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2010-11 Boston College Basketball: Bucknell Game Thread (7:00 PM EDT)
by Brian @ BCI on Dec 22, 2010 5:00 PM EST
in Boston College Basketball
vs. 
Bucknell Bison (6-6, 0-0 Patriot League) at Boston College Eagles (9-2, 1-0 ACC)
Time: 7:00 PM EDT
Date: Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010
Place: Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, Ma.
TV: Nope
Internet Audio: BCEagles.com
Internet Video: BCEagles.com
Line: No Line
Last Time Out: Boston College defeated Bryant 93-77 to move to 9-2 on the season.
Series: Boston College leads the all-time series 1-0.
Last Meeting at BC: Boston College 86, Bucknell 64 (Dec. 28, 1951)
Trends: BC is looking for their seventh straight win of the season. BC's six straight wins is good for the second longest active winning streak in the ACC (Duke 21 games). Against the 12 teams currently in the ACC, Bucknell has an all-time record of 1-24.
Bucknell's 2009-2010 Record: 14-17 (9-5 Patriot League)
Bucknell's Probable Starters:
G - Bryan Cohen (Jr.) - 6'5", 199 lbs., Huntingdon Valley, Pa. - 8.3 PPG, 4.2 RPG
G - Bryson Johnson (So.) - 6'1", 181 lbs., Pictou, Nova Scotia - 8.3 PPG, 1.3 RPG
G - Darryl Shazier (Sr.) - 6'0", 178 lbs., Newport News, Va. - 8.0 PPG, 3.3 RPG
F - Joe Willman (So.) - 6'6", 201 lbs., Monmouth, N.J. - 6.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG
F-C - Mike Muscala (So.) - 6'10", 223 lbs., Roseville, Mn. - 14.5 PPG, 6.1 RPG
Leave your pre-, in- or post-game thoughts below.
Go Eagles!
28 commentsKraft Fight Hunger Bowl: Analyzing Nevada's Recent Bowl History
by Brian @ BCI on Dec 22, 2010 11:36 AM EST
in Boston College Football
The Nevada Wolf Pack will be making just their 10th ever appearance in a bowl game when they face BC in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. Back in 1948, Nevada played in their first bowl game in a game called ... believe it or not ... the Salad Bowl. In that game, Nevada defeated the North Texas State Teachers College (now North Texas) 13-6 on New Year's Day 1948.
Nevada then spent the better part of 40 years in college football's lower divisions before making the jump back to Division I-A football in 1992, joining what was then the Big West Conference. In the years since Nevada has appeared in nine bowl games -- three Las Vegas Bowl appearances in the 1990s, followed by two trips to Hawaii, two to Boise and a New Mexico Bowl appearance in the 2000s.
While BC and Nevada have never faced one another on the gridiron, we might be able to learn something about the Pack from taking a closer look at their most recent bowl history.
2009 Hawaii Bowl - Nevada (8-4) vs. SMU (7-5)
Location: Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hi.
Line: Nevada -10.5
Result: SMU 45, Nevada 10
Nevada entered the 2009 bowl season as one of the most heavily favored bowl teams. The Wolf Pack were 10.5 point favorites against an SMU team making their first bowl appearance since the program received the NCAA's death penalty (see also, ESPN's 30 for 30 Pony Exce$$). The Mustangs, led by June Jones, took out nearly 25 years of frustration out on the Wolf Pack rolling up 31 first-half points en route to a 45-10 blowout win over Nevada. The SMU defense held Kaepernick to 15-29 passing and just 1 passing touchdown. More importantly, SMU held the nation's #1 ranked rushing offense to just 137 yards on the ground (and zero touchdowns).
2008 Humanitarian Bowl - Nevada (7-5) vs. Maryland (7-5)
Location: Bronco Stadium, Boise, Id.
Line: Nevada -2.5
Result: Maryland 42, Nevada 35
Maryland's Da'Rel Scott rushed for 174 yards on just 14 carries and two fourth quarter scores as the Terps held off Nevada 42-35. The Maryland defense did give up 484 yards of total offense to the Pack's Pistol offense, 370 of those yards coming through the air. Colin Kaepernick finished throwing for 370 yards, 3 TDs and 2 INTs on 24-47 passing. The Maryland defense was able to limit the Pack to just 114 yards rushing, 101 coming from now senior RB Vai Taua. It was a game that Maryland (and Maryland fans) didn't really want to be in, as the Terps sold just a few hundred tickets for their trip to Boise. The game's attendance -- 26,781 -- was largely comprised of local fans, but my guess is there were many more Wolf Pack fans than there were Terrapins fans, a situation BC will definitely face in San Francisco.
Keyes, a two-time Small School Offensive Player of the Year pick by the Times Union in 2009 and 2010, excelled at both running back and safety, and was recruited at both positions. Keyes, who rushed for 5,145 yards during his stellar varsity career, will play strong safety at the collegiate level and likely will redshirt in 2011.
Upstate New York safety Josh Keyes is BC's latest commitment. Does he know he has a Newton Campus dorm named after him?
Welcome to the Heights, Josh.
Happy Trails, Mike Mottau
New York Islanders and former Boston College defenseman Mike Mottau has been placed on the IR and will miss the remainder of the 2010-11 season. Mottau requires surgery on his right hip.
Mottau had three assists in 20 games this season for the Isles.
Maryland Buys Out, Fires Ralph Friedgen In The Name Of A "Strategic Business Decision"
by Brian @ BCI on Dec 21, 2010 12:22 PM EST
in Boston College Football
Maryland AD Kevin Anderson made it official on Monday, announcing that the school will buy out the final year of Ralph Friedgen's contract for about $2 million. The school attempted to negotiate Friedgen's "resignation," but he refused. As a result, the school will be forced to fire him and pay him $2 million.
Anderson added that the contract buyout was part of a "strategic business decision," and that his hand was pretty much forced after James Franklin took the head coaching position at Vanderbilt (and took a bunch of Friedgen's key assistant coaches with him).
Fridge will, however, coach in the Military Bowl against East Carolina (adjust your bowl confidence picks accordingly).
If the whole DeFilippo-Jagodzinski melodrama wasn't proof enough of the cutthroat nature of college football, Maryland's buyout / firing of Friedgen is your latest example. An offensive guard for the Terrapins from 1966-1968, Friedgen took a perennial 2-3 win team and got the Terps to double digit wins in each of his first three seasons, including an ACC Co-Championship in 2001. But there wasn't enough winning the last few years (22-10 in the ACC pre-expansion, 21-27 post-expansion) and fans and alumni responded with some poor showings at the Byrd Stadium gate.
Firing one of your own, a coach that went 74-49 in 10 seasons is pretty brutal, but it's just the nature of college football today. Chalk this one up to a "strategic business decision."
A nationwide search for Friedgen's successor will begin immediately, but really, this seems like it's Mike Leach's for the taking. While Anderson shied away from the notion that Mike Leach would be the next coach, Leach has to be on a short-list of candidates. Former Terrapin assistant Mike Locksley is likely also on that short list (he's a Towson grad and knows the area well) as well as former Notre Dame and Washington coach Tyrone Willingham. Even "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride" Randy Edsall has shown interest in the ACC's most recent head coaching vacancy.
If Leach isn't coach of the Terps before the new year, I'll be VERY surprised.
Soaring To Glory: BC Basketball Thru 11: A Comparison
Soaring To Glory takes a look at how the Eagles hoops team's 9-2 start stacks up against previous seasons. BC also started the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons at 9-2, but the season resulted in two very different outcomes.
College Football Bowl Game Travel Distances: No Home-Field Advantage?
by Brian @ BCI on Dec 21, 2010 7:53 AM EST
in Boston College Football
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at bowl game travel distances in an attempt to disprove the fact that teams that travel shorter distances win a majority of their bowl games:
"In the coming college bowl season, San Diego State plays in San Diego, Hawaii makes the long hike to Honolulu from its main campus in Manoa, and Maryland might as well take the Metro to its game at Washington's RFK Stadium.
But all that shouldn't discourage teams like Tulsa, Boston College and Stanford, all of which will trek more than 2,500 miles for their final games. In 163 bowl games over the past five years, the team that was forced to travel farther is 83-80."
We've already noted how BC has been racking up the bowl game frequent flier miles as a member of the ACC, as well as the fact that bowl committees love to pit BC against more local opponents in their bowl games. But does this five-year trend also hold true for ACC teams?
Over the last five seasons, the ACC has played 41 bowl games. In 21 of those games, the ACC was the team that had to travel the shorter distance to their bowl game. The ACC as a conference is 10-11 in those games. Overall, the team that traveled the shorter distance was 20-21 in bowl games. The same trend seems to hold in the ACC (though I'm sure the ACC's craptastic bowl record over the last five seasons hasn't helped).
The Eagles are the only ACC team that has had to travel further in all of their bowl games over the last five season. BC is 3-2 in those games, though they have dropped each of their last two games. Virginia Tech, Florida State and Georgia Tech were the closer team in three of their last five bowl games, while Clemson -- believe it or not -- has been the closer bowl team just two times in the last five seasons. For Virginia Tech, Florida State and Clemson, the closer bowl team is 3-2. For Georgia Tech's last five bowl games, the closer team is 2-3.
Virginia, N.C. State and North Carolina have each been to two bowls each during that span and have been the closer team in both of their bowl games. Virginia and N.C. State are 1-1, while North Carolina is 0-2.
The top five deltas in terms of travel distance over the last five years all involve either the Humanitarian Bowl or the Emerald Bowl, naturally. The highest delta occurred in 2008, when Miami traveled 3,101 miles further than Cal for the Emerald Bowl. The other four - the 2009 Emerald Bowl (BC's 3,102 miles to USC's 348), the 2005 MPC Computers Bowl (BC's 2,665 miles to Boise State's zero), the 2006 MPC Computers Bowl (Miami's 2,840 to Nevada's 421) and the 2006 Emerald Bowl (Florida State's 2,633 miles to UCLA's 377).
Boston College 93, Bryant 77: Box Scorin' The Weekend's ACC Action
by Brian @ BCI on Dec 20, 2010 4:00 PM EST
in Boston College Basketball
Brian: I didn't get to watch Sunday's 93-77 win over Bryant and only have the box score to go off of. Josh Southern scored a career-high 18 points and Biko Paris added 18 (6-of-9 shooting, all from three) for the Eagles' sixth straight win. Reggie Jackson added 16 points, 9 assists, while Corey Raji seems to have rebounded from his concussion adding 15. While Joe Trapani added a team-high 8 rebounds and 3 steals, his woes from the field continued. Trapani shot just 2-6 from the floor.
Who were you most impressed with on Sunday? Any box score surprises for you?
Jeff: Certainly you have to be happy with Southern's output and Paris' shooting but at least in the case of Southern that is nothing that we can expect on a regular basis once we get into ACC play. Also, everyone played at least three minutes which is usually one of the goals when playing a game like this. Overall I'm happy we won in a fashion that allowed everyone on the bench to play but the game was real close half way through the first half and Bryant actually beat the Eagles by a point in the second half. The defense must not have been too great to allow 77 points to Bryant so I probably would not have been too happy if I had been one of the 5,000+ in attendance which was a very nice size crowd for this matchup in my opinion.
Brian: Ten ACC teams were in action over the weekend. Virginia was a big winner over Oregon 63-48, while Virginia Tech won big on the road at Mississippi State. Clemson, Florida State and Georgia Tech were also winners. On the losing end of the weekend, North Carolina lost to a ranked Texas team. N.C. State lost by 10 at home against Arizona. UCF upset Miami 84-78, while Wake Forest continued their struggles against Xavier, losing the Skip Prosser Classic 83-75.
Which result from the weekend was the most surprising? Which team turned in the most disappointing performance?
Jeff: Miami certainly turned in the most disappointing performance when they failed to be competitive with undefeated UCF on a neutral floor. Miami might not be one of the greatest basketball school in the ACC but they should still expect to beat in state non-AQ conference schools just as the rest of the ACC schools do. Overall though, I don't have the lines for this weekends action but I would not be surprised if every favored team won this weekend. UCF might have been favored over Miami since they are undefeated so far this season and Texas was probably slight favorites over UNC while Arizona would have been favored over the Wolfpack which has not done much so far this season.
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Sat 01/01 | 5:30 PM EST |
| Harvard | Wed 01/05 | 7:00 PM EST |
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| Bryant Bulldogs | Sun 12/19 | W 93 - 77 |
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| Providence | Wed 12/08 | W 88 - 86 |
| @ UMass | Sat 12/04 | W 76 - 71 |
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