Boston College Basketball’s 2013 ACC Tournament Draw

The ACC’s 2012-13 regular season is finally over, and for the Boston College Eagles, that may be a good thing. No, not because BC was struggling from start to finish and the season had to end, but because they get the opportunity to enter the 2013 ACC Tournament later this week in Greensboro, NC on a hot streak.

Granted, three wins in a row is not necessarily a “hot streak,” but it’s the second-hottest streak the Eagles have accumulated all season. Unlike BC’s first win streak in December, this one has been fully contained within conference play.

That has given many of the maroon and gold persuasion some hope that their team might actually be able to do some damage this time. Last season, BC was a one-and-done case, dropping the 5/12 game to an NC State team that went on quite a March run. This time in 2013, the Eagles are in the 8/9 game and are the higher seed. Their opponent will be the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, the team they just beat on Saturday afternoon at Conte Forum. That was a tough contest from which the Eagles needed to recover from a halftime deficit to win, but this one will be away from their friendly home court. Winning away from Boston College has been a challenge, but they won their most recent road game, so perhaps there is hope for them after all.

If the Eagles are fortunate to escape Thursday’s noon game, they will take to the hardwood again on Friday at noon. That time, the ACC regular-season champion Miami Hurricanes would be their opposition. Such a game could likely go one of two ways: be a close fight to the finish like their first meeting, or an embarrassing blowout which might be worse than the second. There have been several times in the second round of the ACC Tournament that BC has been blasted, and this could be one, but we do collectively know that the Eagles are capable of playing Miami close.

Making it to Saturday would be a tremendous achievement for BC, and their opponent would be one of Virginia Tech, NC State, or Virginia. The Eagles beat two of those teams during the regular season and had a clean shot at the third (NC State). Finally, in the exciting but unlikely event that the Eagles are playing on Sunday, there are six potential opponents, including the two traditional powers at Duke and North Carolina.

A hopeful scenario for Boston College basketball is that they will take care of Georgia Tech once again on Thursday and find a way to be competitive on Friday against Miami. None of that is out of the question because the Eagles are heating up, they’ve already beaten Georgia Tech, and they played one very good game against the Hurricanes. The end goal is always to do your best to win the tournament, as it is BC’s only path to the big dance, but if they were to come away with a win and some extra momentum for next season, nobody on Chestnut Hill will be complaining.