#115 R.P.I. Virginia Tech @ #224 R.P.I. Boston College:

The Eagles have lost a school-record 14 straight games, breaking the tie with the 1999-2000 team with Wednesday’s loss at Clemson. Then went on to suffer a total beat-down Sunday night vs. suspended, troublesome and therefore vulnerable Wake Forest.

48-74 against @Wake is just not encouraging. In particular with Wake coach Danny Manning on the warpath and this being your one fairly decent shot to carve one more winning notch in your 2015-2016 belt.

Because if this was a football preview opener; my Word of the Day would prolly be: capitulation.

7 up and 20 down overall and a miserable and yet perfect o for 14 in Atlantic Coast terms is about as capitulated as you can get.

As this sure looked like a team in a hurry to get things over with…

…or a team that has already let go of the proverbial, rope.

Boston College at a glance:

• 345th (or next to LAST) in Scoring Offense (60.9 ppg)!!!
• 337th in offensive rebounding!
• 324th in Rebounding Margin (-6 rpg)
• 319th in FG percentage (on 40.6% shooting)
• 312th in 3-point percentage allowed (37.3%)
• 3o4th in FT percentage (66%)
• 2 injuries reported:
• 6’7” 190 lb. S/F A.J. Turner is Questionable with a turned ankle. So are his 5.7 ppg and 3.7  rpg.
• 6’5” 181 lb. raily looking S/G Jerome Robinson and his 11.6 ppg and 4 boards are done for three more weeks, or possibly the duration with a bum shooting wrist.
• God Bless!

Bee Cee Returning Starters=1

Eagle Strengths:

• Despite all their struggles, the Eagles rank 67th in statistician KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency rating (98.4 points per 100 possessions) – their best ranking since 2005 (95.8). I may not know if I actually understand that, I do know that that is a strength.
• and after that the F’n Eagle strengths were hard to find, seriously…

  

• Senior Pt.Guard #3 Eli Carter leads the team in scoring (15.7 points) and assists (4 apg); that’s a strength, right? Yet he has shot a mere 1-of-17 against Clemson and is a combined 14-of-66 in his last five games with 47 points in total. i.e. he is in a slump. However, when not slumping he is a pretty useful 6’3” 2o1 lb. almost 25 year old lead-G who transferred in by way of Rutgers, formerly by way of the University of Florida. He does hold a degree, hence the g-senior listing in your program and is currently pursuing a second (degree) at the Woods College of Advancing Studies. And yah; I have no idea Whiskey Tango Helen that means either. I do know that the book on Eli says that he has play-making ability, is not all that efficient (36.8% overall and 30.1% from range); although he is said to be a guy with the offensive ability to plum light it up. 189 3-point attempts already this year; so lack of confidence or swag’ is not his thang. Clearly highly experienced, as he shuffles between the 1 and the 2 spot routinely. Eli balled for the legendary coach Bob Hurley (the elder) in high school and does have a championship hooping pedigree; even if his collegiate starts have fallen a bit short of that. And his history of fibula snaps have done him no service, either; Godspeed there. Might be a fringe overseas Pro’ for an offensively impoverished man’s  team.

  

• Giant sized 7′ 266 lb. r-senior year #24 and team captain Dennis Clifford is back. So is his heady albatross stylized game that has gotten about all that Dennis can get outta what coach God gave him. 8.9 ppg, a team leading 7.9 rebounds and a likewise team leading 1.1 swats per contest on a twice injured and once rebuilt knee says so. 58% from the charity-stripe and 11.1% from range are not clearly his Alphas’. Though defense of the low-post and rebounding are. Nice kid who has always had the look and feel of a very stiff looking Four, with limited range more so than a true-Center, at least to me. The kind that you wish well, and easily; in the game of …Life.
• 6’5” 181 lb. rookie year S/G Jerome Robinson (INJURED) is about the only other offense that the Eagles have; and I suppose his second best 11.6 ppg are worth a 2019 looksee. A pretty highly regarded North Carolina high school hoops prospect that got away from well fabled Tobacco Road. Said to be something of a sleeper recruit who is a pure scorer. Does lead BeeCee in steals (already) at 1.4 spg and has a bit of a rep’ for being a backcourt stopper. 35% shooting from beyond the arc as a t-freshman is not bad and there will be plenty of shots that need taking next year once Eli is gone. Well, once Jerome gets back that is.
• As after Jerome scoring is hard hard hard to find up on Chestnut Hill.

Eagle Weaknesses:

• Experience: or the lack thereof, as the Eagles have had nine freshmen play this season, which is the third-most in the country behind Bradley and Northern Arizona (10 each).
• Everything?
• Kinda not joking there.
• this is one of the lower echelon A.c.c. teams I’ve previewed in several years. The starchy, stiff yet still effective B.C. basketball teams of yore this one is not.

Boston College Bench: (depth=3, and yes, the Bench ain’t 1/2 bad right now what with leading scorer Eli Carter subbing in off the pine! 6’7”195 lb.  Latvian t-freshman S/F Ervins Meznieks gives you shooting and a Euro finesse style skill-set | rookie Idy Diallo gives you bulk, at 6’11” and 253 lbs.; though God Bless, as his mobility is not back yet, returning off a torn meniscus)

Illation, conclusion (s) and OPT digits:

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is… that it is not taking a whole lot to out shoot Boston College of late; at 38% overall in their last five. Nor to out rebound Boston College of late; -7.2 rebounding margin in their last five. Nor to beat Boston College of late, at 54.8 ppg over the same five game frame. So one could be forgiven for averring that this one is a race to double-nickles (55). First one there… wins.

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Unless of course they don’t… as I suppose you never ever know for sure any more in sports.

As stranger thing have happened, although an upset here would be Alabama State strange indeed.

As Boston College is hooping it up in something of a basketball tartarus (Greek, for hell). And yet, there is this… Virginia Tech is only shooting 0.4% better than Boston College overall in their respective last five games. Only 1.7% better from downtown and the Eagles are actually the ones who are 10% better in free-throwing of late. Crazy; ain’t it?

Though it does -and clearly- demonstrate that the Power Conference margin of error between struggling for a post-season long shot birth (cue: Buzz and Co.) and scuffling along at the bottom of an Atlantic Coast purgatory while playing out a very very tart string is … not much. As in not much at all.

***

Closer:
Virginia Tech is +1 in rest, and is the better defensive team of late by 4.3%. The Forum Guide however is predicting a whopping 13.8 point Hokie blow-out win; as try as you might, you still can not spell victory without VT. Still yet, Virginia Tech has been beaten on the road in 24 of their last 25 A.c.c. roadies for a reason(s). And 5 point underdog Boston College is about 5% better in FG percentage aggregate terms (O + D. cumulatively), at home. Nevertheless Boston College has seven A.c.c. L’s by at least 22 points this for for a reason as well. I like that and I like the emergence of Point-man Justin Robinson; who is averaging 13.7 ppg on 68.4% in his last three games.

“I think we’re a long way away from playing in any postseason tournament, but I do think winning today at least gives us hope and I think hope is the most valuable thing in life, if not in sport.” -Buzz Williams-

Or in other words, yah; I’ma gonna call the Tech win; although coach Buzz and his brace of ballers had better not fall asleep on the road vs. these Eagles.

Let us hope, not…

(68% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=66, Boston College=55

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

 bourbonstreet**