Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Posts like these are potentially embarrassing but it’s just one of those things that’s expected of you when you run a blog and your team is entering tournament time. Granted, this is likely to be the only tournament in which Boston College basketball is involved, which means this may be the only opportunity we get to make some bracket picks like this when we actually have a rooting interest.

The 2013 ACC Tournament tips off tomorrow and your Boston College Eagles will be directly involved. If they want their season to end sometime after 2pm on Thursday afternoon, then they will have to beat the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Will they? Don’t take my word for it, but I will predict the game’s winner, as well of that of every other game.

This is Soaring to Glory’s 2013 ACC Tournament bracket. Enjoy.

1st Round
(8) Boston College
(9) Georgia Tech

(5) North Carolina State
(12) Virginia Tech

(6) Florida State
(11) Clemson

(7) Maryland
(10) Wake Forest

Quarterfinals
(1) Miami
(8) Boston College

(4) Virginia
(5) North Carolina State

(3) North Carolina
(6) Florida State

(2) Duke
(7) Maryland

Semifinals
(1) Miami
(5) North Carolina State

(2) Duke
(3) North Carolina

Finals
(1) Miami
(2) Duke

Feel free to agree or disagree with the assessment above.

Feb 24, 2013; Durham, NC, USA; Duke Blue Devils forward Mason Plumlee (5) shoots over Boston College Eagles forward Ryan Anderson (12) and forward Andrew Van Nest (15) during the second half at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports

The Eagles were in the lead with 17:26 to go in the first half after a Patrick Heckmann layup but proceeded to let Duke go on a 12-0 for the next 5:22 until Joe Rahon notched a free throw.

Duke’s Mason Plumlee absolutely owned the undersized Eagles on the boards and in the paints picking up fifteen boards and attempting fifteen free throws, making eleven. BC was able to handle Alex Len in the Maryland game, but Duke’s dominating forward clogged the lane and every layup attempted by Boston College was a battle.

Along with Mason Plumlee, the biggest issue in the game was certainly the sloppy play that characterized the Eagles. This included turning over the ball sixteen times. SIXTEEN?!?!?! And then there were 25 fouls committed. Okay, maybe that was more on the referees, who seemed to call any contact on a Duke player a foul.

The stats might not look so bad at first as the Eagles had a 49% FG, but honestly this game was a real terror to watch the whole way through. It seemed at times that Boston College just wasn’t into it, when they got down.

Nothing went right for the Eagles in this game and we seriously have to analyze where this squad is going. You come off an impressive win against Maryland, who had recently beaten Duke, but you can’t even come close to making it a game with the Blue Devils. I get the fact that Boston College are the visitors, but they only lost to Duke by a point on February 10th. When will the consistency in ACC play arrive for the Eagles. This will have to be discussed further down the road for the Eagles.

With several high-ranked college basketball teams going down this week, the Boston College Eagles wanted to make the #4 Duke Blue Devils the latest victim of this crazy season. Though they made it very, very interesting, it was not to be.

On Sunday evening at Conte Forum, the Blue Devils defeated the Eagles, 62-61. With the loss, Boston College falls to 10-13 (2-8) on the season and have now lost six consecutive games to Duke following their most recent win in 2009.

The first half saw the Eagles lead most of the way. BC got the first points of the contest two minutes in on a Joe Rahon basket, and then held the lead from that moment until very late in the half when a Duke three-point play gave them a narrow lead. Olivier Hanlan then made a crucial three with a defender on him to give BC the lead once more, but a Duke slam dunk near the expiration of the clock knotted the game, 27-27.

In the second, Duke pulled ahead within the first few minutes and they ended up controlling much of the half. It appeared as though the turning point of the game, just as it seemed to be in Boston College’s last contest against Miami, was a four-point play for the Blue Devils. BC was able to keep it relatively close thereafter, but they fought back to eventually retake the lead. As a matter of fact, the Eagles had a slim lead with just over a minute to go in the contest. Two late BC fouls gave the Blue Devils the free throws to put them ahead, and BC’s last shot attempt didn’t make the rim.

Duke was held scoreless for approximately the first five minutes. Once they got rolling, and it took them some time, the Blue Devils figured out a way to put 27 on the board before halftime. They did it in spite of an unusually-high nine turnovers. Duke was cold from beyond the arc in the first half, going just 1-for-7, but they ended up 6-for-17. The second half was a dogfight nearly all the way through.

For Boston College, it was one of their patented close-but-not-close-enough efforts at home. They definitely had a chance, but at the end of the day, Duke did what they had to do and the Eagles could not make the crucial shot that would have put them over the top. Absolutely, give BC credit for the effort, but it’s another case of what could have been. The Eagles played respectable defense and made their free throws, and Eddie Odio had some spectacular dunks, which were several good things that came out of the game for the home team.

The Eagles return to action on Wednesday as Wake Forest visits Conte Forum.

Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

There are few teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference that Boston College Eagles basketball has more trouble with than the Duke Blue Devils. Since joining the conference in 2005, BC has beaten Duke precisely once (in February 2009), though there were arguably two games in that inaugural season that the Eagles probably should have won. Nevertheless, if BC intends to double their win total against the Blue Devils, they’ll have to drop the #4 team in the nation up in Massachusetts. They couldn’t do it last year, and this season’s first meeting looks equally difficult for the Eagles.

The last time BC met Duke on the hardwood, a little under one year ago, the Blue Devils coasted to a 25-point win over the Eagles. That Boston College team was legitimately young and learning; this one is almost through two full seasons since the start of a rebuild and doesn’t necessarily deserve that designation but is still coming along slowly. Entering this contest, Duke is a healthy double-digit favorite.

I know what you’re thinking: highly-ranked teams have a habit of losing lately. Even TCU, previously winless in the Big 12, knocked off a Top 5 team in Kansas. Why can’t BC pull this upset, you ask? Nobody is saying that they can’t, because no non-fixed sporting event is impossible to win, but it remains highly unlikely that the Eagles will finally put it all together against a team that is quite possibly going to be #1 on Monday.

Boston College has given some tough teams problems at Conte Forum this year, so it is not outside the realm of possibility that Duke will have to work hard if they intend to win. The issue for BC is that Duke is a bad matchup for them. The Eagles’ offense has had some clunkers in ACC play, while Duke is a very good offensive team, both in terms of scoring and shooting. With a suspect defense and some lack of aggressiveness on the boards, BC’s struggle will be in keeping up. Boston College has also had a great deal of inconsistency with which to contend; on any given night, there’s no telling who will show up to play.

To win, the Eagles would need to play by far their best game of the season to date. As of right now, their two ACC wins were against two of the worst teams in the conference, and though they had better teams like NC State and Miami on the ropes, the overplayed “moral victory” tune was heard after both. “We almost beat Miami” does not equal “we will beat Duke.” No two games are the same, anyway, and BC will have to fight hard just to stay in the mix late.

BC can make its season with a win, even if they already know they’re going nowhere. A loss would send them to a dismal 2-8 mark in the ACC; that would not surprise anyone, but it wouldn’t lift spirits, either.

Tipoff is at 6pm on ESPNU.