Two Holy Wars, Two Days

Boston College vs. Holy Cross. Boston College vs. Notre Dame. Three Catholic schools, two days. It is going to be interesting.

The first matchup will come on Friday night.  BC basketball will take on Holy Cross in Worcester at the DCU Center. The Eagles will field a roster of youngsters that started the season 1-0 with a narrow win over New Hampshire on Monday. Holy Cross is 0-2 but has looked solid in close losses to a pair of good teams (College of Charleston and Harvard). Holy Cross will have an opportunity to get a boost with a win over an ACC team. BC has a chance to start 2-0, something last year's veteran-laden squad failed to do. I think this game will go down to the wire. If Holy Cross gets out to a quick lead, it could be the difference in the game. For BC, the goal will be to knock down jump shots and avoid freshman mistakes.

The second matchup will come from South Bend, Indiana when the 3-7 Eagles take on the 7-3 Fighting Irish. The Eagles are 24.5 point underdogs, but I doubt Notre Dame will cover the spread. If you ask me, I think BC might even have a shot to win the game. We know this year's BC team is not very good. 3-7 teams rarely are. That being said, BC has not played horribly on the road and for a team that will miss out on a bowl for the first time in the 2000s, the game against rival Notre Dame should be their Super Bowl. Also, I do not think Notre Dame is all that great. They fumbled their opener to a USF team that has one win since September, and their only quality wins came against a Michigan State team that has a tendency to go long stretches without scoring and a Wake Forest team that has won one of their past five games with the one win coming by one point against mediocre Duke. Notre Dame's offense is not consistent (they only scored 15 points against fast-paced Pitt) nor is their defense (they let up 33 against Air Force). Notre Dame will probably fall to Stanford, and I think they might lose to BC if they don't have a quality offensive performance (I would say 24+ points against a good BC defense would qualify). This game will be close, and I would not be stunned if they Eagles get what probably would be their last win of the season in this Holy War.

Somehow, I doubt BC will go 2-0 in the Holy Wars of the weekend, but I'd be pleased if they did. Holy Cross is a decent team that could give BC some trouble. Notre Dame just broke into the AP top 25, but I don't think they are that good. In fact, I think BC has a much better shot at knocking off the Irish than beating Miami in a week. Regardless of how it all shakes out, It'll be fun to sit back and watch some Catholic clashes on the hardwood and the gridiron this weekend.