for this year's recruiting class, that would put the program in a much better position to balance the scholarships going forward.

2014: 2-3 incoming freshmen (including Darryl Hicks) ... 11-12 (of 13) scholarship players total
2015: 5 incoming freshmen (including Jeremy Miller and assuming Hanlan turns pro) ... 11 scholarships players total
2016: 3 incoming freshmen ... 13 scholarship players total
2017: 2 incoming freshmen ... 13 scholarship players total
2018: 3 incoming freshmen ... 13 scholarship players total

The 2015 class is still larger than the others and the program is still below the 13 scholarship limit, but hopefully Christian can pick up a grad transfer or two to get up to 13 scholarship players in those first two seasons. The staff can get a bit creative in later years -- using a mix of recruits, sophomore transfers and grad transfers -- but the prospects of better balancing the scholarship distribution in two years time is certainly promising. Especially given that BC can't even field a starting five for the start of the 2016-17 season.

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