Boston College finished the regular season with a disappointing 66-54 loss at North Carolina State yesterday. The loss slowed some of the momentum the Eagles had built while winning 3-of-4 games, but now their focus is on the ACC tournament, which begins Thursday at noon with a matchup with Virginia.

“It’s not a big setback,” BC coach Al Skinner said of the regular season finale. “It was disappointing because we didn’t really respond to the situation and we didn’t really knuckle up and play the kind of defense we needed to, so that part was a little disappointing. But I don’t think it’s a huge setback.”

One bit of good news is that Skinner expects to have Corey Raji back in the lineup on Thursday. The junior forward  left yesterday’s game in the first half with a left shoulder injury.

“He’ll probably be out of practice for a couple of days, but I think he’ll be ready to go by Thursday,” Skinner said.

(more…)

Just wanted to point out something that got a brief mention in today’s paper — Boston University will play Hartford in the first round of the America East tournament on Saturday (2:15 p.m.). As the No. 4 seed, BU was slated to take on No. 5 Binghamton, but the beleaguered program withdrew from the tournament.

The situation at Binghamton has been very messy, with misconduct at every level of the basketball program. Playing without its coach and many of its top players, it was impressive that Binghamton was able to secure the fifth seed, going 8-8 in league play. But Binghamton president Lois B. DeFleur released a statement that the team would not participate in the tournament, citing “possible distractions” as the reason.

With the Bearcats out of the tournament, all of the teams that finished behind them in the standings were bumped up a slot and the play-in game between the No. 8 and No. 9 teams was eliminated. The result for BU (17-12, 11-5) is a matchup with host Hartford (8-21, 6-10). BU swept two games from the Hawks during the regular season.

If you follow the Boston University basketball program, you’re probably aware that first-year coach Pat Chambers spent the previous five years serving as a Villanova assistant under Jay Wright, one of the top coaches in the country. But you might not be aware that Chambers has had some accomplished mentors throughout his basketball career.

During his playing days at Division 2 Philadelphia University, Chambers (right, photo from goterriers.com) was the point guard for Herb Magee. Magee has gained some acclaim recently after winning his 903rd career game, the most wins for any coach in NCAA history. (Here is a great New York Times feature on Magee from earlier this week).

Chambers, who served as an assistant on Magee’s staff from 2001-04 before landing at Villanova, said he has learned much from the 68-year-old Magee, who has coached at Philadelphia U. for the past 43 years.

“He’s an amazing guy,” Chambers said. “He gave me a great opportunity to play for him. I look at him and what I can learn from him – No. 1 is loyalty. Forty-plus years at the same school is unheard of today. He’s a hard-working guy that maybe has it figured it out.”

(more…)

When Derek Kellogg took over at UMass two years ago, he knew it would take time to get the program where he wanted. But that doesn’t mean it’s always been easy to maintain patience during the past two seasons. Kellogg (right) discussed the challenge in today’s college basketball notebook.

Though UMass made the NIT final in Travis Ford’s final season in 2008, the cupboard wasn’t exactly stocked when Kellogg took over after Ford bolted for Oklahoma State.

While Kellogg inherited some solid veterans — Tony Gaffney, Chris Lowe, Ricky Harris — there was very little to build on from Ford’s last recruiting class. Jeff Goodman, a national college basketball writer for Foxsports.com, calls the class the worst he’s ever seen and it’s difficult to argue.

But it’s not as if the dearth of young talent is the only reason the Minutemen have gone 22-35 in Kellogg’s two seasons. Kellogg had never served as a head coach before getting the UMass job and has experienced some growing pains.

Kellogg completely scrapped the up-tempo style that worked so well for Ford’s teams and immediately installed the dribble-drive motion offense. The system was essentially a disaster last season, with Lowe, the point guard, never getting comfortable.

(more…)

Facing a tall task — both literally and figuratively — Harvard got some good news for tonight’s game against Ivy League-leading Cornell. Keith Wright, a 6-foot-8 sophomore, will play.

Wright, who has missed the last four games with inflammation in his left Achilles tendon, woke up feeling better this morning and decided to suit up. Wright will not start, but he will be able to come off the bench to throw another big body at Cornell’s 7-foot center Jeff Foote.

Foote torched Harvard for 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks the first time the teams met, an 86-50 Cornell win on Jan. 30. If Harvard has any chance to get revenge tonight, it will need to keep Foote in check.

For live updates during the game, you can follow me on Twitter.

Today’s feature on Tommy Amaker touched on a 2007 New York Times story that questioned Amaker’s recruiting tactics.

Through extensive reporting the story uncovered a number of questionable instances in Harvard’s recruiting early in Amaker’s tenure. While an Ivy investigation cleared Amaker and his staff of any wrongdoing, it’s safe to say some of the practices would fall into the vast gray area that exists in the recruiting world.

The academic questions raised by the story are more cut-and-dried. The school maintains that its admission standards for basketball players have not been reduced, and obviously all of the recruits that have matriculated to Harvard have met the Ivy League guidelines.

With all of that said, the hiring of Amaker signaled a change in the approach of the Harvard athletic department. By bringing in a high-profile coach, Harvard made it clear that there would be more of an emphasis placed on winning.

(more…)

Harvard encountered a number of problems when it lost 86-50 at Cornell three weeks ago. The most glaring issue was the 25 turnovers the Crimson committed. But at the other end of the court, Harvard had no answer for Cornell’s Jeff Foote. The 7-foot center had 16 points (on 7-of-11 shooting), nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks.

Foote is a match-up problem for most teams, but his size poses a particularly tall task for the undersized Harvard front-line.

“I think he’s the key to their team,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said after the drubbing in Ithaca. “I think he’s sensational. He gets blocks, rebounds, scores, he’s a tremendous passer – you can’t help off of their 3-point shooters and he’s good enough to carry the load in whatever way is necessary. I really like his game, his poise, his unselfishness. Hopefully next time around we’ll be a little better in other areas.”

Harvard gets its shot at revenge tomorrow night when it hosts the Big Red in a pivotal Ivy League matchup. Cornell (21-4, 7-1) is currently tied atop the conference standings with Princeton (15-6, 6-1), though Harvard (17-5, 6-2) trails by just a game. A Crimson win tonight would bunch things up even further, setting up some critical rematches down the stretch. Princeton travels to Cornell on next Friday and Harvard plays at Princeton in the season finale on March 6.

(more…)

The topic of yesterday’s college basketball notebook was the possibility of expanding the NCAA tournament to 96 teams.

Most of the major topics were covered in yesterday’s story. Boston University coach Pat Chambers shared the opinion of many fans — the tournament is so good now that there’s no reason to make any changes. Chambers was conflicted, however, because an expanded tourney field would benefit coaches. Boston College coach Al Skinner explained how much pressure is on coaches to qualify for the tournament and said extra entries would afford coaches more job security.

Skinner also talked about the discrepancy between the percentages of postseason berths in college football and basketball. But in the end Skinner summed it up best when he said, “If you have bills to pay, guys are going to do what they have to do to generate the income.”

The financial motives for expansion are clear and were covered yesterday. But there are also questions about the on-court ramifications of an expanded tournament. Skinner and Chambers each discussed those issues.

(more…)

Villanova, ranked No. 4 in this week’s AP poll, keeps rolling along, picking up an impressive 82-75 win at No. 5 West Virginia tonight.

You may remember the Wildcats’ advancing to last year’s Final Four in a classic regional final matchup with Pittsburgh at the Garden. That game ended on point guard Scottie Reynolds‘ (right, from tonight’s game) full-court drive and buzzer-beating layup. Nova’s run ended the next weekend against eventual national champion North Carolina.

That the Wildcats have picked up where they left off this season is not a surprise to Pat Chambers. Currently in his first season as the head coach at Boston University, Chambers spent the previous five years as an assistant on Jay Wright’s staff at Villanova.

Chambers knows this Villanova team as well as anyone, as he had a hand in recruiting much of the current roster.

(more…)

If you weren’t one of the 8,606 at Conte Forum this afternoon or you didn’t at least tune into ESPN for the Boston College-Duke basketball game, you missed an exciting finish.

Though they were slightly over-matched by the No. 10 team in the country, the Eagles battled to the end. Trailing by double-digits at times in the second half and seemingly always within one run of letting things get out of hand, BC dug deep and refused to quit.

The Eagles were masterful at the end of the game, fouling the proper Blue Devils (who shot just 15-of-26 at the line) and converting on offense to close the gap to a point. With 11 seconds left, BC had no choice but to send Duke’s best free throw shooter, Jon Scheyer, to the line and he made a pair to give the Blue Devils a 66-63 edge.

Still, BC had a chance for a tying 3-pointer. But all the Eagles managed was a desperation heave by Joe Trapani at the buzzer that never really had a chance. So what happened in that final 11 seconds?

(more…)