Boston College Eagles
13-19 (4-14 ACC) in 2014-2015
Key Returning Players
- C Dennis Clifford
Departures
- G Olivier Hanlan
- F Aaron Brown
- G Dimitri Batten
- F Patrick Heckmann
- F Will Magarity
Newcomers
- SF A.J. Turner, ESPN 4-star recruit
- SG Matt Milon, ESPN 3-star recruit
- PG/SG Eli Carter, Senior (Transferred from Florida)
- SG Sammy Barnes-Thompkins, ESPN 2-star recruit
- SG Jerome Robinson
- SF Ervins Meznieks
Outlook
Boston College enters the 2015 season with one of the youngest teams in not only the ACC, but in all of college basketball. After losing their star point guard Olivier Hanlan to the NBA, the Eagles will try to find a way to replace his team-leading 19.5 points per game from a team that won just four conference games in all of last season.
It certainly won’t be easy replacing that sort of scorer off of a team that was already struggling to begin with, but the Eagles will try to make-do, beginning with senior guard Eli Carter, a transfer from the Billy Donovan-led Florida Gators. When Donovan bolted to the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA, Carter opted to play his final collegiate season elsewhere, ultimately picking the Eagles in June as a graduate transfer, making him eligible to play right away. Carter averaged 8.8 points per game last season in 24.5 minutes per game. He will undoubtedly be a recipient of a greater amount of minutes with the Eagles, which could lead to a spike in his productivity this season.
The only other senior contributor for BC is big-man Dennis Clifford, who is coming off of a season where he averaged 6.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest. More offensive production will be needed out of him, especially when considering how thin and young the Eagles will be in the frontcourt. Outside of Carter and Clifford, Boston College will be giving most of their alotted minutes to incoming freshmen. Four-star wing A.J. Turner and three-star guard Matt Milon are the two newcomers who are expected to be major contributors in their first year in Chestnut Hill.
Schedule and Prediction
The bottom-line is that it will not be sunshine and rainbows for Jim Christian and the Eagles this season. Attrition due to graduation and the NBA is the way of major college basketball, and with this being one of the years of major turnover for Boston College, fans are going to need to be patient during the rebuild. A non-conference match-up against #13 Michigan State on November 26th will be a good early test for the young Eagles squad, as a good showing against a much-better Spartans team would be a great confidence builder before heading into the conference schedule in December. However, it is expected that Boston College will be on the wrong end of a lopsided loss against Michigan State, a trend that should continue into ACC play, where the Eagles open up with Duke, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Pitt to begin their conference voyage. Ouch.
The ACC is the most competitive conference in all of college basketball, where there are no real easy match-ups. A brutal schedule and young team with only a couple of notable recruits do not mix well in this conference. The Eagles were 13-19 last season and 4-14 in conference play, and that was with one of the top scorers in the ACC on their roster. Without Hanlan and many seniors to boot, this will be the conference’s worst team in the 2015 season, as 10 wins in the entire schedule should be considered an accomplishment for a very young and inexperienced team. Hang tough Eagles fans, this year will be a bumpy ride.
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