CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Sometimes a long break for final exams allows a team to go back to the drawing board and regroup. In the case of Boston College, the coach did that.
In the Eagles’ 72-46 win over Bryant, the starting lineup had a little different look. Josh Southern, who had started 44 consecutive games going back to the start of last season, was moved to the bench. But it wasn’t for another frontcourt player, as the Eagles went smaller by replacing him with Reggie Jackson and moving around other players to go smaller. The two frontcourt starters were Corey Raji, who played a lot of power forward in high school, and Joe Trapani.
Head coach Al Skinner said the move had nothing to do with the play of Southern, although he hasn’t been himself in December. Rather, a look back at the last two games, both losses, and at the upcoming schedule gave him the idea that a change might be in order.
“The teams that we’re going to be playing are smaller teams, and it was clear that we’ve struggled a little bit in some games against smaller lineups,” said Skinner. “We just thought this was something that, at least from a defensive standpoint, was going to be effective for us.”
It’s something not lost on the players, who understood that a coach might feel like a change is needed.
“I think all great coaches know that they’re not perfect, and they step back and try to adjust as things are not working,” said Trapani, who had a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds. “The past two games, it was clear that we were not prepared for the game. This game was different.”
Harvard and Rhode Island each shot 50 percent from the field against the Eagles, something only Northern Iowa had done on the season (the Panthers shot 64.8 percent against the Eagles in the U.S. Virgin Islands). The rebounding numbers attested to it as well in a different sense, with Harvard being the only team to out-rebound the Eagles this season and their +7 advantage against Rhode Island being their smallest margin of the season.
Skinner said this lineup could stay intact even into ACC play. Even if he keeps the starting lineup this way, there will be times he goes back to a lineup that’s bigger and has a center like Southern, Cortney Dunn or Evan Ravenel. The bench was clearly energized on Sunday, as Dallas Elmore gave them 17 good minutes, Southern was a factor on the interior with six rebounds and three blocked shots in 14 minutes and Ravenel gave them 10 good minutes that seemed like more.
Each of the past two seasons, Skinner has spoken of the flexibility the roster has as an advantage for his team. Certainly, this team has some inter-changeable parts, although the idea of Reggie Jackson as a second point guard has looked a little questionable as the offense has been very different when he has run the show instead of Biko Paris. But at the shooting guard, small forward and power forward positions, a number of players can be moved around on this team. Skinner felt like he wasn’t using that flexibility to its full advantage before, but appears ready to now.
“I was probably getting a little rigid as far as what we were trying to do,” Skinner admitted. “There was no flexibility – we couldn’t do anything because I was staying pretty rigid.”
The players had no problem being asked to do something different. Raji not only played a lot of power forward in high school, but has basically been a combo forward since arriving in Chestnut Hill. Rakim Sanders, looking more and more like himself in his second game back, has often swung between the two wing positions, and Jackson is better off the ball than on it.
The players also understand the emphasis on defense of late. Skinner pointed out that the Eagles haven’t won by out-scoring teams, and a look at the numbers back him up. The Eagles’ four losses came in the games with the four highest opponent field goal percentages. While they didn’t shoot well against Saint Joseph’s or Harvard, they didn’t kill themselves with turnovers, either – in fact, they turned it over just five times in the loss to the Hawks.
“We really made an effort to concentrate on the defensive end,” said Skinner. “I said this before, when we’ve held teams to less than 40 percent shooting, we’ve won regardless of what we’ve done on the offensive end. It’s not what’s occurring on the offensive end that has determined whether we’re successful or not.”
Skinner added that the emphasis has not been on an opponent, but on the Eagles. He said he’s not comfortable with his team’s play, and until he gets past that, the worry isn’t about the opponent, the next of which is UMass on Wednesday night. That fits with his lineup change, and of note is that the Eagles have still not had their whole team together for a full game this season as Tyler Roche’s back is still bothering him and he did not play on Sunday.
The coach went back to the drawing board, and the Eagles were successful on defense on Sunday. For now, the change appears to be working, with the real tests for it coming up as they not only have UMass coming up, but a visit from South Carolina comes a week after Wednesday night’s game.
