Maryland Conservatarian

For the uninitiated, Al Skinner is the Boston College men’s basketball coach (don’t worry, you won’t have to remember that too far, if at all, into the post season). Last night, his team played long time rival Holy Cross (full disclosure: Holy Cross is my alma mater so you may need some salt with this rant). Al had some things to get off his chest after last night’s game:

"This game didn’t do anything for us if you want to know the truth. I don’t think a game like this gets played very often and played in this manner. If we lose it’s bad — if we win that’s what people expected."

"I thought the game was quite physical, and not in a positive sense," said Skinner, who sniped at the officiating crew for not containing the physical play. "Sean Marshall got smacked in the face, Craig's got a bruised hand, and Louis [Hinnant] has a sprain in his [left] wrist and his arm. So it's not good." (Ed. Note: Somehow the refs must have seen it differently as it was Sean Marshall who was called for the foul on the play he alludes to)

“What I think happens at times when you look at two players and one is less talented than the other, you give him some leeway. I think that leeway led to a lot of aggression and a lot of non-calls, and I just have a problem with that. We’ve got guys walking out of here hurt. We’ve played a lot of games and we haven’t played any where three or four guys get hurt in one game. It’s just unfortunate.”

Now if you didn’t already know the final score, you may be surprised to learn that BC won this game 63 – 53.

Some comments on Al’s comments:

First off – he’s right – people do expect BC to win this game. They’ve won 15 of the last 16 times the two schools have played (although Holy Cross still leads the overall series 57 – 52) But recently the games have been competitive – last season BC had to go to overtime before defeating Holy Cross at BC: 63-60. And December 2002, Holy Cross beat BC 71-70.

Al further states that this game “didn’t do anything” for his team. The Coach no doubt has specific things he wants to get out of each and every game which would explain the rest of his out-of-conference schedule. In fact, I’m sure it was running the gauntlet that was Shawnee State, Texas Southern and Sacred Heart that catapulted his team to an impressive 1-3 start in the ACC.

I watch a lot of ACC basketball and, well…..if a game against an under-sized Holy Cross team  is enough to trigger such petulance out of Coach Skinner, then he is going to be one miserable dude for the remainder of the season.

For other perspectives on this:
Holy Cross fans:  CROSSPORTS

A BC fan: Eagle in Atlanta