Over and over again, Boston College men’s basketball fans have watched their team lose in the same exact way: by falling apart late and being unable to close games out.
Miami head coach Jai Lucas commented on BC’s unfavorable pattern last time it faced the Hurricanes, when the Eagles kept things close throughout before ultimately coming away with a 74–68 loss.
“If you look at Boston College, they’ve been there in almost every game—you know, look at their game against Virginia, they had the lead at half,” Lucas said. “They’re right there.”
On Saturday, the Eagles (10–19, 3–13 Atlantic Coast) were not ‘there’—they were not even close. Instead of falling apart late, BC got destroyed from start to finish, and Miami (23–6, 12–4) ran away with a 76–54 win.
The Eagles’ offense scored just 19 points in the first half of the game and finished the game with 20-of-50 shooting from the field (40 percent) and a 5-of-22 mark from three (23 percent).
Inefficient offensive marks aren’t new—it’s something BC has struggled with all season. Though its defense can keep it in games through hustle alone, its offense has frequently lagged behind. On Saturday, that was especially obvious as BC missed 12 of 13 shots in one first-half stretch.
With another loss in the books, the question looms: Will Earl Grant and co. miss the ACC Tournament for the second straight season?
The answer lies largely in how other teams perform. If either Pittsburgh or Notre Dame wins on Wednesday, BC will miss the tournament. Notre Dame is coming off a thrilling underdog win over NC State and will face Stanford, while Pittsburgh beat California over the weekend and faces Florida State next.
If everything goes BC’s way, the Eagles’ game against Notre Dame on Saturday will decide which team is headed to the ACC Tournament. That is assuming that Pittsburgh loses to Syracuse on Saturday—if the Panthers win, BC is out.
The pressure is on Grant. After a season with few “ups,” missing the conference tournament for the second straight year could be the nail in his coffin. But with the fifth-year head coach under contract through the 2028–29 season, skepticism around his firing remains.
The chances that BC can knock off Virginia Tech and Notre Dame are slim, based on the Eagles’ track record. While it’s not a sure thing that making the tournament would save Grant’s job, if BC somehow pulled off a deep run, it would definitely complicate things.