ESPN.com’s college basketball Summer Shootaround turns its attention to the ACC this week, with analysis from Andy Katz, Doug Gottlieb and more.
-- Andy Katz has five things to know, including one focused on coaching changes:
1. Three coaches shockingly depart: No one saw the departures at Boston College, Clemson and Wake Forest coming in the weeks or months earlier. The decision to force out Al Skinner, the winningest coach in BC history, left the staff stunned and contributed to an Eagles dispersal draft as players like Brady Heslip (Baylor), Evan Ravenel (Ohio State), Kevin Noreen (West Virginia) and Rakim Sanders (Fairfield) found new homes. Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman clearly wasn't happy with the direction of the Demon Deacons, even though Dino Gaudio was a heck of a recruiter and won an NCAA tournament game in March. Clemson fully intended for Oliver Purnell to be the head coach for the foreseeable future and was just as miffed by his decision on the night of the national title game to head to bottom-dwelling DePaul of the Big East. The potential good news for all three schools is that they replaced the trio with well-respected head coaches: Steve Donahue (Cornell to BC), Jeff Bzdelik (Colorado to Wake) and Brad Brownell (Wright State to Clemson).
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-- Eamonn Brennan breaks down the best-case and worst-case scenario for each team:
Best case: Most programs with new coaches get a year or three to figure things out. Boston College will not want to wait that long. New coach Steve Donahue -- fresh off a Sweet 16 run with Cornell -- inherits former coach Al Skinner's expectations. Fortunately, he also inherits some talent. Boston College returns six of its nine top scorers from a team that went 15-16 last year; that experience alone should make the Eagles a competitive bunch in the otherwise soft underbelly of the ACC.
Worst case: Being competitive is great, but Skinner's firing ensured Donahue will have to wait a season before he can welcome a talented incoming recruiting class. In the meantime, junior Reggie Jackson will have to become a more efficient shooter, and the senior trio of Joe Trapani, Corey Raji, and Biko Paris will have to make major strides under their new head coach. The experience is there, but coaching transitions are hard, and if BC doesn't improve on its .500-ish 2009-10 performance, no one will be all that upset. Or, for that matter, surprised.
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-- Video: Andy Katz and Doug Gottleib discuss the offseason storylines in the ACC.
-- Andy Katz has five things to know, including one focused on coaching changes:
1. Three coaches shockingly depart: No one saw the departures at Boston College, Clemson and Wake Forest coming in the weeks or months earlier. The decision to force out Al Skinner, the winningest coach in BC history, left the staff stunned and contributed to an Eagles dispersal draft as players like Brady Heslip (Baylor), Evan Ravenel (Ohio State), Kevin Noreen (West Virginia) and Rakim Sanders (Fairfield) found new homes. Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman clearly wasn't happy with the direction of the Demon Deacons, even though Dino Gaudio was a heck of a recruiter and won an NCAA tournament game in March. Clemson fully intended for Oliver Purnell to be the head coach for the foreseeable future and was just as miffed by his decision on the night of the national title game to head to bottom-dwelling DePaul of the Big East. The potential good news for all three schools is that they replaced the trio with well-respected head coaches: Steve Donahue (Cornell to BC), Jeff Bzdelik (Colorado to Wake) and Brad Brownell (Wright State to Clemson).
CLICK HERE to read the rest of this
-- Eamonn Brennan breaks down the best-case and worst-case scenario for each team:
Best case: Most programs with new coaches get a year or three to figure things out. Boston College will not want to wait that long. New coach Steve Donahue -- fresh off a Sweet 16 run with Cornell -- inherits former coach Al Skinner's expectations. Fortunately, he also inherits some talent. Boston College returns six of its nine top scorers from a team that went 15-16 last year; that experience alone should make the Eagles a competitive bunch in the otherwise soft underbelly of the ACC.
Worst case: Being competitive is great, but Skinner's firing ensured Donahue will have to wait a season before he can welcome a talented incoming recruiting class. In the meantime, junior Reggie Jackson will have to become a more efficient shooter, and the senior trio of Joe Trapani, Corey Raji, and Biko Paris will have to make major strides under their new head coach. The experience is there, but coaching transitions are hard, and if BC doesn't improve on its .500-ish 2009-10 performance, no one will be all that upset. Or, for that matter, surprised.
CLICK HERE to read the rest of this
-- Video: Andy Katz and Doug Gottleib discuss the offseason storylines in the ACC.
On SportsCenter on Monday, ESPN.com’s Ivan Maisel talks about the return of BC’s Mark Herzlich and whether he will be back on the field this Saturday when the Eagles open their season against Weber St.
ESPN.com ACC blogger Heather Dinich checks in Monday with some predictions for the ACC, including one for BC lineback Mark Herzlich.
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The ACC is one of the most unpredictable conferences in the country, but that makes this list even more fun. Here are 10 things I think will -- or won’t -- happen in the conference this fall:
1. BC linebacker Mark Herzlich plays in the season opener against Weber State and is back to his 2008 form in time for the home game against Virginia Tech on Sept. 25.
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BC women's soccer happy with tie
August, 30, 2010
8/30/10
8:11
AM ET
By
Graham Hays | ESPNBoston.com
Editor's note: This story ran on August 20.
NEWTON, Mass. -- As the horn sounded to signal the end of the first of two overtime periods between No. 2 Stanford and No. 7 Boston College on Friday, Eagles women's soccer coach Alison Kulik made a beeline for goalkeeper Jillian Mastroianni, intercepting her as she walked toward the home team's bench.
"A tie with them won't be too bad," Kulik said she told her keeper. "You've got one job to do: Don't let the ball go in the goal in the last 10 minutes."
Mastroianni didn't, albeit with an assist from her crossbar on a Cardinal header in the game's final minute, and the exhausted Eagles walked away after 110 minutes of soccer with a 1-1 tie against the team that eliminated them from the NCAA tournament quarterfinals last season.
Boston College has three and a half months to make its case as the best team in women's college soccer. For the season's first night, proving itself equal was enough.
A year ago, there were 245 people in the stands to watch Boston College open its season at home on a Friday against Fairfield. Those fans perhaps went home happier after the Eagles rolled to a crowd-pleasing 5-0 win, but the announced crowd of 2,000 filling the bleachers and lining the fences around the field on this night saw a sink-or-swim proposition to start the season. And coming out of the deep end exhausted and a little battered but unbowed and unbeaten, thanks to Natalie Crutchfield's second-half equalizer, revealed more about what this team is -- and what it still isn't -- than styling in the wading end against a weaker foe would have.
It didn't hurt to have a life preserver in goal. If not for Mastroianni, who made 10 saves in the game, including at least two on point-blank shots in the first half that few other college keepers could be counted on to make, there might well have been a gurgling noise drifting out of one end of the Newton Soccer Field by the second half.
NEWTON, Mass. -- As the horn sounded to signal the end of the first of two overtime periods between No. 2 Stanford and No. 7 Boston College on Friday, Eagles women's soccer coach Alison Kulik made a beeline for goalkeeper Jillian Mastroianni, intercepting her as she walked toward the home team's bench.
"A tie with them won't be too bad," Kulik said she told her keeper. "You've got one job to do: Don't let the ball go in the goal in the last 10 minutes."
Mastroianni didn't, albeit with an assist from her crossbar on a Cardinal header in the game's final minute, and the exhausted Eagles walked away after 110 minutes of soccer with a 1-1 tie against the team that eliminated them from the NCAA tournament quarterfinals last season.
Boston College has three and a half months to make its case as the best team in women's college soccer. For the season's first night, proving itself equal was enough.
A year ago, there were 245 people in the stands to watch Boston College open its season at home on a Friday against Fairfield. Those fans perhaps went home happier after the Eagles rolled to a crowd-pleasing 5-0 win, but the announced crowd of 2,000 filling the bleachers and lining the fences around the field on this night saw a sink-or-swim proposition to start the season. And coming out of the deep end exhausted and a little battered but unbowed and unbeaten, thanks to Natalie Crutchfield's second-half equalizer, revealed more about what this team is -- and what it still isn't -- than styling in the wading end against a weaker foe would have.
It didn't hurt to have a life preserver in goal. If not for Mastroianni, who made 10 saves in the game, including at least two on point-blank shots in the first half that few other college keepers could be counted on to make, there might well have been a gurgling noise drifting out of one end of the Newton Soccer Field by the second half.
Shinskie says he's ready to be leader
August, 30, 2010
8/30/10
8:11
AM ET
By Justin Rice, special to ESPNBoston.com
Editor's note: This story ran on August 16.
CHESTNUT HILL -- With an older quarterback who's finally matured on the field as well, Boston College hopes it won't have to ride its running back as hard as it did last season.
"I was more a baseball player last year, not quite into everything football had to offer," said sophomore quarterback and former minor league baseball player Dave Shinskie. "Over the summer I've worked hard with the receivers and line and feel more comfortable this year.
"Even though I am more mature at 26 years old, I feel a lot more mature in the game [now]," he said.
After permanently taking over BC's quarterbacking reins during a brutal beating by Clemson last season, Shinskie mostly handed the ball off to Montel Harris, who collected the second-most carries in a season (308) in school history to log 1,457 yards. The junior ranks 10th all-time at BC in carries (487) and rushing yards (2,357).
"This year Dave is a lot better from last year," Harris said. "Dave has been able to read defenses and pick them apart. This year we're going to surprise defenses with how much we're not going to have to run because we're going to rely on our passing game a lot more."
That might be out of necessity more than anything else. While Harris was a lesser-known commodity in a conference filled with backfield talent, this year he will no doubt be on the radar screens of every opponent.
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CHESTNUT HILL -- With an older quarterback who's finally matured on the field as well, Boston College hopes it won't have to ride its running back as hard as it did last season.
"I was more a baseball player last year, not quite into everything football had to offer," said sophomore quarterback and former minor league baseball player Dave Shinskie. "Over the summer I've worked hard with the receivers and line and feel more comfortable this year.
"Even though I am more mature at 26 years old, I feel a lot more mature in the game [now]," he said.
After permanently taking over BC's quarterbacking reins during a brutal beating by Clemson last season, Shinskie mostly handed the ball off to Montel Harris, who collected the second-most carries in a season (308) in school history to log 1,457 yards. The junior ranks 10th all-time at BC in carries (487) and rushing yards (2,357).
"This year Dave is a lot better from last year," Harris said. "Dave has been able to read defenses and pick them apart. This year we're going to surprise defenses with how much we're not going to have to run because we're going to rely on our passing game a lot more."
That might be out of necessity more than anything else. While Harris was a lesser-known commodity in a conference filled with backfield talent, this year he will no doubt be on the radar screens of every opponent.
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