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Summer 2035

While coach Holston and head recruiter Kenneth Reed (14/20 Rec) hit the recruiting trail, Desmond is overseeing the Eagles' offseason workouts and formulating their return to prominence in the ACC. If BC doesn't live up to the AD's expectations of making the NCAAs this season, it won't be due to a cream puff schedule; the non-conference slate includes road dates with Connecticut (100 prestige), Texas (98), Providence (92), and Pittsburgh (83). However, a quick look at the rest of the ACC shows that BC is closer to a berth in the Big Dance than its record the past two years would indicate.

Despite back-to-back ACC campaigns of 2-14 and 3-13, Boston College did not finish in last place in either of those years thanks to Maryland and Clemson. Those two, along with Wake Forest, all have lower prestige than BC's 66. Even Duke (78) and UNC (80) have fallen upon relatively hard times of late. Virginia Tech (99) and Georgia Tech (95) have stepped into that power vacuum and become the bullies of the league with NC State (86) currently laying claim to Triangle supremacy; those three teams have won 7 of the past 8 ACC regular season titles*

BC returns 4 starters, and while that's not necessarily a good thing when a team went 3-13 in ACC play, the returners should have the team poised to take a step forward and be in the running for a .500 or better conference record:

Senior PG Beau Duley is a classic example of a player who would look much better on a winning team. Between the former New Hampshire Mr. Basketball's 20 HND, 17 JPS and above average athleticism (19 QCK, 14 JMP, 20 STA), he can get his shot off almost whenever he wants, and unfortunately for Beau his team's been bad enough to force him to test the limits of how often that is (11.8 PPG on 36.7 FG% last year).

Senior SG Nathaniel Doss started from Day 1 as a 2* juco transfer from Maine. Doss is a large-bodied wing with the athleticism of a PF whose uncanny gifts tend to be offset by baffling deficiencies. He hardly needs any space to can a midrange jumper over someone (20/20 JPS) but can't throw it in the ocean from three-point range (26.1 3P%); he has nose for the offensive glass that can't be taught (14/A) but over half of his boards come from that end; and his propensity to come up with steals is miles ahead of his perimeter defense.

Redshirt junior SF Lindsey Jones is the most highly-touted recruit on this year's squad. The high school All-American SF transferred to BC after being glued to the bench his freshman year at UCLA. Jones, as is the theme so far, is an outstanding mid-range shooter who experiences difficulty creating his own shot and hitting threes. His vision and ballhandling (12/11 HND/PAS) are outstanding for his position, and there are no gaping holes in his game other than defensive rebounding (4).

Last year's staring PF, JR John Kratzer is a good finisher (16 INS) and can make big plays on the defensive end (15 STL, 16 BLK). The less said about his other attributes, the better. With the only center on the roster redshirting UL-Lafayette transfer Charles Enriquez (6'6 with A potential in PSD and BLK), Desmond will be tasked with toughening Kratzer (4.6 RPG in 31.9 MPG) on the boards as much as is humanly possible.

The two newcomers worth mentioning are juco SF William Quesada (who, from the way coach Holston talks about him, may end up unseating Jones from as the starting SF) and FR SG Loyd Hintz who fits the general BC profile of a mid-range specialist who's mediocre at everything else.

*just rolling with the conferences that were set up when I started this career, so we're looking at a 12 team ACC whose members have remained constant since 2009.