With 19th straight victory, BC ties school record
One more win and someone is going to have to step up and officially declare that the Boston College men's basketball team is in the midst of a special season.
Last month, coach Al Skinner deflected such talk, joking that the campaign would not rank as anything special until the Eagles went 28-0 in the 27-game regular season.
When it was suggested last night that the fifth-ranked and undefeated Eagles had attained special status after winning their 19th straight game -- a 62-50 Big East triumph over West Virginia before a Conte Forum sellout of 8,606 -- Skinner again nipped the notion in the bud.
"It is too premature," said Skinner, cutting off a reporter's question before it could be framed.
Smiling, Skinner added, "But it's a nice place to be, I will say that."
Despite being held to their lowest output of the season, the Eagles came within one win of doing what no other BC team -- or Big East team, for that matter -- has accomplished: a 20-0 start.
The Eagles tied the school and league record with their 19th straight win and remained one of two unbeatean teams in the nation, along with No. 1 Illinois, which improved to 22-0 with an 81-68 victory over No. 12 Michigan State.
Are the players prepared to recognize this as a special season?
"A little bit," said junior forward Craig Smith. "I mean, after a win, we look at it as, `Wow, 18-19 wins, you know, that's pretty big.' But the next day, we got to get back to business."
Smith was all business against the Mountaineers (12-7, 2-6), leading BC with 23 points (14 in the second half) and eight rebounds. Sophomore forward Jared Dudley chipped in 15 points, hitting 3 of 5 from the 3-point arc, while senior guard Jermaine Watson came off the bench to score 13 points, including a patented slash to the basket that gave BC its first lead, 25-23, with 28 seconds left before halftime.
"This is probably not going to sink in until after the year," Dudley said. "You really don't know what you're doing while you're doing it, but 19 wins, yeah, that's definitely special. And we're definitely enjoying it while we can."
The Eagles took a familiar tack, missing their first six shots -- before Nate Doornekamp broke the ice with a silky 3-pointer from the corner -- and twice trailing by as many as 9 points (18-9 and 20-11).
"West Virginia is a very difficult team to play against," said Skinner, whose team thumped the Mountaineers, 73-53, Jan. 16 in Morgantown. "They show you a lot of different looks, offensively and defensively, and it takes you time to get adjusted. I knew it would take us a while to get going."
That time didn't come until the second half when the Eagles battled through two ties (28-28 and 30-30) to take the lead for good, 33-32, on Smith's powerful move to the basket with 15:04 to go.
"He's real good at that," said West Virginia coach John Beilein, whose team was led by the 10-point efforts of Tyrone Sally and Mike Gansey. "That's how you have to defend him, but you get a guy like him that's so strong inside when he gets his body on people, and he's so quick."
The Mountaineers closed within 42-38 with 8:27 to go, but the Eagles stepped up the defensive intensity and outscored West Virginia, 20-12, over the last 7:51.
But to hear the Eagles describe it, win No. 19 wasn't any more special than the 18 that preceded it.
"We definitely can't feel good about ourselves and what we've accomplished thus far, because we've still got eight games to go, starting with Seton Hall Saturday," said junior guard Louis Hinnant. "I think the team has taken on the identity of Coach Skinner. Yesterday in practice he basically chewed us out and let everybody know that we haven't done anything up to this point, and so I think everybody is taking that and running with it." 