On The Road Again: Miami Travels to BC Looking To Improve to 4-0

After another huge win against the Maryland Terrapins, Miami hits the road again for their 3^rd road game so far in ACC play to face the Boston College Eagles. This game is what most in the sports world would call a “trap game”. One week from tonight, the Canes will play their biggest game of the season, against the Duke Blue Devils. It’s important for UM to not overlook the task at hand, which is beating BC to improve to 4-0 in ACC play.

Boston College Scouting Report

Taking a look at BC’s roster, one thing is very clear: They rely, a lot, on Ryan Anderson. No, not the New Orleans Hornets power forward Ryan Anderson. Boston College has their own Ryan Anderson. The 6’8, 220 sophomore basically carries this team. He averages nearly 17 points and 10 rebounds a game, which puts him 3^rd in the ACC in both regards. Outside of Anderson, the Eagles have three other players who average at least 10 points a game (Olivier Hanlan, Joe Rahon, and Lonnie Jackson), but none of them shoot over 40% from the floor, so efficiency is clearly a problem outside of Anderson, who shoots 51% from the field.

The Eagles are a poor rebounding team (they rank 9^th in the ACC at 34 per game), and a poor shooting team (they average 44% from the field, and 34% from beyond the arc). To be honest, from what I can tell, the team runs through Ryan Anderson, and if he has an off night, the team is in trouble. Thus…

Key For The Canes

Contain Ryan Anderson. Outside of Anderson, the Eagles aren’t a particularly efficient team, so if you slow him down, the Eagles are left with a lot of volume scorers (guys who need to shoot a lot to get their points). Containing Anderson isn’t easy by any stretch of the word (just ask Virginia Tech, who he torched for 26 points on 11-17 shooting), but I have confidence that the Canes are a good enough defensive team down low to slow Anderson down. Miami needs to take a look at whatever Wake Forest did against Anderson, because they held him to 12 points on 5-12 shooting from the field. That seems to be the recipe for success against BC.

Outside of slowing down Anderson, attacking the basket early and often seems to be a solid plan. From what I can tell by perusing BC box scores, they don’t go very deep on their bench. They only went 3 deep in the Wake Forest game, and basically only 1 deep in the Virginia Tech game. If the Canes can get anybody in foul trouble early, it bodes well for their chances, because the Eagles don’t like going to their bench.

Projected Starting Lineups

Boston College

Forward – Ryan Anderson, 6’8, 220, SO

Guard – Lonnie Jackson, 6’3, 180, SO

Guard – Patrick Heckmann, 6’5, 205, SO

Guard – Olivier Hanlan, 6’4, 188, FR

Guard – Joe Rahon, 6’2, 195, FR

Miami

Center – Julian Gamble, 6’11, 250, SR

Forward – Kenny Kadji, 6’11, 242, SR

Guard – Trey McKinney-Jones, 6’5, 220, SR

Guard – Durand Scott, 6’5, 203, SR

Guard – Shane Larkin, 5’11, 176, SO

Prediction

Based on everything I’ve read, and all the numbers I’ve seen, the Canes should be able to handle Boston College relatively easily. My main concern is that Ryan Anderson gets on a roll early and the whole team feeds off of him, but I think he’s going to have a hard time with Kenny Kadji and Julian Gamble down low. Shane Larkin hasn’t really asserted himself as a scorer since the La Salle game, so I’m expecting him to come out gunning against BC. Final score: 68-57 Miami.