What a terribly ironic day for Boston College sports.
I say terrible because BC lost in football and basketball on the same day (although the hockey team returned some life to campus with another win over BU). And those weren't just two losses - those were excruciating, numbing losses; the kind that make a person unable to pick up a quarter because their fingernails are so short from biting.
I say ironic because BC football played in the ACC championship game at 1 p.m. and then basketball played downtown in the Hall of Fame Showcase against former Big East rival Providence at 6 p.m. What makes it ironic is that the ACC championship game was one of, if not the primary, reason the Eagles fly in the ACC rather than the Big East.
On the same day that BC football played in the game that was supposed to bring in millions of dollars to the ACC coffers (hard to figure considering all the fans dressed as empty seats down in Jacksonville, Fla.), BC basketball played in an atmosphere not much different from that of the old days in the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden, which is simply one of the most electric atmospheres in all of college sports.
The Eagle and Friar fans went back and forth, the way Red Sox and Yankee fans do. While I was standing in line for a hot dog at halftime, at which time Providence led by 15, I talked with at least a half-dozen Friar supporters about the game. Most of them were glad to have BC back on the schedule, just so they could kick the you-know-what out of us. I told them it would be a different story after the half.
Well, it was a different story after that half. After falling back by 24, the Eagles finally came together, scoring on put-backs and fast-break layups to the point that it was 76-70 BC with less than two minutes remaining. But the Eagles couldn't close the door, and back-to-back threes by Providence's Jeff Xavier and Weyinmi Efejuku sent the game to overtime. The young Eagles never recovered, and the Friars blew BC away in the extra frame.
2008 Woodie Awards
