Boston College men’s basketball is heading into its 2022–23 season with a new mentality.
“We can compete with any single team in the ACC,” sophomore Jaeden Zackery said. “Or the country.”
That level of confidence marks a new era for BC men’s basketball and is something it hasn’t had in a very long time—perhaps since it last made the NCAA tournament in 2009.
Led by an energized Earl Grant who is entering his second year as the Eagles’ head coach after a 13-win 2021–22 campaign, BC’s season will officially begin on Monday against Cornell.
And after a short run in the ACC tournament last year that included the Eagles upsetting Wake Forest and then falling to Miami in the quarterfinal round at the buzzer, some are expecting the Eagles to make a jump this year. Zackery said that he and the rest of the returning players certainly are, and they have made it a goal this year to make March Madness after their crushing loss to Miami to end last season.
Returners
Unlike last season, the Eagles head into the 2022–23 season with most of their players back, returning four out of their five starters and four of their five top scorers from last season. That group includes Zackery, senior Quinten Post, and half brothers Makai Ashton-Langford and DeMarr Langford Jr., a graduate student and a junior, respectively.
Post—the only seven-footer on the Eagles’ roster—will take on a much bigger role this season as the lone experienced center after fellow big man James Karnik graduated in the spring.
Freshman Armani Mighty is the only other true center on the roster behind Post.
“It just means that I’ll probably have to step it up and play a few more minutes [than] last year,” Post said during BC’s 2022 media day. “But I do think that the guys that we do have as backup fives also give us the opportunity to play a little smaller, a little quicker. So I do think it can also give advantages for the time that I’m [subbed] out.”
BC’s small-ball lineup includes returner T.J. Bickerstaff, its third tallest player at 6-foot-9. Bickerstaff is a furious rebounder who mostly played power forward for the Eagles last season and bounced in and out of the starting lineup.
Graduate transfer C.J. Penha Jr. could also see action at the five with Bickerstaff, especially early in the season with Post expected to miss some time with a foot injury.
Grant confirmed on Friday that Post’s injury is not a fracture.
“It’s nothing season ending,” Grant said. “It’s something that we gotta manage. I’m glad we found out about it.”
Zackery is back after starting all 33 games for the Eagles as a freshman while shooting just over 47.7 percent from the 3-point line, the highest clip on BC’s roster.
Zackery pairs with Ashton-Langford—who led the Eagles in scoring with 12 points per game last season—in the backcourt. Ashton-Langford is more of a driver with an excellent ability to finish around the basket, making him and Zackery a dangerous one-two punch.
Langford Jr., one of the Eagles’ most athletic players, rounds out the Eagles’ three-man backcourt. Langford Jr. provided BC with mid-range shooting last season, finishing 45.6 percent from the field, while also aggressively getting to the rim.
“I feel it’s really dynamic,” Zackery said of the Eagles’ backcourt. “Because, honestly, we often play one through three so people will scout for me at the point, but then Makai or DeMarr will bring it up [and] we’ll play off the ball. We just have like different levels of threats that we can do on the court with all three of us out there.”
Reserves Devin McGlockton, Quinn Pemberton, Andrew Kenny, Jonathan Noel, and Abe Atiyeh round out BC’s returning group.
“I think now that we’ve had some success, and we assume that if we play a certain way that you know success will find us,” Grant said. “There is a method to the madness. There is a formula that works.”
Acquisitions
The Eagles’ 2022 recruiting class ranks 33rd in the country, according to 247Sports. It includes Prince Aligbe, Donald Hand Jr., Chas Kelley III, and Mighty.
Aligbe, a four-star recruit and former high school teammate of 2022 No. 2 overall draft pick Chet Holmgren, is expected to be BC’s starting power forward. His athleticism gives him the potential to be an elite defender as well as an explosive offensive player for Grant to utilize.
“I’m a two-way player always,” Aligbe said. “Whatever I do on offense [I’ve] got to do the same on defense—play as hard for everything.”
Fellow four-star Hand could also play significant minutes for the Eagles this season, especially after Grant described Langford as “day to day” with an ankle injury.
Hand is a bit raw but offers stellar shooting and poise for such a young player. He averaged 25 points, seven rebounds, and five assists for Landstown High School as a senior.
The Eagles acquired Mason Madsen from Cincinnati via the transfer portal, looking to fill a gap of quality shooters on BC’s roster. Madsen has the potential to be BC’s sixth man for the season, providing a spark off the bench and filling the role Brevin Galloway, who transferred to Clemson, played last season.
“Mason and Donald Hand are both shooters,” Grant said. “They can get it going from three. That’s an added value for us.”
Penha joins the Eagles as a graduate student from Division II Trevecca Nazarene, where he averaged 20.3 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. He’s the embodiment of Grant’s “gritty not pretty” slogan with a sturdy defensive mentality and will look to be a big body and add toughness off the bench for the Eagles.
BC struggled with bench minutes last season, often running with only seven players seeing the court per game. Grant said he hopes his acquisitions help change that this season.
“I think we’ve added some more shooting and we’ve added more length and athleticism,” Grant said. “So I hope those guys can give us a good boost.”
Schedule
The Eagles start the season with six straight non-conference games: Cornell on Nov. 7, Detroit Mercy on Nov. 11, Maine on Nov. 14, George Mason on Nov. 18, Rhode Island on Nov. 27, and Nebraska on Nov. 30. Four of those games—Cornell, Detroit, Maine, and Rhode Island—will be played at home in Conte Forum.
Last season, Grant emphasized how, as a new coach, he wanted the Eagles to end up playing their best basketball in March. The Eagles accomplished that, and Grant said that he hopes BC starts playing that level of basketball even earlier in the season this year.
“I would like to get a good early start,” Grant said. “So we’ve been spending a lot of time scouting our non-conference opponents over the summer just to make sure we got a better feeling right away who we’re gonna be facing.”
The Eagles’ season switches into high gear once they travel to Durham to face Duke on Dec. 3 for their first conference game.
BC will then take on New Hampshire on Dec. 6 before heading to the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. to face former Big East rival Villanova on Dec. 10 for the sixth annual Never Forget Tribute Classic.
When Dec. 21 hits and the Eagles face off against Virginia Tech, the brunt of BC’s conference play will begin. The Eagles play Duke, Syracuse, Virginia, Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech twice each this season.
Notable home games include Notre Dame on Jan. 3, Duke on Jan. 7, Wake Forest on Jan. 14, and Clemson on Jan. 31, marking Galloway’s return to Chestnut Hill.
BC’s student body, however, will be on Winter Break during the Notre Dame, Duke, and Wake games.
The Eagles’ 20 conference games will be crucial, and if they can win half of them—which would only be four more conference wins than last year—they could be looking at a 19-plus win season, landing them right in the middle of the highly competitive ACC.
“I know Rich Strike won the Kentucky Derby,” Grant said. “Nobody thought he could. He got invited an hour before the race. We’re in the race. We get to play the games. That’s all that matters to us.”
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