BC stunner shouldn't have come as a shock

BC coach Al Skinner and star guard Tyrese Rice have a chance to put Wednesday's loss to Harvard behind them when the Eagles host conference opponent Miami tonight. (Michael Dwyer/Associated Press)

As surprising as Boston College's loss to Harvard seemed, Eagles guard Rakim Sanders hinted at the possibility for weeks.

When the Eagles daydreamed through a game against Bryant, Sanders picked out a character flaw.

At the time, he said, "A lot of times, in your head you think, 'Oh, we're going to win,' so you go out there lackadaisical and not execute. That's what a lot of our young guys, including me, have to learn."

Then, a couple of weeks later, after BC treated Sacred Heart like a run-through, Sanders said it again. "A lot of times we'll play a team like Sacred Heart or teams like that, we tend to think that it's going to be an easy win for us . . . We just felt that just because we have 'Boston College' on our jersey that we're supposed to win, and it doesn't work like that."

The problem at the time was that it was working. When the Eagles sleepwalked through cream-filled sections of their schedule, they were able to get away with it - until Wednesday against Harvard, when they thought they were biting into another cupcake and found a rock in the middle.

Coach Al Skinner refused to say it was a slipup. Instead, he said it was part of his team's DNA. After a couple of days to take it in, standout Tyrese Rice said he and his team realized it's something that can't stay the same.

"I just think that our mind-set has to change in order for us to be successful in the league we play in," Rice said yesterday. "We need to change a lot of things about it: preparation for the game, knowing a little bit about the opponent, respecting your opponent, and protecting your home court."

The day after the loss to Harvard, with his players still wrapping their heads around how they had gone from college basketball's newest darling (after beating then-No. 1 and undefeated North Carolina in their Atlantic Coast Conference opener) to its biggest dud so quickly, Skinner called a meeting.

"The biggest challenge for us is not to allow this loss to become two losses," he said. "We've got to get past this, which I think we will. I think we'll bounce back."

The numbers (10 first-half turnovers, uninterested defense that allowed Harvard to shoot 60.9 percent in the second half) were important, but they were trivial compared to the intangibles.

Skinner said his team wasn't ready to handle success. "The environment changed. All of a sudden the accolades came, the pats on the back, all that stuff that comes with successful programs, and it's new for this team, and so you've got to learn to handle that."

He said they forgot how difficult it is to win.

"Everyone thinks it's easy to win," he said. "I think it's very difficult to win. Once you start doing it, you've got to learn to handle that emotion, and that's difficult."

Even if some players saw the train crashing, no one did anything about it. "We did not challenge each other or hold each other accountable," Skinner said. "As teammates, we have to continue to challenge each other."

Rice has moved on from the loss.

"It's just something that you look at that you never want to happen again," he said. "It happened and it's over. Now we have to focus on new things. We've seen how it is when you're at the top of the totem poll and you can be right back down at the bottom. I think that brought us back into perspective."

Up next, tonight at Conte Forum, is ACC foe Miami (11-3, 0-1), which has won four straight.

"They're a real tough team," Rice said of the rebound-happy Hurricanes, who average 44.4 boards per game. "They're going to take a lot of shots. They're also going to chase 'em down with their bigs. They hit the boards hard. They're relentless. They push, shove, foul, they do whatever it takes for them to get the ball back."

The Eagles (13-3, 1-0) will also have to limit shooting guard Jack McClinton, who averages 17.3 points.

Miami-BC
What: ACC basketball
When: Tonight, 7
Where: Conte Forum
TV/radio: ESPNU, WRKO 680