January 2013
8 posts
We've Moved
Please visit our new blog, BCHeightsSports.com
“Right now it’s all about keeping your focus on this first phase....”
– Head football coach Steve Addazio told his players to only focus on phase one right now, which is winter conditioning that started today.
“It won’t be measured in one day. It will be measured over time. Will today...”
– Head football coach Steve Addazio on preparing for what he calls the toughest offseason his players will have ever had.
Breakdown: Mark Gottfried Bests Donahue On Two Key...
By Austin Tedesco, Asst. Sports Editor Two back-to-back possessions decided the outcome of Boston College men’s basketball’s 78-73 loss to No. 23 North Carolina State yesterday. Both head coaches, BC’s Steve Donahue and NC State’s Mark Gottfried, had the opportunity to draw up plays coming out of timeouts. With under two minutes left and BC down by one, the Eagles tried to...
From The Locker Room: Freshman Walk-On Drew Jacobs...
Editor’s Note: Drew Jacobs is a freshman walk-on from New Jersey playing guard for the Boston College men’s basketball team. He will be blogging periodically for The Heights during conference play. In his first entry, Jacobs looks back at a turning point in the season as the Eagles get ready for No. 23 NC State on Saturday.
Over the last few weeks, I think that our team has really...
Team USA Advances To Gold Medal Game Behind Two...
(Alex Trautwig / Heights Senior Staff) By Marly Morgus, Heights Staff
Team USA faced one of the most daunting tasks in the sport of hockey in the early hours of Thursday morning. Going up against an unbeaten Canadian squad to whom they had suffered a 2-1 loss only four days, the U.S. team was fighting for a spot in the gold medal game of the World Junior Championship.
With arguably the...
How To Beat BC: A Scouting Report Heading Into ACC...
(Graham Beck/ Photo Editor)
By Austin Tedesco, Asst. Sports Editor
The Boston College men’s basketball team is heading into conference play with an 8-5 record and a five-game winning streak. A lot more preparation goes into ACC matchups than non-conference games, and these are the main areas that the Eagles’ opponents should focus on in their scouting reports.
Defense
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December 2012
18 posts
Gaudreau Competes With U.S. Squad At World Junior...
By Marly Morgus, Heights Staff
With negotiations stretching on and on, the players and owners of the NHL are on the verge of reaching their own fiscal cliff. Over the past few months, hockey fans have struggled to get their dose of action as the NHL lockout has cancelled more than half of its regular season. If an agreement isn’t reached in the next three weeks, fans, players, coaches and owners...
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Gritty BC Effort Downs Providence
By Greg Joyce, Heights Senior Staff
On a day when Boston College was hurting in size, the battle in the paint is what earned the Eagles the win. Ryan Anderson turned in a gutsy performance with 17 second-half points to give BC a 71-68 win over Providence at Conte Forum.
Freshmen Olivier Hanlan and Joe Rahon both played the entire game and contributed in major ways, as Hanlan recorded his first...
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Brown and Day Announced As Defensive and Offensive...
By Greg Joyce, Sports Editor
Don Brown has been named the new defensive coordinator at Boston College, head coach Steve Addazio announced today.
“We’re very excited to have Don Brown joining our Boston College family,” Addazio said in a statement. “Don is a New England guy who has tremendous ties and relationships in the Northeast to go along with a great coaching resume. He has tremendous...
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BC vs. UNH: Breaking Down The Final Play of...
By Austin Tedesco, Asst. Sports Editor
With 17.5 seconds left in regulation today, the Boston College men’s basketball team had possession with the score tied at 52-52 against UNH. Head coach Steve Donahue called a timeout and drew up a potentially game-winning play for his team. The shot wouldn’t fall, but the Eagles went on to win in overtime. Here’s a breakdown of the last...
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Eagles Allow Second Half To Snowball Out Of...
(Graham Beck/Photo Editor)
By Austin Tedesco, Asst. Sports Editor
When head coach Steve Donahue sees his team shoot almost 60 percent from the field, he expects them to win. Despite the apparent offensive efficiency on Tuesday night, the Boston College men’s basketball fell to Harvard 79-63 in the program’s fifth straight loss to the Crimson.
“It’s hard to imagine you shoot 58 percent and lose by...
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UPDATE: Steve Addazio Hired As New Head Football...
By Greg Joyce, Sports Editor
Steve Addazio will be the next head coach of the Boston College football team, athletic director Brad Bates announced today. Addazio will leave his job as head coach at Temple University to take over for Frank Spaziani, who was fired just nine days ago.
“I’ve only been here six weeks,” Bates said. “I’m looking for a partner who I can be joined at the hip with...
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“We’ve talked in general terms. He clearly has some ideas of what he wants...”
– Brad Bates, asked about what will happen to the current Boston College football staff with the hiring of Steve Addazio as head coach.
Source: Head Coach Will Be Hired in 24-48 Hours
By Greg Joyce, Sports Editor
Boston College will hire a new head football coach in the next 24-48 hours, sources told The Heights Tuesday morning. Athletic director Brad Bates later tweeted that he met with the seniors on the team this morning to “keep them informed about [the] search.”
“Important for team to hear news first when we’re ready for announcement,” Bates wrote in the tweet...
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November 2012
36 posts
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Freshmen Lead Eagles Past Penn State Pressure
(Photo by Graham Beck/Heights Editor)
By Steven Principi, Heights Staff
In its first true road win since the spring of 2011, the Boston College men’s basketball team managed to get back on track after an ugly loss to Bryant with a 73-61 win over Penn State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Wednesday night in State College.
The Eagles were led by freshmen guards Olivier Hanlan and Joe Rahon on...
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Full Coverage of Frank Spaziani's Firing
(Photo by Daniel Lee/Heights Editor)
Here is a compilation of all the Heights Sports coverage on Frank Spaziani’s firing and its effect on the Boston College football team. Be sure to check the blog here, bcheights.com/sports, and follow @Heightssports for more on the story this week.
Bates Dimisses Spaziani from BC: Program’s Struggles Lead to Firing of Four-Year Head Coach, By...
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Eagles End Season With Sense Of Uncertainty
By Greg Joyce, Sports Editor
RALEIGH — It was never about the game. It was never about what happened on the field at Carter Finley Stadium on Saturday afternoon. It was never about whether Boston College could end its season with a win against North Carolina State.
Instead, it was about the uncertain future of a fallen program.
To many, that meant it was about one man who paced back and forth on...
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BC Squeaks By Auburn
By Chris Marino, Assoc. Sports Editor
On Wednesday, the Boston College men’s basketball team pulled off a close 50-49 victory against the Auburn Tigers at Conte Forum. The Eagles were led by their freshman backcourt of Olivier Hanlan and Joe Rahon, while scoring leader Ryan Anderson struggled to overcome a lingering foot injury. Hanlan ended with a game-high 19 points, while Rahon was equally as...
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Spaziani Trying To Get The Right Mentality Back To...
By Greg Joyce, Sports Editor
Yesterday, fifth-year captain Emmett Cleary said that much of the Boston College football team’s struggles over the past two seasons could be attributed to a lack of seniors and fifth-years. Multiple players from Cleary’s class have left, either for personal or academic reasons.
Today, head coach Frank Spaziani tried to put into words the effect that the attrition has...
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A Walk-On, Jacobs Giving His Best Effort
(Photo by Graham Beck/Heights Editor)
By Chris Stadtler, For The Heights
Drew Jacobs of Mendham High School walked off the court in Plainfield, N.J. after a crushing 74-36 loss in the New Jersey SIAA tournament championship. After a State Championship his sophomore year, two Morris County Championships, and over 1,000 points scored, the point guard had been relegated to a non-athletic regular...
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“My freshman and [sophomore] year, and even this year a little bit, I’m...”
– Chase Rettig, on the impact he thinks a lack of fifth-years and seniors has had on BC’s struggles over the past two years.
“Honestly, I think it was – we were winning when we showed up. The year we were...”
– More Emmett Cleary on the attrition from his class affecting the success of the program.
“We’ve talked about this hundreds of times among the older guys. I think a lot of...”
– Fifth-year senior and football captain Emmett Cleary on the biggest reason the team hasn’t been successful the past two seasons.
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““Let me say this about that [call]. And I do understand that it’s a point...”
– Head coach Frank Spaziani on if he had any second-guessing of his decision to take a knee at the end of regulation and take the game into overtime, which BC lost 30-23.
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Column: Breaking down BC basketball's defensive...
(Photo by Graham Beck/Heights Editor)
By Austin Tedesco, Asst. Sports Editor
FIU’s style of play and Baylor’s high-skill level could’ve misconstrued where this Boston College basketball team is defensively, but, after falling 87-71 to Dayton on Friday afternoon, it’s pretty clear now. This squad just can’t guard consistently. It’s not that the players are bad defenders, because they aren’t, and...
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Quick Hits: BC vs. Baylor
By Stephen Sikora, Heights Staff
The Boston College basketball team faced No. 16 Baylor in the Charleston Classic on Thursday afternoon. After leading at the half 43-41, the Eagles were in the game until Baylor pulled away in the final few minutes.
Even in the loss, this was a strong performance by a young team who looks ready to put the nine-win season of last year behind them. Here’s some...
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Baylor vs. BC Likes and Dislikes
(Photo by Graham beck/Heights Editor)
By Austin Tedesco, Asst. Sports Editor
Boston College pushed No. 16 Baylor for about 75 percent of its matchup this afternoon in the first round of the Charleston Classic, before falling 84-74 to the Bears. Here are three likes and three dislikes from the game.
Likes
1. Ryan Anderson
Offensively, the power forward couldn’t have been better in the first...
BC Men's Basketball vs. Baylor Game Preview
(Photo by Graham Beck/Heights Editor)
By Austin Tedesco, Asst. Sports Editor
The gimmicks are over, and the real test is about to begin for the Boston College men’s basketball team. A strong surge in the final 10 minutes pushed the Eagles past Florida International University in the season opener on Sunday, but the game was only a small test for the upcoming season. The Golden Panthers ran a...
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Extras From Interview With Brad Bates: Part Two
The Heights: What are your thoughts on the outside criticism of Frank Spaziani, and how much weight do those opinions carry?
Brad Bates: "The highest priority is student development, so we’ve got to focus on how we’re doing that within any program, but the next priority is how we serve our fan base and our customers and our stakeholders and our alums. Our alums are the essence of any of our programs. They’re the ones [whose] standards to which we strive every day. When there’s high expectations, that’s awesome, because our alums set those high expectations when they were students here."
The Heights: What is your assessment of the resources you have available to you?
Bates: "I’m still kind of immersing myself in that and looking at matrices. Not every variable has the same weight and application. I’m still piecing together different variables that fit in to matrixes and assigning weight to them just to assess where we can gauge our human and financial resources with our program relative to our competitors and our peers."
The Heights: Can you expand on the matrices?
Bates: "Every school where I’ve been we’ve developed a matrix that we’ve used – and coaches have helped us develop it. So part of this is going forward, that’s something that’s got to be jointly developed. I’ve never met a coach that didn’t want to win every game. I’ve never met a coach that didn’t want to win and didn’t want to excel and didn’t want their program to win championships. I didn’t hire one coach that’s here, and so the conditions by which they were hired and the conditions by which they were evaluated and assessed was really under a different set of conditions, potentially, to what we will form and evolve as we work together."
The Heights: Do you have any ideas on improving facilities, short-term or long-term?
Bates: "One of the great things about this job is that Gene and the university and the administration has a facility plan – it’s a long term and short term facility plan. Part of it is maintenance and part of it is significant renovation. What I am in the midst of doing is trying to understand that plan and trying to understand my role in it, because it’s not always all going to be institutional resources a lot of it will be private. So I’m plugging in strategically how we will raise that money and elevate our facilities, or for a better term, athletic classrooms."
The Heights: What do you think are some things you can do regarding the idea for a new baseball and softball stadium on Brighton campus, and what can you do to push that in the right direction?
Bates: "We’ve got to remember that we’re in a neighborhood and we have neighbors and we have to coincide in ways that are mutually beneficially. And so there’s a sequence of events that has to take place. The university if very much aware of that sequence and they’re striving to expedite that sequence. They realize the value to our baseball, softball, and intramural sports in having that new facility and, you know, I will probably be part of that conversation and trying to develop future strategies to expedite it but I know the university is very, very much focused on making that process happen quickly. But again, we’ve got to work with our neighbors.
The Heights: What are your thoughts on how you can connect the students that are not student-athletes to the athletic department?
Bates: "A variety of things go into the student experience and students coming to events, and it’s not just athletics. We can’t sit over here in the athletic department and just expect students to show up to our events. It’s got to be a reciprocal relationship, right? So when there are student theater productions, are our student-athletes attending those events and supporting their classmates? When there are concerts on campus, are our student-athletes supporting the activities of other student groups? So that’s got to be a reciprocal relationship. In terms of studying the student attendance patterns over time, I haven’t looked at that yet. You know, I’ve been here two weeks. I’ve been to eight to 10 athletic events in a variety of sports. Have I looked at if our student attendance patterns are consistent with where they were when we were competing for the ACC Championship game? I haven’t gotten a chance to look at that. As I study that and look at it, we’ve got to look at how we entertain our students. We’ve got to look at what our win-loss record is, because part of this is winning and losing. We’ve got to look at how we’re promoting the events and communicating it to our students and how we’re connecting our student-athletes to the student population. Here’s an interesting statistic—one out of every 12 undergraduate students at Boston College is a student-athlete. That’s a very significant percentage of our population, and so our student-athlete body can have a really positive impact on the rest of campus on the issues that are important to other student organizations and groups in the same way that the other student organizations and groups can have a significant impact on our games. I see this as a culture and a family and the more that we develop relationships with one another and be fully integrated, the more we’re likely to support one another, even beyond just the winning and losing."
The Heights: How do you feel about the total number of teams competing at BC right now?
Bates: "This is a very preliminary response, but I very much believe in the ideology of a holistic, educational experience for students, and when you have a lot of sports that provides that many more opportunities. The other advantage of this particular position is that it also oversees the Rec Plex and the intramural and club sports. So when you take that number that one out of every 12 undergraduate students is an athlete, and then you add the number of students who are involved in intramural and club sports in the Rec Plex, you’ve got an incredible responsibility to a very large percentage of students on this campus, and that’s one I take very seriously and I feel an enormous responsibility and obligation to make sure that we add to the quality of the experience."
The Heights: What are your thoughts with competing but working with the professional sports teams in Boston?
Bates: "They’re an incredible resource and the ownership and leadership at all of the professional organizations have really close ties to Boston College. So partnering with them in mutually beneficial ways that serve the entire community, I think, is one of the great opportunities of this position. The fact that we have these celebrity athletes in this community is a huge asset, but even beyond that in terms of competitiveness, surely, we have to better in customer service. We have to be as good as anyone, because that’s who we compete, but with the demographic of Boston—there are plenty of people in the community who we can regularly attract to our events and we’ve got to creative in how we do that and do it consistently. And when they come here we’ve got to deliver on the promise. They’ve got to have a great experience so they come back."
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Extras From Interview With Brad Bates: Part One
The Heights: Did you have any expectations coming in or a to-do list of top things you needed to address?
Brad Bates: "I really have a hundred-day plan, and there were definitely key stakeholders that I wanted to meet and talk to and get in front of. Some, because of proximity don’t live near enough so I had conversation with them. There were certain areas that I really needed to study. I needed to get a handle on the budget and I need to focus on where we are academically with our students. There’s been staff that have really brought me up to speed on that and tutored me in that regard."
The Heights: Was any of the groundwork with scheduling football games with Ohio State laid before you got here?
Bates: "Yeah, I can't take credit for that. That was signed before I came here. It was just something that Ohio State and Boston College decided to go public with, coincidentally after I was named [AD]."
The Heights: That's a big recruiting state...
Bates: "We’re excited. We are going to be very strategic in how we schedule football games that generate a lot of enthusiasm for our fans and help our coaches recruit to the program because players want to play against the best teams. Also, it’s going to position us nationally so we get a lot of attention and it’s going to help our competitive success, so we’re going to be very deliberate in the way that we schedule games."
The Heights: Any update on who you'll schedule for the 12th football game next year?
Bates: "No, I was hoping we’d have it sometime in the next week and a half or so, and I’m cautiously optimistic that we can still do that. We were really thrown a curveball with the vote, and there are not a lot of teams out there that are looking for games. So we’ve been in discussions with about a half dozen schools and we’re really looking for what best serves Boston College and our program next year."
The Heights: What factors do you consider when scheduling out of conference opponents?
Bates: "There are a variety of factors. It goes into your personnel and what your team is going to be. Typically when you really want the national stage is when you’re going to have a lot of experience on your team, whereas when you’re young and you’re developing that youth, you’re probably going to schedule a little more lightly. You’re going to look at other teams and their personnel and their recruiting and deciding whether they’re veteran teams and other factors like that. We’re going to look at years when we think we can compete for national championships and ACC championships and you want to schedule the right teams so you can be in the mix in terms of the rankings. You always want to try to pair up with television opportunities, like this weekend [against Notre Dame]. The problem is that you can’t always predict how good teams are going to be. We have no idea where Ohio State is going to be in the year we’re going to play them down the road, so there’s got to be continuity to what you try and do and we feel like we’ve got a pretty good philosophy in how we approach it."
The Heights: Do you feel like you need to wait a certain amount of time between gaining knowledge and making decisions?
Bates: "The quick answer is that decisions have to be made right away. There are certain things that require immediate attention and there were decisions that I had to make on my first day on the job here. But then there are other decisions that are not time-sensitive. One of the things we want to do in the coming years is develop a strategic plan. We want to define where we are, where we want to go, and how we want to get there and that’s going to be a pretty significant process. That’s going to involve a lot of internal and external constituents. Any decision you make, you want to be as informed as possible. You want to gather as much data and information as you possibly can. That, ultimately, will lead to better decisions, but sometimes the timing doesn’t allow you to gather as much data. The quick answer to your question is that decisions are being made every day, and they’re being made on the timelines which best serve our department."
The Heights: Did you ever have any coaches face adversity or tough seasons at Miami?
Bates: "With any program, whenever you go through adversity, what people tend to forget is the coaches—the first thing they’re going to do is they’re going to look in the mirror and asses themselves before they start assessing a strategy to deal with the adversity. Coaches are very self-critical and very analytical and they’re going to look at ways that they can improve the situation. No one wants to lose, and so in dealing with programs that have struggled the two things you’ve got to look at is how can we support the program? How can we provide resources? How can we provide creative initiatives that help that program, whether it’s short term or long term, to achieve their vision of excellence? And then the second part of it is you’ve just got to make sure that you’re a soundboard, that you’re giving observations and feedback, and that you as an athletic director can provide feedback that hopefully help the program in some capacity."
The Heights: A lot of people thought expectations were being lowered by the last administration when certain teams were struggling. In terms of football, do you think we have to quell expecations?
Bates: "Why would you ever squash expectations? We want high expectations. That’s our mantra, ‘Ever to Excel.’ Are we always going to go undefeated every single season? No, but that shouldn’t diminish what our goals are and what our vision is for any of our programs. I also want to tie this in to student development. I honestly believe that there is only one way that you can justify athletics in higher education and that is to ensure that it is inherently educational, and part of that is competitive success. There are very few opportunities that people have in our society or in the academic curriculum where they can come together as a group, strive toward a shared vision of excellence, literally face daily scrutiny and adversity, learn to cooperate within this intensely competitive environment, and unless they achieve at least part of that vision of excellence then they’re never going to fully realize their maximum development. I really believe that winning and competitive success is grounded in student development. When you win a championship, you acquire a set of skills that will serve you in any future endeavors you engage the rest of your life. And so competitive success to me is part of our athletic curriculum and maximizing the development of our students."
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“Deuce did what Deuce is supposed to do. He looked like the guy that we were...”
– On Sunday after reviewing the tape, head coach Frank Spaziani talked about what he saw from Deuce Finch’s performance in Saturday night’s loss, Finch’s first action since Week Three at Northwestern.
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“First and foremost, our customer service has to be outstanding. We are in a very...”
– Brad Bates on how the athletic department is preparing for Saturday night’s football game vs. Notre Dame in the national spotlight 