With wins against teams like Duke, North Carolina, and Florida State; a 66-65 loss to Duke in the ACC tournament; and players like Tyrese Rice, Rakim Sanders, and Reggie Jackson; you can understand why I was optimistic about BC going into the tournament. Sure, Michigan State would be a tough challenge. But if you can beat UNC in Chapel Hill, you can certainly handle MSU in Minneapolis.
But USC was too much. The Trojans double-teamed Tyrese Rice and shut him down. Rice had 9 points, and only 2 in the 2nd half. BC never did much to challenge this double-team. They never tried anything to free Rice up, and Rice never did anything to take advantage of mismatches elsewhere on the floor.
Rice's performance pretty much summed up his senior season on Chestnut Hill. Game changing talent coupled with a fervent unwillingness to adjust for the benefit of the team. He's Vince Vaughn in Rudy.
Josh Southern made some stupid fouls early on and had to miss a pivotal chunk of the 2nd half, sitting on the bench with 4 fouls as the Trojans dominated the paint.
USC shot as good as they can shoot. Taj Gibson was 10 for 10 from the field with 24 points. As a team, they shot 52.9% from the field, and 44.4% for 3, and 73.7% from the line. This season, they shot 47.4% from the field, 32.9% from 3, and 66.6% from the line.
BC, on the other hand, shot 6 of 23 (26.1%) from 3.
But BC had a 34-30 lead at halftime. They were outscored 42-21 in the 2nd. It was a gradual pounding. And BC took it in stride, not changing, or adjusting a thing. They didn't even start to press until 1:30 was left and the game was already over.
Losing is losing, and it's going to happen. But this was just a sad, typical BC way to get eliminated. Get a generous seed, in a decent location, lead at halftime, then get destroyed.
At least the BC hockey team went down with a fight. The same can't be said for BC basketball, at least not in 2009.
Source:
ESPN.com
Photo Credits:
Getty Images
AP Photo/Jim Mone
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