Everything Boston College Men’s Basketball Head Coach Earl Grant Said After Win Over Florida State
The Boston College Eagles (10-11, 2-8 ACC) men’s basketball team snapped a six-game losing streak with a 77-76 victory over the Florida State Seminoles (13-9, 4-7 ACC) on Saturday afternoon.
After the game, Eagles head coach Earl Grant spoke about the performance and what he saw from his team.
Below is a transcript of everything Grant said.
Q: Just like you draw it up, huh Coach?
GRANT: Yeah, I wish I could say that.
Q: Just talk about that shot, I mean, that was off the key. It was, I don't even know what he was, sideways, right?
GRANT: Yeah, I mean, I think that anything is possible when you believe. Like we had plenty of opportunities to fold out tent in that game. This season has been difficult. This journey’s been difficult, but it ain't because of a lack of effort. We've been laboring for a lot of days and a lot of months, and so I believe that the fruits of your labor is a real thing. And when you stay resilient and you believe and you have great courage, good things happen. So that's what I saw tonight. We were down eight with a minute to go and just kept believing and kept working hard and making good decisions and we got fortunate at the end. Chas Kelley made a big shot.
Q: Yeah, just on Chas. How incredible is that moment for him after the five second call? Seems like you can't write a better redemption.
GRANT: Yeah, I'm happy for him. Those five second calls wasn't only his fault. That was all of our fault. He was the guy taking it out, but we all played a part in that, so I made sure he knew that. It ain't a blame game, right, but he was in that game late. So sometimes, the only way you can handle pressure is when you been through pressure before. So he happened to be in the game late. We just felt it was something, we felt right about him being in and and I'm glad it was him because he made a couple big plays and that three was maybe 30 seconds right after he missed the layup at the rim, so he just stayed with it and just happy for the players. And I felt [like] we had a great crowd today. Happy for our crowd, happy for our fans. As difficult as it’s been for me and the players, it's been difficult for the fans so they needed to get that on a Saturday. So I'm happy for that.
Q: You've been in so many games against the top teams this year. How nice is it to have the hard work pay off and have one of these 50/50 games at the end go your way? And then how nice just to see the smiles on the guys faces in the locker room. I'm looking forward to seeing your dance, hopefully you got a good dance.
GRANT: No dance today. Yeah, every game you play is hard and we're playing a lot of young guys, so there's a lot of learning lessons. There's a lot of growing pains. There have been a lot of growing pains, but we growing up. We growing up. Fred Payne, he ain't a freshman no more, he's been in the game these last two games. Jayden Hastings in some tough moments as a freshman. So, I just think that they're growing up and they continue to show up every day with great energy. So we practice all week this week, we took one day off and every day we was pretty energetic, eager to learn, eager to get better. And so eventually, something’s gonna break through, if you just keep working,
Q: Coach, after Chas’ shot, there was still four seconds on the clock, enough time for FSU to come down and make a shot. What did you tell your guys in the huddle to plan defensively?
GRANT: Well number one, don't foul. You’re only up one and we had to replay that. I felt Davis got the ball, it was really fast. Usually with four seconds, 4.2 seconds, they added some time for whatever reason, but 4.2 you only got three dribbles. And so we wanted to push him down and make him catch the ball as close to 84 feet that we could because we knew he only had three dribbles, but seemed like he got there in two. I didn't see the video. I didn't see the jumbotron, but just told the guys “hey, look, don't foul and reap. Don't assume that the game is over. So rebound. If they shoot it, rebound.”
Q: Chad Venning seemed like he was nursing a little bit of a limp today. Just what is he dealing with?
GRANT: Yeah, he said he stubbed his toe, but then he came out, went back in and said he was fine. And he had foul trouble. Him and Jayden Hastings both had foul trouble, so we didn't want him to get his fourth with 13 minutes to go, so we took him out, let Jayden Hastings play. Jayden went in and really did a good job and we got Chad Venning back in. So he said he's fine.
Q: You guys have been shooting the three ball really well the last couple games. Has that been something you guys have been trying to emphasize coming out the gate, just putting those shots up?
GRANT: No, we want to take good threes. We want assisted baskets and we want to take good threes. And when we’re unselfish and we’re making good decisions, we got a lot of guys that's capable of knocking them in.
Q: In kind of a follow to that, I was just gonna ask about Donald Hand’s confidence in taking three-point shots. That kind of kept things close in the first half for you guys.
GRANT: Yeah, I mean he's been around. He's a sophomore, but he's our elder statesman. So he’s the longest tenured player we got in our program as a sophomore who didn't play a ton last year. So he's got a little freedom. He's got a lot of equity and trust built up based on his time here. And he knows he can take them. We encourage him to take them. And he's in the gym every morning at 6:30 am, so he deserves to take them when you do that every morning. I don't know if he missed a morning in two years.
Q: You guys played Watkins, who's a potential number one high pick. You guys held him really in check. Only 4-for-12 shooting. Talk about the defense you guys did on him and overall.
GRANT: Well, we knew it was going to be a challenge. He's an older, savvy veteran, fourth year player. Physical. Big. And so we knew that Dion and DJ and Roger and Fred had a guard as well, we knew we had to be physical and really challenge him as he tried to back you down because he's a guard, but he likes to back you down at 6’5”, 220. So we just had a lot of different guys, did it by committee. We wanted to make him take tough shots and we did.
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Kim Rankin is a 2020 graduate of the University of Alabama. She joined On SI in February 2024 covering baseball, softball, football, men’s basketball, and more for BamaCentral, Missouri Tigers On SI, and now Boston College Eagles On SI. She previously worked as the brand manager at Tide 100.9 FM in Tuscaloosa, Ala. She has covered a wide variety of events including SEC Championships, NCAA Regionals, and bowl games. Connect with Kim on X/Twitter at @kmrankin1 and follow the site at @BostonCollegeSI.