THE PRE MORTEM POST MORTEM: HOOPS

Yes, there is still at least one more game left on the schedule for the BC men's basketball team, tomorrow's afternoon contest in the first round of the ACC tournament. As the 12 seed, Donahue's boys draw NC State, and if they survive that one, UVA awaits. It'd be fun to be optimistic, but let's face it, the season is over (although it would be an amazing story if four upsets took the team to the NCAAs, but you'd have to believe in some pretty hefty miracles on that one). 

How far has this rag tag group of freshmen, five-year grad students, transfers and Danny Rubin/Gabe Moton come in the last five months? Other than ending the season on a Miami blowout, the ACC schedule wasn't completely a disaster, or at least the disaster it could have been after all of those early season beat downs from UMass, BU, Harvard, Holy Cross, et al.

The rotation finally started to click, and Donahue shortened the bench as the season progressed. Ryan Anderson definitely appears to be the star of the team, and Dennis Clifford will be a nice foundation down low to support him; Matt Humphrey enters his senior season as a nice mature leader and Lonnie "LoJack" Jackson will continue to find himself a place in Donahue's offense as long as he keeps up his outside shooting and keeps his temper down. Jordan Daniels is another key piece to grow in the back court alongside two incoming guards from the small 2012 recruiting class. 

Come fall of 2012, we're looking at a more experienced starting five of those key players, with Moton, KC Caudill and Patrick Heckmann as bench options. There's no reason not to expect a 10 man rotation with Donahue's offense that would include the two new recruits. 

Is this all to say that the team is ready to rise to stardom out of the ashes of the 2011-2012 season? No. But a 12th place finish in the ACC is going to be a disappointment next season, and not an expectation. As the team is recognizable (what a year to not have names on the back of the jerseys...), the seats in Conte may once again fill up as well.

It's going to get better. Not immediately, but read through again what the future holds. These are not kids who are going to bolt, and come 2013, the only piece that will need replaced in the starting line-up (barring disaster) is Humphrey. The benefit to getting nine freshmen at once is that they will push each other through the growing pains.

Let's not judge them tomorrow on the final result. We hope for a fight, pray for a win, but we do expect them to fall short. It's ok. 

FEBRUARY WAS GOOD TO BC HOCKEY

Oh, the honors were strong this month. Let's break it down in bullet form.

• Beanpot Champions
• ...Third Straight
• ...Seven goals in the opener
• ...Kick-in-the-junk overtime win against archrival
• Team Performance
• #1 in both polls
• Seven wins
• 32 goals for, 7 against
• Special teams reigniting the power play and even adding shorties
• Parker Milner
• HockeyEast Goaltender of the Month
• 7-0-0...
• 0.98 GAA
• 9.62 Save Percentage
• Johnny Gaudreau
• Beanpot MVP
• 13 goals, 7 assists

Two points clear with two games to go against Hockey East cellar dwellers, Vermont. 

It's Trophy Season, folks.

BC 2012 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Hot off the presses from the ACC (pdf) and BC, here's your 2012 football schedule:

9/1 - Miami (Fl.)
9/8 - Maine (FCS)
9/15 - @ Northwestern
9/22 -  OPEN
9/29 -  Clemson
10/6 - @ Army
10/13 -  @ Florida State
10/20 -  @ Georgia Tech
10/27 -  Maryland
11/3 -  @ Wake Forest
11/10 - Notre Dame
11/17 - Virgina Tech
11/24 - @ NC State


Analysis and grading of the reckless scheduling to come. Spoiler alert: we failed.

GOODBYE SLANTING NUMBERS: A THEORY

The things we'll talk about as we wait for the 2012 schedule and to avoid certain spring football news stories involving Montel Harris and Ifeanyi Momah: logos!

...or, should I say, a theory about the graphic design image of Boston College athletics.

After 40+ years with an interlocking "Block" logo that included the flying Eagle, BC updated its entire athletic department to the modern day "slanted" appearance it generally has today across all sports. While there have been uniform tweaks across all of the different sports since the initial switch - some of them small, some of them drastic, including the 2007 change for the football team to the "Philadelphia" eagle uniform that seemed to make those slanted numbers even bigger - there was no bigger shift in recent years than to the new uniforms unveiled last year.

In the second year of its new deal with Under Armour as the outfitter for BC athletics, football unveiled new jerseys that had something completely different. For the first time since the days of the Hasselbacks, BC's uniform offered a number that was actually aligned with the jersey and not italic. We went from this:

to this:

While UA had held off making any sweeping changes in its first year, it was just a month past it's anniversary that the first drastic change appeared. I actually went and bought a Montel Harris one of these, road white since I have a Matty Ice one in maroon. Looking at the jersey, something stood out to me: the only place that the "slanted" logo appears is on the label. It isn't on the shoulders or sleeve. This is a far cry from the original post-logo-change uniforms, which had everything from the interlock to the flying eagle to the "Philadelphia" eagle. 

There were plenty of complaints - it's easy to make fun of the stained glass (although I like it), even if they went over the top with the extra stripe on the road helmet - and one for sure was the size of the numbers. I think it's more important to note that the numbers are rounded and without emphasis; or, well, at least I do now. The impetus for my focus is that the change didn't stop there, and spread to the other high profile team (this season): hockey.

The hockey team has had three different outfitters in the last six years - switching from Nike to Reebok no sooner than a week after Reebok bought CCM (the last connection BC had to the swoosh), and then from Reebok to UA in the overall change in 2010. The last iteration of the Nike jersey, the Reebok ones from 2006-2010 and first-year-UA jerseys for 2010-11 are all nearly identical in look, just different chest logos. Again, though, the second year of Under Armour brought about some significant change to BC's image.

There are a few cosmetic differences on the front and piping (stained glass again on the elbows) - generally, a similar look and feel although it does appear to be a little rounder in the font, but that's a bit of imagination, too. The backs, though, offer more of a look of change. Here are the first year UA jerseys; the numbers are slanted along a flat nameplate above the digits. Look closely at a few shots from last week's home series with Merrimack: the sleeve number, back numbers and nameplates are flat again (and oh my does Jerry look like a gentleman). Just like the football team, the interlock logo that had been prominent (on the upper sleeves in this case) is completely gone.

Could it be a team-by-team change? Sure. It's not easy or cheap to completely redo a school's image in one fell swoop - especially given the signage throughout Alumni Stadium, Conte Forum and the athletics complex. The hardest change of all would be the field itself, which embraces the slant in the end zones and center field.

Cue the opportunity window and my theory for bringing up this potential change now: BC is installing a new field in Alumni. If there is going to be a sweeping logo alteration to something that isn't slanted and slightly rounder (I'm thinking something closer to the "vintage" inspired Banner '47 interlock).

We all know I'm way, way wrong about schedules. If I'm in fact right about this, my only request is that the logo never gets on the helmets.

QUICK PSA: GO BACK TO CONTE

Those things you see behind this Duke basketball player are yellow shirts, likely being worn by current students at Boston College. They have been rare this year when the home team has played basketball against, well, every other team that has come to town.

Those shirts and the people in them need your help, friends. They have been exposed to Boston College basketball, some of which wasn't the complete disaster that it could have been against a very good Duke team that looks pretty battle-tested as March comes around the corner. We can help them by exposing them to more.

For just a yearly student activities fee that they already pay, those students can continue to manage this chronic condition of "home games". Symptoms include chanting, wearing yellow Suprefan shirts, taunting the student athletes at other schools, having fun and supporting the school even when other non-top-five teams come to town.

The best cure is more basketball. Try it again, seriously, you won't be disappointed and, hell, you paid for it already.

TROPHY SEASON OPENS WITH A TROPHY

Congrats to the BC Men's Hockey team on their third straight Beanpot - and hopefully the first of many trophies this spring.

RYAN DAY FINALLY OC...SOMEWHERE ELSE

Well, this ought to be received well by the faithful. Ryan Day is being reported as on his way out and off to Temple to become OC.

I obnoxiously quote ATL from January 10, 2011, because that seems so long ago and it feels like we had hope back then:

UPDATE: Ryan Day will be the new offensive coordinator. I applaud the move and will post more on the topic when BC announces it.

If this keeps happening, the whole giving up swearing for Lent is going to be challenging.

RECKLESS SCHEDULING (v 3.0): SO, SO, SO WRONG

We already knew that version one of Reckless Scheduling was horribly wrong after the Army game switched out on us. Well, Reckless Schedule 2.0 got torched by the Maine game being moved into early September and Maryland adding a D-1A game. With the news that Miami is now going to be the Labor Day kick-off game at home, we're even more wrong.

So, back to the drawing board as we wait the whole thing. Watch, as soon as I post this, Syracuse will get out of the Big East and that'll be the Thanksgiving game in Boston.

Here's the result of schedule guess 2.0, with the wrongs crossed out and the rights added in.

9/1 - vs. Maryland vs. Miami
9/8 - vs. Clemson vs. Maine (FCS)
9/15 - @ Northwestern
9/22 - @Georgia Tech
9/29 - vs. Maine (FCS)
10/6 - @ Army
10/13 - vs. Virginia Tech
10/20 - BYE
10/27 - @ Wake Forest
11/3 - @ Florida State
11/10 - vs. Notre Dame
11/17 - @ NC State
11/24 - vs. Miami


Well, that looks like crap. Here's what we now need to reconsider:

• Games without a home: vs. Maryland, vs. Clemson
• Open dates: 9/29, 10/20, 11/24

Problem: we can drop Maryland into Parent's Weekend (9/29), but Clemson is booked over Thanksgiving against the Gamecocks. We need to do some shuffling - and we've played late in Winston Salem before. Sure, this gives BC home fans two Thanksgivings off with home games, but knowing that sometime in the near future home-and-home with Syracuse is inevitable, I'm ok with it.

Reckless Schedule 3.0 (locks in bold), new changes in italics.

9/1 - vs. Miami
9/8 - vs. Maine (FCS)
9/15 - @ Northwestern
9/22 - @Georgia Tech
9/29 - vs. Maryland
10/6 - @ Army
10/13 - vs. Virginia Tech
10/20 - BYE
10/27 - vs. Clemson
11/3 - @ Florida State
11/10 - vs. Notre Dame
11/17 - @ NC State
11/24 - @ Wake Forest


UPDATE: Our friends at BCI point out that Wake is locked into playing Vanderbilt over Thanksgiving, so we're already wrong and they have an interesting theory about ending the season a week early (track through these three tweets). So, we're wrong again already. We're really good at getting this thing wrong.

THE MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD LIKES THE GREATEST CHANT EVER

Oh, BC memes, what did we do without you?

BIG EAST CONTINUES CRAZY ASS RISK GAME OF SURVIVAL

Big East Football Timeline, for funsies and because I want my damn schedule already and I still blame them. One little asterisk (*) means it was the first season for a team. Two (**) means it was that school's last.

2003

BC

Miami** to ACC

VT** to ACC

West Virginia

Pitt

Syracuse

Rutgers

Temple

2004

BC** to ACC

West Virginia

Pitt

Syracuse

Rutgers

UConn* from Division IAA

Temple** booted into non-existence

2005-2011

West Virginia** to Big XII, in either 2012 or 2014, but probably 2012, but maybe NEVER

Pitt

Syracuse

Rutgers

UConn

USF

Louisville

Cincinnati

2012 (most likely scenario, at least today)

Pitt** to ACC, maybe for 2013, but maybe not until 2013 

Syracuse** to ACC, maybe for 2013, but maybe not until 2013

Rutgers

UConn

USF

Louisville

Cincinnati

Boise State* from MWC

Memphis* from C-USA

2013 (if Pitt and Cuse get out)

Rutgers

UConn

USF

Louisville

Cincinnati

Boise State

Memphis

San Diego State* from MWC in 2013
Central Florida* from C-USA in 2013
Houston* from C-USA in 2013
SMU* from C-USA in 2013