BC Preview
January 15, 2005 01:37 PM | General
January 15, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 13-rated, 13-0 Boston College team West Virginia is facing Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum joins an elite list of undefeated teams to ever play in the facility.
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| Tyrone Sally looks to get some room to get off a shot against BC's Craig Smith during last year's game at the Coliseum.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
In fact, Boston College is the first squad sporting a 13-0 or better record to ever play in the arena, surpassing No. 1-rated Connecticut’s 12-0 mark when the Huskies demolished the Mountaineers 80-45 on Jan. 9, 1999. The only other team to go undefeated through 10 games to ever play at the Coliseum was 11-0 Georgetown on Jan. 3, 2001. The Hoyas won that game 90-66.
Boston College has flown under the radar screen for a good portion of the year despite beating Clemson, UCLA and Massachusetts outside Big East play, and defeating Connecticut at Storrs on Jan. 5. Boston College, which has made the NCAA tournament three out of the last four years, is one of just four remaining undefeated teams in the country joining Illinois, Kansas and Duke.
Despite BC’s lofty status, Coach Al Skinner maintains his team is still vulnerable to an upset.
“We were fortunate that we were able to win some of the games early on that we did,” Skinner admitted. “The other thing is we may be undefeated but there are a lot of teams that only have one loss or two losses and they’ve played some great schedules. It’s not that much separation between us and a team that has a loss or two already and I think they recognize that.”
Boston College has been able to take care of business behind an athletic and diverse lineup that features size (6-foot-10 freshman Sean Williams and 7-foot junior Nate Doornekamp), power (6-foot-7, 255-pound forward Craig Smith) and athletic ability (6-foot-7 Jared Dudley, 6-foot-4 Louis Hinnant and 6-foot-5 Sean Marshall).
Smith leads four double-figurer scorers with an average of 19.6 points per game. Dudley averages 14.1 points, Marshall is averaging 12.8 points and 6-foot-3 senior guard Jermaine Watson is averaging 10.2 points per game coming off the bench.
However, it has been the play of freshman Sean Williams, a Mansfield, Texas, resident, that has really made a difference. Williams earned Big East rookie of the week honors after scoring 16 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking three shots in BC’s most recent win against Providence. Williams has swatted away a team-best 29 shots so far this year.
“What Sean has brought is a defensive presence on the interior for us that we haven’t had with the shot blocking ability that he possesses,” said Skinner. “We’ve had some good interior defense with Uka Agbai, Nate Doornekamp and Craig (Smith) but not with the shot blocking ability that he brings which obviously deters a lot of individuals.”
Skinner says that despite BC’s undfeated start his team has struggled at times due to injuries.
“We haven’t always been at full strength and now we’re starting to get back to full strength,” he said. “We’ve probably only played about six games where everybody has been available to us. We’re still trying to get a feel for each other and we’re fortunate to have son some of our early games.”
That doesn’t bode well for a reeling West Virginia team coming off a disappointing 59-55 loss to MAC cellar dweller Marshall. The Mountaineers (11-2) have gone through a tough stretch of games where it has been unable to find its shooting touch from three-point distance, beginning with a 38-point loss at Villanova. In its last three games West Virginia has made just 15 of 67 three-point tries (22.4 percent) against Villanova, St. John’s and Marshall.
“Of late we haven’t been able to throw the ball in the ocean for three straight games and that’s why we’re 1-2 in those games,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “We came from shooting 55 percent form three at North Carolina State to shooting about half of that in the last three games. That is probably the way our fortunes are going to go is whether we shoot the ball real well.”
Beilein is very impressed with Boston College.
“Obviously Boston College is a terrific team,” he said. “They’re undefeated and they have almost everybody back from last year’s team. Last year we were fortunate to beat them here when every ball bounce our way for 40 minutes. We’re going to have to do more than just be fortunate to win this game.”
In West Virginia’s 65-62 victory over the Eagles last season, the Mountaineers were able to throw Smith off his game. The forward made just seven of 16 field goal attempts as center D’or Fischer blocked eight shots. Free throws down the stretch won the game for WVU.
“We’re expecting a very tough ballgame,” said Skinner. “They had a tough loss to Marshall so I know they’re going to come in more than prepared and excited to play and get back on the right track.”
Sunday’s game will tip off at noon and will be televised by ESPN Regional. Locally, the game will air on tape delay basis on Fox 46 in Clarksburg due to a conflict with the NFL playoffs. Morgantown-Fairmont-Clarksburg area fans can also view the game through your cable system’s Full Court package, which airs a free preview this Sunday.
