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Feb. 17, 2028: Wake Forest Demon Deacons (7-17, 1-14) vs #2 ranked Boston College Eagles (24-2, 14-1) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA Randy Watkins, BC alum and member of the BC Hoop Club This appears to be a big mismatch. Let’s hope the Eagles don’t take the Demon Deacons too lightly and blow this. Wake Forest has been the doormat of the ACC that past few years and has had an atrocious season thus far. They’d like nothing better than to score a major upset by beating the Eagles tonight. BC took a 13-0 lead in the first 4 minutes. Wake Forest began scoring but the Eagles gradually expanded their lead. Coach Aura subbed liberally. When the half ended, Boston College was ahead 51-28. SF Leonard Meliet was on fire, scoring 22 points in the half. The second half was 20 minutes of subbing by Coach Aura. The entire bench got plenty of playing time. The lead grew to as much as 29 points and the final score was Boston College-88, Wake Forest-67. That’s 9 straight wins for BC. SF Leonard Meliet scored 32 points. Reserve PF/C Jason Caldwell added 12 points.

Feb. 15, 2028: #2 Boston College Eagles (23-2, 13-1) vs Syracuse Orange (11-12, 4-10) at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY 3rd Assistant Coach Rob Rowland (scouting) Syracuse probably thought their two freshmen stars, PF George Plowman and SG Chad Lopez. Those two have become team leaders with Plowman averaging 16.1 ppg and 6.9 rpg while Lopez has scored 9.3 ppg and dished out 3.1 apg. Plowman has been the team’s leading scorer in 13 of the teams 23 games and Lopez has been top scorer in 3 games. Overall though, Syracuse has been a poor shooting team. And their man-to-man and 1-2-2 zone defenses have let their opponents score 72.1 ppg. The Orange have lost the past 3 games and 8 of the last 10. If we play up to our potential, we should take Syracuse even though it’s a road game for us. I just hope our team gets off to a better start than we have in several of our recent games. OK, I have to catch a flight to take in a game between Georgia Tech and North Carolina St. so I can scout both since we play both in the next two weeks. Therefor I’ll leave it up to someone else to tell you about our game with Syracuse. Father Andrew Morgan I was hoping my trip with the team would be somewhere other than Syracuse, but that’s what was ordained for me. It’s special to be able to impart some spiritual guidance to the team. Most of the players are very open to that and I feel that it’s extremely important to have one of our brethren accompany the team each time their on road trips. I try to catch as many of the team’s home games as I can, so I’m familiar with the team and its players. I also know Coach Aura and his family very well. No spectacular play to start the game, but we fought our way to an 8-4 advantage at the first media timeout. But a good start for Courtland Reese as he scores 8 of the team’s first 15 points. But our 9 point lead evaporated and the last part of the half was very close. The Eagles finished the first half with a 37-34 advantage. C Courtland Reese scored 16 and SF Leonard Meliet had 10 points in the first half. For Syracuse, PF George Plowman scored 9 points. Reese and Meliet continued to carry our offense in the early stages of the 2nd half as we spurted to a 44-35 lead. Coach Aura’s full court press that he set during the halftime intermission caused several turnovers by the Orange. But Syracuse hit some 3’s and came back, cutting the lead to a single point midway through the 2nd half. With 1:24 left Syracuse tied the score at 65-65. Meliet was fouled with 53 seconds to go. He sunk both free throws giving us a 2 point lead again. Syracuse got 3 shots on their next possession but missed all 3 and then intentionally fouled McFadgon. Josh sunk both free throws to put us up by 4 with 18 seconds left. Syracuse called a timeout and put up a 3 that rimmed out. The Orange fouled James Lilly on the inbounds pass. Lilly hit both shots. We escaped a very close last 15 minutes and won 71-65. The leading scorer for the Eagles was SF Leonard Meliet who dropped in 22 points. C Courtland Reese scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. George Plowman finished with 17 points and 11 boards for Syracuse. Coach Aura looked as exhausted as his players after the game.

Boston College Chronicle Kinsey Ramsey EAGLES RISE TO TOP After last night’s exciting win over Virginia, the Boston College Eagles are now residing alone at the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference standings. Jason Braxton, BC’s Athletic Director said, “We set some high expectations just a couple years ago when Fred Aura was hired as our head coach. But rising to this point came much sooner than we could have ever imagined. The team’s players and coaching staff have done a tremendous job. But our goals go beyond topping the ACC, so we’ll continue to pursue those.” Here’s the present ACC standings: #2 Boston College: 13-1 #10 Virginia: 12-2 #3 Duke: 10-4 #11 Louisville: 10-5 #17 Notre Dame: 9-5 #13 North Carolina: 9-6 North Carolina St.: 8-7 Clemson: 8-8 Georgia Tech: 6-8 Miami (FL): 6-8 Florida St.: 5-10 Virginia Tech: 4-10 Syracuse: 4-10 Pittsburgh: 4-11 Wake Forest: 1-14 Baldwin the Eagle exclaimed, “We’ve been flying high all season. Whipping Virginia was just proof of how good we are. We’re going all the way this year.” This exuberance was later tempered. “It’s an honor to be on top of the ACC standings, but we still have six regular season games to go. So we can’t get overly excited about this. We need to continue to focus on each and every team we still have to play and go all-out in every game we play. In fact we have two more games this week. So we’re already concentrating on how we will contend with Syracuse tomorrow and then after that we will prepare for Wake Forest. If we let down, any team in the ACC can beat us on a given night,” said Coach Frederick Aura.

Feb. 13, 2028: #10 ranked Virginia Cavaliers (21-2, 12-1) vs #2 ranked Boston College Eagles (22-2, 12-1) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA Excerpts from WEEI radio broadcast of the game: --Hi Eagles fans. This is Parker White along with Cap Morrison bringing you tonight’s game Boston College game. Tonight they take on the Virginia Cavaliers. This is a game for sole possession of first place in the ACC. Both teams have been tied for weeks atop the ACC standings and come into this game with identical 12-1 records in conference play. The teams’ stats aren’t much different, but Virginia is scoring about 4-1/2 more points a game while giving up 2-1/2 more points a game than the Eagles. Cap, how are the Cavaliers being more effective offensively? It really comes down to two things, Parker. Virginia is a better team on the offensive boards and gets more steals. Otherwise Boston College is as good or better in most other aspects of the game that create points. And defensively, the Eagles have held opponents’ shooting percentage much lower than has Virginia which has led to BC being able to keep their opponents scoring slightly fewer points than has Virginia. Well, Cap…this looks to be a really highly contested game by both teams. What about individual personnel on the two teams, Cap? Parker, Virginia’s SF Jamaal Lawson is one of the best players in the country. He’s averaging 25.5 ppg and 8.6 rpg. While the rest of the Cavaliers’ team is very good, the Eagles have a more balanced lineup and a slight advantage at most of the other positions. Lawson has scored between 20 and 29 points 16 times, between 30 and 39 points 6 times and has one game where he poured in 43 points. I think if Boston College can keep him in the low to mid 20’s, they have a good chance of winning, but if he goes off with a big game, the Eagles will be in trouble. But applying too tight a defense against Lawson could put BC’s best scorer, Leonard Meliet, in foul trouble. So I would expect to see Coach Aura switch primary defenders on Lawson throughout the game. Conte Forum is filled the rafters tonight, Cap, so that should be a factor favoring the Eagles. OK Eagles’ fans, we’re getting really close to game time, so we’ll be back with the tip-off after this commercial for Samuel Adams, your hometown beer. --7 seconds into the game and an offensive foul is called on Courtland Reese. BC has to hope he doesn’t get a 2nd foul as early as he did in their last game. --Lawson draws first blood for Virginia! --Coach Aura has to be going crazy. 3 turnovers by the Eagles in the first minute of play. I suspect he’ll have some choice words for his starters at the first timeout. --Cap, you were right. First Coach Aura had Marvin Reese guarding Lawson, and now Jason Caldwell is on him. Looks like Aura’s trying to protect Meliet. --At the first media time out, the score is 5-0 in favor of Virginia. BC is oh-for-five from the field and has 4 turnovers. Gonna be some Eagles’ ears burning during this timeout. --Lilly finally cans the Eagles’ first field goal. He was fouled on the shot. He converts the 3-point play. --Leonard Meliet drills the 3 to give Boston College its first lead of the game at 11-8. The Eagles have now scored 10 unanswered points. --That’s the 2nd foul on Meliet sending him to the bench with 12 minutes still remaining in the first half. --That’s the first 3 pointer for Jamaal Lawson giving him 6 points thus far. That cut’s BC’s lead to 20-17. I hope Lawson’s not getting on fire, Cap. Yeah, Parker…Virginia’s gotta be counting their blessings that he decided to stay 4 years with them. But while he could have been a one-and-done, he was smart to stick it out for 4 years since he’s got a good chance of winning the Norton Award in his senior year and moving up from a late 1st rounder as a freshman or sophomore to having a good chance of being the #1 pick in the draft after this season. --Josh McFadgon faked the defender out of his shoes and drives down the lane for an uncontested layup making it Boston College-28, Virginia-23 with 5 minutes remaining. --That’s the second straight pass picked off by Virginia with resulting buckets on fast breaks. The game’s tied at 30-30. Time out called by the Eagles. --Good move by Michael Millford causes Lawson to foul. That’s 2 on Lawson. Millford sinks both shots giving him 7 points, all on free throws. --That’s the end of the first half with Virginia on top 35-34. A solid defensive effort by both teams. Virginia’s Jamaal Lawson leads all scorers with 9 points. Top scorer for Boston College was Michael Millford with 7 points. --It’s anybody’s game as the 2nd half gets underway. Let’s see which team can do the best job of resurrecting their offense. --Turnovers are killing the Eagles. They’re now down 47-42. --Jason Dunn converts both free throws. That’s 6 straight points for BC and they retake the lead at 50-49 with 12 minutes to go. --Yet another turnover by BC as they throw the ball away. Virginia inbounds it and works the ball inside and back out. Childress works the ball into the corner and fires a pass to Dabbert who puts up a shot. It’s off the rim but he was fouled. He drops in the first shot…and now the second goes through the hoop giving Virginia a 61-56 lead with 5:31 on the clock. BC brings Courtland Reese back onto the court. --Meliet shot from the corner drops through to get BC within 2. --Another 3 by Meliet and BC goes ahead 62-61. --Brown knocks down the jumper for Virginia and they’re ahead again 63-62 now with 4 minutes left. --Final media timeout. The pressure is on Boston College. --Meliet receives the inbound pass. He dribbles down the sideline. His pass goes to Courtland Reese near the key. Reese turns and moves toward the basket. He goes up and jams it home to give the lead back to BC. --After backcourt turnover by the Cavaliers, Reese again takes a pass inside. He puts up a shot and is fouled. He drops both free throws in to make it 66-63 in favor of the Eagles. --Following Lilly’s interception, Millford puts up a long 3…it’s IN! 69-63 with 2:42 to go. Virginia calls a timeout. --Lawson called for the foul as Meliet tried to make the pass. Virginia’s coach is livid. Meliet goes to the line for a one-and-one. He hits the first. Virginia’s coach still jaw-boning the officials. Meliet drops in the 2nd shot and it’s 71-63. The crowd is going bonkers. --Virginia hits both free throws with 2:13 on the clock. It’s now 71-65. --Yet another foul. Courtland Reese makes both shots making it 73-65 with just under 2 minutes remaining. --Lawson drops in the jumper to cut the lead to 6. --The Flyers continue to work the ball inside to Courtland Reese. He was fouled as he put up the shot. He goes to the line for 2 more shots. Swish, swish! Both in to make it 75-67. --Lawson gets the ball outside the circle. He drives to the edge of the key and puts up a shot. It’s off the mark but Millford fouled him. He hits both shots. 75-69 with 1:10 left. --Virginia is forced to foul. McFadgon puts both shots in so the lead returns to 8. --After the Cavaliers turnover, McFadgon is fouled immediately. He hits both shots put the Eagles up by 10. The cheering crescendos. --The Cavaliers can’t get the ball in the basket. BC works the clock down. Just before the shot clock expires, Reese puts up a baseline jumper that goes in. Too little time for Virginia to do anything more. Boston College comes on strong toward the end of the game to win 81-69 and take sole possession for 1st place in the Atlantic Coast Conference. --Leading the Eagles was Courtland Reese with 22 points and 11 rebounds. SF Leonard Meliet hit for 17 points and SF Michael Millford came off the bench to score 12. Jamaal Lawson scored 17 for Virginia, but he could only hit 5 of 17 FG’s due to the tremendous pressure of the Eagles’ defense.

Feb. 6, 2028: #2 ranked Boston College Eagles (21-2, 11-1) vs Pittsburgh Panthers (10-12, 3-9) at Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, PA Andy Dawson, walk-on SF I’m a walk-on and last on the depth chart so I’ve only played in two minutes in one game. So my main role during games is as a cheer leader for the team from the bench. Pittsburgh is a pretty good offensive team and will test our defense, but the Panthers are weak defensively, so we need to exploit that. Four of their starters average between 10.0 and 13.3 ppg. PG Marcus Williams has hit over 50% of his FG’s and 37% of his 3’s. Pittsburgh has lost 7 of their last 8 games. Our goal tonight is to keep them on their downward trajectory. The refs called a defensive foul and then an offensive foul against C Courtland Reese in less than a minute from the start of the game. Coach Fed was giving the refs hell, but Courtland missed the rest of the half. Our team responded by getting steals on the next 2 possessions by the Panthers and jamming down 2 dunks on breakaways. We went up 8-0 with 16:40 left in the half and SG James Lilly had scored 6 of our 8 points. Our bench was in a frenzy. It took Pittsburgh nearly 7 minutes before they scored their first points. With us ahead 26-14, there was a power failure, probably due to the crappy winter weather in Pittsburgh. When play resumed, we had a tough time getting our game going again and the Panthers went on a run that reduced our lead to 31-30 with 2 minutes remaining in the half. We were able to increase our lead a little and finished the half with a 38-33 advantage. Pittsburgh hit two quick 3’s to start the 2nd half and take their first lead of the game at 39-38. We responded by going on a 9-0 run. We maintained a lead but the Panthers kept nipping at our heels. In the final few minutes of the game we extended our lead to win by a score of 87-74. That was our 6th straight win. PF Marvin Reese scored 17 and had 7 boards. SF Leonard Meliet also hit for 17 points and added 6 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals. SG James Lilly dropped in 11 pints and PG Phil Thompson came off the bench to score 10 points. After the game, Coach Fed made it clear that we need to clean up our play and also not let teams get back into the game after we get a solid lead.

Boston College Chronicle By Kinsey Ramsey EAGLES MOVE NEAR TOP OF POLLS Following their two wins this past week including a drubbing of Duke, Boston College’s basketball team finally moved up the polls past Duke and Creighton to #2 in both the Media Poll and Coaches Poll. Only Kansas ranks higher than the Eagles. Boston College remained in the top spot in the NET Rankings with Kansas right behind them. In the Atlantic Conference Standings, the Eagles remained tied with Virginia for first place with Duke now 2-1/2 games back in third place. This week BC plays just one game, travelling to take on the Pittsburgh Panthers on Wednesday night.

Feb. 3, 2028: #4 ranked Boston College Eagles (20-2, 10-1) vs Miami Hurricanes (13-9, 5-7) at Watsco Center in Coral Gables, FL Coach Frederick Aura Miami is dangerous because they’re on a 6-game losing streak which means they’re extremely hungry for a win. Earlier this season the Hurricanes beat Virginia, the team with which we’re tied for 1st place. Coming off the game with Duke, I am also concerned we may have a let down. My challenge this week has been to ensure that doesn’t happen. Bad start. We fell behind 7-1 and it took us 5-1/2 minutes before we made our first field goal and that included 5 misses by C Courtland Reese. Our poor shooting continued throughout the first half and we fell behind 33-18 with 3-1/2 minutes remaining in the half. I called a time out and tore into the team. It didn’t help, we left the court at the half down 42-24. Even though we hit a few baskets in the final few minutes we still only sunk 23% of our shots while Miami knocked down 53% of theirs. We didn’t even shoot well at the free throw line, making just 46% of our foul shots. A butt-chewing ensued in the locker room. We came out flat and fell behind by 23. After tearing into the team for the 3rd time, they finally responded by going on a 16-4 run. We stumbled again as we made a series of turnovers and dropped back into a double-digit deficit. In the late stages of the game, we made a desperate comeback that got us to within 68-64 with 2 minutes to go. With a minute to go, Leonard Meliet hit a 3 that made it 71-69 in favor of Miami. We tied the game with 30 seconds on the clock when SG Jason Dunn drove down to the basket and scored on a reverse layup. Miami missed a shot and we rebounded. With 4 seconds left PG Phil Thompson got the ball over to Jason Dunn on the wing and Jason drilled his shot from just outside the arc making giving us our first lead since it was 1-0 almost 40 minutes earlier. We had a foul to give so we fouled just after they inbounded the ball giving them just 2 seconds to try to tie the game. Miami lobbed up a prayer from beyond midcourt but it wasn’t close. We pulled off a last-minute win we really didn’t deserve by a final score of 74-71. The Hurricanes outshot us 43% to 36% and out-rebounded us 41-36. But we held a 19-12 turnover advantage and got to the line 17 more times were we made 11 more points than Miami. That saved us. SF Leonard Meliet was our only starter who shot well. He scored 20 points. C Courtland Reese and PF Marvin Reese added 12 and 10 points, respectively. But it was reserves PG Phil Thompson and SG Jason Dunn who pulled our bacon out of the fire by scoring a combined 12 points in the waning minutes of the game.

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director The quarterfinalists for the Norton Award were announced today. We were all very excited that freshman Leonard Meliet was named as a quarterfinalist. Leonard has been a mainstay for us this season, playing primarily at SF, but also putting in time as PG, SG, and once for a short time at C. He’s our leading scorer, averaging 14.5 ppg in our 22 games thus far this season. He’s also averaging 4.5 rpg and 3.6 apg. He’s scored in double figures in 19 games and had 20+ points in 4 games. Meliet’s accomplishment together with our sweep of this season’s series with Duke makes this a very special week for Boston College basketball.

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Jan. 30, 2028: #2 ranked Duke Blue Devils (20-2, 8-2) vs #4 ranked Boston College (19-2, 9-1) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA TJ Perry, athletic trainer for Boston College We’ve had a series of nagging injuries this season. Fortunately they’ve all be fairly minor. For this game it’s Jason Caldwell. He fell hard in practice. Came down on his right hand which is still sore. He is going to play but the minor injury may inhibit his effectiveness. The pain should pass before our next game, though. Coach Fed generally takes a pretty conservative approach, holding players out or limiting their play. This keeps the injuries from being aggravated, so his philosophy really helps our training staff. On the other hand, most players want to play and tend to provide overly optimistic comments about the extent of their injuries and ability to play. But if they do play with an injury that is limiting what they can do, my experience has been that their productiveness is typically greatly decreased. Tonight’s opponent, Duke, has one player out. Reserve PF Dave Chavis broke his leg a couple weeks ago. The Blue Devils’ star C Brian Taylor injured his wrist two games ago and he played poorly after the injury in that game. But he played in their next game and did well, so apparently it’s not bothering him all that much. The coaching staff and team seemed really focused in practice on taking down Duke. The Blue Devils come into the game riding a 7 game win streak. After losing to us on their home court a month ago, Duke is likely to be seeking revenge so it’s not going to be easy. But our beating them twice this season would be a huge rocking of the ACC world. I’m hoping we stay healthy throughout the game so I can watch as much of it as possible. PF Marvin Reese scored the first 7 points in the game. After that we pulled out to a 14-3 lead at the first media timeout. The bench and our fans were going crazy. Coming out of the timeout, SF Leonard Meliet drained to make it 17-3 and causing Duke’s coach to call a timeout to try to quiet the crowd. Duke responded by knocking down a 3 as soon as play resumed. But the Blue Devils looked rattled. Jason Caldwell was politicking to get into the game, but Coach Fed had Winston Minahan replace Marvin Reese at PF. We went flat offensively for a while but then got back on track to build a 33-12 lead with 6 minutes left in the half. SF Michael Millford went down hard and came out of the game. We checked him out, but he was ok. The half ended with us on top 46-27. Nothing but normal aches and pains in the locker room. Coach Fed was happy with the way the team had played so just made a slight change defensively for the second half to try to keep SF Rod Allen, who’d scored 10 points in the first half, in check. All our scoring in the first half came from our starters plus C Greg Kidd. Duke went on a run the first 5 minutes of the second half to cut our lead to 52-48. Even though our guys were having a tough time hitting their shots, they were able to reopen a double-digit lead. Marvin Reese came down with a muscle cramp but was able to return to play after we worked on it. Late in the game Duke had to foul to try to get the ball back in their hands. That allowed us to add to our lead and come away with a prized 73-56 win over Duke. Topping our scoring were C Courtland Reese and SF Leonard Meliet with 15 point each. Courtland Reese also had 8 rebounds. PF Marvin Reese scored 11 and PG Josh McFadgon and reserve C Greg Kidd both scored 10. SG James Lilly had 8 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Duke’s SF Rod Allen had 20 points and 8 rebounds, but Courtland Reese completely shut down C Brian Taylor who scored just 2 points in 34 minutes of play. Since Coach Fed kept Jason Caldwell off the floor throughout the entire game, I believe Jason will be fully recovered for our next game. Virginia didn’t play tonight, so we have a half-game lead in the ACC standings.

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director Good news this week. All five of our recruited players had high enough SAT scores to exceed our minimum requirements. Each of them are ranked within the top 100 recruits. So we’re all excited to get them onto campus later this year and plying for us next fall.

Jan. 27, 2028: #4 ranked Boston College Eagles (18-2, 8-1) vs #9 ranked Louisville Cardinals (16-5, 5-4) at KFD Yum! Center in Louisville, KY 2nd Assistant Coach Chris Evans (recruiting) It’s been a little over two months since unsupported allegations were made about our recruiting program. I’d thought these had disappeared the way all false accusations should. But earlier this week, an NCAA investigator appeared at our door asking to review our records. This took a full two days. While I was certain he would find nothing amiss, it still was an excruciating time for me and everyone here at Boston College. The investigator left late yesterday without providing an inkling about his findings. I guess now we wait to see if another shoe drops. I can not for the life of me believe that anything will come of this. But it’s still extremely unsettling. Coach Aura has taken it all calmly, at least on the exterior. Practice proceeded as if nothing was going on. That’s good because Louisville will be a tough team to beat on their home court. They have an 11-1 home record this season. The Cardinals have been extremely inconsistent in ACC play but kicked butt throughout their pre-conference schedule. They’re one of the top rebounding teams in the country, but I think that’s because they’ve been a poor shooting team so have more rebounding opportunities. We’ll be finding out tomorrow how the five guys we recruited did on their SAT’s. I’m on pins and needles awaiting those results and sure hope all five met our minimum score. Game developments: Some good defense by us early that allowed the Cardinals to hit just 1 of their first 12 FG’s so that we opened a 13-3 lead. Surprisingly, we control the boards throughout the first half. We pretty much maintained a double digit lead from thereon and finished the half up 39-30. We didn’t shoot well hitting just 38% of our shots but Louisville hit only 31% of theirs. We out-rebounded the Cardinals 22-12. SF Michael Millford came in off the bench to lead our scoring with 7 points. Play was extremely sloppy by both teams in the 2nd half. Both teams had a tough time getting the ball in the hoop making the poor shooting of the first half seem good. There were lots of turnovers and fouls. We padded our lead to as much as 16 points even though we were hitting about 25% of our shots during the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half. Louisville cut our lead to 7 points with 3-1/2 minutes to go. We rallied to retake a double digit lead, but then the Cardinals came back and with 1:20 left they narrowed the gap to 64-60. But Louisville was forced to foul from thereon and we managed to come away with a 70-63 victory. The Cardinals hit just 31% of their shots, but we could only get 34% of our in the hoop. We controlled the boards 47-29 but had 19 turnovers to 12 by the Cardinals. C Courtland Reese had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. SG James Lilly also had a double-double with 12 points and 12 boards. SF Leonard Meliet and PF Marvin Reese scored in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively. We played unimpressively but our defense carried us to a road win and kept us tied with Virginia for first place in the ACC, one game ahead of Duke and 2 games ahead of Notre Dame and North Carolina.

Jan. 25, 2028: North Carolina State Wolfpack (13-5, 5-3) vs #4 ranked Boston College (17-2, 7-1) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA HOOPS (the basketball-focused blog with the highest page views) A surprising name in the Top 5 in the polls this season has been a college that has not been highly ranked for over a quarter of a century. The new Top 5 entrant this season is Boston College. While it was evident the Eagles were on an ascendance, few anticipated that the Eagles would even be in the Top 25 this season. In the 5 seasons before Frederick Aura took over as head coach at Boston College, the Eagles has won 49 and lost 105 games. So in just 2-1/2 years, Aura has worked wonders at BC. Obviously Jason Braxton, Boston College’s athletic director, must have taken notice of Aura when Aura’s Towson team trampled the Eagles by 17 points in a pre-conference game in 2023. While not mentioning that embarrassing loss, Braxton said, “We were in need of a big turn around for our basketball program. Fred Aura did a tremendous job of developing Towson from a losing program into a consistent winner and powerhouse within their conference and a repeat participant in the NCAA Tournament. I thought he could do the same for us, but even I’ve been surprised by the rapidity with which he’s done so here.” Boston College has a sparkling 17-2 season record this year and sits tied with Virginia atop the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 7-1 record. Playing on the road, the Eagles shocked #2 ranked Duke by defeating the Blue Devils 61-42 in an ACC opener. The Eagles have streaked upward in the polls…as high as #3. Even though Boston College won 2 games last week, a loss to Clemson caused them to fall a notch in the polls to #4. Above them are Kansas, Duke (which is a game behind BC in the ACC standings ), and Creighton. Last night, the Eagles hosted another team that has played better this season than expected…the North Carolina State Wolfpack (13-5, 5-3). To keep up with Virginia which won earlier in the day, BC needed to win. The Eagles, playing at home, were 10 point favorites and C Courtland Reese scored 7 of BC’s first 9 points, but the Wolfpack didn’t fold. Midway through the first half, NC State was ahead by 7 points. The Eagles gamely fought to come back and 5 minutes later regained a small lead due to a stout defense. That lead grew to as much as 8 and the half ended with Boston College on top 46-39. Courtland Reese had an awesome half, scoring 17 points for the Eagles. Three minutes into the 2nd half, BC’s lead had grown to 15 points. Five minutes later the difference was 25 points as the Eagles demonstrated their strength. Even though Coach Aura was substituting freely, BC continued their dominance and finished the game with an impressive 91-64 victory. The Eagles outshot the Wolfpack 45% to 33%, dominated the boards 45-30, held a 15-8 turnover advantage, outscored NC State in the paint 32-10, on 2nd chance points 18-4, and on fast break points 8-2. Leading Boston College was C Courtland Reese with 24 points and 10 rebounds. He was ably supported by SF Leonard Meliet’s 14 points, SG James Lilly recording a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards, and reserve PF Winston Minahan who scored 10 points. Coach Frederick Aura said, “This was a good team effort. I was particularly happy with how we were able to effectively tighten our defense over the final 30 minutes of the game. Courtland and James played extremely well as did Winston Minahan and Jason Caldwell who came in off the bench to score a combined 19 points.

Jan. 20, 2028: Miami (FL) (13-5, 5-3) vs #3 ranked Boston College (16-2, 6-1) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA Bobby Monroe, WRKO Radio I host a daily sports talk show on WRKO. Since the Eagles have been playing so well, there’s been a lot more callers wanting to talk about the team. I’ve watched many of their games on TV, but decided I’d come see them in person hoping it would give me a better perspective on the team and be able to talk about some things its not easy to pick up on when just watching them on the tube. One thing that jumped right out at me during the warmups was that James Lilly really is much smaller than most of the other players and yet he’s been one of BC’s top rebounders. At 6’0” he’s the smallest guy on the team. I was hoping he would have a big rebounding night so I can see how he accomplishes it from his SG position. Miami has played inconsistently in ACC action, but they are the only ACC team that’s beaten Virginia and the Cavaliers are presently tied with Boston College for first place in the ACC. The Hurricanes have scored well but have been weak defensively. Observations: +Courtland Reese looked dominant inside. Scored 9 points in the first 5 minutes. +Eagles zone defense was effective. +Watching Lilly rebound…he just anticipates so well…gets to the right place, good elevation when there. +BC careless with the ball…too many turnovers. +Leonard Meliet looked good from outside the arc. Hard to believe he’s only a freshman…able to score, rebound, and dish out assists. +Coach Aura subs regularly keeping fresh legs on the court. +Miami rallied a couple times to get within a single point, but BC able to shut them down and regain control, including 21-4 run that put the Eagles ahead 40-22 with minute remaining in half. +At the half, it was 47-27 in favor of Boston College. FG%: 50% for BC, 27% for Miami; 3P%: 47% for BC, 10% for Miami; Turnovers: 8 by BC, 11 by Miami; Rebounding: even. +3 Eagles in double figures after 1st half: Leonard Meliet—14; Courtland Reese—12; Josh McFadgon—11. Bench which has played well in most other games was unproductive in first half. Top scorer for Miami had just 5 points. +Bench-warmer SF Keith Kolder came in and fired up offense in the second half. He scored 7 points and grabbed to rebounds in his first 5 minutes on the floor. +Miami never able to reduce BC’s lead in the second half due to Eagles’ lock-down defense which caused the Hurricanes to shoot even worse than they did in the first half. +Eagles controlled the boards in the second half. +Boston College won with ease 79-54. +Miami’s shooting for entire game was an abysmal 24% and BC forced them to make 16 turnovers. Only thing Miami did well was shoot free throws hitting 19 for 19 at the line. +Eagles’ reserves played much better in second half, scoring 16 of the 32 points the Eagles scored in the 2nd half. +C Courtland Reese: 18 points and 7 rebounds; SF Leonard Meliet: 16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists; PG Josh McFadgon: 11 points; PF Marvin Reese: 10 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists; SG James Lilly-8 rebounds. +#13 ranked Virginia traveled to take on Notre Dame and beat the #15 ranked Fighting Irish to stay in a tie with Boston College for 1st place in the ACC. #14 ranked North Carolina and #2 ranked Duke are one game back.

Janeka Aura Fred’s attention is more focused on his team this year than ever before. Don’t get me wrong, he’s always been spent many hours every day on his teams. But for some reason, it seems he’s devoting even more time and energy this season. You’d think that when his team is doing so well, things would each up. But maybe the pressure of being ranked high in the polls is creating stress. Whatever it is, it means he has less time for family…which I’m not happy about. Of course he has to miss Malik’s high school basketball games when Boston College is on the road, but he’s also missed a few when they’ve been here in town. Not good. He makes every effort to get to Devany’s soccer games, but has missed a few of those too. I’m still working mainly from home. Mom’s cancer was in remission, but it’s snuck back. So I’m spending a lot of time with her and Daddy. They’re pretty resilient but this has been a long, rough journey for them. Devany is now a 5th grader. She loves school and ballet but excels in soccer. She’s a bubbly kid who is beginning to really get into music. Malik is a junior in high school. I believe he’s experiencing some of the normal challenges of high school and being a teenager. But he’s an extremely good basketball player. He’s not as tall as Omari but has a great scorer at his SG position. Omari chose to go to Providence. As a freshman, he’s finding college scholastics to be more difficult than high school. So far he’s pretty much a B- student at Providence. He’s been coming in off the bench at SF, playing a little over 10 mpg and averaging 3.5 ppg and 1.5 rpg. Even though he’s not hitting his shots as well as he’d like, Coach Brandin Parker feels he’s breaking in well to collegiate basketball. The Friars are 16-3 and ranked 5th in the polls. Fred tries to get to as many of Omari's games as possible, but we can also catch Providence’s games on TV.

Jan. 18, 2028: #3 seed Boston College Eagles (16-1, 6-0) vs Clemson Tigers (9-8, 3-4) at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, SC Melissa Rockingham, Boston College Alumna I graduated from BC five years ago and was hired by SYNNEX Corporation, a technology solutions provider, in Greenville, SC. I like living here even though my politics don’t mesh all that well with the majority here. I decided to make the 45 minute drive to Clemson to watch my alma mater, particularly since they’re doing so well this year. A friend of mine from work who is a Clemson fan came along with me. We have a bet on the game. I imagine I’ll be the only BC fan in attendance amongst a bunch of rabid Tigers fans. According to my friend, Clemson has home wins against Virginia and Louisville, two ranked teams. They’re paced by SG Lou Robinson (15.5 ppg), SF Mark Leib (13.9 ppg), and C Bill DeManby (10.6 ppg). But I like what I’ve heard about the Eagles players so have a good feeling we’ll win. My friend says home court advantage will favor the Tigers but the Eagles have just finished winning three straight away games. The Eagles shot well to begin the game. The first time out came with 14-1/2 minutes to play and the score 16-7 with BC leading. My friend who had been loud when the game started had quieted down. The Eagles were ahead by 15 two minutes later. SF Leonard Meliet is hitting every shot he takes…great player. Clemson finished the half strong and the game was tied at 46-46 at the end of the half. Clemson came out burning up the net and streaked ahead 55-48. Courtland Reese picked up his 3rd and 4th fouls in the first 2-1/2 minutes of the 2nd half. Then the Tigers could do no wrong and the Eagles could do nothing right. Clemson went ahead 77-55 with 12 minutes remaining. The crowd was going absolutely crazy. The Tigers simply could not miss and the lead grew to 88-61 a couple minutes later. The Eagles went down to a huge defeat, 111-88. My friend said the Tigers hit about 75% of their shots in the 2nd half and about the same percentage of their 3’s. Clemson’s SF Mark Leib scored 24 and SG Lou Robinson hit for 22. BC’s leading scorers were C Courtland Reese with 15, SG James Lilly with 13, and SF Leonard Meliet with 11. Ray Martin’s WRKO Radio Station interview of Coach Frederick Aura: Martin: What happened Coach? Aura: We ran into a buzzsaw. Clemson simply outplayed us the last 30 minutes of the game. And in the 2nd half, we fell apart completely on defense. Martin: You had such a good start in the game. Aura: I think that was our undoing actually. We got overconfident and you just can’t do that against any ACC team. Losses are inevitable but I sure hate to lose the way we did. Martin: I guess now it’s time to regroup. Aura: Oh, we will. The team is solid. We finally get to play a home game next. Four straight away games is torture.

Jan. 16, 2028: #3 ranked Boston College (15-1, 5-0) vs Virginia Tech Hokies (7-8, 1-4) at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, VA Boston Herald EAGLES SAVE BEST FOR LAST The Boston College Eagles put their conference lead and their undefeated ACC record on the line when they travelled to take on Virginia Tech last night. Blacksburg, Virginia was during a near record cold spell, but a high level of enthusiasm by the Hokies fans warmed up Cassell Coliseum. The Eagles’ defense stymied the Hokies early and Boston College ran away to a 19-4 lead eight minutes into the game. But BC’s offense got cold and Virginia Tech’s shooting warmed up. With 5 minutes to go in the half, the Hokies took a single point lead. The lead then flipped back and forth with BC scoring in the late going of the half to lead 37-34 at the break. C Courtland Reese scored 10 points and pulled down 6 rebounds in the first half. Boston College opened the 2nd half with a spurt that put them ahead by 14 with 15 minutes to play. The teams exchanged baskets for the next four minutes but then the Eagles pulled further away to go up by a score of 71-51 with 8 minutes remaining. BC continued to extend their lead and finished the game by whipping the Hokies 91-62 as they outscored Virginia Tech by 26 points in the second half. The Eagles connected on 54% of their FG’s and 47% of their 3’s while holding Virginia Tech’s shooting to 39% on FG's and just 21% on their 3 point attempts. SF Leonard Meliet drilled in 25 points, C Courtney Reese had 18 points and 8 rebounds, and PF Marvin Reese added 10 points.

Jan. 11, 2028: #6 ranked Boston College Eagles (14-1, 4-0) vs Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (9-6, 2-2) at Hank McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta, GA Excerpts from WEEI Radio game broadcast --Hi Eagles fan. This is Parker White along with Cap Morrison bringing you tonight’s game in Atlanta against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The first place Eagles hope to keep their perfect ACC record. Georgia Tech is a good shooting and scoring team averaging nearly 81 ppg, but poor defensively giving up nearly 78 ppg. What do you think BC’s chances are, Cap? This is their 2nd road game in three days, so will they be road-weary? I think the Eagles are a much better team than the Yellow Jackets, Parker. Even though they’re living out of hotels, I believe that’s not going to be a problem. I am picking BC to win by at least 10 points. But they need to take advantage of Georgia Tech’s porous defense and shoot much better than they have been recently. Both teams are at full strength for tonight’s game. Right, Parker. So that’s another advantage for BC. Their depth will be a big plus in allowing Coach Aura to keep fresh legs on the court and wear down the Yellow Jackets. The game’s about to start, Cap. --Cap, BC’s come out on fire. Just over 4 minutes into the game and they’re ahead 14-0. If it weren’t for their 3 turnovers, the Eagles would even have a bigger lead. --Lilly is called for his 2nd foul…that’ll send him to the bench with 14 minutes left in the half. But the Eagles’ defense has kept Georgia Tech from working the ball inside. 6 of their 8 shots have been from outside the 3-point arc. Parker, that’s a good reason they’re trailing 16-3. Jason Dunn checks in to replace Lilly. --The refs are working BC over. 11:20 left to go in the half and they are charged with their 7th foul. That’s two on Caldwell. Greg Kidd replaces him. --Sloppy play by the Eagles continues. That pass by Courtland Reese was way off target. That’s the team’s 8th turnover. --Courtland Reese is the 4th player on BC to go to the bench with 2 fouls. Are the refs trying to keep the Yellow Jackets in the game? Coach Fed giving the refs heck. --Boy that was one ugly half. BC had 11 turnovers, GT had 10. The Yellow Jackets hit just 26% of their FG’s but were able to cut the Eagles’ lead at the break to 33-31 because they went to the line 15 more times where they scored 12 more points than BC. The Eagles were tagged with 15 fouls and 6 of their players had 2 fouls apiece. The refs called just 7 fouls on GT. I’m surprised, Parker, that Coach Fed didn’t get a technical. --The Eagles now trail 42-38 at the first media timeout of the 2nd half. Lilly now on the bench with 4 fouls. --BC just ran off a 9-3 run to get them within 3 points at 50-47 with 10-1/2 minutes remaining. --That’s 3 fouls on Meliet. He’ll join Lilly and McFadgon on the bench. The refs are making a travesty of this game. --Phil Thompson hits the 3! Sweet shot. That ties the game at 54-54 with 8:47 to go. --Meliet steps into the passing lane and picks off the pass. Marvin Reese streaks downcourt. Meliet shoots him with the pass and Reese slams it home. Boston College back on top 62-60 with 6:44 to go. --The final media timeout is called with 3-1/2 minutes remaining and Georgia Tech on top 66-64. The Eagles need to start hitting a higher percentage of their shots and can’t afford any more turnovers, Parker. --McFadgon’s 20 footer goes in to tie the game. A foul on the shot. McFadgon’s foul shot is off the rim. --Lilly gets the ball into Kidd. Kidd makes a move to the bucket and slams it home. 68-66 in favor of BC. 2 minutes left to go. --Yet another turnover by the Eagles. The Yellow Jackets are still down by two but call a time out with a minute to play. GT works the ball around. It goes to Brunson at just to the right of the key and he sinks it to tie the game. 43 seconds remain. Time out called by the Eagles. --A pick and roll by BC, but Lilly’s shot is off the mark. GT brings it quickly down court and lofts a 3 that goes down. Time out called by BC with 19 seconds to go. --The Eagles work the ball around the perimeter trying to get free for a 3. It goes to Phil Thompson in the corner and he puts it up. It’s IN! That ties it at 71-71. What a pressure shot! --GT gets it upcourt quickly. Doctor’s shot is up…..and is no good. We go to overtime. --Surprise. The refs call Georgia Tech for 2 fouls in the first 40 seconds of OT. BC converts 3 of 4 from the line to make it 74-71. --Courtland Reese gets his 2nd block of the OT. The ball goes to Lilly who fires a quick outlet pass to Meliet. Meliet dribbles around the head of the key. He finds Courtland Reese on the baseline. Reese puts up a contested shot that drops through to make it 76-71 with 2:36 on the clock. --Lilly steals the ball. He shoots it to Marvin Reese for a sweet alley-oop jam making it 78-71. Great defense by BC. --Lilly knocks down an 18 foot jumper with 1:30 to go and it’s 80-71. --With a minute to go, Georgia Tech is forced to foul. Marvin Reese misses the first and makes the second to give the Eagles a 10 point lead. --Lilly fouls out with 55 seconds remaining. GT hits both shots to score their first points of the OT. --The Yellow Jackets could only foul to try to get the ball back…making the final score 86-75. Stellar defense by BC allowed just 2 points on free throws and a very late FG by Georgia Tech in the overtime. --Parker, after a very hard-fought second half, that was TOTAL domination by Boston College throughout the entire 5 minutes of overtime. The Eagles came up big in OT when it counted. They never let Georgia Tech get off an easy shot. --In this game, Cap, the Eagles were led by C Courtland Reese with 15 points and 13 boards, PF Marvin Reese who had 13 points and 10 rebounds, SG James Lilly with 8 points and 12 boards, and SF Leonard Meliet who scored 8 and had 10 rebounds. --That makes the Eagles 5-0 in the ACC and 1 game ahead of Virginia, Notre Dame and Miami. ---They have two more road games next week so their testing continues. We’ll be here next week for those games, folks…you be here too. Jason Braxton, Athletic Director The two road wins this week moved us up in the polls. We’re now 3rd in the Media Poll and 4th in the Coaches Poll. We remain as the team with the best NET Ranking.

Jan. 9, 2028: #6 ranked Boston College Eagles (13-1, 3-0) vs Florida State Seminoles (10-5, 0-4) at Donald L. Tucker Civic Center in Tallahassee, FL SG James Lilly I’m so happy to be playing for Boston College. To be honest, the main reason I chose BC was that the previous head coach PROMISED me that I would start as a freshman. The other colleges I was looking into wouldn’t give me that guarantee. I expected I could come here and turn the program around. That didn’t happen under the old coach in my freshman year. But when Coach Fed got here, things really began changing. Getting to the finals of the CIT tournament as a sophomore and then winning the ACC tournament and getting to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament as a junior made my decision to play for the Eagles a good one. And thus far this season, the team has been GREAT! You gotta wonder what’s up with Florida State. They finished pre-conference play with a 10-1 record and were ranked as high as 11th in the polls. But they have lost their first 4 ACC games…and all 4 have been losses by double-digits. We’re intent on making their recent misfortunes continue. Unlike the most recent teams we’ve played, Florida State is more like us in that they don’t have one or two star players but a bunch of solid players, any one of whom can lead the team in a given game. So we’ll save our double teaming for anyone that gets hot. Due to poor shooting we trailed most of the first half, but late in the half we went on a 9-0 run that gave us a small lead. With 6 seconds left, Coach Fed called a time out to set up an isolation play that allowed me to get up jumper from the left of the key that settled through the hoop to give us a 31-28 halftime advantage. We only hit 35% of our shots, but Florida State did no better in the half. Our top scorer in the first half was C Courtland Reese with 10 points. I had 5 points and 6 boards. Early in the 2nd half we scored 10 unanswered points that gave us a 44-33 lead. With 16 minutes to play. We had to struggle to hold onto the lead but the Seminoles were able to whittle away at it mainly because of uncharacteristic poor foul shooting by us. But Florida State was fouling a lot, many were simply stupid fouls. So even though both teams weren’t shooting well from the field, we got to the foul line repetitively and that, along with a 47-34 rebounding advantage, turned out to be the difference. The extra 14 points we scored on free throws gave us a 67-54 win. Not pretty, but a win is a win. Leading our scoring was C Courtland Reese with 20 points and he also had 8 rebounds. I had a nice little double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.

Jan. 6, 2028: #22 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (11-2, 3-0) vs #9 ranked Boston College Eagles (12-1, 2-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA Rob Francisco, Director of Hoop Club The Hoop Club is the men’s basketball team’s support organization. On game day we gather in the Shea Room for a buffet dinner prior to the game and then again for snacks and drinks at halftime. Often there is a chalk time before the game by either an assistant coach or one of the radio voices of the Eagles. Annual membership rates range from $250 to $1000. Because of how well the team has done the past two seasons and so far this season, membership has grown significantly. Besides my wife Tori, I brought 6 guests to tonight’s game. Two went to Notre Dame but the other four are solid Eagles’ fans. For the third straight game the Eagles have to contend with a superstar freshman PF. For Notre Dame’s it’s Marqus Gibson who was the 10th highest ranked recruit last year. He’s averaging 15.5 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 2.1 bpg and 1.6 spg. The guy is a very good inside scorer and a beast on the boards as well as being a solid defender. Junior SF Rich Thompson is averaging 12.4 ppg and 6.2 rpg. Thompson has scored consistently the same each of the 3 years he’s played for Notre Dame and shoots best from mid-range. Notre Dame runs a slow-paced offense and plays an effective 1-2-2 zone defense which has allowed just 61.1 ppg by their opponents. Two of the Fighting Irish’ ACC wins have been over #18 ranked North Carolina and #2 ranked Duke. I hear that Virginia lost earlier today, so the winner of this game will be the lone undefeated ACC team and have sole possession of 1st place. We finished the buffet so it’s out to our game seats to watch the game: The refs call 2 fouls on C Courtland Reese in the first minute of play. The crowd is booing the refs lustily. Notre Dame hit 6 of their first 7 field goals. My guests who are Notre Dame alum were hooting it up. But with 12-1/2 minutes left in the half, the Eagles get their first lead when PF Winston Minahan intercepted a pass and delivered it upcourt to C Greg Kidd who jammed it down to make it 16-15 in favor of BC. Leonard Meliet was charged with his 3rd foul midway through the half so our top two scorers were on the bench. The Eagles were doing good pounding the ball inside for some easy baskets and led 38-30 with 4 minutes to play. The half ended with BC on top 47-40. Both teams hit over 50% of their FG’s, but BC held an 18-11 rebounding advantage and a 10-5 turnover advantage. Notre Dame had scored 5 more points than the Eagles at the foul line. PG Josh McFadgon was high point man for BC with 11 points. For the Fighting Irish, SG Tom Tatum had 14 points and PF Marqus Gibson scored 13. Both teams fired darts in the early going of the 2nd half. At the first media time out, the Eagles were ahead 63-50. The teams kept pouring in points but BC held off the Fighting Irish. With 4 minutes to play, the score was 81-70. BC never let down throughout the entire 2nd half and beat Notre Dame 89-77. The Eagles edged the Fighting Irish in most all team stats and crushed them on the boards, 38-24. Boston College is now in sole possession of 1st place in the ACC. PF Josh McFadgon had a big night, 23 points and 8 assists. C Greg Kidd scored 12 and PF Marvin Reese added 11. SG Tom Tatum hit for 9 points and added 6 assists for Notre Dame.

Jan. 2, 2028: Syracuse Orange (8-3, 1-1) vs #9 ranked Boston College Eagles (11-1, 1-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA RyReys Blog, Ryan Reynolds Last week, Coach Aura’s Boston College Eagles continued their winning ways and improved their record to 11-1 with a devastating beat-down of Duke. The Blue Devils had glazed looks after BC’s defense completely stumped their efforts. Home court advantage meant nothing in this game as the Eagles’ defense was rock solid for the entire 40 minutes. BC then fought their way through a snowstorm to get home to take on Syracuse. The Eagles’ win over Duke pumped up enthusiasm within their fan base and ensured Silvio O. Conte Forum was filled to the rafters last night. Syracuse lost their ACC opener to Miami but then beat #4 ranked Louisville. The Orange have relied on two 5-star freshmen this season: PF George Plowman is averaging 20.7 ppg and 8.0 rpg and SG Chad Lopez has scored 10.3 ppg with 4.4 apg. The question for many at the beginning of the game was: Can BC contain Plowman like then did Duke’s freshman phenom Rod Allen? BC turned the ball over on each of their first 5 possessions, which put them in a 7-0 hole. The Eagles slowly chipped away and with 8:57 remaining in the half, Michael Millford knocked down a jumper on which he was fouled. He sank the free throw also and BC was tied with Syracuse at 20-20. BC pulled away in the final 5 minutes to take a 40-28 lead to the locker room. Leading the scoring for the Eagers were C Courtland Reese and SF Leonard Meliet with both scoring 8 points. The Eagles shot well throughout the 2nd half and continued to expand their lead. When the claxon sounded ending the game, Boston College had a convincing 83-58 win over the Orange. BC outshot Syracuse 50% to 32%, dominated the boards 35-23 and outscored the Orange in the paint 20-8. In the final 29 minutes of the game, the Eagles outscored the Orange 66-28. The victory put BC into a 3-way tie for 1st place in the ACC with Virginia and Notre Dame. Both C Courtland Reese and SF Leonard Meliet scored 20 points and each had 8 rebounds. PG Josh McFadgon contributed 13 points while SG James Lilly hit for 10 points. The Eagles held PF George Plowman to just 10 points but SG Chad Lopez scored 16 points. The Eagles host Notre Dame in their next game later this week. BC then will have two tough weeks with 4 straight away games.

PF Winston Minahan The flight back from North Carolina to Boston was horrible. A storm was moving up the East Coast and it seemed like we were right in the middle of it. A rough all the way. By the time we got to Boston, the storm had hit there with heavy snowfall. A scary landing as the plane skidded along the runway. And the bus ride from the airport to campus wasn’t any better. We got back late at night. I was exhausted and slept in the next morning. When I got up I was shocked when I looked out the window at what I saw. Snow had fallen all night…a very heavy snowfall. Checking out a weather report, I found out 18 inches had fallen shutting down the city. We’d had very moderate weather throughout December and had been lulled into a false sense of reality, thinking we’d get through the entire winter without any really bad weather. Well, we were wrong. This storm had the whole city shut down. It continued to snow throughout the day, but fortunately had a much lower rate. Our next game was four days away, but it was a home game against Syracuse and they had even more snow that we did. It looked like the game would have to be postponed. The snow didn’t keep the coaching staff from expecting us to practice, though. We politicked for snow days, but Coach Fed was adamant…get your butts to the gym. So we trudged through the snow every day. I’d hardly seen more than a trace of snow at any time while growing up in Sonora, TX. During my year at Texas Tech, there was a little more snow in Lubbock than what I’d seen in Sonora, but not more than a couple inches at a time. So at first it was fun going out into the deep snow…but after a day or so, the fun wore off and I was ready for a change of weather and was beginning to feel trapped by the limited mobility. New Years Eve was very low key since it still wasn’t all that safe getting around in the city. That sucked. But, when the new year broke, so did the weather. The temperature soared on January 1st and the snow began to melt rapidly. Our game against Syracuse for the next night was ON!

Boston College Chronicle By Kinsey Ramsey WHAT THE _ _ _ _ ? The Eagles go on the road and rip previously undefeated Duke, winning by 19 points. So this week’s updated polls come out. Duke remains ensconced in 2nd place in both polls. BC fails to move up in the Coaches Poll, still residing at #10. And in the Media Poll, the Eagles DROP from #8 to #9. Something’s rotten in Poll-land.

Dec. 28, 2027: #8 ranked Boston College Eagles (10-1, 0-0) vs #2 ranked Duke Blue Devils (12-0, 0-0) at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC 3rd Assistant Coach Rob Rowland I feel like we drew the short straw on opponents for the opening conference game. But we have to play Duke on their court some time this season, so it’s probably best to get it out of the way right out of the gate. Duke is a powerhouse. As usual they have a star freshman…in fact two this season in SF Rod Allen (24.9 ppg and 6.7 rpg) and C Brian Taylor (16.0 ppg and 9.5 rpg). Allen has scored 30+ points (including 40 in one game) in 5 of the team’s 12 games. We really need to keep him from breaking loose. PF Michael Rashaw is another highly rated freshman who is averaging 5.2 ppg and 6.0 rpg. The Blue Devils have a 4th freshman (SF David Dye) who was the 9th ranked recruit nationally who is riding the bench and only averaging 6.5 mpg. Duke is a team that just keeps reloading each and every year. If I were coaching Duke I’d start Dye at SF and move Allen to start at SG. They’re both extremely strong players, and playing Dye so little is probably just going to make him consider transferring after this season. The Blue Devils have averaged 79.2 ppg and only given up 62.8 ppg in their first 12 games this season and have wins over #7 Michigan, #11 Creighton, and #25 Brigham Young. The team won the 2K Sports Classic tournament. Duke pressures most of the game with a 2-2-1 half court press so they get a lot of steals. Their star freshmen also block a lot of shots. Their big guys also get a bunch of offensive rebounds. So this is a game where Duke is stronger inside, but we’re stronger on the perimeter, particularly if Josh McFadgon regains the offensive production he exhibited the end of last season and has shown sporadically since recovering from an injury early this season. We can’t afford to rely on a single player like we did against Marquette in our last game when Leonard Meliet scored half our points and the rest of the team couldn’t find the basket. We need a total team effort if we’re going to have a chance against Duke in Durham. 1st Assistant Coach David Woodruff OK, Rob’s given you a lot of bad news, but he’s scouting another team tonight and therefore not with us. So it’s up to me to provide you with news (hopefully good) about the game. Here goes: 1st Half: All our guys are available tonight (for a change no one’s sidelined due to injury). We’re starting our regular lineup of McFadgon (PG), Lilly (SG), Meliet (SF), M. Reese (PF), and C. Reese (C ). Coach Aura focused on defense with the team prior to the game. We again got off to a slow start. It took us 4 minutes to finally hit a field goal. Turnovers were killing us. We made 6 in the first 7 minutes and Duke turned 3 of those into driving layups. Courtland Reese picked up his 2nd foul with 12:47 to play in the half. We’re hitting 3’s (4 of 8 so far) to put us ahead 16-14 with 8 minutes remaining. Our defense solidifies making it tough for Duke to put the ball in the hoop and forcing some turnovers. We go ahead 23-14 with 3-1/2 minutes remaining. We hold the Blue Devils shooting to just 20% for the half and lead at the break 30-18. If it weren’t for our 11 turnovers, the lead would be greater. We stuck like glue to Duke’s SF Rod Allen so that he went 0 for 9 from the field in the half. In the locker room Coach Aura continued to drive home to the team the importance of maintaining our lock-down defense. 2nd Half: We go on an 8-0 run to start the 2nd half to go ahead by 20. Our defense continues to successfully harass the Blue Devils, but our we go cold midway through the half and are unable to score. With 5-1/2 minutes remaining, Duke’s Rod Allen hits his first FG following his 12 earlier misses. In frustration, Coach Aura switches out all 5 players on the court. That seems to wake up the team and we score 6 points in the next 60 seconds to re-establish a 19 point lead. We then continue to squash them defensively and come away with an amazing 61-42 crushing of the Blue Devils on their home court. Our shooting percentage was high, but the final 10-12 minutes reduced it to 42% for the entire game. But…we held Duke’s shooting to 21%. We also out-rebounded the Blue Devils 40-29. SF Leonard Meliet scored 13 points plus had 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks. C Courtland Reese scored 12 and SG James Lilly added 11 points plus pulled down 7 boards. We completely stuffed hot-scoring Rod Allen…he only hit 1 of 15 FG’s and scored just 5 points (20 under his average) even though he played 38 minutes.

RyReys Blog, Ryan Reynolds ACC Pre-Conference team records: Duke: 12-0: Ranked 2/2; NET 5 Louisville: 11-1; Ranked 4/4; NET 12 Boston College: 10-1; Ranked 8/10; NET 1 Florida State: 10-1; Ranked 14/15; NET 18 Virginia: 9-1; Ranked 17/16; NET 30 North Carolina State: 8-2; NET 70 Miami (FL): 8-2; NET 72 Notre Dame: 8-2; NET 127 Syracuse: 7-2; NET 135 North Carolina: 7-2; Ranked 18/21; NET 37 Pittsburgh: 7-3; NET 86 Georgia Tech: 7-4; NET 17 Wake Forest: 6-3; NET 94 Virginia Tech: 6-4; NET 229 Clemson: 6-4; NET 108 Top 10 in Polls: MEDIA POLL Kansas, 12-0 Duke, 12-0 Florida, 11-2 Louisville, 11-1 Illinois, 11-0 Providence, 11-0 Michigan, 10-2 Boston College, 10-1 Purdue, 10-1 Maryland, 10-1 COACHES POLL Kansas, 12-0 Duke, 12-0 Florida, 11-2 Louisville, 11-1 Illinois, 11-0 Providence, 11-0 Michigan, 10-2 Maryland, 10-1 Purdue, 10-1 Boston College, 10-1 BOSTON COLLEGE TEAM STATS: PPG: 77.4 (59th); Opponents PPG: 66.4 (52nd) RPG: 33.2 (86th) APG: 16.4 (253rd) BPG: 5.0 (95th) SPG: 8.1 (81st) FG%: 44.8 (201st) 3P%: 37.5 (97th) FT%: 71.5 (221st) Off. Rating: 107.1 (43rd) Def Rating: 91.7 (44th) NET Rating: 15.3 (28th) BOSTON COLLEGE PLAYER STATS: PPG: Leonard Meliet, 15.7; Courtland Reese, 10.2; Marvin Reese, 9.1; Jason Caldwell, 8.0; Josh McFadgon, 7.8; James Lilly, 7.5; Michael Millford, 5.5; Jason Dunn, 4.8; Greg Kidd, 4.0; Winston Minahan, 3.2; Jon Ray, 2.7; Phil Thompson, 2.7; Keith Kolder, 1.7; Andy Dawson, 1.0 RPG: Jason Caldwell, 5.8; James Lilly, 5.5; Leonard Meliet, 4.7; Courtland Reese, 4.4; Marvin Reese, 3.5; Michael Millford, 2.7; Winston Minahan, 2.5; Greg Kidd, 1.8; Jason Dunn, 1.3; Josh McFadgon, 1.2; Andy Dawson, 1.0; Jon Ray, 0.7; Keith Kolder, 0.6; Phil Thompson, 0.3 APG: James Lilly, 3.7; Leonard Meliet, 3.3; Josh McFadgon, 2.3; Jason Dunn, 1.3; Courtland Reese, 1.1; Jon Ray, 1.1; Winston Minahan, 0.9; Phil Thompson, 0.9; Marvin Reese, 0.8; Michael Millford, 0.7; Jason Caldwell, 0.6; Greg Kidd, 0.2; Keith Kolder, 0.2; Andy Dawson, 0.0 SPG: James Lilly, 1.5; Courtland Reese, 1.1; Michael Millford, 0.9; Leonard Miliet, 0.9; Marvin Reese, 0.8 BPG: Courtland Reese, 1.1; Andy Dawson, 1.0 ; Leonard Miliet, 1.0; Marvin Reese, 0.8; James Lilly, 0.7