Boston College Basketball: Evaluating the Freshmen and Transfers

How Are the New Guys Doing?

Coming off a hard-fought 82-75 win over Stony Brook, the Eagles have now won two straight. Sunday was all Jerome Robinson, who scored a career high 22 points, adding 8 rebounds and 5 assists as well. The emerging sophomore star finally had that breakout game we’ve been waiting for in his second year now at BC. But he’s not the only guy contributing to the team; BC also brought in plenty of new faces this year to try to compete in the ACC.

Here I’ll take a look at how those new additions have been contributing so far this season. We’ll keep track of their progress as the season develops.

The Freshmen:

Ty Graves, the freshman point guard out of Greensboro, North Carolina who played high school ball with the likes of Ben Simmons, has averaged 24.5 minutes per game so far. He only contributed 2 points and 2 assists against Stony Brook, with just 3 points against Maryland Eastern Shore, but had a nice first game against Nicholls, going 4-7 from 3-point range. Clearly Jim Christian trusts him enough to put him out there over 20 minutes a game, mainly because of his three point shooting ability and defensive tenacity.

Ky Bowman, the freshman guard who received FOOTBALL offers from Alabama and North Carolina, hasn’t logged as many minutes as Graves, but was a solid contributor in the Maryland Eastern Shore game. He totaled 11 points and 4 assists in that game, and has 2 steals in 3 games. The minutes will probably increase as Christian gets more comfortable putting him in and Bowman continues building chemistry with teammates like Garland Owens: https://twitter.com/Zacklopedia/status/798699803240726528

Nik Popovic has also been a solid contributor in his limited time on the court. He scored 13 points in 13 minutes in the Stony Brook win on an efficient 6-7 from the floor. The 6-11 forward out of Bosnia and Herzegovina provides a much needed presence in the post coming off the bench.

These freshman recruits have already given more hope to the program as they join Robinson and AJ Turner in creating a really talented young core.

The Transfers:

Jordan Chatman has one of the most unique stories on the team, as the 23 year old BYU transfer is already married and starting a life. But that doesn’t stop him from being an important contributor on this 2-1 BC team. He’s averaging 7 points per game so far and spreading the floor on the offensive side of the ball for guys like Robinson and Turner to drive to the hoop.

Mo Jeffers has made a big leap competition-wise from playing in the Colonial Conference at Delaware to now playing in the ACC, even if we haven’t got to ACC play yet. He tallied double digit points Sunday with 10 on 4-8 shooting, and has been a rebounding monster for the Eagles, with 27 already in 3 games. Clearly viewed as a big contributor by Christian, Jeffers should be a big rebounding presence on the defensive end and maybe even put in some big scoring outputs.

Connor Tava is a physical presence on the court at 6-6 and 250 pounds, and he’s shown that so far with some solid rebounding at just over 6 per game. The point totals have been fairly low so far despite playing over 25 minutes twice, but he’s certainly proved his worth in his first few games at BC, coming from Western Michigan.

These 6 new players on the Eagles are all clearly part of Jim Christian’s plan to resurrect the program this season. We certainly have high expectations for Graves and Bowman especially, but if all 6 can play well and make meaningful contributions to the already solid crew of Robinson, Turner, and Owens, we could certainly be looking at a rebound season for the program.

Keep checking back in as the season progresses to check how the new guys are doing.