Another night, another loss and terrible showing on national television.
The Eagles took the floor against another cellar dweller in Virginia on Tuesday night and looked like they were once again playing Duke or one of the other top teams in the league, getting blown out 74-56.
The Eagles never had a shot in this one, trailing by 18 at the half. BC is now 9-10 overall and 1-7 in the ACC while losing five straight games.
Chad Venning led BC with 14 points and five rebounds. Dion Brown had 11 points. BC was just 4-15 from three, had 15 turnovers and got out-rebounded 30-23. Virginia also had 10 steals.
Here's what stood out during Earl Grant's postgame press conference:
On the slow start (BC trailed 14-6 and 19-9 very early)
"Yeah, I mean, the first six minutes, we were down 15. They made nine threes in the first half. (Isaac) McKneely was really good. I thought we did a good job contesting most of (his shots). He was very aggressive, very efficient today. So, the game was over pretty quick...not over, but they separated early. Then, I thought for 34 minutes we played pretty good basketball. It was even the rest of the way, but the first six minutes, they delivered a knockout punch. We were down 15 and you know, that's what I really believe about it, yeah. McKneely was exceptional, efficient, I thought he was aggressive and he really impacted that game with his shooting."
On having 34 team points in the paint
"You want to get it inside any time you can. They've got big guys so they do a good job guarding. They trap the post pretty well, but you want to get it inside. You want to have balance. You want to try and move the ball and get them in some close outs because they really gap it up. They play team defense, so you've got to move them around. I thought early, some of our turnovers we didn't adjust to how much they were in the gaps. I thought we tried to drive the ball in situations where we should have just moved it more and spread it first. We figured it out later in the game, but again, we had a few turnovers early that hurt us as well. So, yeah, I thought getting the ball inside was an important part of out game plan because of our personnel but we wanted to really spread them out and move them too."
On Donald Hand Jr.'s ejection
"I've got to go watch the film...I'm not sure what happened. I didn't see anything malicious and Donald Hand doesn't have a malicious bone in his body. So, I know it wasn't anything he was trying to do. I would have to watch the film. It's unfortunate. He's from Virginia. His dad played here. So, unfortunate that he couldn't't play that game. I didn't see anything that was so outlandish that it needed to be an ejection, but again, I'll watch the film and make that judgment when I see it. Then, the other big kid for them...I didn't see much there either. But, they made the calls. You had a high-level official leading the charge in Roger Ayers, so he usually gets it right most of the time. Got to trust his judgement."
On why the offense worked later in the game but not early
"When you play against Virginia, just in my experience in the past, it's always typically a low-scoring game. If you take the first six minutes out, it would have been a low-scoring game...it's pretty simple. We didn't make some shots early, they made nine threes. That's a real simple thing. You throw that out and say 'alright, they defend you really well and we had some turnovers early in the game where our players, for whatever reason, we just weren't able to move the ball to multiple sides of the floor. In times we would drive it, those guys were collapsing. The biggest thing I take away from the game is their shooting. Sometimes it's a make-miss game, man. And if the ball goin in on that night the way it was for them, you probably gonna be down 14-15 points pretty early. It was their night, it wasn't ours. Give them the credit."
On if he's been approached about his job security
"Obviously, Blake James is sitting in the room here right now. He's on the trip. For me, that's really...that's not in my control. My job is to build a program and that's what we've been doing. I think the program is in a lot better place than where we found it. You know? We've won. We've got better every year. So, that's out of my control, but, if you guys want to ask Blake about that you can ask him."
