Jim Christian out @ Boston College

[dennismenace]

BC was never going to be a "player" in the ACC, long term.

They are getting payed some bucks and playing their every couple of years "friendly" with Notre Dame.

It was an ACC mistake going to New York and Massachusetts.

UNC, Duke, and NC State voted "no" to BC first time around...

Boston College and Syracuse were the Big East schools in the ACC's original expansion plans -- along with Miami -- but were voted down in favor of adding the Hurricanes and Hokies. Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State voted against adding Boston College at the time.

But other pro-expansion schools in the ACC kept pushing for another member.

TV Market. Taking a page from the old Big East. Gave exposure to the Conference to the NE/NY/NJ recruiting area.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Is the absence of fan support for basketball because of the shadow of the Celtics in such a small city?

More or less. This, plus the general feeling of BC athletics around the city is....meh. The football team is perennially average so public interest is equally average. The basketball team has been bad for so long that folks just never bothered to care. That lackadaisical attitude has persisted for decades and is just engrained.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

He only got the job in the first place because Fred Jesuit turned it down

 

[Palatine]

TV Market. Taking a page from the old Big East. Gave exposure to the Conference to the NE/NY/NJ recruiting area.

I've read on the Boneyard there are no recruits in Boston.

 

[Dean Wormer]

What's the old saying about BC? They're not good enough for Harvard, but think they're better than BU. Or something like that.

 

[Hoops01]

SKINNER was solid and underrated, look at the job he did!!

Skinner was a magician, very solid I agree but the word I got was he wasn't really a recruiter so his success had a shelf life.

 

[HooperScooper]

In the winter, they're competing with the Celtics, the Bruins, BC hockey and every other local/regional college with a following in bball/hockey. I think it's that and the lack of a sustained elite winner.

Also add to that is it's a private school. There's really no large following of BC sports in Boston. Just alums of BC. I don't know know anyone who didn't go there who is a big fan of their teams.

As I write this I'm thinking of Villanova. Similar profile in a large city with a fervent pro sports following. Does Villanova have a big general sports fan following in the Philly area? If so is that just recently because of their success the last few years?

 

[Watchdog]

Eisley would be the safest choice for an AD. Graduate, 12 years in the league, 9 years as an assistant coach in the league and now in second year at Michigan. Plus there's a song that would fit in case he isn't able to win there:

Isley Brothers - Here We Go Again

From their 1980 album entitled "Go All the Way"

www.youtube.com

 

[ucp990411]

yeah no reason to leave UCONN for BC. Great recruiting class coming in next season - when Hurley leaves it will be for an mid to upper tier P-5 program. And BC is certainly not that team

A mid to upper tier P 5 program? There are very few if any programs DH would leave for. Sounds like you are dissing us,

 

[Watchdog]

Not when I watched them, they had a few good guards a couple years ago and were in many games with that class but couldn't win. By no means do I suggest they were in them all to the last minutes/seconds of games but they were competitive for a while. Maybe I only saw the ones they played well in or over their heads.

Pitino would be real interesting for them but would a catholic school hire a pimp?

Remember, "the end justifies the means"................they are Jesuits, aren't they?

 

[JakeTheDog]

A mid to upper tier P 5 program? There are very few if any programs DH would leave for. Sounds like you are dissing us,

It’s made more ridiculous by the fact that DH already chose UConn(AAC UConn mind you) over a P5 when he didn’t take the Pitt job.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

"Betrayal College"

 

[Husky25]

Seems like BC has the same problem had in the AAC. They have no regional rivals and every away contest requires a plane.

The 10 years of realignment killed College sports. ESPN took the golden goose behind the woodshed.

 

[Sonova]

TV Market. Taking a page from the old Big East. Gave exposure to the Conference to the NE/NY/NJ recruiting area.

And the funny thing is that Comcast (which is the main cable provider in Greater Boston) doesn’t even carry the ACC Network.

 

[uconndogs]

The 10 years of realignment killed College sports. ESPN took the golden goose behind the woodshed.

Totally agree with this. Except for a handful of athletic programs with true national brands, college athletics thrived with regional alignment and conferences. That has been ignored and I really think there is going to be a price for it.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Also add to that is it's a private school. There's really no large following of BC sports in Boston. Just alums of BC. I don't know know anyone who didn't go there who is a big fan of their teams.

As I write this I'm thinking of Villanova. Similar profile in a large city with a fervent pro sports following. Does Villanova have a big general sports fan following in the Philly area? If so is that just recently because of their success the last few years?

I think Villanova has a perennial 'pop' from that 1985 National Championship, an underdog win, right as college hoop was in growing popularity heyday and a great story. Plus Philly is parochial or insular like Boston is, but in contrast a lot more college affiliations and frankly vastly better basketball programs. So there is more college loyalty, patronage rooting interests, it is closer to the South in retaining college pride. The big 5 isn't as big a thing, but it is a legacy. Nova, Temple, LaSalle & even Drexel all have made the NCAAs in recent years, maybe even Penn. I can't remember the last Boston area school to even win one NCAA game unless we count Providence or freakin' Vermont.

That's part of the problem with college hoop in Boston, there are no rivalries so no one cares or keeps their alumni pride. Since 2000 has there even been 2 games between Boston area ranked teams? Way too many of the schools in Boston & surrounds aren't D1. There's the hockey niche (vastly over-rated and overplayed generally and in this thread) with 4-5 schools and that's pretty much it for college sports rivalries in Boston.

 

[olehead]

The entire purpose of their existence in basketball is to act as a schedule filler for the league. There is zero pressure from the league for BCU to accomplish anything in basketball.

They provide the ACC with a sound NE presence though?

 

[Waquoit]

"Betrayal College"

I went with Backstabbing Blankblankers

 

[nadav]

We have a big game tonight, they haven’t had one in 10 years. Also for all the talk about College Hockey taking away interest from BC Hoops, Uconn averaged the same amount of fans at hockey games the last year fans were allowed. They have no fans.

 

[freescooter]

BC used to have a fan base but when it went from a local institution to a nstional one that declined. Into the 80s the BC student body was mostly based in the northeast, and heavily in the Boston area. Every Catholic parish had BC alums and local kids who went there. They also had a related “subway alumni” that were more regional than Notre Dame but similar in make up. Football and hockey were the big sports but basketball did ok too and they had a series of excellent coaches who brought them success. Bob Cousy, Chuck Daley, Dr Tom Davis, Jimmy O’Brien, even Skinner were all good basketball coaches...some were more than good. But now the alumni aren’t mostly Boston guys and there are more students from Florida than Somerville. They are viewed by the folks who back in the day viewed BC as “ our college” (see the Last Harrah”) as something not accessible.

 

[HooperScooper]

I'm sure stuff like this doesn't help recruiting to a mostly white Jesuit school.

A few days into this semester, first-year students who live on Boston College’s multicultural floor, all women and primarily Black students, with someLatinas, awoke in the early morning hours to loud banging on their doors, hallway trash cans overturned, and litter everywhere.

Three days later, in early February, the women said, two white male students strolled down their hallway singing about the “colored girls.”

The incidents point to an exhausting pattern, according to Black students, who say they feel targeted, harassed, and unprotected by school administrators at the Jesuit college. The defacing of a Black Lives Matter poster in 2017, the racist graffiti scrawled on furniture, walls, and a bathroom in 2018, and threatening comments made to Black students during the recent presidential election have piled up, students said.

Black students account for just 4 percent of the undergraduate population at the private college, and these incidents, they said, have left them feeling even more isolated and unwelcomed.

The trashing of a BC multicultural floor deepens long-standing concerns about racism on campus - The Boston Globe

Black students at Boston College say recent incidents targeting students of color point to an exhausting pattern at the Jesuit institution.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[Hey Adrien!]

And the BC exodus begins:

Boston College shooting guard Wynston Tabbs enters NCAA transfer portal

...

247sports.com

6'2 junior is averaging 13.3 ppg on 40.8 fg& and 39.7 3p%.

After Tabbs' departure, BC with only 7 scholarship players entering 21-22.

 

[uconndogs]

I bet UCONN has a good intramural team that could hang with them.....

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Meanwhile, Northeastern plays an ACC game (at Chapel Hill).

 

[Edward Sargent]

Also add to that is it's a private school. There's really no large following of BC sports in Boston. Just alums of BC. I don't know know anyone who didn't go there who is a big fan of their teams.

As I write this I'm thinking of Villanova. Similar profile in a large city with a fervent pro sports following. Does Villanova have a big general sports fan following in the Philly area? If so is that just recently because of their success the last few years?

My daughter went there and they certainly have a fan base. Hockey is their sport though and you wouldn't want to mix it up with my 9 year old twin Grandson's on who owns the Beanpot!!! They like football but more for the tailgates. BC alums still reflect on BC/AD or Boston College after Doug. Huge amount of alum money resulted in big expansion of the campus, kind of like UCONN and Y2K (which actually meant UConn/1999).