Boston College at NC State: Not So Easy
By Joe Micik
The young Eagles take their show on the road once again tonight, this time heading to Raleigh to face new coach Mark Gottfried’s NC State Wolfpack. Boston College are currently 16-point underdogs to their opponents.
Now, you may be thinking this: sure, the Eagles are 7-10, but they’ve won their last two ACC games. Why are they such huge underdogs?
The answer is simple, even though I personally believe the line is a little high: NC State is good. One can argue that Clemson and Virginia Tech are not that great, but the Wolfpack have put together a 13-5 record, and are also 2-1 in the conference. The closest thing NC State has to a bad loss in 8-9 Georgia Tech, to whom they fell last week.
In their most recent game, NC State won a laugher against Wake Forest, 76-40 at Wake. Boston College, of course, got past Virginia Tech, 61-59.
Though the Eagles have done some good things as of late, the Wolfpack are better at the moment. They’ve certainly been a lot more consistent, and they are statistically better than the Eagles in just about every category that counts (not the least of which is wins).
If Dennis Clifford and the rest play up to their abilities (especially Clifford, who is the ACC Rookie of the Week), then the Eagles have a chance to make this game closer than people suspect, but it should be said that this will be a tough game to win. This will not be as hard as the North Carolina game, and we know that BC showed flashes of brilliance there, but who knows if the Eagles are ready to win in this conference on the road yet.
If, by chance, they are able to pull off the upset (which would be quite impressive as they’re 16-point road underdogs), it would put the ACC on notice. No, BC is not winning the conference this year or making a crazy run to the dance, and the last thing you want to do with an inexperienced team is pencil in wins, but it would let the league know that the Eagles are not going to be the easy out that many people suspected they’d be when the season began. Even if the Eagles play well and lose, that message will be sent.
Gametime is at 8pm, and fire up the computer, because it’s on ESPN3.