BC MBB: Can the Eagles Make a Run?
It’s tourney time, baby.
Conference tournament time, of course. Boston College begins its quest to repeat the performance from a year ago when the Eagles take on Louisville in Game 2 of the day on Tuesday (4:30, ACC Network). Can the Eagles make another run and potentially win this thing? Well, it’s highly unlikely, but the bracket does favor Boston College. If the Eagles can get by Louisville, then seventh-seeded UNC awaits on Wednesday night at 7. If BC pulls off that upset, then it’s UVA (the second seed) waiting on Thursday night, a team that BC just s turned a few weeks ago again at 7. At that point, all bets are off for the semifinals and finals and anything could happen.
It’s an extremely difficult task, but if Quinten Post truly is “day-to-day” with an ankle sprain like Grant said on both Saturday and again on Monday, then having those night games for games two and three could afford BC a lot more time to get him right with treatment.“It was hard. Just, obviously,…you know, just the emotions of having a good crowd and a great opportunity to finish the regular season at home, and then you just play one minute. That’s pretty tough,” Grant said of how Post reacted to the injury.
Without Post on the floor, BC can get by Louisville, but it’ll be tough after that, Post was also named the ACC’s Most Improved Player on Monday afternoon.“A sprained ankle, nothing more than that,” Grant said of the injury. “You know, it's day-to-day. We saw him yesterday, he was moving around better. We'll work with him (Monday night) and we'll have a better feel, better understanding of where he is."
BC lost a ton of momentum with the defeat at the hands of Georgia Tech to close out the regular season Saturday. Still, it’s hard to deny the progress this team made throughout the season, particularly the last month or so. 15-16 may not look pretty aesthetically, but the Eagles are on the rise, even UVA head coach Tony Bennett said as much following the upset inside Conte.
Grant believes this team can do some special things and he also knows that “win and advance, lose and go home” scenarios can put some pressure on other teams that BC really won’t have to worry about, considering they’re expected to go home in a day or two anyways.“Just build on what we did in the ACC conference race. I mean, obviously, it's a new season now, so it's anybody's tournament,” Grant said during the weekly ACC coaches Zoom call on Monday. “Everybody’s undefeated as it pertains to this tournament. Somebody's gonna win it all."
Somebody’s gonna win it. Could it be Boston College? Maybe. Even if they don’t, fans should already be excited for 2024.