Sully's court
A KNEE-JERK REACTION
Silly old me: Call me naive or old-fashioned, but this was the thought that popped into my head as I watched Boston College's 85-78 upset of North Carolina Sunday: Why did it take this game for the Eagles to play with such passion? They seemed over-the-top excited about playing in the Dean Dome. Are the other games unimportant? I think all games are important and part of me is insulted that BC can only get fired up for playing at North Carolina. There's an attitude that seems to sit there that only the Atlantic Coast Conference games are important. Again, all the games are important. BC's loss to Harvard last night proves the point. I wonder how the tournament selection committee will view this? I actually said out loud that the victory over North Carolina puts the Eagles in the NCAA tournament (figuring the season would proceed normally and they wouldn't go into a complete tailspin). On the flip side, shouldn't the Harvard loss keep them out? I think so (figuring the season would proceed normally and they wouldn't run off 15 straight wins).
BC's not alone in this thinking that only the league games are really important. UConn has trouble getting prepared for non-league opponents. Heck, I've sat in press conference where Jim Calhoun has said his team wasn't excited about playing a first-round NCAA game. Yikes. Syracuse's Andy Rautins is having a tremendous season as a 3-point shooter but coach Jim Boeheim said his open-shot opportunities would disappear once the Big East season started. Wednesday night, he had plenty of them, scoring 17 points to help lead Syracuse over DePaul. I guess non-Big East teams aren't the only ones who have trouble defending him.
Everyone feels obligated to promote their own league, I understand that. But I find it annoying at times when coaches and players arrogantly talk about their league as if it's something different than anyone else's. There are good teams in every league. Remember Davidson and Siena winning NCAA tournament games last season?
League play is different because of rivalry, familiarity, and emotion, but it's more a universal truth than one attached to any one league. BC should be able to recover from this. After all, there are only ACC games left on the schedule.
Comment
Permalink
Email
This does seem to be the argument college football uses against having a tournament -- they don't want football teams to take non-league games lightly. Maybe if there were fewer teams in the NCAA tournament . . .
I wouldn't call BC's loss against Harvard a letdown...it was just BC being BC - not a very good basketball club. BC's win against UNC was nothing more than a fluke.
Sully, don't be insulted by things out of your command. Relax.
As bad as it was, the Harvard loss doesn't keep them out of the tourney. With 15 games to go, they are 13-3 and have wins over No.1 UNC and two pretty good 11-4 Big East (Providence) and Big Ten (Iowa) schools.
If they go 9-6 and end up 22-9 you think one bad loss keeps them out?
BC was a trap game for North Carolina. They were looking past BC to the big-time conference teams. Don't hold the loss against the Tarheels. And be sure not to give Harvard any credit at all for the game they played.
Give the talented Harvard team some credit! Jeremy Lin is gifted and smart too! Maybe BC wasn't at its best but usually that would have been enough to beat the Crimson. This Harvard team is on the verge of achieving something.
As a Harvard alum, I couldn't stop laughing when I tuned in to ESPN and heard the news. BC's win over UNC albeit an upset was not even close to what Harvard pulled off for several reasons; Harvard is a non-scholarship school, Ivy League which means its students regularly attend classes and take exams, and the Crimson cannot even think about recruiting from the same talent pool as BC. BC and UNC are in the same conference so the upset while big isn't on the same scale as the loss to Harvard.
You could say it was a letdown but come on; the game was at Conte and BC's bench has better talent than the Crimson starting five. Let's be real, BC took a Gotham size choke on this one.
First off, do not compare BC to UConn when it comes to scheduling. This season, UConn has beaten Wisconsin, Miami, and Gonzaga out of conference, all either on the road or at neutral sites. They will be hosting Michigan later this year. UConn has gone on the road vs a jacked up Buffalo team and are one of, if not the top game on everyone's schedule. Lastly, they do not have the benefit of a conference vs conference challenge building up their yearly schedule.
Another big difference is BC seemingly loses games like this year in and year out. Take a look at this list: Duquesne, Northeastern, UVM, Robert Morris, Holy Cross, URI, UMass, St. Louis, all teams BC has lost to in the last four or five years. This is a pattern under Skinner. That says a lot about his ability to motivate his players. An upset here or there happens, but year in and year out? That is on the coach.
It's pretty simple: BC beat NC ... Harvard Beat BC.
Harvard is the #1 team in the nation.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
College Sports Twitter
browse this blog
by categoryINside Boston.com