Boston College fell 95-86 to Syracuse in triple-overtime yesterday. The phrasing of that is important. While yes, SU certainly deserve more credit, this game was mostly decided by the fact that the Eagles made more mistakes than the Orange.
The ‘Cuse certainly made enough mistakes to lose, had BC not been even worse. With 20 seconds remaining and a five-point lead, JJ Starling missed the front half of a one-and-one. That helped the Eagles start their quick comeback.
Then, protecting a three-point lead with just a few seconds left, both head coaches exchanged timeouts. This is when Adrian Autry should have been instructing his players to foul a bad free throw shooter on Boston College if they get a chance. It’s also when the defensive alignment should have been set up to keep slower players, like Eddie Lampkin, away from protecting against a pick. Maybe Autry did try to make those adjustments, but at the very least, it wasn’t executed. BC’s Fred Payne hit a three-pointer, and that meant overtime.
Free throw shooting and coaching through timeouts were just some of Syracuse’s mistakes. Jyàre Davis made some untimely turnovers, as did Chris Bell. Substitutions at the end of the game were a mystery, as Kyle Cuffe played later than many fans wanted or expected. That wasn’t even the worst of it, as Elijah Moore had 11 points in the first half, but didn’t play at all at the end of the game. Coach Autry cited defensive issues as the reason why.
Again, you can only criticize a team that wins a game. However, Boston College is bar far the lowest-ranked power conference team in many ranking systems, like KenPom. The Eagles are very, very bad. Letting them back into the game not just once, or twice, but three times is perfectly deserving of some criticism. However, a win is a win, I guess.
