Boston College 2013-14 Year in Review, Part II: Men’s Basketball

Heading into the 2013-14 Boston College Eagles men’s basketball season, we knew things could go one of two ways.

One, the Eagles collectively take the next step in their development and become at the minimum an NCAA Tournament bubble team, with future designs on actually contending within their conference and returning the program to respectability.

Two, the Eagles would fail to reach their goals, at which point sweeping changes would be needed, starting with head coach Steve Donahue.

It was that kind of a year for Boston College, where the program was at the intersection of Start Winning and Or Else. Unfortunately, the team took a wrong turn at Or Else and the rest — and the coach — are history.

2013-14 Boston College Men’s Basketball: Pre-season

The Eagles ended the 2012-13 season having won several games in a row, including a blowout win over Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament, while giving Miami a run in their finale. At 16-17, the team appeared to have improved following the disastrous 2011-12 season in which the team was mostly composed of freshmen and other various and sundry warm bodies.

It was therefore expected that with a roster soon to be full of upper-classmen, including Ryan Anderson, Dennis Clifford, and Joe Rahon, Boston College would take their two years of ACC experience and put it all together, so to speak. Not to mention, one of their sophomores, Olivier Hanlan had already proven himself to be one of the best young point guards around with a bright future.

In fact, the prognosis for the whole program was bright. An unscientific Soaring to Glory poll found the following response on our future:

If only.

Next page: the 2013-14 season