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Boston College Chronicle EAGLES READY FOR ACC PLAY By Kinsey Ramsey With the completion of their pre-conference play, BC’s basketball team looks to be well-prepared to go up against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents beginning next week. The Eagles sport a solid 8-1 record after beating a series of strong competition the past two months. “We can’t wait to begin going up against ACC teams,” said Jason Caldwell who has been starting at PF recently. “My teammates and I believe we can compete well against any ACC team this season.” Caldwell’s confidence seems to be well-placed as the Eagles averaged 78.6 ppg while allowing their 9 opponents thus far to average just 66.3 ppg. The team has almost 50% of their field goal attempts. Leading the team’s scoring has been C Courtland Reese who is averaging 15.9 ppg. The Eagles other typical starters also are scoring well: SF Sam Dickens (11.7 ppg), SG James Lilly (11.4 ppg), PG Josh McFadgon (9.0 ppg), and PF Jason Caldwell (7.8 pgg). Top reserves have been: C Steve Ross (6.4 ppg), SG Jason Dunn (6.2 ppg), and SF Michael Millford (4.8 ppg). Top rebounders have been: SG James Lilly (6.7 rpg), C Courtland Reese (6.1 rpg), SF Sam Dickens (5.6 rpg), and PF Jason Caldwell (4.2 rpg). Assist leaders are: PG Josh McFadgon (5.0 apg), SG James Lilly (3.7 apg), and SF Sam Dickens (2.1 apg). Coach Frederick Aura said, “I’ve been pleased by how our team has played. We’ve have shown any really weak areas, although we’re working to cut down on turnovers. We’ve been strong both offensively and defensively and our rebounding has been very good. Even though three of our starters are new to our program, the team has coalesced well. But although we played some good teams thus far, ACC competition will be a step up. We’re continuing to work on all aspects of our game to be ready for that. Having our first two ACC games on the road is a big challenge.” BC travels to Syracuse, NY to take on the Syracuse Orange Monday. Syracuse is ranked #17 in the polls and has a 7-2 record. The Eagles will then conclude their first week of conference play by taking on North Carolina State in Raleigh, NC. The Wolfpack have a perfect 9-0 record thus far.

Dec. 21, 2026: Mississippi State Bulldogs (6-1) vs Boston College Eagles (7-1) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA JJ Conroy, BeanTownSports Blog Yesterday Boston College completed their pre-conference play with an easy win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Let’s face it. Even though Mississippi State came into this game with an impressive 6-1 record, they gained it by beating at home 6 pushovers. Their only loss was to a fairly good team on a neutral court. In last night’s game, the Bulldogs turned the ball over on 4 of their first 6 possessions and missed two shots they were able to get off. BC took advantage of such incompetence to post a 10-0 lead in the first 4 minutes of the game. In the final 10 minutes of the first half the Eagles expanded their lead to finish the half with a big 39-20 halftime advantage. Mississippi State hit only 35% of their shots and had 11 turnovers in the half. Mississippi State was unable to narrow the gap in the 2nd half and BC came away with a solid 80-57 victory. The Eagles scored 46 points in the paint. It looks like the Bulldogs need to spend some practice time on interior defense. C Courtland Reese topped the scoring with 21 points plus he had 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. SG James Lilly had 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. PF Jason Caldwell scored 10 points and PG Josh McFadgon finished with 8 points and 9 assists. So BC goes into ACC play with an 8-1 record. Impressive, right. Well not as impressive as you might think. 8 of their 9 games were played at home. Their only road game was against an Ivy League softy. While I think they’re a better team that last year’s squad, they will be going up against ACC teams that achieved a combined 113-33 record in pre-conference play this season. And 10 of their 20 ACC games will be on the road. At this point it’s not possible to accurately predict how the Eagles will do, but my guess is that they will finish in the middle third of the ACC standings…so OK, but not great. Poll voters don’t put much substance in BC’s record since they have yet to crack into the Top 25 whereas 4 ACC competitors reside firmly in the polls: Clemson, 11-0 is #5, Virginia, 11-0 is #8, Duke, 8-2 is #9, and Syracuse, 7-2 is #17. On the other hand, the Eagles hold claim to the #2 best NET ranking. Since they will play strong competition the rest of the season, their NET ranking may slip some but will probably remain pretty high. Coach Fred Aura Immediately after the game, PG Josh McFadgon left to travel to Indiana. His grandfather passed away. Josh wanted to go to his grandfather’s memorial service, but was afraid he wouldn’t be able to get back in time for our next game. I told him not to worry…just go. His family is most important. I let him know that if he isn’t able to be back in time for our first ACC game that, while we’d miss him, we have the players to backfill. With our next game in Syracuse, he’ll rejoin us there if he’s able.

Dec. 13, 2026: Boston College Eagles (6-1) vs Cornell Big Red (4-6) at F. R. Newman Arena in Ithaca, NY Father Paul Sedgewick, Jesuit Community at Boston College It was my turn to be the priest accompanying the team on their road trip. It’s cold and icy in Ithaca. Fortunately we don’t have to be outside much. It’s very hilly here so I’m glad our bus driver is good at handling icy roads. I’d heard that Sam Dickens and Samuel King had been arguing recently and that Coach Aura had tried to intercede, but both players had not been open to his counseling. I observed their abrasiveness to one another so when I had a chance I spoke briefly with each of them. Like Coach Aura, the responses were negative. Whereas Sam Dickens has been playing well, he has integrated poorly with his teammates. I’m going to keep my eyes and ears open, and when the time is right, I’ll try talking with him again. My message to the team before the game centered on the importance of teamwork and trusting and respecting teammates. Since Cornell’s academic term has already ended and most students have gone home for the holidays, Newman Arena, which holds about 4400, seemed pretty empty. The Eagles ground on Cornell the entire first half, out-playing the Big Red and steadily increasing our lead. Cornell cut the Eagles’ 17 point lead some at the end of the half, but BC still led comfortably by a score of 44-32 at the intermission. The Eagles totally owned the boards in the first half and C Courtland Reese scored 11 points. Our guys seemed lethargic for the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half and Cornell cut the lead to 9 points. But that seemed to wake up the Eagles and they again forged ahead, building as much as a 23 point lead. They crushed the Big Red by a final score of 84-65. SG James Lilly and C Courtland Reese both scored 15 points with Lilly also pulling down 8 rebounds and dishing out 4 assists. PF Jason Caldwell dropped in 13 points and SF/PF Sam Dickens and SG Jason Dunn each scored 11. Dickens grabbed 8 boards.

Dec. 7, 2026: Stanford Cardinal (2-3) vs Boston College Eagles (5-1) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA Boston Globe EAGLES OVER CARDINAL Boston College’s offense struggled early trying to break Stanford’s 1-2-2 zone defense. But the Eagles’ defense then solidified. BC went on a 12-0 run midway through the first half to take a lead they held onto throughout the rest of the first half. The half ended with BC on top 36-30. The Eagles moved out to a 14 point lead just 3-1/2 minutes into the 2nd half. BC would never relinquish a double-digit lead from there on and led by as much as 24 points. Boston College finished the game by giving the Cardinal a 72-56 pasting. The Eagles outshot Stanford 48% to 37% and held a 38-29 rebounding advantage. C Courtland Reese led BC with 18 points. SF/PF Sam Dickens dropped in 12 points and PG Josh McFadgon and SG James Lilly both scored 10 points.

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director In the polls this weekend, Brigham Young lept up to #6 in Media Poll and #4 in the Coaches Poll following their wins over Kentucky and us this past week. Meanwhile we remained unranked even though our NET ranking is 5th best in Division I. North Carolina which is 4-4 now with 3 of their 4 losses being to unranked teams (their other loss was to Creighton, a team we beat) is ranked #23 in the Media Poll. The Tar Heels only strong win was a 2 point road win over Butler. North Carolina has the 152nd best NET ranking. 8 ACC teams are in the Top 25 in the polls.

Dec. 3, 2026: #14-ranked Brigham Young Cougars (6-1) vs Boston College Eagles (5-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA Coach Fred Aura Tough team coming to take us on. Tough time for our front line to break down. Marvin Reese is out for several more weeks, but in the locker room after our last game Jason Caldwell reported his hand was sore…turned out to be a sprained finger. He said he noticed it while playing. I got on the team about the necessity to let us know right away when they are injured. Then in practice yesterday, Sam Dickens came down with a sore back. Dickens and Caldwell will be able to play in tonight’s game, but aren’t 100%. Hopefully Courtland Reese and Steve Ross can play more than usual. We’ll start Dickens at PF, give him frequent rests, and monitor how his back holds up. Michael Millford will start at SF tonight. Caldwell will be on the bench but we’ll play him if necessary to spell our other interior players on the court. SF Earl Betts may also be used at PF for a bit. Injuries are a part of the game, so gotta make do. The Cougars have victories over DePaul and Auburn and just finished steamrolling Kentucky 101-85. Their top scorers are PG Harold King (16.6 ppg), SG Desmon Takaki (15.1 ppg) and C Trevor Murphy (14.7 ppg). We came out hot, jumping out to a 13-4 lead in the first 4 minutes. Brigham Young then went on a 12-0 run that put us down by 3 points with 13-1/2 minutes left in the half. The Cougars slowly moved out to a 9 point lead. We came back to tie them and then Brigham Young totally crushed us late in the half. We went to the locker room trailing 46-34. The Cougars’ SG Desmon Takaki scored 15 points and C Trevor Murphy had 10 points. For us C Courtland Reese scored 14 points in the half. Even though we tried to tighten our defense, the Cougars maintained a 10-15 point lead for much of the 2nd half. We made a run that got us to with 5 points at 74-69 with 5-1/2 minutes to go. But then BYU scored the next 7 points to put us back in a hole we couldn’t climb out of. We incurred our first loss of the season, falling by a final score of 90-80. We outshot the Cougars 56% to 50% and controlled the boards 34-20. But we had 24 turnovers to just 12 by BYU and the Cougars hit 11 of 24 three-pointers. And the BYU trio of Takaki, King and Murphy scored 25, 18 and 16 points respectively. Out inability to stop them was our downfall. For us C Courtland Reese finished with 27 points and 7 rebounds while PG Josh McFadgon and SG James Lilly both scored 13 points. Uncharacteristically, SF Michael Millford simply disappeared, getting off no FG attempts, missing both free throws he took, and only getting one rebound while turning the ball over 3 times in his 18 minutes of playing time. His replacements at SF did little better so it was sort of like playing with just 4 players. Sam Dickens had a subpar game as well so apparently was hampered by his aching back.

Nov. 30, 2026: San Diego State Aztecs (2-1) vs Boston College Eagles (4-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA Jason Dunn, SG Last season San Diego St. had a 26-11 record, was ranked #20 in the polls, and got to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tourney. C Marlon Hackett is averaging 17.7 ppg and 11.7 rpg. Last year he was on the Mountain West Conference (MWC) All Conference 1st Team and was the MWC Player of the Year. We started slowly, but then just took care of business. Played good defense (holding the Aztecs shooting to 31% plus making them turn the ball over 10 times). Offensively we were hot hitting 61% of our FG’s and 57% of our 3’s. We also out-rebounded San Diego St. 18-14. By the end of the half we were on top 44-29. SF Sam Dickens hit for 12 points and PG Josh McFadgon scored 10. I played the final 7 minutes and scored 5 points. San Diego St. scored the first 8 points in the 2nd half. We re-established a big lead but then let the Aztecs get back into the game midway through the 2nd half as they closed to within 67-60 with 7-1/2 minutes to go. With 4 minutes left our lead was down to 71-66. We were having trouble cracking the Aztecs 2-3 zone defense. But then we applied a lock-down defense and poured in some shots to win going away 85-68. SF/PF Sam Dickens pumped in 22 points, PG Josh McFadgon had 16 points, and SG James Lilly scored 11 and had 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and a block. We held the Aztecs’ C Marlon Hackett to 11 points but he pulled down 14 rebounds. Coach Fed liked that 10 of us scored in this game and that we controlled the boards 38-28. He wasn’t pleased that we made 19 turnovers, though.

Nov. 26, 2026: #11-ranked Creighton Blue Jays (4-1) vs Boston College Eagles (3-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA RyReys Log (Ryan Reynolds, blogger): Nov. 25 blog: Boston College has played some good teams thus far, but they will have their biggest test tomorrow night when #11 ranked Creighton comes to town. Creighton beat #2 ranked North Carolina by 19 and #4 ranked Arizona by 10 and won the Paradise Jam Tournament this season. SF Andre Gooden is averaging 27.4 ppg and has scored over 30 points in 2 of the Blue Jays’ 5 games. Last season Gooden was named to the Big East All-Conference 1st Team. Nov. 26 blog: Earlier tonight, BC hosted the Creighton Blue Jays. Coach Fred Aura again started Jason Caldwell at PF due to the injury to Marvin Reese. Personally, I may have started Steve Ross at PF. In the past two games he’s scored a total of 21 minutes in the 22 minutes he’s been on the court plus he’s pulled down 7 rebounds. But maybe Coach Aura intended to save Ross as a super sub. In the early going it looked like BC was going to control Gooden, but then he quickly sunk three 3-pointers giving Creighton a 17-14 lead with 12-1/2 minutes left in the first half. The two teams swapped the lead for the next few minutes but then the Eagles began to outscore the Blue Jays. BC edged Creighton in all team stats to achieve a 42-35 halftime advantage. SF/PF Sam Dickens scored 11 points, grabbed 5 boards and dished out 3 assists. For Creighton both SF Andre Gooden and reserve PF John Woodward each scored 11 points. The Eagles opened a 10 point lead early in the 2nd half only to have Andre Gooden single-handedly erase it. BC edged ahead again but Creighton caught up and the game was tied at 59-59 with 8 minutes remaining. With 5:11 to play and BC up 67-64, SF Sam Dickens fouled out trying to guard Andre Gooden. The teams were knotted again at 75-75 with 2 minutes left. The Blue Jays sunk a 3 and then on the next possession 2 free throws to go up by 5 points. Courtland Reese jammed in a dunk to cut the lead to 3 and then BC rebounded when Creighton missed a shot. BC called a time out with 41 ticks on the clock. It looked like the Eagles tried to free up James Lilly for a 3 but he was too tightly guarded. He dumped the ball off to PG Josh McFadgon who faked a pass to Michael Millford and then swung it back to Lilly who had moved to the right of the lane. Lilly quickly put up a 14 footer that went cleanly through the hoop to make it 80-79 with 33 seconds remaining. Gooden got clear but missed a 3, and BC grabbed the rebound with 21 seconds to go. Another time out yielded yet another busted play forcing the Eagles to work the ball around the court. With 4 seconds remaining SF Michael Millford lofted up a 3 that dropped through the net giving BC a 2 point lead. Creighton called a time out but due to the Eagles full court press was unable to get the ball into the forecourt until there was too little time to get off a desperation last shot. Boston College escaped with a thrilling 82-80 win to preserve their perfect record. Creighton’s SF Andre Gooden scored 29 points and had 12 rebounds. But Boston College got good scoring throughout their lineup. SF Sam Dickens scored 13, C Courtland Reese and PG Josh McFadgon each hit for 12, PF Jason Caldwell and SF Michael Millford each had 11, and SG’s James Lilly and Jason Dunn both scored 8. Reese also pulled down 10 boards. Following the game Coach Fred Aura said, “This was a close game all the way. The way our guys came back from being down by 5 with just over a minute to play was impressive. Creighton is a really good team. I’m just glad we were playing them at home. It took a complete team effort for us to get by them. And Michael Millford’s winning shot with just seconds left was tremendous as was the way our defense kept the Blue Jays from getting off a shot in the final seconds.”

Nov. 23, 2026: Vanderbilt Commodores (1-0) vs Boston College Eagles (2-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA 3rd Assistant (Scouting) Coach Rob Rowland I’m enjoying the new job here at Boston College. The assistant coaches for UC Irvine shared scouting duties, so I got to do a fair amount but also shared practice duties. Here I help with practice but am the primary scout, so I feel like I’m away from the BC campus more than I’m here. We’re taking on Vanderbilt. They’ve only played a single game thus far, beating Tarleton State 66-53. The Commodores primarily use a triangle offense, but since it’s early in the season they are playing with a lot of offensive freedom. SF Dalron Robertson scored 20 points and had 10 rebounds in their first game. So we need to control him. His younger brother, Loren Robertson, is Vanderbilt’s PG and is a competent floor general with a sweet outside shot. SG Kyle Dumas didn’t shoot well against Tarleton State, but will put up a lot of shots and has the ability to hit them. Vanderbilt’s C Jon Beaudean uses his bulk to do some effective rebounding. I don’t think the Commodores man-to-man and 3-2 zone defense will be as potent against us as it was versus Tarleton State. I like our chances but Vanderbilt won 20 games last season and got to the NCAA Tournament so we need to take them seriously. Due to Marvin Reese’s injury, tonight we started Jason Caldwell at PF. Following a steal by SF Sam Dickens, Caldwell drove to the hoop and scored our first points just 32 seconds into the game. We went ahead 4-0 but fell behind 7-6. There were 8 lead changes and 4 ties, but we shot poorly (34%) which allowed Vanderbilt to inch ahead and take a 31-25 halftime lead. The Commodores also dominated the boards 21-11 but we held a 10-2 turnover advantage. SG Kyle Dumas scored 10 points for Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt continued to dominate early in the 2nd half, building an 11 point lead. Midway through the half, Coach Aura turned up the defensive pressure and called out our guys about their lack of aggressiveness on the boards. The team rallied and took a 49-47 lead with 7 minutes to go. The lead then shifted back and forth. With 3:17 to go we were tied at 58-58. Lilly dropped in a pair of free throws and Courtland Reese scored inside and our defense was rock solid giving us a 62-58 advantage with 1:23 left. Our defense was impenetrable (Vanderbilt scored just 2 points in the final 3:17 and those were on free throws) and we pulled away for a resounding 71-60 victory. While we failed to control Vanderbilt’s Dalron Robertson who finished by scoring 23 points, we outscored the Commodores 36-15 in the final 10 minutes of the game. So it took us 30 minutes to unravel Vanderbilt’s defense, but when we did, we really caught fire. In the 2nd half we out-rebounded Vanderbilt 20-8. Top scorers for the Eagles were: PF/SF Sam Dickens-14; SG James Lilly-13 (plus 8 rebounds); C Steve Ross-12; PF Jason Caldwell-10; C Courtland Reese-10.

1st Assistant Coach David Woodruff Injury Report: PF Marvin Reese broke his ankle while fighting for a rebound when another player landed on his leg when both crashed to the floor. Marvin is expected to be out 7-8 weeks. Big loss for us. We’ll experiment with 2 different options: (1) moving Sam Dickens to start at PF rather than SF and starting Michael Millford at SF; (2) starting Jason Caldwell at PF. We believe Sam can play well at either SF or PF. Michael had a very strong game coming in off the bench against Oklahoma. Jason was a strong starter last season. 2-Game Eval: Strong wins both times. I know they’re home games, but we weren’t playing pushovers. Out starters looked very good in both games. Our bench had a tough first game, but they came through in our second game, scoring 32 points and pulling down 15 rebounds. I like what we’ve been doing defensively thus far. We’ve worked hard on defense in practice and our guys have responded…very few defensive breakdowns. We’ve been able to keep both opponents off balance and our tight defense has made it difficult for them to get the ball in the hoop. PF Marvin Reese Man, I’m bummed by my broken ankle and having to miss a couple months of our basketball season. Things were really looking good for the team and me. Of course I’d played with James Lilly last season, but starting with the 3 new guys has been fun. They’ve brought a whole new energy to the team. The team’s still gonna do good, but not being part of that sucks. Doc says my ankle should heal up fine and I’ll be able to finish out BC’s season. Right now I have to keep weight off of the ankle so I’m sitting around and using some crutches when I have to move. But he says that soon I can wear a walking boot as the bones continue to heal. This season I’m not the only Reese on the team. Many people assume Courtland Reese is my brother, but he isn’t. I’d never heard of him before he joined us. When she found out another guy named Reese was on the Eagle, my grandmother began doing some genealogical research. It turns out Courtland is a distant relative…a 3rd cousin I think she said. But he’s a part of the family that apparently my side has had no relationship with. Courtland and I now laughingly call each other “Cuz”. Some of our teammates are calling me Cuz1 and him Cuz2.

Nov. 19, 2026: Oklahoma Sooners (1-0) vs Boston College Eagles (1-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA Roy Means, fan I love college baskeball. While I don’t have a season ticket I try to get as may Eagles games as I can. Last season I got so excited by how BC did when they came up just short of winning the CIT championship. That’s carried over to this season and the Eagles crushing of Baylor kept my excitement at a fever pitch. I read that Oklahoma totally shut down their first opponent this year, Western Carolina…holding them to 44 points and stifling their shooting so that the Catamounts hit just 26% of their shots. BC needs to break the Sooner defense. The teams fought it out for the first 5 minutes with BC holding a slim 7-6 lead. But it was nearly all Eagles the next 5 minutes as they spurted out to a 19-11 lead. The Eagles expanded their lead to 15 and led 38-26 at the end of the half. Strong defense by the Eagles forced the Sooners to turn the ball over 9 times and hit just 37% of their shots. BC also dominated the boards 23-15. C Courtland Reese scored 8 and had 5 rebounds. BC rapidly pulled out to a 51-30 lead in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half. PF Marvin Reese was injured…I’m not sure what the injury was but they took him to the locker room. The Eagles waltzed to a 78-59 victory by outshooting Oklahoma 49% to 35%, out-rebounding the Sooners 39-31 and holding a 16-13 turnover advantage. C Courtland Reese the Eagles leading scorer with 17 points plus he had 9 rebounds. SG James Lilly had 13 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 4 steals and a block. Reserve SF Michael Millford scored 12 points in 15 minutes of play.

Nov. 16, 2026: Baylor Bears (0-0) vs Boston College Eagles (0-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA Coach Fred Aura We picked off 2 passes and forced another turnover on Baylor’s first 3 possessions and took a 6-0 lead with each of our 3 new starters (Courtland Reese, Josh McFadgon, and Sam Dickens) scoring. Nice start to the season. We went on to take an 18-5 lead with 12:26 to play. I knew we were quicker this season, but we turned several of our 6 steals by that point into breakaway lay-ins and dunks. Our crowd was going crazy. After expanding our lead to 22, late in the half our defense got soft and we got sloppy making several turnovers. When the half ended we were on top 40-26. PF Marvin Reese paced us with 13 points in the half. Our play in the 2nd half was rather shoddy but we held onto a large lead and were never threatened. We came away with a satisfying 75-62 win. We outshot Baylor 47% to 39% and controlled the boards 34-27. SF Sam Dickens scored 18 points. C Courtland Reese hit for 15 points plus pulled down 8 boards. PF Marvin Reese put in 13 points and PG Josh McFadgon finished with 10 points. SG James Lilly fouled out after scoring 7 points and grabbing 6 rebounds. Our 3 new starters (McFadgon, C. Reese, and Dickens) performed like they’d been playing college ball all their lives…a combined 43 points hitting 14 of 23 FGA’s, 18 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks and McFadgon, our PG, had NO turnovers in the 29 minutes he played!). Unlike last season, our bench didn’t perform particularly well. They were on the court about 1/3 of the time, but scored just 12 points and had only 7 rebounds. But they’re a solid bunch, so I expect they’ll do better in the future. Unusual occurrence that happened in this game: Marvin Reese was fouled on two separate occasions while attempting 3-pointers. He sunk all 6 free throws that ensued. He attempted one more 3-pointer…got that one off cleanly and it swished through the basket.

David Woodruff, 1st Assistant Coach Last year as head coach for Youngstown State we were 17-15 and went to the CIT Tourney. But at 63, I realized that I really preferred handling player development rather than the many varied roles of a head coach. So when the job came open here with Coach Aura, I jumped ship. Getting a chance to work with the talent level on the Eagles has been a blast. The past month of practice went smoothly. Now we’re ready to start the season. Turns out all 3 guys BC recruited last season will be starting. All 3 were impressive but of course are still learning our sets and getting accustomed to playing together. Hopefully their talent will override that deficit early this season until they gain sufficient experience. Starters: C-Courtland Reese, 6’9” freshman: looked good in practice, good inside scorer, strong rebounder, solid defense. SF-Sam Dickens, 6’8” freshman: scores well from inside and mid-range, great rebounder, very strong defensively. PG-Josh McFadgon, 6’1” junior (JC transfer): good passer and ball handler, can score well from mid and long range, good rebounder for a guard, able defender. The two repeat starters are: SG-James Lilly, 6’0” junior: very good scorer from outside but also drives well, exceptional rebounder for his size, great defender who gets a lot of steals and blocks, good passer. PF-Marvin Reese, 6’6’ junior: played both PF and SF last season, shoots well from all over the floor, good rebounder, solid defensively. Bench: Guards: Willis Lofton will be coming off the bench rather than starting this season. Jon Ray, Samuel King, and Jason Dunn also provide good depth. SF: Michael Millford and Earl Betts again will be good subs. Interior: Jason Caldwell will be a reserve instead of a starter, Steve Ross again will be a trusted sub. Dickens, Millford, and Betts can also fill in at PF. The media has picked us to finish in 9th place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but I think we have the talent to finish well up in the top half of the standings.

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director Our schedule for this season is complete. We have 9 pre-conference games. Since I was able to schedule 8 of those at home, I expected Coach Aura to be ecstatic. But I was wrong. He explained that he has now seen both sides. As coach of a low prestige school, he typically had a very high percentage of his team’s pre-conference games as road games. He said his AD explained that many teams were unwilling to play Towson at home. Once his team got strong, teams were disinclined to play the Tigers at home, even much better teams since those didn’t want to rack up a loss when they were more likely to gain a win if Towson played on the opponent’s home court. And he said that now he sees how teams in power conferences like the ACC can dictate that a high percentage of their pre-conference games are played at home, thus increasing the likelihood of wins. He said that while he appreciated my efforts to schedule a bunch of home games and he understood that it meant increased revenue for the college, he didn’t feel it adequately prepared the team for conference games. So he got me to change each home game to a upgrade it to a much higher competition level. I’m pretty sure I created some enemies with AD’s for the teams that were cancelled off our preliminary schedule since it meant they had to try to find a new opponent on their schedule. Here’s the re-worked pre-conference schedule (prestige level is in parentheses) (BC’s prestige level is 52): BAYLOR (55) OKLAHOMA (69) VANDERBILT (63) CREIGHTON (67) SAN DIEGO STATE (65) BRIGHAM YOUNG (67) STANFORD (65) @ Cornell (our annual non-conference rival game) (26) MISSISSIPPI STATE (61) Coach Aura also said that we need to discuss a future change to our rival game opponent and suggested I contact Providence about becoming ours beginning next season. He thinks the Friars are a more equal competitor and that a nearby Catholic college is a more logical rival.

Chris Evans, 2nd Assistant (Recruiting) Coach We did it! It’s early October and we have verbal acceptances from recruits for all 3 available scholarships. And not just any recruits, 3 very strong recruits! In early September Leonard Meliet, a 6’5” PG from Gladewater, Texas surprised us by accepting our offer so quickly. We beat out Oklahoma and Brigham Young for his services. He’s a 5-star recruit and is ranked 21st of all recruits. He was within the top 25 at the Indy Elite Camp. The guy is a scoring machine with outstanding inside shooting skills and is a very good outside shooter (including from 3-point range) as well who averaged 22.2 ppg as a HS junior. He handles the ball well and is a fantastic passer who dished out 8.2 apg last season. He’s an excellent rebounder (4.7 rpg as a junior) and defender who is an adroit ball hawk (4.5 spg last season). He’s extremely athletic and his HS coach has told us he has a tremendous work ethic. Then a week later, we got word that another guard…Phil Thompson, a 6’3” PG from Trinity, Alabama…accepted our offer. Florida and Clemson were our main competitors for him. Thompson is the 28th highest ranked recruit, rated as 4-star but is very nearly a 5-star recruit. Phil is a very good outside shooter who averaged 19.7 ppg last season. Like Meliet, he’s an outstanding passer (7.8 apg as a junior) and an even stronger ball handler. Similar to Meliet, his stealing skills are exciting (5.8 spg last season) and overall he’s an excellent defender. Phil’s a very good rebounder (5.0 rpg as a junior). He had a decent but not spectacular showing at the Indy Elite Camp, but his HS coach said he rarely missed practices and has a tremendous work ethic. Both Meliet and Thompson were impressed by our being in the ACC. Meliet’s parents are graduates of the University of Texas and Sam Houston University, so we’re happy to have gotten him to come north to the Boston area. Thompson’s mother graduated from the University of Alabama and playing close to home was very important to him, but our facility’s and Coach Aura’s approach to discipline were definite factors in winning him over. Coach Aura and I feel that both of these guys will really strengthen our team and could play either PG or SG for us. Both are B students in high school. So while we feel they will both meet our high SAT minimum, we’ll have to wait until late January to be sure. We missed out on several high-rated big men to whom we offered scholarships as they chose more prestigious programs. Finally in early October, we made an offer to a 6’7” SF from Charlottesville, Virginia and he accepted. Keith Kolder is the 106th rated recruit, a solid 4-star recruit. Holder has a 4.0 GPA in high school and academics, facilities, and location were areas that swayed him to come to BC. Keith is a solid shooter from anywhere on the court who averaged 16.1 ppg as a junior. He’s very strong defensively and is a good passer for a SF. He’s not been a good rebounder in high school (3.0 rpg last year), so that’s something we need to work on with him. But he has a great work ethic so that’s a plus. He didn’t stand out at the Indy Elite Camp and had a decent, yet unspectacular, showing at the Big Apple Showcase. With Sam Dickens, who is a freshman for us this year at SF, Keith is unlikely to be a starter at SF until he’s a senior unless Dickens slots into PF for us at some point, but we feel Kolder could be an excellent 6th man at both SF and SG. We had a 6’10” C from Massachusetts who really wanted to play for us. He isn’t a highly ranked recruit, but we feel he could be a real sleeper. We almost pulled the trigger on making a scholarship offer to him, but then decided it was a crap-shoot while Kolder seems to be a guy we will be able to count upon. We’re very excited about the recruits we landed. If both Meliet and Thompson qualify academically, I think we definitely have a Top 25 recruit class nationally and probably a top-3 recruit class within the ACC. Ohyeah, and if Meliet meets our SAT minimum, it's a steak dinner at Abe & Louie's for me paid by Coach Aura since Meliet is the 21st highest ranked recruit.

Boston College Chronicle LILLY IS NORTON AWARD CANDIDATE By Kinsey Ramsey Boston College’s James Lilly has been nominated for the 2nd straight year as a candidate for the prestigious Norton Award. As a sophomore last season, Lilly led the Eagles to 21 victories, averaging 14.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg, and 2.4 apg. Coach Fred Aura said, “It’s an honor to be nominated, but James certainly has shown he’s one of the best collegiate players so the nomination is well-earned. Not only is he a very good scorer, he’s an excellent defender who is able to go up against and limit the best opponents, and he gets more than his share of blocks and steals. I’ve never seen a guard who is a better rebounder than James. He has the ability to get great positioning. Even at just 6’0”, James isn’t afraid to mix it up and often takes rebounds away from much taller opponents. He plays like he’s 6 or 8 inches taller than he is. He’s unselfish on the court and often finds teammates with more open shots rather than taking the shot himself. He’s a hard worker who gets along well with his teammates. To top all this off, James has a 4.0 GPA.”

Coach Fred Aura It was a real confidence-builder when a couple excellent programs showed interest in my possibly becoming their head coach. I was flattered, but felt I’d made a commitment to Boston College to get their program back on track and challenging within the ACC. We’ve begun but we’re far from achieving that yet, so I just had to thank the colleges that showed interest but let them quickly know that I wasn’t ready for a change at this point. Additionally, I know that Janeka wants to remain close to her mother to help during her cancer treatment…and Boston is where we need to be for that. I’m excited by the 3 recruits we signed last season. I expect all three to strongly compete for starting roles and make us a much stronger team. But it’s become obvious that C Damon Smith still hasn’t developed to a point where he will play for us this coming season. He was used by us last season only in a few mop up roles. I finally made a decision to cut him and look for a transfer player. Our team prestige will take a small hit due to our cutting a scholarship player, but so be it. We missed out on the primary transfer player we were pursuing, but landed Winston Minahan, a 6-6 PF from Sonora, TX who played a limited role as a freshman for Texas Tech last season but with further development has good potential. Working out with our team for this season while he’s ineligible to play in games should help him prepare to compete for a starting job the following season when he’ll be a sophomore eligibility-wise. Our next challenge is to identify and sign three excellent recruits. Our recruit class from last season was rated as the 45th best in the nation, but that applied to just the two high schoolers we signed. The JC player we signed wasn’t factored into this. If he had been, I think the combination of our 3 recruits would have improved our rating by 15-20 places. It’s a big challenge, but my goal is for us to be in the Top 25 in Recruit Class Rankings next year. We’re going up against a lot of programs with a heckuva lot bigger recruiting budget than we have and who can purchase the best reports, attend any and all camps, and spend, spend, spend on activities throughout the recruiting season. Chris, my recruiting coach, accepted my challenge but not before also pointing out that there were a lot of other programs with much bigger names and higher prestige and reminding me that our high academic standards also make things more difficult. But I know Chris’ confidence was buoyed by last season’s recruiting success so he’ll kick butt to go after great recruits. Of course, Chris also has a top-notch steak dinner coming if he inks a top-25 ranked recruit.

Chris Evans, 2nd Assistant (Recruiting) Coach We have 3 seniors graduating after this coming season. We don’t have enough money to buy the Premier (Gold) scouting reports, so opt to purchase the basic National and Atlantic East reports. We will attend the Indy Elite Camp and the Big Apple Showcase. We will focus on landing a PG and an interior player and with the 3rd scholarship we’ll go after the best available guard. I believe we had a good recruiting year last season. Hope I'm not being over-confident, but I think that due to my increased experience, an even closer working relationship with Coach Aura, our team's solid performance last season, and an even more lasered focus this year, we can do even better this season. When I mentioned this to Coach Aura, he laughed and said he liked my optimism but will just take it week-by-week and see how things turn out. He then said, "Land us a top-25 ranked recruit and dinner at Abe & Louie's Steakhouse is on me."

2026-2027 SEASON Janeka Aura (wife of Coach Aura) As soon as the kids got out of school, our entire family flew to Norway to go on a cruise through the Norway fjords. It was a beautiful trip and a chance for us all to decompress. Fred, in particular, was under a lot of pressure this last year as he tried to advance the program. The ACC season was extremely demanding and when the team had a rather long losing streak, Fred took it hard. The team’s performance in the CIT tournament helped put a positive spin on the season, though. Our kids have sports camps this summer. Omari (who will be a high school senior this coming year) and Malik (who will be a sophomore) both are going to great basketball camps. Devany will be a 4th grader and is going to a soccer camp. My job with BC’s School of Nursing is going great. I really enjoy it. Things slow down a bit in the summer so that’s a nice respite. That means I can spend more time with my mother who is still battling cancer.

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director None of our players received awards this season. James Lilly was robbed…he should have been on the all-conference team. Coach Aura accomplished 3 of his goals (winning at least 15 games (we won 21), having no players with academic ineligibility, improving team prestige (improved by 3 up to 54). He didn’t accomplish two others (finishing in the top half in the conference standings and getting to the NCAA tournament…but we did have a very good run in the CIT tournament). In fact, we’d probably have been a one-and-done if we’d gone to the NCAA Tournament, whereas the team’s play in the CIT tourney provided a lot of excitement and enthusiasm within our school and for our fans. Overall it was a pretty successful season and a big step up on how we’d been doing in recent years. Some really good schools have shown interest in talking with Fred Aura about taking their head coaching jobs, but Fred told me he has no interest in leaving. In early April we landed our 3rd and final recruit, Josh McFadgon. He’s a 6’1” PG who played JC ball in Whiting, Indiana, so will come to us as a junior next season. He averaged 15.7 ppg, 6.3 apg, 4.8 rpg, 2.0 bpg and 2.8 spg this season. He’s got fantastic passing skills and is an excellent outside shooter. He is a good ball handler, a good scorer, and is very athletic. Most importantly he is a hard worker and hasn’t had injury problems. He’s a 4-star player who was the 93rd ranked recruit. Josh will join two other 4 star recruits for us: SF Sam Dickens who was the 59th ranked recruit who averaged 19.2 ppg, 4.4 apg, 7.5 rpg, 2.0 bpg, and 3.3 spg in his senior high school season in Noble, Maine and C Courtland Reese who was ranked 84th nationally and averaged 16.4 ppg, 4.4 apg, 8.3 rpg, 3.8 bpg, and 2.6 spg in his high school senior season in Windham, Maine. Two assistants left to try to get better jobs (1st assistant Kevin Abney wanted a head coaching job and 3rd assistant Robert Wilson was looking to move up in the assistant coaching world). Kevin didn’t get a head coaching job but moved over to Boston University where he will again be 1st assistant. Robert didn’t get picked up by another Division I team, so he took a first assistant coaching job with a Division II team. We hired two excellent new assistant coaches. David Woodruff will be our 1st Assistant Coach and handle player development/practices. He was previously the head coach at Youngstown State. Rob Rowland will be our 3rd Assistant Coach responsible for scouting. He comes to us from UC Irvine where he was also 3rd assistant. Fred requested a budget increase. The board authorized a $2,250 increase. I don’t think it was as much as Fred had hoped for, but our board hasn’t been in the habit of increasing budgets. So its that much more he can spend on recruiting this coming season. That takes care of the 2025-2026 season. I’m already looking forward to next season.

Results for ACC Teams in Other Post-Season Tournaments as well as Championship Games: CBI Results: Round 1: #3 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish-78, #6 seed Albany Great Danes-59 Round 2: #3 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish-63, #2 seed Gardner Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs-52 Round 3: #3 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish-80, #8 seed Bellarmine Knights-57 Round 4 (championship): #3 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish-78, #2 seed Saint Louis Billikins-54 NIT Results: Championship: UCONN-82, Marist-73 NCAA Results: Round 1: #2 seed Virginia Cavaliers-96, #15 seed Furman Paladins-80 #4 seed Louisville Cardinals-69, #13 seed Dayton Flyers-60 #12 seed UC Santa Barbara Gauchos-76, #5 seed Clemson Tigers-72 #6 seed Villanova Wildcats-77, #11 seed Virginia Tech Hokies-70 #1 seed Duke Blue Devils-73, #16 South Carolina Upstate Spartans-50 #2 seed Florida State Seminoles-86, #15 seed MD-Eastern Shore Hawks-62 #6 seed Syracuse Orange-87, #11 seed St. Mary’s Gaels-68 #7 seed Pittsburgh Panthers-69, #10 seed Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets-51 Round 2: #2 seed Virginia Cavaliers-90, #10 seed Seton Hall Pirates-67 #4 seed Louisville Cardinals-83, #12 seed UC Santa Barbara Gauchos-66 #1 seed Duke Blue Devils-86, #8 seed Boise State Broncos-81 #2 seed Florida State Seminoles-81, #7 seed Pittsburgh Panthers-75 #3 seed Oregon Ducks-84, #6 seed Syracuse Orange-65 Round 3 (Sweet 16): #1 seed Michigan Wolverines-92, #4 seed Louisville Cardinals-64 #2 seed Virginia Cavaliers-90, #6 seed Villanova Wildcats-81 #1 seed Duke Blue Devils-81, #4 seed Tennessee Volunteers-69 #3 seed Oregon Ducks-82, #2 seed Florida State Seminoles-64 Round 4 (Elite 8): #1 Michigan Wolverines-94, #2 Virginia Cavaliers-89 #3 seed Oregon Ducks-74, #1 seed Duke Blue Devils-71 Championship: Oregon-82, Michigan-80

CIT Tournament Results: Coach Fred Aura: Round 5 (championship): #5 seed Boston College Eagles (21-16) vs #2 seed Florida Gators (22-14)—As usual we entered this game as big underdogs. We hung with Florida and trailed just 13-12 before they went on a 19-0 run. The Gators quickness made things tough and caused us to turn the ball over far too much, but our guys fought hard. We closed the gap a little and at the half trailed 51-37. We chipped away at their lead throughout the 2nd half. With 2 minutes to go we trailed by 9 but had to foul at that point and they beat us 88-72. So we gave it a try but they were the better team and won the championship. Florida’s first half run was like being run over by a bus…too much so to recover. SG James Lilly was our top scorer with 19 points with SF Michael Millford scoring 15 and PG/SG Jon Ray adding 11. I’m really pleased about how my team did in this tournament. We played higher seeds the entire way including two #1’s and two #2’s. It gives me hope for next season, particularly with the 2 recruits that will be joining us…and if we can land the 3rd one we have been courting, we could surprise some people.

CIT Tournament Results: Coach Fred Aura: Round 4 (semi-finals): #1 seed Loyola (MD) Greyhounds (22-13) vs #5 seed Boston College Eagles (20-16)—We worked the ball around well early to get some good shots and take a nice early lead. But the refs saddled us with fouls. Hot shooting and great defense that kept the Greyhounds’ shooting percentage low and their turnovers high put us up 31-13 with 9 minutes to go. Our lead grew to 21 points but Loyola (MD) shaved our halftime lead to 46-30. We outshot the Greyhounds 55% to 36% and they’d made 6 more turnovers than us in the half. C Jason Caldwell poured in 16 points in the half for us. The refs continued whistling us in the 2nd half. With 14-1/2 minutes to go we had four players with 3 fouls apiece. Fortunately we continued to drill the basket so we were able to maintain a big lead and we drubbed the Greyhounds 93-70. We hit 56% of our FG’s compared to 42% by Loyola (MD), controlled the boards 34-26 and held a 15-9 turnover advantage. C Jason Caldwell scored 18 points and PF Marius Witt tossed in 14 points plus had 9 rebounds. But with our starters minutes limited by foul problems, our bench scored 59 points including 16 by SF Michael Millford, 13 by Steve Ross, 10 by Samuel King, and 8 by Jon Ray.

CIT Tournament Results: Coach Fred Aura: Round 3: #5 seed Boston College Eagles (19-16) vs #2 seed Western Michigan Broncos (19-13)—The first half began as a shootout. While we were able to take a small lead, I had to get on the team to play defense. When we finally began challenging them, we start pulling away and took a 45-38 halftime lead. Our offense really cooked in the 2nd half which kept the Broncos from getting too close. We went on a run late in the half and beat Western Michigan 94-79 as we dropped in 54% of our shots and held a 35-27 rebounding advantage. Our interior game again led the way as we held a 32-14 advantage on points in the paint and a 17-9 advantage on 2nd chance points. Leading our scoring was C Jason Caldwell with 22 points. SG James Lilly had 18 points and 12 rebounds. PF Marius Witt added 13 points.

Phone conversation between Terry Morillo and Mike McMillan: Mike: How’s things going with your new job? Terry: I like it here at Western Illinois. Even though it’s not a basketball powerhouse, it really feels like a step up from Dixie State. Mike: I’m glad to hear that. I felt like Dixie State was sort of a dead end street for you. for Western Illinois should give you a lot more opportunity. Terry: Well, at least there’s a little more money for recruiting. Mike: Hey, don’t talk to me about a lack of a decent recruiting budget. The administration at Maryland-Eastern Shore seems to feel that all it takes is a few phone calls to get any recruit. I’m having to limit almost all my efforts to in-state to keep my costs down. Terry: Yeah, recruiting is a huge investment in both money and time. I’d really like to be doing more coaching and less recruiting. When we were coaching high school ball, the guys just automatically came to us from the junior high schools and it was just Mike: I agree that it’s laborious. I thought I’d be better at it than I have been. I’m hoping that the more bumps and bruises we get from it the better we will eventually get at doing it. I’m tired of getting so many “no’s”. Terry: I hear ya, man. Even with more money to spend, I’ve not been doing well so far this summer. Maybe some of these guys we’ve been trying to entice will eventually just have pity on me and decide to become Leathernecks. Mike: If some of the guys you’re going after decide that they want to come further east, let me know and I’ll go after them. I need all the help I can get.