By: Dave Cheng, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer

It was a long year for the Boston College Eagles.  Nobody in their right mind predicted the men’s basketball team to do well, and the team finished exactly where they were expected to; closer to the bottom of the ACC standings than the top.

The only hope the Eagles had of making the NCAA tournament was taking home the ACC title, a feat they fell well short of after losing to the University of Virginia on Thursday.  Just like that, the season is over.

Of course, there’s still hope for an NIT bid, but that’s a lowly consolation prize compared to playing in the big dance.

The Eagles began the year with such promise, winning six of their first eight games, but the team’s true colors showed after the loss to Harvard.  It proved that they were a good team, and could beat the ‘inferior’ teams on their schedule.  Anybody worthwhile, however, would be a test of the team’s character.  A test the team too often failed this year.

The team would eventually end up with a 10-5 record before entering conference play, beating teams from mid-majors like South Dakota State and Northern Iowa, to name a few.  They lost to the bigger names like St. Joseph’s, URI and a solid Harvard basketball team (to their credit, though, they did beat Michigan on the road).

Once conference play started, it was more of the same as the team lost their first three games to Clemson, Duke and Maryland by a combined score of 52 points.  BC never seemingly got back on their feet again and finished with a 6-10 conference record, eighth best in the ACC.  The season ended with a 68-62 loss in the ACC tournament on Thursday in Greensboro, NC.

Even if the Eagles get an invitation to the NIT, fans are already looking towards next year where the four leading scorers return for a run at the ACC title.  Tyler Roche, who averages just over seven points a game, is the only senior and the fifth highest scorer on the team.  All the team needs now is a little character and some heart.  Hopefully, they show more of it next year than they did this past season.

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