ACC Preview #11 – Boston College

ACC Preview #1 – UNC || ACC Preview #2 – NC State || ACC Preview #3 – Wake Forest ||ACC Preview #4 – Virginia || ACC Preview #5 – Syracuse || ACC Preview #6 – Pitt || ACC Preview #7 – Clemson || ACC Preview #8 – Miami || ACC Preview #9 – Louisville || ACC Preview #10 – Virginia Tech

It doesn’t fully reflect in the record yet – he’s just 29-37 in his first two years – but Boston College looks to have made a savvy hire in Earl Grant.

The former College of Charleston coach was also a former Clemson assistant, so he knows the ACC. And at Charleston, he proved he could recruit solid players, who might be a little below the radar, and then coach them very well. Most importantly, his teams play hard.

And that’s a great approach for where BC is now.

Boston College has a nice basketball history. Bob Cousy coached there after his legendary Celtics career and did well. Chuck Daly was there after his turn as a Vic Bubas assistant at Duke. Tom Davis coached there. Gary Williams coached there before moving to Ohio State and later Maryland. Jim O’ Brien had a good run while he was there, notably upsetting UNC in the 1994 NCAA tournament. Al Skinner did very well for most of his 13 years before being fired in 2010.

And since then, BC has struggled. Steve Donahue won three straight Ivy League titles at Cornell and his Big Red teams were really good.

He only had one winning season at BC – his first – and was gone in four years. He returned to the Ivy and has done well at Penn.

Jim Christian had solid runs at Kent State (137–59) and Ohio (49–22) before flaming out at BC, where he finished 78-132 overall and 26-94 in the ACC (he was at TCU in between Kent State and Ohio however and didn’t do nearly as well).

Grant finished his first season 13-20 and last season nearly broke even at 16-17, which was good for 10th place. It might not sound like much, but it’s a whole lot better than last place. That’s a significant jump.

The record is not the thing to focus on right now though. The culture is the thing.

When Christian departed, his team was clearly dispirited. Grant has changed that. His teams have usually been outclassed talent-wise, but you have to earn your victories over BC now.

From last year’s team, BC loses brothers Makai Ashton-Langford and DeMarr Langford, who is off to play for Johnny Dawkins at UCF, TJ Bickerstaff and CJ Penha. Losing the Langfords will hurt, but it’s not necessarily fatal.

Grant will get Jaeden Zackary, Devin McGlockton, Prince Aligbe, Mason Madsen, Chas Kelley and Quinten Post back.

The 6-2 Zackary is a junior now and he has established himself as a solid ACC guard. He didn’t shoot all that well – 32.3 from behind the line and 41.6 overall – but he is gritty and tough-minded. He’s a perfect fit with his coach. His offense can be hit or miss but he busts his butt on defense. Grant must love him for that.

Post struggled with an injury last season that limited him to 19 games, but when he was healthy he was a revelation. Like a stereotypical Euro big, Post shot threes well, hitting 42.6 percent, good for second place on the team. He averaged 15.1 ppg and pulled down 5.6 boards. He was also named the ACC’s Most Improved Player, the first Boston College player ever to win that award. He was really good when he was healthy.

Aligbe didn’t have gaudy stats but the high school teammate of Chet Holmgren and Jalen Suggs but he had a great debut for BC, hitting a tough shot in traffic with a second to go to knock off Cornell in the season opener. The 6-7 sophomore reportedly played well in BC’s summer tour of Spain. He has great athleticism too. If he can truly refine it, he has a chance to be really good.

McGlockton, also a 6-7 sophomore, moved into the starting lineup for the last third of the season. BC played well in that stretch, defeating Clemson, Virginia Tech and Virginia among others. He’s built like a tight end, which is no surprise: he played at that position in high school. He’s athletic enough to make a difference and should be a bigger factor this season.

Mason Madsen sat out the summer tour as he recovers from an unspecified injury. He came to BC with a shooter’s reputation but managed just 30.3 percent for threes and 34.9 percent overall. However, when he was at Cincinnati, his vertical was listed at 44 inches, which is in rare territory indeed. Grant used him for slightly more than a half per game last year and he put up 5.8 ppg. If he finds his stroke, Madsen could be a breakthrough player.

Mighty was basically a not-so-mighty backup but at 6-10 and 225, if he can defend and rebound, he’ll have a role. He seems like the kind of young player who needs to refine and define his body to carve out a bigger role.

Chas Kelley, a 6-5 sophomore, was certainly competent last season and at times very good. His shooting percentages were not good – 28.6 percent from deep, 34.7 percent overall and just 50 percent from the line – but like several other Eagles, he’s a very good athlete and shooting is something most guys can improve via repetition and discretion.

Donald Hand only played one game last year before blowing out an ACL 30 seconds into his second one and sitting out the rest of the season. He was very well regarded in high school and if he recovers from his knee injury, could be a nice player for BC. A 6-5 point guard is generally a useful piece on the chessboard. Like Madsen, he missed the Spanish trip to continue to rehab.

Only one transfer, but he should be quite helpful: Claudell Harris moves up the Eastern seaboard from Charleston Southern. A 6-3 junior, Harris has a scorer’s mentality. That’s not to say he’s a great shooter – he only hit 33 percent on threes with Charleston Southern – but he has a scorer’s mentality. He can also play point. He’s a junior.

Three freshman hope to soar with the Eagles – Fred Payne, Jayden Hastings, Elijah Strong

Payne didn’t get a lot of recruiting love and it didn’t matter. Neither did Tim Duncan or Seth Curry and they both turned out okay.

The 6-1 Payne also got offers from Grambling, Louisiana and North Texas. BC is a huge opportunity for him. Presumably Grant sees something in the kid that made him take a chance. We hope he does really well. Who doesn’t love a sleeper success story?

Hastings is a 6-9 kid from IMG Academy in Orlando. He’s likely to be a back up this year and if he progresses, he could start up front next season. He’s seen as a 3-4 star prospect. He doesn’t have to excel this year, but it’s a big bonus if he does.

Strong is an interesting case. He’s out of Charlotte at at 6-8 and 245, he is probably well-named.

He was lightly recruited and while some ranked him as a 3-star prospect, some had him unranked.

He had originally committed to Wofford but bailed on that. After he did, he had offers from St. Bonnie’s, Samford, Duquesne and George Mason. It’s not like he didn’t have options, but an ACC school was a big step up.

So when you look at Grant’s signees in his first two seasons, you see a couple of trends emerging.

Last year he signed Hand, Kelley, Mighty, Prince and McGlockton. This year it’s Payne, Hastings and Strong.

None of them, other than Hand, were particularly well regarded out of high school. Generally speaking though, they’re all pretty athletic. And based on what we’ve seen from Grant so far, he’s getting guys who are teachable.

So you take a guy like Grant, who started with creating a solid culture and who is adding superior, teachable and underrated athletes, and pretty soon, you’re going to have a problem.

BC is now a much younger team, with eight freshmen or sophomores. And by the way, the only person to leave was Langford. All of Grant’s recruits stayed.

Post is clearly going to start and he’ll be one of the better bigs in the ACC. After that though, who knows? You could go with Aligbe and McGlockton at forwards. You might give up a bit of size but you’d get it back in mobility. You could stick with the gutty Zackery at guard, maybe pair him with Harris. Or maybe Hand is ready. Madsen is pretty athletic, as is Kelley, and we don’t know anything about Payne at this point. Even if the offense is somewhat ragged, the defense has the potential to be special.

But no matter how you cut it, Grant has improved the talent. More importantly, his goal to transform the culture is working. If you want an analog, think of Gary Williams at Maryland. Williams avoided AAU culture like a plague and recruited under-appreciated talents. Think Lonnie Baxter. Think Joe Smith. Think the great Juan Dixon. We can’t say that Grant is getting that sort of talent, but he’s following the basic trend line Williams followed.

He has an athletic team full of willing defenders and, as far as we know, no real jerks who are going to destroy team chemistry and, very much like Garyland, guys who are seething that they were underrated coming out of high school and who can’t wait to stick it to burger boys.

We don’t know how far Boston College will go this year, but post-season play wouldn’t be a surprise at all. And we’repretty sure about this: they’re going to play hard as hell and they have enough talent and character to give everyone fits.

Consider yourself warned.