Eagles Aren’t Establishing a Good Routine
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass – Boston College is establishing a routine in their games, and it’s not one Al Skinner is overly happy with. The Eagles are 4-0, but their head coach sees the potential for problems down the road from their play in those games.
“We’ve been down in the first half, or tied in the first half – we haven’t played well the first 20 minutes,” said Skinner after their latest such game, a 76-72 win over Rhode Island on Wednesday. “There are games that we’ve won and haven’t played well for 30 minutes. We’ve got to start writing a different story and start playing the game 40 minutes.
Indeed, the Eagles have had relatively early struggles in the first half and some of the second half in every game thus far. They have not led at halftime in any of the four games, trailing in three of them. On Wednesday, they faced their largest halftime deficit, a seven-point margin against the Rams. In each game except for the third game, they looked to be in real trouble.
In the season opener, New Hampshire took over the game in the latter part of the first half with a 15-2 run and still led for almost half of the second half. In their second game, Florida Atlantic took the lead about halfway through the first half, and after giving up the lead briefly in the second half, they opened up an eight-point lead with over eight minutes to play. Against Mercer, they had leads for a significant portion of the game, but couldn’t hold on to them until the latter part of the second half.
The Rhode Island game probably parallels the Florida Atlantic game the most. In each, the Eagles ran out to an early lead and looked like they were a clearly better team, but they couldn’t sustain it. Against the Rams, they were ahead 17-7 early, but the Rams followed with a 26-5 run to take over the half.
“After the first seven or eight minutes, we relaxed, and they got more aggressive,” Skinner summed up. “We started mishandling the basketball.”
Their floor leader saw it much the same way, as Tyrese Rice added, “It’s the second time that we’ve started off quick and let it get away from us. I think we lacked a little concentration once we got the lead to 17-7.”
At hand in all of this is the Eagles’ youth. The Eagles have just three upperclassmen, with five freshmen included, and Skinner is also trying to find the right combination as nine players average double-digit minutes. Rice and Shamari Spears are each averaging over 35 minutes per game, so they are the constants, but not much is certain elsewhere. It wouldn’t be entirely shocking if the minutes were distributed a little differently before ACC play begins.
Skinner thinks their youth is a large reason for the slow starts. He noted that at times, they have been slow to pick up what’s happening, hence the longer droughts when an opponent gets going. That also helps explain the second half strength.
“The nice thing about that is, once they get it, they can execute it on the floor, and that’s why the second half is what it was,” said Skinner.
The second half saw both Rice (25 points, seven assists) and talented freshman Rakim Sanders (21 points) play more aggressively at the offensive end. Sanders scored the Eagles’ first five points and eight of their first ten. Then Rice hit consecutive three-pointers to cut the lead to one, and shortly thereafter he hit two free throws to give them the lead for the first time since the first half.
The Eagles also got good contributions in the second half off the bench from a couple of players who will need to keep up the consistency. Biko Paris scored all nine of his points in the second frame, while Corey Raji played just five minutes but scored six points and gave them more life.
All the while, Rice is growing as a floor leader. It was a given that he could score, and he grew as a floor leader last season when the team needed him to do more than score, although he had to score more in the latter part of the season when they were thinner. But he has often looked more like a leader for this team, both with his play that includes a 2.1 assist/turnover ratio and his work to keep the team positive when they are struggling. They need him to continue this with the youth on this team, and considering they have several players capable of being scorers, he isn’t lacking the tools to do that.
One thing Rice can’t do is solve the team’s slow starts all by himself. They have been able to get away with them thus far, but as the competition gets stiffer, they aren’t likely to be able to continue that trend. As the young players grow, the hope is that they start games better and continue to finish them as they have been.
“We’ve been playing this same story these first four games. We’ve got to start writing a different story, and hopefully we will,” said Skinner.
