Year Two Under Donahue Begins Tonight!

The Eagles are young. They are inexperienced. And their season begins tonight. The 2011-2012 Boston College Men's Basketball season will begin at 7:00 against New Hampshire at Conte Forum.

The Eagles enter the season without a whole lot returning from last season, coach Steve Donahue's first at BC. Zero starters from that team return and only three players (Danny Rubin, Gabe Moton, and Peter Rehnquist)  who played last season are back. Moton and Rubin were freshman last season and both could be poised for decent seasons. Rubin is a knock-down shooter and Moton is a solid passer. Of the newcomers, there is some potential. The Eagles brought in a recruiting class that was considered to be one of the better classes in the ACC during the off season. Perhaps the most exciting recruit is 6-5 guard Patrick Heckmann who is from Germany. Another freshman, Dennis Clifford, is a seven-footer, and Lonnie Jackson is expected to be good. Among the other freshman, KC Caudill and Eddie Odio are considered to have potential, but it is tough to tell which of the freshman are going to step up once the season begins. Matt Humphrey will be playing for the first time with BC. Humphrey transferred to BC from Oregon and sat out last season. He did some good things in two years in Eugene but shot 35% both seasons from the field (yikes!). He has good size (6-5) and will play the wing. Tonight's game should show somewhat which players are going to be important players this season.

The Eagles' opponent tonight, New Hampshire, should offer an intriguing test. With all the new faces, it is absolutely a losable game for BC. New Hampshire is 1-0 (but the win  was against Suffolk University) and gave eventual National Champs, UCONN, a run for their money last season when UNH lead by one at halftime before eventually falling by seven. Many Eagles players will probably be a bit nervous what with it being the first collegiate game for many of them.  BC probably is not headed for another 20 win season, but a win against UNH would be a good sign. In the coming games it will also be fun to see who will be the likely Eagles' stars during the next few seasons.