NCAA BK

Boston College can build off big win over UNC

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Updated Jan 6, 2009 11:19 AM ET
     
 
I kept telling people they had, you know, components. Tyrese Rice is a certified great college player. Blue Ribbon magazine, the co authority, listed him as a second-team preseason All-American. And players such as Rakim Sanders, Corey Raji and Joe Trapani are definitely ACC players. This freshman, Reggie Jackson, he's at least partially reminiscent of the freshman Ryan Sidney, who, as BC hoop fans know, was as electrifying a first-year player as BC ever has had. So I figured that some night they'd all play well together and beat a good ACC team — at home. But knocking off No. 1-ranked North Carolina in the Dean Dome? Never gonna happen. Except that yesterday it did. Boston College beat the Tar Heels, 85-78, fair and square. The Eagles ended the first half with a solid 31-18 run to take a 46-40 lead, and they held Carolina to 29 percent shooting in the second half. They survived the predictable help from the Zebras any No. 1 team is entitled to in its building. They made sure the basketball remained in the hands of their best player long enough for him to sink the requisite game-clinching free throws, and now they are the talk of the entire U.S. of A. How 'bout dem Eagles! No one saw this coming. Carolina had defeated its first 13 foes by a laughable average margin of 26 points. Carolina is loaded with future NBA players. Sure, BC was 12-2 with a nine-game winning streak, but this was a young team that had lost to a mediocre Saint Louis squad. They were unranked, and they deserved to be unranked. They were just an interesting team trying to establish something as they entered play in what has been, year in and year out, the No. 1 basketball conference in the land. And they were coming off a sluggish effort against Sacred Heart, which, as it turns out, was just what coach Al Skinner needed to get their attention. One thing BC always has going for it is Rice. This is a school with an impressive five-decade legacy of outstanding guards. From Chuck Chevalier to John Austin to Billy Evans to Jimmy O'Brien to Ernie Cobb to John Bagley to Michael Adams to Dana Barros to Howard Eisley to Troy Bell, a succession of BC coaches have been blessed with great guards, and with great guards you always have a chance in college basketball. It is almost impossible for passionate BC fans to discuss the pecking order of these guards without someone being asked to step outside. Who's the best? All I can say is Tyrese Rice is in the discussion, and if Roy Williams had a vote I suspect Rice would be No. 1. Consider that the last two times the Hall of Fame mentor has coached against BC, Rice has a) scored 46 points, including 34 in a first half during which he was 8-for-9 on threes, and b) torched UNC with 25 points and eight assists, which is what he did in the Dean Dome yesterday. Those 46 weren't enough to close the deal last March 1 at The Heights. Rice didn't have enough help, and the Heels hit BC with second-half runs of 18-0 and 16-3 to win it going away, 90-80. But yesterday Rice had the needed sidekicks. Sanders, a 6-foot-5 sophomore from Pawtucket, R.I., had 22 points and seven steals. He let Carolina know very early that he was not impressed with its pedigree. And then there was Jackson, the 6-foot-3 freshman from Colorado Springs. I have been hesitant to lavish praise on this kid, simply because he is a freshman and will be susceptible to ups and downs. He doesn't need the pressure, and neither does Skinner. But after what he did yesterday, there is no longer any need to suppress the news. BC has itself a terrific young ballplayer, a true offensive force. He is a born slasher, and he can nail threes. He had 17 valuable points off the bench in this one, and consider it his true Coming Out party. This is not the first time BC has beaten a No. 1 team. This is not even the first time BC has beaten a No. 1 team from North Carolina. The last time BC beat a top-ranked Tar Heels squad it was even more dramatic because it was in the second round of the 1994 NCAA tournament. That one got the Eagles (Bill Curley, specifically) on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Meanwhile, BC twice defeated Carolina in the 2005-06 season, but that BC team had six players who are currently being paid to play basketball around the globe.
This is different. This is a true shocker, because BC was a 12-2 team flying way under the radar and because many people, myself included, honestly believed that this Carolina team was a definite threat to become the first Division I team to go undefeated since the 1975-76 Indiana bunch led by Scott May, Quinn Buckner and Kent Benson and coached by Bob Knight. Truth be told, I told my daughter yesterday morning the final score would be North Carolina 104, BC 68. This exquisite triumph is a tribute to the kids and a tribute to the unflappable Skinner, who, not for the first time, is turning a bunch of young kids into a very credible team far quicker than anyone thought was possible. Yes, it helps to have a firm veteran hand on the throttle. Tyrese Rice is an elite guard. Does this mean BC is a top-10 team? No, it does not. Does this mean it's going to be a glorious season for BC? No, it does not. What it means is that BC is more talented and more dangerous than anyone thought. It means they're not afraid. And it means that in a year when there are guaranteed to be ups and downs, there will not be a bigger up than the day they sauntered into the Dean E. Smith Center and knocked off the No. 1-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels. Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.
Tagged: Rice, Murray State, Duquesne, North Carolina, Boston College

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