Boston College Basketball 2019-20 Season Recap: Part 2 - The Middle

Our second review of the Men's Basketball season.

Earlier this week, Boston College Men's Basketball ended their season with a thud, dropping their second round game to Notre Dame 80-58. With the season now in the books, let's roll back to the beginning of the season and journey from the beginning of the year to the end. Yesterday we started our three part series with the preseason and beginning of the 2019-20 season, today we look at the middle of the schedule. 

The Middle of the Schedule

After a tough loss to Northwestern in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, BC faced off with their second ACC opponent of the year, Notre Dame. The cards were stacked against the Eagles, as star center Nik Popovic was ruled out indefinitely before the game due to back spasms. But for the first time since 2005, Boston College defeated the Fighting Irish in a very close matchup 73-72. Derryck Thornton had an incredible game, scoring 19 points, but the Eagles almost blew this one struggling with foul shots down the stretch. 

BC then coasted through a pair of easy out of conference games with convincing wins over Albany and Central Connecticut that pushed their record to 7-5. The 2019 portion of their season ended with a trip to Durham to face off with #2 Duke.  The Blue Devils came out hot and thrashed BC 88-49, led by 25 points by Matthew Hurt. Boston College could not get their offense going at all, shooting 33% from the field and 16% from three point range. CJ Felder led the Eagles with 13 points in the blowout. 

But credit to Jim Christian and his team, who looked reenergized when they returned home to face the defending champion UVA Cavaliers. From the get go BC looked ready for UVA's stifling defense, shooting well both from the perimeter and down low. They were able to push the tempo and break down the Cavs defense. It was Jared Hamilton who played the role of the hero in this game hitting a big three pointer with just seconds remaining to give BC a huge win over a ranked opponent. Especially given the run UVA went on later in the season, beating the Cavs could arguably have been Jim Christian's biggest win as head coach of the Eagles. 

Unfortunately for the squad, that momentum didn't amount to much as BC went on a four game losing streak. It wasn't that the Eagles were just losing, but they were getting blown out. At home against GT and on the road against Syracuse they were blown out by double digits, in two games that were never close. Syracuse rode the hot hands of Joe Girard and Buddy Boeheim who were lethal from three point range. 

Their rematch against Wake Forest looked like a complete 180 from the first game, as the Deacons dominated from start to finish. Then to cap off this stretch they had their hearts ripped out when Ryan Murphy hit a game winning jumper with four seconds to lift Pitt over the Eagles. 

Tomorrow in our finale to the series, we will break down the final third of the season for the Boston College Eagles.