RTC Live: Wake Forest @ Boston College
Posted by nvr1983 on January 14th, 2009Thanks to the good folks at the BC athletic department we will be trying our first ever live game blog that actually occurs at the game.
– I’m sitting courtside right now (actually 2nd row) across from the Wake bench.
– Wake goes up 2-0 on a tough lay-up by James Johnson.
– Great play off the alley-oop from Al-Farouq Aminu. Going to the line for the old-fashion 3-point play.
– Should be a good match-up between Tyrese Rice and Jeff Teague tonight.
Teague Splits the BC Defense
– Wake up 10-2 and BC calls a timeout. Crowd is pretty quiet right now. I guess that’s what happens after watching your team lose to Harvard and Miami back-to-back.
– Nice spin move by Corey Raji to get the crowd back into it and Rice follows with a 3. Rakim Sanders going to the line.
– Rice gets stripped again and Aminu leads the break before dishing off to Teague who finishes. I’ve been impressed by Aminu’s handle so far. Much better than I expected.
– Teague and Aminu head to the bench. Let’s see if BC can capitalize and cut into the lead here.
– Wake is really struggling to get into its offense without Teague and Aminu.
– Dino Gaudio appears to be reading my mind or my laptop and signals for both guys to head to the scorer’s table.
– Rice just got run over there leading to a steal and a Wake Forest fast break. The crowd is less than pleased with the officiating so far.
– Rice with a big 3 to get the crowd back into it.
– Aminu goes behind his back and dishes to Gary Clark for the easy layup. Aminu has been ridiculous so far.
– Wake with another alley-up. That has to at least be a half a dozen just 15 minutes into the game. Isn’t Al Skinner telling his guys to stay with their men?
– Teague and Rice both have 10, but Teague has been much more efficient in doing it. Teague is totally dominating Rice right now. Teague is making a case to be 1st team All-ACC and possibly All-American.
– Wow. The new BC head football coach has been sitting in front of me the entire time and I had no idea. I wonder what kind of contract he had to sign after the Jagodzinski fiasco.
– Wake gets bailed out after an ugly possession before the half. The Demon Deacons go into the break with a 47-24 lead.
– Just had a discussion with a BC official about how he doesn’t like the flex offense they run. I told him I don’t care what type of offense you run as long as it doesn’t look as bad as BC’s tonight. I wonder if I am going to get invited back. Maybe I should keep those thoughts to myself. . .
– Nice alley-oop by Rice to Reggie Jackson pulling the Eagles to within 19. The crowd goes wild. . .
– I wonder if anybody calls Reggie “Mr. October”. Great nickname for baseball not so much for college basketball. . .
– Another 3 by Rice pulls BC back to 16. They can’t possible make this a game. Can they?
– Teague almost threw down a nasty dunk. That might have gotten press row out of its chairs.
– Things getting physical now. An altercation between Rice and L.D. Williams. What’s Rice doing getting involved with L.D. Williams?
– Rice is out of the game for BC. I think this is the first time all night. I wonder how long Skinner will rest him.
– Rice is already standing up next to the BC assistant coach.
– Chas McFarland has been having a solid if quiet game and gets into double figures with that tip in.
– BC cuts it to 13 with 9 minutes left. How are they still in this game?
– Offensive foul on McFarland. BC ball now with a chance to cut it to 10.
– Huge 3 by Rice to cut it to single digits and the crowd erupts. Could we have a “Rush the Court” situation at RTC’s first game as a “media member”?
– Errant pass by Rice. He is a great scorer, but sometimes I question his decision-making. He’s thrown a couple awful alley-oops tonight.
– Strong finish by Teague bumps the lead back up to 14 and quiets the crowd.
– Rice needs to step up here.
– And he does with a nice driving lay-up.
– It looks like it is going to be Teague vs. Rice to finish the game off tonight.
– The crowd is heading to the exits with the Eagles down by 14 with 3:23 left.
The BC Student Section Didn't Have a Lot To Cheer About
– Teague just sealed it with a 10-foot runner in the lane to put Wake up by 15 with 1:30 left.
– “Let’s go defense!” chants from the crowd down by 15 with 50 seconds left.
– Teague with the exclamation point dunk and now Aminu with an alley-oop in the last 30 seconds. Not going to say it’s classless, but I don’t think BC appreciated it. Rice said something to Teague after his dunk.
– Well that’s a wrap for our first live blog at an actual game. Let me know what you think since I’ll be at the Miami-UNC game on Saturday night. Feedback, suggestions, and criticism are all welcome.
BC scored 5 of their points in last years blowout of Wake (30+ points) in the last 9 seconds – including a three pointer. Not saying it’s right to dunk the ball at the end, just saying that you shouldn’t complain when it happens TO you.
Dave–
Thanks for the comment. I understand where you are coming from, but Dino Gaudio mentioned his displeasure with Wake’s aerial display in the closing minute of the game. He also noted that BC had done something similar at the end of the game last year, but said he wanted his team to “respect the game, respect your opponents”. That said I don’t think Rice has any room to complain after last year, but he’s a competitor. I was just pointing out that other teams might use this for motivation down the road like Gaudio said the Wake staff did for the team in the days leading up to this game.
One more thing: I have access to the coaches and players after the game so if you have any questions you want answered, post them during the game in the comment section and I will ask the question (within reason obviously). I recorded the Gaudio press conference and also got to speak to Teague and Aminu so if I can figure out a good way to get them online I will post them.
Nice work with the live blog. Wake could be a very dangerous team come March…while Teague and Aminu are skilled offensive players, I am most impressed by their defensive prowess, and the team’s transition defense as a whole. This is what won them the UNC game, and they showcased it again last night. While the globetrotter stuff in the last minute was weak, they’re young and they’ll learn. Btw, the points scored last year in the last minute by BC were by a walk-on, a guy who transferred, and a guy who hardly sees the court – and they weren’t alley-oops.
Based on BC’s last 3 games, I think it’s safe to say that BC’s victory over UNC doesn’t signal that BC is a major player but, instead, that UNC isn’t. (At least for the time-being).
Matt–
Thanks for the comment. Wake played very good D except for a couple minutes in the 2nd half when BC was able to cut the lead down to 9. Gaudio talked about this afterwards and if I can upload the audio I will try to later. Fair point about the BC-Wake game last year. I wasn’t aware of that since I usually don’t watch the last couple minutes of a blowout involving two middle-of-the-pack ACC teams.
WonderD–
It will be interesting to see how UNC responds to starting 0-2 in the ACC after being hyped as a potentially all-time great team. The loss at Wake is excusable. The loss at home to BC is not.
If anybody has any questions they want answered by players or media personalities at the UNC-Miami game, feel free to post them here so I can try to get some answers before the next live blog on Saturday night.