ACC-epting new reality
Eagles look to make impact in tourney
As the wins kept coming, the Boston College players felt the vibes around them were changing on campus.
Jerome Robinson noticed students rushing to get front-row seats 45 minutes before games started, something that never happened before. Ky Bowman, with his signature dyed red hair, tried to keep a lower profile during his classes, because people were noticing who he was.
“People are like, ‘Yo, when are you guys playing again?’” Robinson said. “It’s definitely a whole different mood on campus.”
There was simply one reason why.
“It’s because we’re winning,” Robinson said. “It’s literally just win and everything else comes with it.”
It was the culmination of what the Eagles saw happening before the season started, even if no one else did.
BC struggled mightily through Jim Christian’s first three seasons. Two years ago, Robinson’s freshman year, the Eagles hit rock bottom, going winless in the ACC. They weren’t much better last season, with just two wins in conference play. All that losing was hard, but the players kept their vision. This season, BC has seen it pay off. The Ea- gles won 10 of their first 13 games, including a shocker of then-No. 1 Duke. They finished the regular season 17-14, Christian’s first win- ning campaign, and won seven ACC games, more than the last three years combined.
“I believe in these guys and I believe in what we do, the way we prepare, I believe in all of it,” Christian said. “It was just a matter of finding that consistent level and understanding what you need to do to win. …
“I think that’s what everyone has seen, that’s what everybody’s excited about, is that they see what these guys are all about. We play hard, we play the right way, we play together. It doesn’t mean we always win, but the growth is happening and that’s all part of the process, is you have to grow, and we’ve grown.”
This year, there weren’t any excuses.
“Like for us, we’re getting older,” said Robinson, who was voted the runner-up for ACC Player of the Year. “There’s no more, ‘Oh, we’re young.’ We knew that this was kind of our time where it’s make or break. We knew that this year was going to be a big year for us.”
The vibes are even different as the Eagles head to Brooklyn, where they open up the ACC tournament today at noon against Georgia Tech.
BC has beaten Duke and Miami this season, and came close to knocking off Virginia on the road, and those three teams are the top three seeds in the tournament. The Eagles’ mentality going into this year’s conference tournament has completely changed.
“We know that we have something bigger to play for,” Robinson said. “It’s a whole different flip side. Going into the ones before, it’s like, ‘All right, let’s maybe break this losing record.’ But now it’s let’s win and keep winning. We shouldn’t be losing to teams we shouldn’t be losing to.”
Depth, as it has been all season, could be an issue even more this week. Christian on Sunday was unsure on the status of Steffon Mitchell, who left last week’s win against Syracuse with a hamstring contusion, as well as Luka Kraljevic, who took a shot to the head in Saturday’s loss to Florida State.
Still, though, the Eagles think they’re more than capable of making some noise in Brooklyn.
“The one thing we’ve proven is that when we play well, we can beat anybody in the league,” Christian said. “That’s a huge thing as you go into a conference tournament. That doesn’t mean you should win, but at least we know. There’s a different mentality going down. …
“Usually if you’re having a bad year, you’re trying to go down there and re-energize the team, give them some hope. (This year), we’re going down there to win. We don’t need to be re-energized. We’re excited about getting to go down there. That’s the great thing. And these guys have earned it.”