Boston College at NC State: Almost The End of an Error

Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports

-John Adams, 1776

When it comes to Boston College Eagles men’s basketball, the inescapable conclusion one is bound to reach is that no, nobody still cares.

After all, the season has been a complete disaster save for an exciting and utterly incomprehensible fluke victory at Syracuse. At 8-22 (4-13), the season is long over, the Eagles are locked into the second-to-last seed in the conference when people thought they should be contending for an NCAA Tournament bid, and nobody in their right mind believes Boston College has a orange creamsicle’s chance in hell of actually cutting down the nets in Greensboro a week from today.

Somewhere early in the process of this 2013-14 season, we transitioned from figuring out what Boston College had to do to save their season into full-blown autopsy mode. Whatever Boston College fans are still plugged in to this program after the worst three-year stretch in its history are more concerned with what happens after the season ends than how this one continues to play out.

That, of course, is a reference to the job status of one Steve Donahue, a perfectly fine fellow who has presided over an historic amount of losing at this school. That is fact, not opinion. None of the questions about his future can be answered definitively until this current season ends. Today, the regular season will wrap up as the Eagles face the North Carolina State Wolfpack.

The Pack have been on the tourney outside looking in much of the year, but at least they can console themselves with the fact that they have experienced a modicum of success within the last several years. Meanwhile, Boston College basketball is literally about as bad as it has ever been and even its biggest fans hope the season will mercifully end.

Game analysis seems completely irrelevant in this case; the outcome makes no difference to the Eagles whatsoever, though for NC State, they could truly use a win if they want to have any chance at assembling a late tournament push. We already know how to size up its aftermath on the maroon and gold end: if it’s a win, a close loss, or a not-so-close loss, Donahue will claim the Eagles are moving in the right direction as he campaigns to save his job. The postgame talking points are all broadcasting on a loop.

Few will tune into this one, but if you’re one of those who will watch Boston College today, know this: the light is at the end of the tunnel, and our liberation from this wretched season is at hand in less than a week.