Virginia Tech at Boston College: The Last Hurrah?
By Joe Micik
Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports
Boston College basketball is tonight afforded the opportunity to play on their home court the only ACC team they have beaten this season. Call it a clash of the bottom-feeders, if you will.
With the season long over and Steve Donahue’s fate all but sealed, this program and its fans need all the good vibes they can get. A win tonight will not impact the bottom line, but it will spare the Eagles a slightly less embarrassing record and give the fans something about which to be happy.
It also could be the team’s last win of the season.
Saying a team could lose out when there are 12 games to follow — 13 if including the ACC Tournament’s first day — is a bold assertion, but it is within the realm of possibility. Even with a win tonight, if Boston College’s general trend holds, they will be the underdog in virtually every remaining game.
This is the schedule following tonight:
| Date | Game | Likely Line Status |
| Jan 29 | vs. Virginia Tech | Favorite |
| Feb 1 | at Notre Dame | Underdog |
| Feb 5 | at Virginia | Underdog |
| Feb 8 | vs. Duke | Heavy underdog |
| Feb 12 | at Georgia Tech | Underdog |
| Feb 16 | vs. Notre Dame | Slight underdog |
| Feb 19 | at Syracuse | Heavy underdog |
| Feb 22 | at Miami | Slight underdog |
| Feb 26 | vs. Pittsburgh | Underdog |
| Mar 1 | at Wake Forest | Underdog |
| Mar 4 | vs. Florida State | Pick ‘em |
| Mar 9 | at NC State | Underdog |
| Wed ACCT | vs. Doesn’t matter | Slight underdog |
It’s unlikely the Eagles will get a road win the rest of the way, given that most of the teams are demonstrably better than us and the team the Eagles are playing tonight. Go figure, even Wake Forest figured its stuff out after some rocky years with Jeff Bzdelik and are considered a bubble team. Counting an early Greensboro exit, that’s eight losses right there.
Boston College has a very slim chance of beating Duke, Notre Dame, or Pitt at Conte Forum, leaving Florida State as the only “maybe” aside from tonight. Sure, the Eagles might find a way to stay in some of those big games for a while, but as we have seen repeatedly for the last three years, this team cannot close out games.
So, this is what’s left of this era in Boston College basketball. A third of the way into ACC play, instead of planning a path off the bubble and into the NCAA Tournament, we are counting the Eagles’ likely remaining wins with one hand. The schedule would not have been easy to navigate if the Eagles were decent, but now, it looks downright depressing.
If, by chance, the Eagles win over Virginia Tech and this is Boston College’s last win of the year, enjoy it and appreciate the value of victory — any victory.