2015-16 Boston College Basketball: Two old guys and a bunch of kids

Dave Stapleton

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Scoonie is a great story and was a great player but it's well-known in BC circles that he had slipped through the cracks. Not sure what is so controversial.
This. Scoonie was also by all accounts a good kid but it really made things difficult going forward. Mahoney was always a huge presence on campus and JOB tried a power play with the Tyler/DePina issue.
 

The Talented Allen Ripley

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No question about Herren being a bad fit. I was there during the last 2 O'brien years and first 2 Skinner years but I forgot that Penn was suspended for academic issues. I remember the fault laying with Mahoney when Depina and Tyler were denied but I probably bought O'brien's version of the story a little too completely and shouldn't have trusted his narrative given his demise at Ohio State. I shouldn't have been so strident about Mahoney. Still, the entire episode was an embarrassment for BC and killed its ability to recruit Massachusetts kids.
They also lost out on Sean Connolly with that Tyler/Depina/Bradley class, he decommitted and went to PC instead.
 

berniecarbo1

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Just a couple of followup thoughts.....

1. Bates extended Donahue in year 4 of his deal through 2017, despite having 2 prior losing seasons. Depending on the buy out in Donahue's deal, BC double paid the basketball HC position last season and probably has paid a percentage of Donahue's BC salary this season and next;
2. Bates extended Daz just prior to the Pinstripe Bowl in 2014. He was in year 2 of a 6 year deal paying $2.5M per season. He extended him through 2019 so BC then owed the Dazzler $12.5M from the Pinstripe Bowl forward. Translation: BC was/is stuck with Adazzio at least through the 2018 season, IMHO. Bear in mind that Spaz was extended by Flipper though the 2015 season at $1M per year, so BC was paying in real $$ and "dead money" the BC football HC position $3.5M per season for 3 years or a total of $10.5M up through the end of this past year. So the job position of BC head football coach, collectively, has and will be paid a total of $20.5M from the 2013 through the 2019 seasons.

BC athletics is in a management bleep storm right now. They are stuck with long term contracts with coaches who are not performing, playing in a conference that they are currently not competitive in, the football recruiting under Daz, on paper, is the worst in the conference and the coach has shown over his 3 years that he is a bad in game coach, has a temper that he can't control, and has a roughly 40% winning percentage against P5 opponents. Not a lot of ROI on that $20.5M investment. The current AD has shown he is incompetent at managing a budget, negotiating contracts with his high end coaches, failing to adequately schedule opponents that will draw fans and increase revenue, and failing to adequately fund capital planning projects. The fact that the $200M expansion is not yet funded and the plans have been sitting on the drawing board since before he got there is telling. Many, many issues at the Heights. Looks like Bates got in way over his head and it will take a new AD, who has some history running P5 or large G5 programs, to come in and clean up the mess. Even though Bates' contract is up in the Fall of 2017, don't look for any coaching changes, at least in football, until at least December, 2018. BC can't be continuing to double pay for it's HC positions in hoops and football. They should concentrate in funding the $200M expansion over the next 2-3 years, let the dead money roll off the books and start a reset in January 2019 if the programs are still underwater. At least then they can sell upgraded facilities, a great school, a world class city and hopefully new and more competent coaches in the revenue producing sports.
 

BigSoxFan

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Not surprising but I'll live. Diallo sucked. If everything broke right, he might have developed into a 7/5 guy by his senior year.
 

MaroonNGold

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Mar 19, 2016
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Want the answer to the question why BC hoops and football have sunk to the disgrace they now are (0 for the ACC in both sports)?

Ain't Bates.

Hint:

The guy who never subjects himself to the press, who hides in his office, who calls all the shots without supervision by the trustees, who acts with a temper, whose God is the dollar, who cares not a whit about sports success so long as the ACC ATM is open, whose sneaky exit from the Big East helped bring BC bad press, and who has transformed Eagle sports in similar fashion to the way Obama has transformed our nation.

When he goes - and only then - will BC become a competitive force, as it was under Skinner , Jags, both O'Briens and other of their predecessors.

Until then anyone who spends a dime supporting BC is nothing less than an enabler.
 

BigSoxFan

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Did BC try to recruit either Auguste or Selden?
Yes. For some reason, those guys chose to go elsewhere. Tried recruiting Colson too since he's the son of one of Skinner's former assistants and missed out on that one as well.
 

gmogmo

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Yes. For some reason, those guys chose to go elsewhere. Tried recruiting Colson too since he's the son of one of Skinner's former assistants and missed out on that one as well.
Pretty surprised at the legit Massachusetts talent in the tournament over the last couple of years...add Pat Connaughton to the two ND guys on this years team, Georges Niang, Selden, Jack Layman.
 

gingerbreadmann

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It's been really cool to see the recent talent boom out of MA. In addition to the names above, Shabazz Napier and Jalen Adams are both from Roxbury; Abdul-Malik Abu has been great for NC State; and Noah Vonleh, Nerlens Noel, and Michael Carter-Willams of course were all lottery picks. Obviously none of these guys have gone to BC so living vicariously will have to do. The closest we have gotten to hopping on this train has been Clifford, which, yeah.

I'm not expecting this to change anytime soon given the state of the program, but it would be really nice to be able to rely on some homegrown talent once in a while.
 

BigSoxFan

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Pretty surprised at the legit Massachusetts talent in the tournament over the last couple of years...add Pat Connaughton to the two ND guys on this years team, Georges Niang, Selden, Jack Layman.
Yup. Had we not been college hoops' lepers, could have fielded some pretty nice teams with MA talent alone. Should have just paid off Papile.
 

MaroonNGold

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Mar 19, 2016
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BC hoops will remain dead in the water under this president.

Either the trustees take control of sports, oh find a new president OR just accept that major hoops is a thing of the past out there.

If fans walk away, leavingConte empty, maybe the ACC will wake up and tell this guy to put a competitive five on the court or find another conference.
 

Dave Stapleton

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BC added graduate transfer Connar Tava, PF from Western Michigan. Sat out last season with a broken foot but was projected to be one of the 5 best players in the MAC this past year. Highest returning scorer and led his team in assists and rebounds the prior year. Reports are the 3 NFL teams have actually shown interest in him as a TE. Final scholarship but sounds like there have been a few players granted their release (not Turner or Robinson).

Word is he chose BC over Michigan in favor of playing time.

Edit: Highest returning scorer.
 
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Humphrey

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Desperation move. Case in point- the kid they brought in this year.

Football I can see it more with the qb they brought in (if he's good, the team will be a lot better).
 

kenneycb

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Meh, it's a low to no risk maneuver. I imagine a PF in general can't be as toxic as Eli Carter. Of course we're getting into the "Nobody can be worse than Crane..." territory with that phrase.
 

BigMike

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Desperation move. Case in point- the kid they brought in this year.

Football I can see it more with the qb they brought in (if he's good, the team will be a lot better).
Desperation move to bring in a high character, scholar athlete, who can step in and give them 10pts 5 rebs per game while playing within the offense?

BC also got a commitment today from Kyran Bowman from NC. An unbelievably explosive 6'2" guard who was initially a UNC football commit, and decided he would prefer to play hoops in college. As a football player he would have been the best player in BC's 2016 recruiting class.

tape of a HS playoff game

 
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BigSoxFan

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Finally some good news. Tava looks like a great kid and has been productive. And there is no way anyone could be worse than Eli Carter.
 

4 6 3 DP

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The real issue I see here is JC has no plan as far as I can tell. Are we developing the kids? Letting Carter ballhog a season away doesn't do that. Are we developing big men? Letting Diallo walk doesn't accomplish that, even if he looked like a train wreck out there.

MAC coaches get MAC results in the ACC whether they are Sgt Slaughter or JC - I'd like to see JC succeed because it seems like he's a good guy and can coach a little bit but he's lost in terms of program building.
 

BigMike

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The real issue I see here is JC has no plan as far as I can tell. Are we developing the kids? Letting Carter ballhog a season away doesn't do that. Are we developing big men? Letting Diallo walk doesn't accomplish that, even if he looked like a train wreck out there.

MAC coaches get MAC results in the ACC whether they are Sgt Slaughter or JC - I'd like to see JC succeed because it seems like he's a good guy and can coach a little bit but he's lost in terms of program building.
Building a program when you are forced to start from scratch is tough. It is extra tough when JUCO's are off the table, and academics matter. Not to mention you are a program who has been mostly blackballed by the local AAU's for the past 20 years.

Carter was a mistake, no doubt about it. He thought he could convince the kid to become part of a team, I don't think he will make that mistake again.

So lets look what we have for next year

PG Ty Graves FR. Small, superquick, and shifty true PG
PG/SG Ky Bowman FR Outstanding athlete, explosive driving to hoop, physical football attitude
SG/PG Jerome Robinson SO Will be back stronger and better than this year

SF AJ Turner SO Showed a ton on defense last year will be bigger and stronger net year, and hopefully will show more on offense
SF/PF Garland Owens SR Was flashing solid game at end of the year, hopefully he can build from that in a primarily SF role
SF/PF Mike Sagay FR 6'8" extremely athletic with a football mindset

PF Conner Tava SR 6'7" widebody with experience, character, and solid athletic ability

C Juan Carlos Reyes FR Supposedly has put 20+ pounds of muscle since last season Still may be a project
C Nick Popovic FR Skilled Euro big man. It will be interesting to see what he can do

They may also have one or more of Hicks, Milon, Sammy Barnes Tompkins or Ervins Mezniaks back. I assume one of the guards is back and is a 7-12 mpg game

Obviously the team is still extremely young, and Center is still a hole. A hole they are still trying to add depth at, but there is a pretty interesting group of players here with really solid upside.
 

BigSoxFan

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This won't be close to a tournament team next year but the talent level is finally starting to turn. The frontcourt is still a mess but Tava will help to stabilize it in the short-team. Popovic looks pretty slow and lumbering based on the footage I've seen but there do appear to be some skills there.
 

kenneycb

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The real issue I see here is JC has no plan as far as I can tell. Are we developing the kids? Letting Carter ballhog a season away doesn't do that. Are we developing big men? Letting Diallo walk doesn't accomplish that, even if he looked like a train wreck out there.

MAC coaches get MAC results in the ACC whether they are Sgt Slaughter or JC - I'd like to see JC succeed because it seems like he's a good guy and can coach a little bit but he's lost in terms of program building.
What big men do we have to develop?
 

4 6 3 DP

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Diallo for one. Plus unless we are in an under 6'7 league it might be a good idea to get one... Maybe I'm a little harsh on JC but I just see him flailing to bring in players as opposed to building teams/programs. I hope I'm wrong.
 

BigSoxFan

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Diallo for one. Plus unless we are in an under 6'7 league it might be a good idea to get one... Maybe I'm a little harsh on JC but I just see him flailing to bring in players as opposed to building teams/programs. I hope I'm wrong.
I mean - that's a valid concern but one that we can worry about later. For now, we just need talent that belongs. Not there yet, particularly in the frontcourt, but the Robinson, Graves, Bowman group certainly has potential. Turner could be a decent wing eventually as well. But we really need frontcourt talent. Tava is another stopgap and I'm not exactly bullish on Reyes, Popovic, etc.