Boston College men's basketball head coach Earl Grant emphasized the importance of his team playing its best in March last season—especially for the postseason.

Not only did that require resilience during a pair of five-game regular season losing streaks, but it also called for Grant to allow some of his younger players to fail and learn from their mistakes during the meat of ACC play.

By the time the conference tournament rolled around, the Eagles were deeper and stronger than before, hence their run to the quarterfinals that nearly turned into a trip to the semis.

Thursday night, during Game 6 of this year's NBA Finals, Grant tweeted about the significance of a developed bench come playoff time, as the Boston Celtics struggled to give their star playmakers some help.

It was a reminder of what kind of program Grant is trying to build a BC, which will head into the 2022-23 season with its most depth in quite some time.

Grant recently did an interview with ACC Network host West Bryant. The second-year Eagles head coach discussed his first season at the helm, in addition to what he expects from his team this summer.

Bryant: What was your assessment of your first year?

Grant: "It was a challenge every day. I mean obviously a lot of really good teams in the league. A lot of good coaches, talented players so no nights off. A big thing for us is to try to play our best basketball in March. So that required us to not grow weary and stay the course, stay connected, stay together, keep getting better. But we did that.

"So I think toward the end we had a little bit of success. The team looked like it really came together, but that was an accumulation of just a complete year of just really working hard to try to be our best in March. So it was a pursuit and, toward the end, we started seeing some fruits of our labor."

Bryant: We are a good ways off from the season, but, as you go into the summer, what are some things that you guys are working on?

Grant: "It’s simple, man. Get better. Grow as a team, do life together, develop some toughness, develop some team chemistry, try to gel our team together, but taking it one day at a time. Just getting better. Not focusing on the fall or November, December when the season’s coming around, but just getting better every day."

Bryant: Who are some guys that you might look for during this summer to make some strides and how much progress can be made in the summer time for a basketball program?

Grant: "It’s the whole team that needs the progress. Obviously, we’ve got returners like DeMarr Langford Jr., Makai [Ashton]-Langford, Jaeden Zackery, Quinten Post, TJ Bickerstaff. Those guys return. Those guys played minutes. So you want to see them take a step in the leadership role, take a little bit more ownership.

"But we’ve got a couple other guys that we’re developing that didn’t play—they’ll have a chance to kind of make their mark. And then we’ve got new blood coming in. Talented young guys, couple of transfers. This will be a formation period in the summer, just to see where we are. Try to have some built-in adversity and see how we respond to it and just try to grow the team."