Boston College @ Stanford preview
Maples Pavilion
Boston College will try to keep its hopes of reaching the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament alive when it tips off a critical two-game trip Wednesday night at Stanford.
The Golden Eagles (12-15, 4-12) began the week one game out of the conference's top 15 that will earn invitations to the prestigious annual event in two weeks.
Boston College improved its chances of making the tournament dramatically with a pair of dominant home wins last week -- 54-36 over Virginia Tech and 69-54 over Georgia Tech.
The Golden Eagles and Cardinal (17-10, 9-7) have never met in ACC play and, in fact, have gone head-to-head just once. That occurred 45 seasons ago at the Industrial National Classic in Rhode Island, a game Boston College won 97-89.
Boston College coach Earl Grant knows the key to winning Wednesday will be slowing down Stanford star big man Maxime Raynaud, the conference's leading scorer (19.9 ppg) and rebounder (11.2 rpg).
Grant was impressed with the play of his big guys, Chad Venning and Jayden Hastings, in Saturday's win over Georgia Tech. They combined for nine rebounds and five blocks in 40 minutes.
"Both are great rim protectors, great goalies," Grant said. "They're big, they're long, got a good wingspan, pretty athletic. Chad Venning in particular ... I mean, he was a junkyard dog. He cleaned up a lot of mistakes from our guards when the ball was getting downhill and he had some crucial blocks at the rim."
Raynaud had 20 points, eight rebounds and three blocks when Stanford won Saturday at home over rival Cal to snap a two-game losing streak.
The 17th win assured Stanford of having a winning year, its first since the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign, and allowed the Cardinal to retain reasonable hopes of reaching 20 wins for the first time since the 2019-20 team went 20-12.
"Is that possible? Is that right? First time in four years, a winning season," first-year Stanford coach Kyle Smith said. "I didn't talk about that with our team, but there's a threshold. I mean, some of the guys have been in the program playing with a heavy burden on them the last couple of years, not necessarily even fair to them. But to have that and with games to go and keep striving for postseason is important."
--Field Level Media