Jim Christian To Remain Boston College Head Coach in 2020-21
Boston College head coach Jim Christian will remain with the program into the 2020-21 season per a BC Bulletin source.
Christian, will enter his seventh season with the Eagles where has only amassed a record of 75-119 (38.7%). In his previous six seasons with Boston College he has only made post season play once, when the Eagles reached the NIT in 2017 and lost to Western Kentucky in the first round. He had two seasons (2015/16, 2016/17), where his Eagles went a combined 2-34 in conference, and has topped out at seven games which he did twice (this past season and 2017-18).
This previous season, Christian was marred with inconsistent results throughout the year. He started the year off with some nice wins, but then struggled mightily as the Eagles lost out of conference games to Belmont, Northwestern, DePaul, St. Louis and Richmond. He was able to lift them out of that slump with some key ACC wins, but the season slipped out of control when they finished the year losing seven out of their last eight games that culminated with a 80-58 drubbing in the ACC tournament at the hands of Notre Dame.
There will be a lot of speculation and mixed feelings regarding Christian's retainment. Many will point to the results on the court and lack of progress. But it is also important to note that no Power Five program has made a coaching change since the outbreak of COVID-19. Pete Thamel of Yahoo! reported earlier today that the virus which has caused an economic collapse in the United States will inevitably impact college sports as well. Schools are focusing on supporting their athletes academically, emotionally and otherwise at this time with what resources they still have.
On top of that, consider if BC were to fire Christian. With social distancing being enforced, getting a coach to come on campus to interview would be near impossible. Hiring a coach is a two way street, and Boston College would need to sell the coach on the school. This would be very tricky if it was only through Google Meet or Zoom. While BC could technically wait until the outbreak dies down, what attractive coach is going to wait until June-August to leave their program and jump to BC?
Next season Christian will get possibly his best crack at finally making the first NCAA tournament of his Boston College career. He will return Wynston Tabbs to go along with Jay Heath, Steffon Mitchell and CJ Felder. In addition he will be adding transfer Makai Ashton Langford, Demarr Langford and Justin Vander Baan. Christian and his staff have been active in the transfer pool as well, contacting rebounders and bigs to round out his roster which recently lost Chris Herren Jr and Jairus Hamilton.
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