Grading BC Men's Basketball After First Month
Swishes and clunkers rule the roost of games played for Boston College men’s basketball at the halfway point. It is unfair to use letter grades with a new coach and mostly a new squad, so it feels better to keep it to a simple check, check plus, and check minus. The players are listed by their jersey number from low to high, and I have not included those with little or no game time action.
The ratings work like this:
Checkmark for good value and impact.
Check plus for those who exceed or expand expected roles and impact.
Check minus for those with un-par performance in required or expected areas.
Coaching
Check
The staff's approach is constant instruction, knowing your responsibilities, and focusing on fundamentals. There is no secret to what BC does on offense, but it failed to show greater guard penetrate for dish-offs is an ongoing concern seen as a desire to out pass the opponent rather than beat them with power moves. It results in too many blocked shots or balls tied up in traffic.
The team has spunk with their effort but showed tired legs in the last two games. There is generally an eight-man rotation of Karnik/Post, Langford/Ashton-Langford, Bickerstaff/Thompson, Zackery/Jones. Langford and Ashton Langford seldom sub-in for each other and are often on the floor together.
The backcourt men fail to help the consistent three-guard approach or occasional four-guard offense when the team goes small. Guard play must improve how they use the baseline and pass it to the corner outside the arc for open three-point shots. Right now, the baseline is a friend to the defense as rather than drive from the corner to the basket, guards often stop and rotate the ball in the other direction. This tendency might be from instruction and coaching rather than a missed opportunity.
Watch for Zackery to take his joy in mixing it up to improve his first-step quickness and cross-over dribble as he has the makeup to generate defensive concerns with more confident ball control. He is cagy.
Big men don’t appear to communicate enough as they cut to enter the paint. Communication is key, but as they get comfortable in offensive execution, they fail to use it as players think too much about their own responsibilities and position.
Spacing is a constant issue stressed to keep the defense honest, and coach Grant knows that you need to spread the floor to take advantage of a guard-heavy offensive mix. The team sees their spacing often break down if they are behind, and if ahead, they are more patient.
Watch for the high effort to continue as man-to-man means no player can hide on defense. Coaches need to watch fatigue in the second half of the season. Small injuries like Langford’s wrist and Zackery’s finger on his shooting hand tend to happen when players stop moving their feet and rely too much on reaching.
Guards rarely rub off defenders out top as they dribble in the high post, and I have only seen one earth-shattering pick. The perimeter game does give shooters enough of an open look to set themselves and rarely pass into the paint. Ball decoys are rare, and the rotation is quite predictable, too predictable to frequently get the defense off-balance or get an opponent off his feet. The players need to be confident and aggressive, but that does not mean so many outside bombs-away where other players pause to admire the ball's arc rather than box out.
The players have a set pattern of game entry with two exceptions, Zackery, and Jones whose time varies from game to game. The offense is simple, rotate the ball, find a weak side, and drive or pass for higher percentage shots. The defensive pressure is excellent and often traps when making a full-court press. The offense stresses the team concept, and individual efforts are driven into traffic or three-point attempts. Fans need to see the players do better to follow their shot. If a three-pointer is long, the rebound is long and too often gathered by an opposing player.
All the players except Karnik show the need for greater hand strength to grip it and rip it, with one hand on top and the other underneath. That technique is helpful for smaller players as they may also use their body leverage to add to their strength. It should be a constant focus as part of strength and conditioning.
The staff will benefit from better awareness of available team fouls before reaching the limit of seven. It allows more freedom to body up the opponent and take greater risks. Watch for better in-game time/situation awareness and management from the assistants in the future. Overall, the coaches are doing what is expected and constantly work together on in-game tactics.
As time on the shot clock winds down, players must learn to close defensive position gaps and take away passing lanes. Deny is the cry to present opponents' views of doors that block up gaps rather than clear windows of opportunity to swing the ball for an open three. Too often, open looks lead to shot-clock beating baskets. I question the tendency of the students to count down the shot clock as it gives too much information to the opposing team, and it is not deceptive enough.
Other teams have more open looks for three-point shots in one game than BC has had all season. The team must get better at making space for more uncontested shots as players often rush their shots due to defender proximity.
On offense, the team does not get enough out of its ball screens by its big men, and observers keep waiting to see the old pick and roll take place. The pick setter seeks to allow the ball handler to rub off the defender, and it does not happen given too much daylight is allowed, and the defense avoids getting caught up and forced to adjust their path and maintain coverage.
T.J. Bickerstaff
Check Minus
Overall: T. J. Bickerstaff is the most athletic player on the roster but suffers from limited body control when slicing to the basket and insufficient ball control, leaving defenders with lowered concerns about dribble and drive. His lane penetration provides too big a surface area for the defender as he goes in flat, meaning that he shows the ball in front of him or has his back to the basket. He has quickness, and coaches will likely work with him to use better body angles that protect the ball and offer a smaller profile to defenders.
Bickerstaff plays with force when he hits a gap or pursues the ball. He has multiple occasions of foul troubles that break Grant's substitution pattern, but his natural skills keep him on the court. With some seriousness, he would benefit from trampoline drills to get a better sense of airborne body movement, travel distance and draw more fouls unless we can get him on the next Space X flight and experiment with weightlessness.
Bickerstaff seems to have limited relative position vision of his teammates to draw a double team and then drop the rock to others. No doubt a terror in one-on-one drills if he is to advance, he needs a more well-rounded game where he carries a wider base, boxes out with the same force he applies to rebounds and avoid position play where he is left to go up and over an opponent to snatch the rebound. He plays a leading-edge game in speed but must avoid the bleeding edge where lost control makes him culpable for calls against him.
Jaeden Zackery
Check Plus
A leader in the making. He has been the Eveready bunny in every game and has a motor that never quits. His ability to handle the ball and extend defenders outside is exceptional. He uses screens effectively but fails to use his vision for pick-and-roll opportunities. Too many times, we’ve seen Quinten Post set the pick and then roll right down the land, never to get the ball.
Overall, he can improve his defensive footwork, staying on his toes. He should use the baseline more frequently to body most of his opponents. Giving him better flexibility will transform into quickness and a more explosive first step.
Kanye Jones
Check Plus
He is known for the fastest response movement and nice agility, the most pleasant surprise. He is often picked to defend an opponent’s quickest player when he gets into a game. He is on the light side and will add upper body strength. He continues to gain game time and coach confidence in his decision-making. He knows his role and shows confidence in his three-point shot skills despite questions about his balance when going up for his shot.
DeMarr Langford Jr.
Check Minus
The biggest surprise in the negative he seems to struggle with his role at times and has not been THE dominant force. He is quick at 6’ 5” but needs a better first step and the ability to decoy an opponent out of position as he tends to telegraph passes. He has a nice touch, a good eye, and a fearless temperament. He seldom gets the ball inside, so watch for developing his bounce pass into the paint.
Makai Ashton-Langford
Check Plus
Seems very comfortable with the offense and his defensive responsibilities. He tends to make long passes but is an agile ball handler whose experience shows. He has often been a spark for the team, scoring points from outside in spurts, and he seems comfortable shooting anywhere on the floor. Expected to see more ‘magic’ with his younger brother, Makai can break any press and is court smart, meaning his actions put him in a better position to use ball screens.
Quinten Post
Check
A big man with quick feet must improve his hand strength and offensive rebound techniques to go back up and keep the ball at its high point. In the paint, his hand position is too high for bounce passes from teammates, and he needs to keep his hands lower to receive them and think of how a shortstop brings a ground ball in the body and loads the throw in one movement. His back to the basket game needs work, so when facing away from the basket, he uses his position relative to the blocks to predetermine his turnaround shot angle. He also does not use his height to stuff rather than lay in from close to the basket, leading to his shot being blocked or tipped given his deliberate release.
Post clearly loves to play and plays hard all the time, just as Zachery does. He is hungry and clearly enjoying his role as the sixth man. His temperament reminds one of a thoroughbred racehorse who only knows one thing: fast. As he develops, watch him demand the ball more often in mismatch situations. Each game, at least one or several instances where he sets a pick and then rolls to the basket wide open. His teammates who benefit from his sense of the pick and roll must do a better job of looking back for such opportunities.
He is a smart player who constantly measures the floor to maintain defensive pressure out high but is so aggressive that he sometimes loses the ability to move quickly or slide left or right. His opponent uses speed to make straight cuts from the elbow to the block in multiple instances. Where is the help, he might ask? Just because the team is in man-to-man defense does not negate the need for others to collapse to the ball. He is a post sweeper with both height and length to span from block to block.
Frederick Scott
Check Minus
Experience has not shown in meshing with offensive sets and tries to make up for it with aggressive play. He might have previously freelanced for his points, but ball rotation and getting the defense to move often sees him out of the action. This is in the brief period of time we’ve seen him play in an Eagles uniform. He shows strong skills in practice, so watch for him to get another chance if things become more automatic and less cerebral.
Gianni Thompson
Check
An interesting player from Newton, Massachusetts, his understanding of the offense and height have put him ahead of Devin McGlockton for playing time. Right now, he is a big body, but watch out during his career if he gets stronger. He carries a body frame that can add 25 pounds of strength to offer a strong rebounding presence.
James Karnik
Check Plus
James Karnik can take over a game when his teammates feed him the ball. At 240 pounds and seven feet, he built like the proverbial brick s**t house. At other times it appears that they mistake him for Tiny Tim, and we see a disappearing act. We rate him higher than Quinten Post because of his better hands and sense of where he is with back to the basket. He protects the ball better than Post, and there will not be an opposing ACC center who muscles their way with him this season.
