Preview: Texas A&M vs. Boston College

Time: 5:00pm

Place: Reed Arena

TV: SEC Network

Advanced Metrics via KenPom: Texas A&M has a 62% chance to win

Results of Note

Boston College has a horrendous home loss to IUPUI, but aside from that they’ve handled their paycheck games with varying degrees of fuss.

Best performances to date are a neutral court win against NCAA darling Loyola-Chicago and a home win against shared opponent Minnesota.

Their most recent game is a hard-fought overtime loss to Providence.

This is their first away game of the season.

Players to Watch

As Ky Bowman goes, so goes Boston College.

The First-Team All-ACC Guard plays dang near every minute for the Eagles, and his fingerprints are on everything they do offensively. His recent performances haven’t been particularly inspiring, but his season-long averages are still pretty salty (19.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 0.8 blocks, and 1.1 steals per game) and he’s capable of going off for 30+ on any given night.

We’re going to have our hands full.

Other players of note:

• Junior Center Nik Popovic missed the previous game due to concussion-like symptoms and is questionable as of Friday evening.
• Senior SF Jordan Chatman plays about as many minutes as Bowman and is coming off a 28-point performance against Providence.
• Sophomore PF Steffon Mitchell is a rebound/putback extraordinaire, who hammers just about everything home from short range and gets to the line at an insane clip (#1 FTRate in the country relative to his usage).
• Freshman G Wynston Tabbs has scored over 20 PPG over his last three, solidifying an above-average ACC backcourt.
• Freshman F Jarius Hamilton received votes for the All-ACC Freshman team, and would likely see a big uptick in minutes should Popovic not be cleared to play

Overall Thoughts

Boston College has talented players… but every Power Five team has talented players. These guys were picked to finish 12th in the ACC, and their results in the opening month confirm what I already knew: that this is a game we should win at home.

I know the opening seven games haven’t been great, but we’ve been a much-improved side in our most recent four, which coincides with the return of Chuck Mitchell. He gave us a really solid outing on Monday night, and mixing him in at the point could turn us around for the rest of the season.

If we wish to maintain any hope of a non-disastrous season, we have to protect home court in games against beatable opposition.

We need this one.

BTHO Boston College