Boston College Men’s Basketball is Collapsing at the End of the Season

This has been an up-and-down season for the Boston College men’s basketball team overall, but it’s been all downhill for the past few weeks. The Eagles have lost four straight games since mid-February, tumbling to a 6-12 record in the ACC and showing that their “gritty not pretty” style of defense is losing its luster. Even Quinten Post’s 30-point game against Pitt couldn’t prevent the Eagles from getting blown out by 25 points.

Giving up 80+ points to FSU, NC State, and Pitt all within two weeks has been their downfall, consistently getting out-rebounded, or failing to generate turnovers, or giving up too many threes. BC gets bullied a lot in the paint and Quinten Post isn’t as good of a defender as he is a scorer, while Devin McGlockton is still inconsistent as the other primary big man. BC’s transition defense is also a disaster at times, leading to open threes or easy drives into the paint at inopportune times. There is a limit to what this team can do based on the talent level on the roster, but they are definitely a step behind in their defensive execution, too, which falls on the coaching.

The offense this year has been better than it usually has been in Earl Grant’s short tenure, but it still has a long way to go. The Eagles can’t execute a designed play out of a timeout to save their lives, while the offense can oftentimes go stagnant if Quinten Post or Claudell Harris are having a bad game. Plain and simple, the talent on the offensive side of the ball is not distributed evenly, and the coaching has not helped to develop the supporting cast. With Quinten Post on his way out after this season, things could get worse again before they get better.

So where does that leave us? The only two teams remaining on BC’s schedule are Miami and Louisville, two of the worst teams in the ACC this season. Beyond that, we’re probably looking at another first or second round exit in the ACC tournament. Even if BC wins its last two regular season games and a couple of games in the postseason, this is a step backwards from 2023, or at least a lateral step. They were supposed to take a step forward this year. These developments are concerning, to say the least.