Boston College Basketball Preview

On January 12th of last season, our Tigers, fresh off of an upset victory over Florida State, traveled to Boston to face off with a really bad Boston College team. The Eagles finished the year with just nine wins, but one of those victories was against us. It was a pretty embarrassing loss, one I'm sure Brad Brownell would not want to see repeated.

And losing again would certainly be embarrassing, because Boston College is horrendous again this year. They lost to Harvard for what seems like the 5th year in a row and enter Saturday's game with a 1-6 mark in the ACC.

The Eagles' really poor record has a lot to do with the fact that they're so inexperienced. BC is an even younger team than Clemson. Like the Tigers, Boston College has just two upperclassmen. But whereas our two upperclassmen are big contributors, BC's two veterans, Andrew Van Nest (4.1 ppg) and Danny Rubin (1 ppg) don't exactly light up the scoreboard.

Three of Georgia Tech's front court players scored 16,11, and 14 points on us on Tuesday. Until Booker is back to 100%, teams will probably continue to attack us in the paint. Look for BC's leading scorer, 6-8 sophomore forward Ryan Anderson (16.4 ppg), to be the focal point of an attack that could potential take advantage of our lack of depth in the paint.

The Tigers are the superior team in this match-up, but our recent history has me worried. And I'm not just talking about last year's game in New England. I'm talking about more recent history. We're coming off of four consecutive games that all were decided in the final minute, including a couple of close road losses.

After Booker's 27-point outburst against NC State, I thought you had finally turned the corner. But in three games since coming down with flu-like symptoms, he's only recorded a total of 26 points. McDaniels has stepped it up in the last three games, but he can't keep doing everything in the post for us.

We aren't talented enough to go on the road and grab a victory without playing our best game. The guys will have to go into this one focused if they hope to come out of Boston with a victory. I do think we come out of this one with a W, but the game probably won't be decided until the final minute.

Game tips off Saturday at noon on the ACC Network.