ACC/B1G Challenge Preview & Prediction: Boston College vs. Minnesota

Boston College (1-3) face off with Minnesota in Wednesday night's game with the Minnesota Golden Gophers (4-0). Since 2006, Boston College is 7-5 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, most recently falling to Northwestern last year 82-64 at Conte Forum. This is the second matchup between BC and Minnesota in the last three years, the Eagles having won their previous matchup 68-56 in 2018.

Time: 7:00 pm
Where: Williams Arena, Minneapolis, MN.
TV: ESPNU
Radio: WEEI 850 (TuneIn App)
Current Line: Minnesota (-7)
ESPN Matchup Predictor: Minnesota has a 71% chance of winning this game.

Storyline of the Game: This is a home coming for forward Steffon Mitchell, originally from the Minnesota area.

Listen: In our most recent podcast we talked about the upcoming game and what the Eagles will need to do to win. You can catch our thoughts by listening here.

Player to Watch: Guard Marcus Carr

A transfer from Pitt, Carr exploded in 2019-20 averaging 15.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.7 assists. The 6'2 guard tested the NBA Draft this offseason, but did not sign an agent and returned to school to compete this season. So far this year he has been nothing less than dynamic averaging 26.5 points and 6.5 assists per game through the first four games. Against Green Bay in the season opener Carr set a career high with 35 points. For a team like Boston College that have struggled on the defensive end all season, a guard like Carr could be a massive problem to defend.

3 Keys to the Game

* Limit the careless errors: Turnovers are going to happen, it's just par for the course. But unforced errors, like bad passes, or careless dribbling can be prevented. BC can ill afford to just lose possession against a team like Minnesota that is averaging 80 points a game.

* Hit your free throws! Boston College currently sits at 236th in the country in free throw percentage shooting just 63% from the line. They get to the line quite a bit (38th in free throw attempts), they need to take the gimmes. Even if they could get their percentage to around 75% that would be a multiple point increase in their points per game. Have to do better here.

* Push the tempo. As I said in this week's podcast, we can all say "play better defense", but that is like asking me to windmill dunk on a ten foot net. That doesn't seem to be the makeup of this team (at least until we see otherwise). Therefore BC is going to need to put up a lot of points, which they can do. But they need to keep the tempo going, the minute they start to settle for bad jump shots and low percentage threes is when these games fall apart.

AJ's Fearless Prediction: Minnesota hasn't been challenged so far this season, playing a relatively weak schedule to date. But Boston College play has ranged from vastly inconsistent to really poor this year. Having this defense line up against a star like Marcus Carr seems like a really bad matchup at this point. BC is going to have to show a lot to slow him down. Minnesota 84 Boston College 77