Eagle Links: 9/3

Well there is a bunch of other news in the BC world outside of the Jagodzinski news so lets get to it:

Former BC linebacker Robert Francois, unfortunately didn't make the next round of cuts on the Detroit Lions squad. He was released as all NFL teams are trying to get down to the required number of players before the season starts. Its unfortunate but hopefull Ro-Fran uses it as a motivator and plays himself on to another team somewhere.

Former Boston College Defensive Back Mike Mayock has been selected to represent BC in the ACC Championship Game Legends Class. Mayock was an outstanding defensive back here at BC, earning 3rd Team All-American honors his senior year and intercepting 12 passes over his 4 year career at BC. Congrats Mike.

And the injury train continues here at BC. DiSanzo is the newest Eagle on the injury list. DiSanzo, a reshirt freshman, was scheduled to start at weak side linebacker vs. Northeastern is now out. Dan Williams looks to be the likely replacement. Boy BC is lucky to start the year vs. Northeastern.

The Globe has another good piece on all of the uncertainty at many positions going into this year. Writer Mark Blaudschun takes a look at the unaswered Quarterback, Linebacker, Defensive and Offensive line questions. Like I said above, boy is it good to start the year vs. Northeastern.

Anthony Coastonzo has become a rock on the BC Offensive line, starting 28 games in his first 2 seasons here at BC. The Herald takes a look at Castonzo and his growth as a player.

#16 Women's soccer did themselves right, shutting out the BU Terriers 2-0 for their second win of the season.

We will end it with CollegeHoops.net preview of the Basketball team this year. I think they are seriously under estimating the team this year but who knows. Not to mention who would ever accept to go to the CBI?

Join me later today for my Week 1 predictions!

The move to the ACC

In response to the link I posted earlier about the West Virginian writer saying that the BC move to the ACC hasn't worked, I am going to list the pros and cons of being in the ACC vs. the Big East.

The first few years of being in the ACC have been very good to the Eagles there have been much more pros then cons. Here they are:
Pros:

1. More Revenue
2. Better competition
3. Better bowls (although we may never get selected to them)
4. More and Better Recruits (although our former coach didn't help this last year)
5. Improvement in our sports outside of Football and Basketball
6. Better TV contract
7. Better places to watch BC play an away game
8. More National Exposure

Cons:

1. A lot of Travel
2. Bowls prefer lesser teams because of the amount of travel we have to do.

Then there is the Big East. I am going to give some hypothetical cons towards being in the New Big East.
Pros:

1. Less Travel
2. More Natural Rivals
3. Play good old basketball Rivals such as St. Johns, Georgetown, Villanova and Providence
4. Being at the top of the conference year in and year out.
   

Cons:

1. Playing UConn
2. Less money in our pockets
3. Weaker competition in Football
4. WAY to many teams in Basketball
5. Lesser Bowls
6. Less appeal to new recruits
7. No way BC gets the money they have from the ACC to do their current expansion project.

So in review, there isn't much that makes the Big East more appealing to Boston College than the ACC. The move to the ACC has been a HUGE success for the Eagles thus far and BC will not be switching conferences again any time soon. No matter how hard the members of the Big East was them too.

BC Sports Rundown

Baseball played a 3 game series with Miami (FL) this week and struggled until yesterday, where Pat Dean pitched a gem for the Eagles. The Eagles lost the first two games of the series until Dean's brilliant preformance, where the Eagles won 13-3. Dean threw 7.0 innings of 4 hit, shutout baseball and Barry Butera and Mark Belfiore led the offense again. The Eagles are now 29-19 overall and 12-13 in the ACC. They are firmly in the ACC tournament right now in the 8th slot, a half game behind Duke and two and a half games in front of Georgia Tech. The Eagles play 2 versus Lemoyne this weekend at Shea Field, then UConn again on Tuesday.

On to the NFL Draft, only two Eagles got drafted last weekend, B.J. Raji (9th to the Packers) and Ron Brace (41st to the Patriots).

Pats coach Bill Belichick had some good words about the BC defense. He said, “BC has a good system defensively,” he continued on to say “It’s a big transition to the NFL, that goes without saying. But in relative terms, (Brace has) probably had as good a preparation for it as anybody else had in college football.” Send that to all of BC's recruits!

Although BC didn't get many draft picks, many of their players have latched on with NFL teams (either as signings or with tryouts):
Robert Francois signed with the Vikings
Brandon Robinson signed with the Eagles (the NFL kind)
Kevin Akins and Brian Toal (two supposed tweeners) have gotten tryouts with the Jets
Ryan Purvis signed with the Buccaneers and is reunited with Coach Jags

Hopefully Chris Crane and Clif Ramsey can latch on somewhere and get a fair shot!

Some other big news for BC football this weekend was BC got another recruit to nab their third of the year already. Please welcome OL Seth Betancourt to the 2010 Eagles! Betacourt joins QB Joe Boisture and LB Kevin Pierre-Louis on the commit list!

Last but not least the Men's Basketball team is going to play in the Paradise Jam down in the U.S. Virgin Islands to start the year next year! Another year, another preseason tournament for BC!

NCAA Round of 64: Live Blog

Welcome to the Towers on the Heights live blog of the NCAA Round of 64 game between your Boston College Eagles and the Southern California Trojans.

BC 5, USC 5 - Rice makes his first 3.

USC 10, BC 7 - At the first TV timeout BC has been playing well but they gotta play better defense.

USC 12, BC 9 - Rice has started out awesome, 3-3 FG, 7 points but is getting no help.

USC 16, BC 13 - 2nd TV timeout. BC is rebounding well, but Southern has to do a better job on Taj Gibson. Rakim Sanders has picked up his second foul and is on the bench. Reggie Jackson has come in for him.

Aside: I got my second TV set up for the upcoming hockey game!

BC 18, USC 16 - After a slow start everyone is playing much better.

Aside2: UMass-Lowell ties is up. Game is going to OT, so our game won't start until later.

BC 23, USC 18 - BC is getting physical on the defensive end, Dunn is playing awesome. Raji is hitting shots which is great and Roche just drills a three!

BC 23, USC 18 - Third TV timeout. Nothing has change but Rice just got a nice jump ball on Hackett, USC had the arrow though. 7:22 to play in the 1st half.

USC 25, BC 23 - BC has gone cold from the field missing their last 4. Sanders, Southern and Trapani back in.

USC 27, BC 25 - Fourth and final TV timeout of the half. USC went on a 9-0 run but Raji makes two free throws to end that. BC is struggling on defense as USC is moving the ball well. 3:51 to play in the half.

USC 29, BC 27 - Raji is playing really, really well.

Aside3: UMass-Lowell beats Northeastern!

BC 32, USC 30 - Southern is playing much better in the lane. Challenging everything. Trapani makes 2 free throws.

BC 34, USC 30 - Halftime. BC finished the half awesome. Finishing on a 7-2 run.

Halftime Analysis: BC played pretty well overall in the half. They started off really hot hitting about 60% of their shots then cooled off a little and USC grabbed a seven point lead, behind the dominance of Taj Gibson. Southern played Gibson much better then Dunn therefore he is going to need to stay out of foul trouble and on the court to keep BC in it. Sanders got into foul trouble early as well, he picked up 2 quick ones and sat for the rest of the half but Corey Raji really stepped up and played his best half of the year. He was able to score inside and outside and play some nice defense. Rice has played a much better first half then his previous 5 or 6 games, he started off 3-3 with 7 points but then struggled after getting his normal rest with 3 TOs. But overall there is not much to complain about.

Keys to the 2nd half:
1. Stay out of Foul trouble: Sanders and Rice both have 2 fouls, so they need to stay out of foul trouble because BC needs them on the floor to win.
2. Defense on Gibson: Gibson was almost unstoppable in the first half and Southern and Dunn need to do a better job on him in the second half. He does have two fouls so our best bet may be getting him off the court with foul trouble.
3. Rebounding: If we can stay on the boards and keep USC from getting 2 chances BC has a great chance to win.

Second half to come to go along with the Hockey game!

BC 37, USC 30 - Rakim starts the half of well with a 3 pointer.

BC 37, USC 35 - USC responds with 5 quick points.

BC 39, USC 37 - Taj Gibson is a monster but he has 3 fouls. BC needs to attack him.

BC 42, USC 41 - Trapani hits a three but Southern doesn't play very smart and picks up 2 more fouls in like 14 seconds to get his 4th.

BC 44, USC 42 - BC is playing dumb out there. Taking terrible foul after terrible foul. Rice has 3, Sanders has 3, Southern has four.

USC 48, BC 44 - This team is playing awful. Taking stupid shots, taking stupid fouls, not playing defense. If they keep this up they are going to lose.

USC 52, BC 47 - BC can't do anything right, right now.

USC 56, BC 47 - Terrible, this team just stopped playing. Al Skinner is flat out getting out coached by Tim Floyd

USC 56, BC 47 - Southern does what needed to be done. Posts up Gibson and gets him to 4 fouls. BC needs to take advantage.

USC 62, BC 50 -USC can't miss, it is unreal.

USC 64, BC 51 - BC can't hit. USC can't miss. Al Skinner has been embarassed this game by Tim Floyd

USC 65, BC 53 - Its sad that Rice has disappeared with his career on the line. He had a great two years but has degressed in the past 2 years.

USC 72, BC 55 - Game. Sad performance in the second half but the team looks to be a very good team in the future. Al Skinner needs to find a better game plan whenever we play USC.

Join me in the Hockey Blog as we hope one team can stay alive in the Postseason.

Huge Day in BC Sports

I am not sure if I can emphasize this enough, but I'll try: TODAY IS A HUGE DAY IN BC SPORTS. We have NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament action and we have Hockey East Semifinal action. I am going to preview both games for you.

I'll start with the Basketball Game first:
#7 Boston College (22-11) vs. #10 Southern California (21-12) - 7:20 PM EST.
Boston College has had 6 days off since they last played vs. Duke in the ACC tournament. BC came oh so close in that game, losing by only 1 with a last second jumper from Rakim Sanders bouncing of the front of the rim. BC is also going to be making the trip back to the NCAA tournament after a year hiatus. They were one of the big surprises on Selection Sunday as well, not because they got in but because they got such a high seed (7 seed). The Eagles must have been exstatic to get out of the 8/9 slot due to who they would play if they are able to get past the first round.

Now onto the game. They are going to be facing one of the hottest teams in the NCAA tournament in Southern Cal. The Trojans caught fire at the end of the year winning 5 in a row, including 3 in a row to win the Pac-10 Tournament. They are considered the best 10 seed in the tournament by some people however they did finish 5th in down Pac-10 this year. USC should not be under estimated because they do have a great team and do play some great defense. But they do struggle mightly on the road, having only won 3 games on the road all season with one of them being against Chatanooga and the other being against lowly Oregon. BC may just have another advantage against them as well. They are going to be playing in the Metrodome in Minneapolis and it is often said that your shot changes in a dome. Therefore, BC playing in the Georgia Dome last week in the ACC tourament will give them a huge advantage against USC who hasn't played in a dome all year.

USC has some very great players which is going to lead to some very great matchups in this game. I am going to give a little preview of a few of those in this game:

DeMar DeRozan (USC) vs. Rakim Sanders (BC)
DeMar DeRozan is one of the premire Freshmen around the country and he is also one of the most athletic players in the nation. Rakim Sanders is also one of the most versitile wings in the nation as he can post up in the paint or drill the open three pointer. This is going to be the most intreging matchup of the game as these two will probably going to be going head to head on both ends of the floor. Rakim Sanders is known to be one of the better and most aggressive defenders in the ACC while DeRozan has been a question mark all year. If Rakim Sanders can hit his shots early and get hot he can definitely get the better of this matchup but if not BC may be in trouble because DeRozan is very good on the offensive end.

Marcus Simmons (USC) vs. Tyrese Rice (BC)
Marcus Simmons is known to be USC's lockdown defender. He was able to shut down UCLA's best guard Darren Collison in the Pac-10 and has really come on in the second half of the year. While Tyrese Rice is considered one of the best Points Gaurds in the country as he can put up 40 points in any game. Rice has struggle for the past couple weeks as he has only been shooting around 35%. But he seems to always show up in big games and this is probably the biggest game of the year. If Rice can take Simmons off the dribble and get to the rim a lot, I like BC changes but if Simmons is able to force turnovers BC may just be in trouble.

Taj Gibson (USC) vs. Josh Southern (BC)
Taj Gibson is the Pac-10 defensive player of the year and he can block almost everything on the defensive end but he can also put the ball in the basket on the offensive end. Josh Southern has matured over the season and his post game on both ends of the floor has improved greatly. The key to this matchup is foul trouble, if one of the two is able to stay on the floor while the other is in foul trouble then that team will be in trouble. Both of these guys have had trouble stay on the floor all year so if either team wants to win, these two need to stay discipline and stay on the floor.

There you have it...If BC can win two of the three matchups I think they will win. My prediction for the game BC 75 USC 71.

Now onto the other important game of the night....
#6 Seeded Boston College (18-13-5) vs. #1 Seeded Boston University (29-6-4) - Appox. 8:00 PM EST.
The rivalry renews. This time in the Hockey East semifinals. If you looked at the BC hockey team after the third BC/BU game (where BC lost 5-2) you would have thought these teams won't meet in the postseason this year because BC was playing that bad. However, Jerry York has worked his magic again and somehow got BC to win 5 of their last 6 beating Northeastern once, Providence twice and sweeping New Hampshire in the Hockey East Quarterfinals last weekend. This team just seems to love the playoffs and they seem to just know how to win when they need to and they sure need to win this game. BC is playing for their NCAA tournament lives, they are currently in 17th in the PWR rankings (the rankings the NCAA uses to select the field) and can only have any shot at the making the field if they win tonight. BU has a #1 seed all but locked up but they still have something to play for. BC has knocked BU out of the playoffs many a times in the last decade and this is their chance to do the same and you better believe they will be ready to play and I'm sure Coach York will have his boys ready to play as well. There are several things I think BC needs to do in order to win this game and I am going to give them to you along with my prediction for the game.

TOTH's Keys to the Game:
1. John Muse - if BC wants to have any chance, John Muse has to continue to play the way he has been playing in the last few weeks. He shutout UNH last Saturday, a week after recieving the Hockey East defensive player of the week title. He needs to build off of that success in order for BC to win.
2. Defense - I am not going to sugar coat it, the defense has been terrible all year up until the last few weeks as well. They need to play more responsibly defensively, not turn the puck over in the defensive and neutral zones. BU has some great scorers and play makers like Colin Wilson and Matt Gilroy so BC needs to be extra careful around them. Petrecki needs to continue to be physical but he also needs to be smart and not get goaded into stupid penalties. If they play well, John Muse plays better as does the rest of the team.
3. Brock Bradford - BC needs to go up early and Brock Bradford is one of the best goal scorers in the country. If Bradford can give BC a lead early it is going to give them a huge confidence booster which could be the key to victory.

My Prediction: I think BC plays extremely well but I think they fall just short because of their weak backend....BU 3 BC 2 in 2OT. (I sure hope I am wrong though)

Here's to a great a great day for BC sports and I sure hope both teams can pull out the victories leading to an even better night!

GO BC!