The Roller Coaster Week That Was BC Athletics

So I realize I haven't had a Rant in a week, and the main reason is that there appeared to be a lot going on in a short amount of time and I didn't know which topic to blog about, so I finally decided to do a comprehensive piece today that quickly hits upon a variety of topics starting with the BC spring football game last Saturday and ending with the NHL debuts for Johnny Gaudreau and Bill Arnold this Sunday.

So last Saturday (April 5th) my father and I spent the afternoon at Alumni Stadium taking in the annual Jay McGillis spring football game.  Like with any spring game no matter who your team is, it is very hard to judge how a team is based upon a spring game.  First off everyone plays for the same team, secondly it is not a legit football game, there is a lot of situational football with a scoring system that I think nobody understood and finally there were a fair share of players who sat out.

As for my thoughts based on what I saw, it was a tale of two halves. In the first half the offense dominated.  Tyler Murphy, the quarterback transfer from Florida, showed off his speed on a few scrambles and Myles Willis, David Dudeck and Tyler Rouse all ran the ball well.  Although Murphy is cable of throwing the ball, due to BC's lack of a go to receiver I think you will see a lot of running the ball as we saw last year, but I think with Murphy's speed there will be the added element of the option in this year's run game.

The second half was dominated by the defense with Sean Duggan anchoring the squad.  Duggan appeared to be all over the field, which is a good sign since the Eagles have to replace their defensive leader in Kevin Pierre-Louis from last year.  My one real negative thought in regards to the defensive play was that the secondary dropped a few interceptions that they should  have easily had.

Finally, I actually thought the crowd wasn't that bad.  I'm sure if you see my pictures from the game you may say it looks like no one is there, but that was because the whole crowd was behind the sideline I was sitting on.  I have been to a handful of spring games in the past decade and I thought this was easily the biggest turnout.  I know some people mentioned there was a lack of young alumni presence, but I thought as a whole the turnout was good.  Also, I am smart enough to know BC is never going to get 100,000 like Alabama does. Finally congratulations to Dominique Williams on winning the Jay McGillis scholarship.  This year's recipient is extra special because Williams comes from McGillis' hometown of Brockton.  Below I posted a picture of Williams receiving the scholarship.

From the gridiron to the ice, it was a week of extreme lows and extreme highs for the BC hockey team.  The week started off with a tough loss to the eventual National Champion Union.  Even though BC got off to an early 1-0 on a Johnny Gaudreau goal, it was clear from the first puck drop that Union was going to be really tough.  I won't really comment too much on the game, because it is tough to recap a loss of such magnitude but I think we can all agree that not being able to score on the 5 minute power play in the 3rd period and having Union score shortly after they killed the penalty was the back breaker.  The one encouraging sign is the team did fight to the literal last second as they almost scored which would have tied the game as time expired. The tough part about this loss is there are two teams that have played BC really tough the last two years and those teams are Notre Dame, who knocked BC out of the Hockey East playoffs and Union who ended the Eagles' season in the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row.

If there was a silver lining to this year's Frozen Four loss it was that nearly 24 hours after defeat BC fans had a lot to cheer for as Johnny Gaudreau won the school's 3rd Hobey Baker.  This award came as no shock as Gaudreau was hands down the best player in college hockey this year scoring a nation leading 36 goals and 44 assists to finish the season with 80 points which was 15 more points than teammate and linemate Kevin Hayes who finished second in the nation in points with 65.  The celebratory weekend continued for Johnny Hockey and BC teammate Bill Arnold as they signed professional contracts with the Calgary Flames on Friday and were able to make their NHL debuts Sunday night against the Vancouver Canucks.  And to anyone who has watched Gaudreau this year it was no shock he scored (which you can watch below) his first NHL goal on his first ever shot.  While many are skeptical on the type of player Gaudreau will be in the NHL based on his size, or lack thereof, I always counter with the line about how you can't hit someone who you can't catch.  Add his hockey IQ,  and unbelievable stick handling skills to his speed and I am confident Gaudreau will have a strong NHL career.  It also helps that former Eagles Brian Gionta and Nathan Gerbe, who are also both small, have had very good NHL careers.  As for the team Arnold and Gaudreau will be playing for, watching the game Sunday it appears the Flames have a long, long way to go to becoming a playoff contender.

Now transitioning from the ice to the hardwood.  The Jim Christian hire came with much skepticism, as was noted in my previous Rant, but the one thing Christian made clear in his introductory press conference is he needed to hire a staff with ACC experience and had roots in recruiting New England, and Christian followed through on his promise with the hiring of former Maryland assistant coach Scott Spinelli.  Spinelli is a Leominster, MA native and graduate of Boston University and has spent the last three seasons on Mark Turgeon's staff with the Terrapins.  Prior to coaching at Maryland he also worked with Turgeon at both Wichita State and Texas A&M.  I think this is a solid hire, and hopefully will help BC in the recruitment of local kids, an area in which the program has struggled with immensely in recent history.  It would be nice if Christian could also add Danya Abrams to his staff, as I mentioned last week.  I think it always helps to have a former player as part of the staff.  Also, Abrams has strong knowledge of the current team having been a part of the radio broadcasts for the past couple of seasons.  

Finally, it was tough to see Ryan Anderson and now potentially Joe Rahon transfer. It doesn't come as a shock as it has been rumored since Michael Vega's article during The ACC tournament, but I was hoping Christian would be able to convince them to stay (although Rahon's isn't official yet).  It will also be very interesting to see if Olivier Hanlan will declare for the draft.  If Rahon actually does in fact transfer, it may be real tough to convince Hanlan to stay, since he will literally be a one man team and I have to imagine staying next year will only hurt his draft stock. With that being said I hope he does decide to stay and hopefully Christian can also bring in a strong transfer who can play right away.  

Finally I will end this Rant on a positive story.  This past weekend Catholic School rivals Notre Dame and Boston College took the diamond in Chicago as opponents but were both fighting for a common cause.  Fellow BC '07 alum and former Birdballer Pete Frates was diagnosed last year with ALS and this past weekend both ND and BC joined forces to raise money to help Strike Out ALS as all ticket proceeds went towards the Pete Frates #3 Fund.  It was nice to see former BC Manager and current Notre Dame Manager Mik Aoki help set this weekend up, and it was even nicer to see Notre Dame do away with their green uniforms for the weekend as they wore red jerseys this weekend in honor of ALS awareness.  As for the series, Notre Dame took 2 of 3 from the Eagles, but needless to say the outcome to a backseat to awareness this series created.  Finally, if you weren't able to attend but want to contribute to the Pete Frates #3 Fund, here is the link .