Boston College vs. Wake Forest Men's Basketball Preview And Predictions
Boston College basketball returns tonight as the Eagles take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Conte Forum. These are two teams that need to start off the season on the right foot, and two coaches Jim Christian and Danny Manning who could be playing for their jobs this season. There are a whole lot of new faces in maroon and gold tonight, and with expectations rather low, this opener could give us a better feel on how Boston College may look this season
Time: 6:00pm
Where: Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill
TV: ESPNU
Radio: WEEI 93.7
Opening Line: Boston College (-2)
Projected Starting Five: Nik Popovic, Steffon Mitchell, Derryck Thornton, Jarius Hamilton, Jay Heath
Ken Pom Rankings: Boston College (118), Wake Forest (79)
Key Matchup: Nik Popovic vs. Olivier Sarr
Boston College lost two of their perimeter shooters in the offseason with Ky Bowman heading to the NBA and Jordan Chatman graduating. This leave major question marks about the guard position. Going into the season the belief is that Pop will be the go to in terms of scoring. He's come a long way during his time with the Eagles, and his senior season could vault him into a star on this team.
Sarr will be good test for Pop to start the season. He's not much of a scorer, but at 7'0 has a bit of size over the Eagles center. Pop had a lot of success over Sarr last year, but again he's an ACC center something you usually don't get to see so early in the seaosn, so tonight should give us a better picture of what kind of year we could expect out of Popovic.
The Opponent
Wake Forest is a team like Boston College that has seamed to just tread water over the past few years, posting back to back 11 win seasons. The offense will be centered around senior point guard Brandon Childress who averaged 14.7 points per game last year with the Deacons. He's surrounded by the aforementioned Sarr, Torry Johnson a sixth year who has his moments but hasn't done much, Chaundee Brown who averaged almost 12 points a game last year and Isaiah Mucius at forward.
The Deacons lost true freshman Tariq Ingraham for the year due to a leg injury, and have four other true freshmen that may play a role, but like Boston College they aren't highly recruited so it's hard to gauge what they can and can not do.
Three Questions Heading Into This Game
1. How are the freshmen going to look? Boston College has two freshmen that are going to probably play major minutes in Jay Heath and CJ Felder, along with a pair that could be intriguing role players in Julian Rishwain and Kamari Williams. How will Christian use the foursome and in what roles? And most importantly how will they play?
2. Will It Really Be A New Look Steff? All the talk this summer was about Steffon Mitchell's working to improve his offensive game. We already know what he can do on the defensive end, if he can become more of a complete player he could be a huge factor for this game.
3. What will BC get out of Derryck Thornton? Once a Top 15 recruit, Thornton is now on his third team. He is a defensive minded guard, but is also an above average ball handler who is more of a distributor than a shooter. But BC needs shooters as well, can he be counted on to contribute offensively?
AJ's Predictions: Conte Forum will most likely be quiet again given an early weekday game and with low expectations for the Eagles. I expect this to be an ugly game on both ends for both teams, given the youth and new lineup for the Eagles. However Boston College has just enough fire power to eek this up. Special extra prediction? CJ Felder will play a major role in the win, and start to really catch the attention of BC fans.
Boston College 69 Wake Forest 61
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