The Heights Basketball Preview 2016

THE HEIGHTS BASKETBALL PREVIEW 2016

NOWHERE TO GO BUT

UP

C2 JORDAN CHATMAN

C3 MO JEFFERS & CONNAR TAVA

C4 KYRAN BOWMAN

C5 C6-7

JEROME ROBINSON

SCOUTING REPORT

2 THE HEIGHTS NOV. 10, 2016

BASKETBALL PREVIEW JORDAN CHATMAN

MAN AMONG THE BOYS Jordan Chatman, BC’s oldest player, will lead the kids through faith and fearlessness, both on and off the court.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN SPORTS EDITOR

AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

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o one wants to peek out at the tunnel from the visiting locker room. No light exists there. To jog out onto the Blue D at center court is to willingly ship yourself off to battle. Tonight, you won’t have five opponents— you’ll have 9,319. Many of them will be donning white war paint, striped across their faces and down their arms. Their hair will be blue—whether dyed or wigged is a matter of personal preference—and they’ll have “DUKE” written across their chests. Some will scream profanities, though not loud enough for Mike Krzyzewski to hear. Others will target your most precious insecurities. All are looking for blood, death, and conquest.

There are a lot of places on this planet where hell manifests itself upon the soil.

We all have our own versions of it—some seriously, some in jest. For a college basketball player, that place is Cameron Indoor Stadium.

There’s no shame in collapsing under the pressure of playing against the Evil Empire of the Atlantic Coast Conference. For the last 30 years since Krzyzewski took control of the Blue Devils, everyone has. Countless 18-to-22 year olds have come in with the hopes of silencing the Cameron Crazies. Few succeed. Even fewer do if Boston College is on their chest. The Eagles haven’t ever done that in Durham. In 21 meetings, they’ve only beaten Duke twice—once at Conte Forum, the other at a neutral site.

With the Blue Devils projected to be the No. 1 team in the nation, that streak will probably continue on Saturday, Jan. 7. BC will go down to Cameron Indoor, wait in that locker room, and avoid peeking. Delay the moment for as long as possible.

But Jordan Chatman won’t. He lives for these moments. He came to BC for these moments. Posting up for a 3-pointer with the Cameron Crazies screaming at his back isn’t the hard part. Chatman is a graduate transfer from Brigham Young and the latest piece in Jim Christian’s puzzle-in-progress. He spent two years away from the game on a Mormon mission and had to take a whole year to re-train back into game-time shape. He left his family in pursuit of the higher purpose of his faith. He even once got chased through a field by a man wielding a machete.

Jordan Chatman has been through the hard part. Now it’s time to catch-and-shoot.

But when Jeff tried to pursue his own professional career, scouts saw his 7-foot-1 wingspan and 39-inch vertical—the latter of which, Jeff made very clear, is long gone—as a perfect perimeter player. He turned down

a 3-pointer that sent the crowd in the frenzy.

Everyone, from the announcer to the tape afterward, saw his foot was well beyond the line.

Everyone, that is, except the ref.

After calling it a 2-pointer, Union had to foul. With how little time was left, any chance at tying the game was for naught. The Titans lucked out because their opponent missed both free throws. In futile desperation and exasperation, Chatman chucked the ball crosscourt. From 80 feet away, it hit the bottom of the net, deepening the frustration.

If the ref had just called that shot a 3-pointer, they still could be playing today. Nevertheless, the shot was awesome.

“You just got to move on when something like that happens,” Chatman said in an interview last week.

“But it was cool, man, it was really cool.”

“” He is who he is, and he is whoever the Heavenly Father wants him to be.

T

he catch-and-shoot, deep threat from beyond the arc hasn’t always been the hallmark of the Chatman family. His father, Jeff, became legendary at Brigham Young for his strong game in the post. Despite his smaller-than-traditional stature—6-foot-6 as a big man isn’t cutting it today—Jeff dominated with his inside game. In the 1987-88 season, Jeff, then a senior, lifted the Cougars to a 26-6 record.

He scored 19.5 points per game shooting a a 59.5 percent clip while playing in every game that year. That year, the Cougars topped out at No. 3, before falling in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and finishing at No. 19.

tryouts with two NBA teams to play professionally in Switzerland. But Jeff didn’t enjoy that style of play and lacked the necessary skills to play at the one or two, so in 1989, he returned to the States to start a family with his college sweetheart, Leah, moving on to the other things that made him happy.

But Jeff made himself a promise. If his children wanted to play basketball one day, they’d be doing it as guards.

The Chatmans’ oldest daughter, Jocelyn, didn’t want that path—after graduating from BYU, she’s now a costume designer on Broadway. But Jordan and his younger sister Jessica let their dad know early on that they wanted to follow in his footsteps.

Every morning at 6 a.m., the three of them would head outside to shoot around, each getting the other’s rebounds. Even from a young age, Jeff saw the potential for Chatman to become a big but nimble guard. He helped his son with the things around which he built a mystique at Brigham Young—how to guard on both the perimeter and in the post, and how to lock down on defense. But, knowing how tall he’d be—Jordan now stands at 6-foot-5—Jeff wanted him to learn the skills to shoot over his opponents.

When Chatman met up with Maco Hamilton, he developed his near-automatic stroke.

Hamilton, now the head coach at George Fox University, was leading the charge at the newly founded Union High School in Camas, Wash.

Under Hamilton, Chatman crafted a mid-range game that his former coach described as one of the best in the country. He got even better from not only beyond the arc, but from the NBA 3-point line.

“If Jordan was on, the whole team was going to be okay,” Leah said.

For most of his career, Chatman was the best player on the team, but he flew under the radar because of where he lived. That changed during the 4A Washington State Boys’ Basketball Championships. Chatman had already averaged 20.6 points and six boards per game during that season, but in the tournament, he bumped that average up to 27.7.

His most memorable moment came in the state semifinals. Late, down by six, Chatman hit

T

he Seattle media took notice of Chatman’s stellar performance, awarding him the Gatorade Washington State Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year Award. With his name on big boards across the country, the calls began to pour in. To Jeff, the most intriguing one came from Palo Alto. Jeff had instilled the importance of an education—his son reflected that by earning his associate’s degree in a community college program during high school.

And no West Coast school combines academic and basketball respect quite like Stanford.

But Jeff also wanted Chatman to pick his own path, and that road led to Provo. Chatman loved the fast-paced offense of Dave Rose. He had grown familiar with BYU from constant trips and friends and relatives who also attended.

Most importantly, Chatman felt a higher calling. From a young age, his deep Mormon faith had been a determining factor in how he lived. Hamilton recalled that Chatman had a strong and convicted faith—it wasn’t outward, but it was deep and devout. Chatman had no fear of breaking out his Bible on road trips to better connect with the Lord. As a core of the faith, Chatman desired to take up a mission, the birthright of 18-year-old Mormons to spread the teachings of the LDS Church.

Only BYU would be patient with him as he chose this journey. Chatman filled out his application and waited for the church elders to select his destination. To his surprise, the leaders decided his path would take him Taipei, Taiwan. Considering some of the options, Leah was thrilled.

“As a mom, I was like, ‘Yes, a country that has no weapons,’” Leah said.

Chatman headed off to a training center for about two months to learn Mandarin Chinese before preparing for his journey. His father, who grew up a Southern Baptist and was too old to take up a mission, couldn’t have been prouder to see his boy sent off on the conviction of his faith.

Of course, that’s when reality sets in.

“And then the pain hits,” Jeff said. “For two years, my son will be gone.”

Chatman felt that shock, too, the second he landed in Taiwan. He struggled to fully grasp the language at first, and noticed the culture

shock of a lack of diversity. With only one email a week and two Skype days—Mother’s Day and Christmas—Chatman longed for his family.

The biggest change would come in basketball.

After spending every day of his whole life with a ball in his hand, Chatman’s practice time would be restricted to a few hours, one day a week. He stayed in shape by walking and biking everywhere, but his physical skills diminished as his body grew unbalanced.

So Chatman threw himself into his work.

He taught English once a week at the mission, helped out at local libraries, and picked up trash in the community. Of course, the core of a Mormon mission is proselytizing the local community. It’s an arduous and specific process to convince people that the Mormon faith is right for them. That path is made more difficult in an area like Taipei, where many locals are Buddhist or Daoist. The message becomes harder to relay, Chatman said, when locals have little to no knowledge of Jesus Christ or the Christian conception of God. He recalled one story of a man who had converted to the faith prior to his arrival in Taipei, but had strayed from the church in recent years. Chatman and a few other missionaries went to the countryside to find him.

But when they were there, they found a cast of characters that weren’t exactly receptive to missionaries. That included a man who wildly waved a machete at them through a field, and a woman with one eye who demanded they get off her doorstep.

Eventually, Chatman found the man and helped to reignite his faith. He believes the core message of what makes Mormonism most appealing—at least to him—revolves around happiness and a family-oriented base. That’s what attracted him to make his faith as strongly as it is. And though only in his early 20s while abroad, Chatman thinks the journey helped make him the man he is today.

“It doesn’t matter how experienced you are, if it’s a true message and true faith, anyone at any age can share it,” Chatman said. “You really grow up in those years.”

P

ay no attention to what the BC roster says Chatman’s grade is. He doesn’t fall into any traditional category. Unlike most graduate transfers, Chatman has three years of eligibility remaining. Because of that, the 23-year-old must be listed as a sophomore.

Though he is technically going to depart BC at the same time as many of his teammates, like team cornerstones Jerome Robinson and A.J. Turner, everyone sees Chatman as a leader. He chooses to guide not by yelling and clapping, but in silence and by example.

Every shot Chatman takes in practice, he watches intently. If it goes in, he smiles and turns back into line. If it’s off, he’ll watch where it’s going off the rim or boards, and make the proper adjustment for the next one. He never strays from that even-keeled demeanor, something his father believes has made him a natural winner.

“He can slam dunk a basketball and have the same expression as when he misses a wide-open

2015-16 STAT PER 40 AT BYU: 10.6 3.9 3.0 0.4

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layup,” Jeff said.

Equally as important to this young BC lineup, Chatman provides a foundation of what you want to be when you grow into adulthood.

He can connect with the younger guys—he watches all the same shows and listens to rap, though only the clean versions, no curses.

But Chatman is already married and preparing to start family life. He has already been through some tough decisions in his life, like the transfer to BC. Chatman had wanted to stay at BYU to go to law school, but when the program wouldn’t make adjustments for a part-time schedule, he adjusted course to do what’s best for his future. One of those changes involved realizing his passions lied more in business, not law. He has it all planned out, too—after he graduates with his MBA, Chatman wants to attempt to play professionally in China and may go into the business world over there. It’s the kind of future plan that Turner and his teammates respect and will model themselves after.

“Guys our age, some of us struggle getting mature,” Turner said. “Having him around, he’s like a fatherly figure.”

Chatman is a funny paradox for Jim Christian. On one hand, maturity-wise, Chatman is the man among the boys. He has a deeper understanding of where to be on the court, and can accept criticism better than anyone.

On the other hand, in a purely basketball sense, Chatman is as young as everyone else.

He learned from great players at BYU, such as Kyle Collinsworth, the NCAA’s triple-double record-holder, and the Cougars reached the NIT semifinals last season.

Coming off his redshirt re-training year, Chatman didn’t play too much. He averaged 10 minutes a game, with 2.6 points and a rebound.

While he played in 36 of BYU’s 37 games last season, it will still take time for Chatman to build up those minutes. He currently isn’t projected to crack the starting lineup, and still may need time to be a consistent bench threat for long stretches.

But as his father pointed out, when Chatman does come in, he’ll make a huge impact.

Chatman actually led BYU in average plus/ minus last season, adjusted to 40 minutes per game. When he plays, his team wins. And, while he may be young in an on-court sense, he has no fear of hostile environments. Chatman has had doors shut in his face and his life in danger. He’s been through the best the West Coast Conference had to offer—Gonzaga and St. Mary’s on the road are no joke. The Cameron Crazies aren’t going to stop him. No matter the challenge, Chatman will be the same cold-blooded shooting threat who can inspire through example by silencing a crowd with his deadly shot. With his faith at his back, Chatman is ready for anything.

“He is who he is,” Jeff said, “and he is whoever the Heavenly Father wants him to be.”

Now, the Heavenly Father wants him to be in Chestnut Hill. The hardest part of Chatman’s journey is over. He has experienced the world, grown closer to his faith, and is ready for the next step. Regardless of where and when he plays. for Chatman, it’s time for the fun.

Just pass him the ball from beyond the arc.

He’s ready to step back and fire away.

BASKETBALL PREVIEW KYRAN BOWMAN

NOV. 10, 2016 THE HEIGHTS 3

A goofball off the court and a monster on it, Kyran Bowman is ready to electrify BC at the point guard position.

TOM DEVOTO HEIGHTS EDITOR

SENIOR STATS:

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Y

our nickname says a lot about you.

Tim Duncan is “The Big Fundamental”—a perfect representation of his understated, efficient style. Karl Malone is “The Mailman”—no matter the day, no matter the opponent, he would deliver. Robert Traylor was “Tractor” Traylor, a nickname that fit the 6-foot-8, 300-pound mammoth of a human being like a glove. Aquille Carr is known as “The Crime Stopper.” Legend has it that the crime rate in his hometown of Baltimore would drop during his games at Patterson High School because everyone came to watch.

Kyran Bowman is “The First 48.”

An ode to the homicide investigation documentary series of the same name, it was given to the Boston College freshman point guard by former coach Kendrick Williams.

The reasoning behind the nickname is quite simple—Bowman has a knack for posterizing helpless defenders with mesmerizing dunks.

It’s a good idea to stay out of Bowman’s way on a drive toward the rim. Honestly, there’s no way to win—Bowman can pull up from distance and go around an interior defender with crafty inside finishing, too.

But if you’re in the way, he’ll go through you. Without hesitation, without doubt, without fear, Bowman is wired to attack. The nickname, then, fits him well. Everybody knows it.

“I had teachers who would call me ‘The First 48,’” Bowman said. “Our town is so small, and everybody knows each other. So when I go back home, everybody will say, ‘What’s up, First 48?’ It’s a cool experience for me.”

That was the most important part of Bowman’s coronation—no nickname is truly official unless the public likes it and adopts it. The tight-knit community in Bowman’s hometown of Havelock, N.C., has rallied around Bowman and his tenacious identity on the court. His mother, Lauretha Prichard, had a T-shirt made depicting “before” and “after” images from one of Bowman’s most vicious dunks.

Even the television show itself is supportive of the nickname. Once producers heard about Bowman’s story, they sent him a gift package that included a T-shirt, water bottle, and other small gifts. They penned a letter, congratulating him on all his success and wishing him more in the future.

They believed in the Carolina kid who sported a nickname fit for a star. Many others have, too. Now Bowman is out to prove to the believers that they supported a worthy cause—and that the doubters missed out on the investment of a lifetime.

B

owman is a natural athlete—he’s played football and basketball since he was young. In fact, a lot of the skills he has on the basketball court come from things he’s learned on the gridiron.

Football made Bowman comfortable with physical play. He can absorb contact in the lane, just as he did as a wide receiver in high school, shaking off defensive backs on fly routes. He fights through screens at the top of the key like he fights through blocks on the line of scrimmage. His quick instincts on the hardwood can be attributed to his ability to jump routes as a cornerback.

Bowman has uncles and cousins, like New York Jets linebacker Bruce Carter, who have

played at the highest levels of their respective sports. He fondly remembers evenings spent with his brothers playing in the driveway until neighbors pleaded with the children to call it a night.

Only one sport captured his heart from the first time he picked it up, though.

“Basketball is his love,” Prichard said.

“He’s good at football, too—he could have gone to college for both sports. But his love is basketball. You can just see it when he’s out there playing.”

It’s true that Bowman could have played both football and basketball at a collegiate level—before he committed to BC, Bowman signed on to play football at the University of North Carolina (with the expectation that he would join the basketball team in the second semester).

Things changed, however, before he ever arrived at Chapel Hill. Bowman started questioning his decision to play football.

“Football was just something I played to get noticed, since my high school team won a lot of state championships and our basketball team wasn’t as good,” Bowman said. “I went with my heart in choosing to play basketball.”

When Bowman decided to open up his recruitment again, BC came into the picture almost immediately. Unlike other schools that were after him, though, BC was forthcoming and honest. Bowman listed things that he liked about BC, and they seem like things that people do out of common courtesy—showing up on the day you say you will, staying to chat for a few minutes after games—but colleges treat potential recruits worse than you’d think.

“I wanted to be somebody’s ‘A’ choice, not their ‘B’ choice,” Bowman said. “And that was definitely the case here.”

“I was most interested in BC because BC was most interested in him,” Prichard added.

“It was always the head coach [Jim Christian] that came, not just the assistant [Scott Spinelli], when they visited. I could tell they really wanted my child.”

Bowman’s heart has guided him through more than just the decision concerning which sport to play or which school to attend. His heart is his beacon, his compass, his North Star. When it seems like everything is collapsing around him, Bowman has relied on his heart.

He needed his heart when his father died.

Bowman was only 8 years old, far younger than a child burying his father should be. His is father was in Arizona at the time, mistaken n for the wrong man and beaten to the brink of death. He went to the hospital and died the next day. Bowman and his family found out shortly thereafter, and immediately left to go to his funeral. To this day, Bowman doesn’t like to talk about it much.

He needed his heart when his brother, Michael, lost his college scholarship.

The Bowmans committed to play collegiate football on the same day—Kyran to North Carolina, Michael to South Carolina.

But Michael got into some trouble shortly after his commitment, so South Carolina pulled his offer. Though he

eventually locked up another offer from local junior college Winston-Salem State University, Michael recently violated parole.

“He gets out of jail on January 14,” Bowman said. “He’s looking for a job, but it’ll be tough for him to find one because of his record. He’s my blood brother, and we’ve been through a lot of the same stuff.”

He needed his heart when his grandmother died, too. It was his birthday last year, a day that was supposed to be a celebratory occasion. He had just received a personal invite from the University of Oregon to attend a camp in Eugene. Because of the circumstances, he couldn’t attend. Bowman said that was one of the biggest factors that led him to decommit from UNC and play basketball only.

But through it all, Bowman persevered. He made it through high school. He made it out of Havelock and he made it to BC. He’s made it through most of his first semester of college.

For that, he has his heart to thank.

Oh, and also Adele.

Basketball locker rooms are almost always bumping the latest rap music—the songs that get everybody pumped up and ready to get work done. The thumping bass lines, the high-octane beats, the unforgettable flows are as closely tied to athletics as peanut butter is to jelly. In many respects, rap culture and basketball culture are nearly identical.

Bowman will listen to that stuff, and he doesn’t necessarily mind it. A self-proclaimed fan of all genres of music, it’s clear that there isn’t much that bothers him. But if he had his way, Bowman would get his teammates listening to a bit of a different playlist. A little bit more Nina Simone, for one. Maybe some of Akon’s older songs. And definitely more of the modern British pop singer’s powerful ballads.

“Adele is my go-to pregame music,” Bowman said. “Favorite song is ‘Someone Like You.’ It puts me in my own zone before a game. It takes everything off my mind. When I listen to songs like that, it just puts me in my own place.”

It’s an unexpected wrinkle in Bowman’s story that you would never gather from looking at him, but there’s more to him than meets the eye. He likes to smile, he likes to joke, and he loves Adele. Her music takes stress off him, so he can focus on taking stress off of those he cares about.

“I’m just trying to

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23.4 8.7 4.7 2.4

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KAITLIN MEEKS / HEIGHTS STAFF

make sure my mom isn’t stressed about stuff, because she worries a lot,” Bowman said. “I want to make sure that my nieces and nephews have food to eat and clothes to wear. I want to make sure they have a lot of the stuff that I didn’t have.”

W

hen electricity is added to an atom, the electrons within that atom are boosted from a ground state—in which they are stable and have little energy—to an excited state.

BC basketball could use a boost like that.

Last year’s squad, which limped to a 7-25 record with zero conference wins, played slow and with little energy. Offensive possessions ended with poor looks from deep behind the 3-point line, and defensive stands would conclude feebly with lightly-contested baskets.

In the offseason, the Eagles needed an electric shock. They needed to find someone who would inspire the program, who would push his teammates farther than they’ve been pushed before.

They found their guy, because Bowman has the energy to elevate BC. Now, it might not be immediate. Individually, his stats might not jump out to the average fan. It’s not even a guarantee that Bowman will start most games this season.

But Bowman’s attitude—his demeanor, his determination, his undying passion for

the game—rubs off on people. Bowman pushes people to dive after that loose ball that’s slowly rotating toward the sideline, or take a few extra free throws after practice ends, or sacrifice the body to get a charging call on the defensive end.

Shortly after he committed to BC, Havelock High School head coach Daniel Griffee told BCEagles.com that Bowman was one of the most gifted players he has coached in his career, speaking incredibly highly of his recent graduate.

“Kyran Bowman is the most explosive, athletic, savvy, and toughest player I have ever coached,” Griffee said. “He will not be outworked or outplayed. He is a team-first player whose leadership off the floor carries over into more W’s for the team.”

Bowman wants it so bad that those around him have no choice but to match his intensity level. He elevates not only his own game, but the game of all those around him.

“There’s a tear shed every once in awhile just knowing that he’s made it,” Prichard said.

“Throughout his life, Kyran has been trying to lift everyone’s burden—putting it on himself to make it easier for everyone else. He’s a special kid, and it’s wonderful to see him moving further in his life.”

He’s fought his whole life, for more than just basketball, and now he’s here. Bowman carries a family name, a little town by the beach, a legacy on his broad shoulders.

He won’t drop them.

I just like keepi keeping a smile on people’s face faces. I’ve been through a lot lot, sso just trying to stay happy is important to me. I just want to make sure everyone is feeling ling happy, and that this is like home.

KAITLIN MEEKS / HEIGHTS STAFF

MAKE IT BIG

4 THE HEIGHTS NOV. 10, 2016

BASKETBALL PREVIEW JEFFERS AND TAVA

Two graduate seniors arrive at Boston College having always been the big guys.

But in the ACC, everyone else is bigger.

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hen Jim Christian took over the reins as the head coach of Boston College men’s basketball in 2014, a rebuild was imminent.

Out of the 13 players on BC’s roster that season, only three had more than two years of eligibility remaining. Two of those players—Idy Diallo and Darryl Hicks—transferred after last season, leaving current senior Garland Owens as the only remaining player from that first year. Christian had serious work to do to get BC back to being a sustainable, competitive program in the ACC. That process is underway. Last year, he brought in Jerome Robinson and A.J. Turner, two three-star recruits who started as freshmen and will play the two and three this year, and Ervins Meznieks, a suitable forward off the bench. This year, he got Ky Bowman and Ty Graves, two freshman point guards with good potential to grow.

But the biggest issue was filling the void of BC’s biggest man: Dennis Clifford. Injuries sidetracked the 7-footer from really reaching his full potential until the latter half of last season, but he was still a good guy for BC’s youth to look up to (physically and metaphorically) during a long, losing season.

But tall, old man Clifford is no longer an Eagle, and his departure left BC without a man over 6-foot7, save the young, undeveloped Johncarlos Reyes. Without any available high school recruits talented enough to fill the void right away, Christian did the only other thing he could: go after a graduate senior to give his younger guys a year to develop. As it turned out, he managed to snag two—Connar Tava and Mo Jeffers, each with several years of experience bodying up college players in the paint. Even better, they also happen to be guys who are ready to make those headsup plays it takes to win.

“They’re the right kind of kids,” Christian said of the two. “They’re all about winning. They get it, and they play hard, and they play right … They give us a toughness that young guys just aren’t going to have.”

It’s their job moving forward to make the team big, both in gearing up for the future and in fitting with this year’s scheme.

There’s just one problem—they aren’t that big. At least, not by ACC standards. So first, they have to rise up themselves

T

ava was born as a coach’s dream.

For his entire life, according to his father, Tava (that’s “tay-vee,” not “tay-va” or “tah-va”) has been the definition of a team player. He had natural talent, but he also put high levels of energy into whichever game he was playing.

Up until high school, when he was forced into choosing just one sport, that meant playing pretty much everything—basketball, hockey, football, and baseball. He was such a valuable addition to every team that coaches all vied for his time, permitting him to skip practice if needed just so he could make the games.

They didn’t want him on the court, ice, or field because Tava was a dominant scoring force. He could be that if he wanted to—there were nights when he would put up 25 points, but even then he might not realize it. Some guys say they’d rather get an assist than a basket.

Tava felt that way constantly.

“He always wanted his teammates to score,” Mark Tava said.

“He doesn’t care if he scores 35 or three.”

That degree of selflessness wasn’t limited to the court. By high school, he had narrowed his focus to basketball, his favorite activity. As a sophomore, when Tava became old enough to drive himself, his parents got him a car to commute to and from De La Salle Collegiate High School, a Catholic school about a half hour south from his hometown of Macomb, Mich., that Turner also attended. Over time,

as his dad sometimes filled up the tank for him, Mark noticed the car—a late-’90s GMC Envoy—was getting poor gas milage relative to the Tavas’ distance from school. At last, he gave up on the car, getting his son a Dodge Avenger with the hope it would live up to its 30 miles per gallon billing.

Some time later, when families of the team members were gathered at an event, the Tavas were greeted with several bizarre messages. Both parents and teammates of Tava’s came up to them, saying how appreciative they were of him. At least one player expressed that he wouldn’t have managed to stay on the team without him.

As it turned out, Tava had taken to picking up several members of the team for practice, going out of his way to help out the guys who otherwise couldn’t have made it.

He had never mentioned it to his parents—he just did it because he thought it was the right thing to do.

“We never told him to do it,” Mark said, referring both to his son’s on- and off-court selflessness.

“He did that on his own.”

After graduating from De La Salle, Tava went to Western Michigan. He played some solid minutes off the bench in his first year before coming into his own as a sophomore and junior, ranking third and second in those seasons, respectively, on the team in points per game. But he still hadn’t abandoned his role to make others better—in both seasons, he led the squad in assists as a power forward.

Tava came into his senior year as the team’s returning leader in points, assists, and rebounds, earning him a preseason all-MAC selection. A sore right foot during the summer limited his workouts, but with extra rest, he prepared to play through the pain and take the court in November. Then he came down hard on his other foot one day in practice, breaking it and ending his last season before it began.

It wasn’t an easy reality, but Tava was built to handle it. He used the time off the court to watch, an opportunity he’d rarely had in his career. It slowed the game down for him, giving him a sideline coaching perspective.

“He’s not been just a coach on the floor,” Western Michigan head coach Steve Hawkins told MLive. com last December. “At practice he’s out here every day … There’s not a guy on this team, including the new guys, that doesn’t know what he’s done.”

In coming to BC, he hasn’t skipped a beat.

“Getting here, I’m kinda doing the same role,” Tava said. “If I can see something, you know, I try to tell Niko [Popovic], JC [Reyes], whomever. Whatever I can see.”

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nlike Tava, who never especially outsized the competition, Jeffers was always the big guy. He has towered over everyone since day one—just ask his mother.

“Since his very first day,” Robin Delk said with a laugh.

The oldest story she told dated back to his first day of preschool, when the 4-year-old D.C. boy stepped into school for the first time. His mom asked people at the school where to take her son for preschool, and they were directed to the cafeteria. Upon arriving there, they were told they had made a mistake—Jeffers should be in the auditorium. There, they discovered that was actually the place for first-graders, and they had to head on back. It took some time to convince the preschool teachers he belonged there in the cafeteria.

It’s hard to blame them—by that time he was already the height of a second-grader.

Jeffers continued to grow fast.

At one point, he wanted to take karate, but the instructors wouldn’t let him. A kid who had reached 6-foot4 by middle school was far too big to face other children, they feared, while lack of experience made him incapable of taking on adults his

alec greaney HEIGHTS EDITOR

BC ranks last in the ACC in average height of forwards and centers at 79.8 in.

The ACC average is 80.7 in.

9th

2014-15 ranking in MAC

6.2

Rebounds/ Game

3.3

Assists/ Game

6 ft. 4 in. in Middle School

32

Blocks in 2015-16

1st

on team

6th

in CAA

size. He picked up football and baseball instead, as well as break dancing, which complemented his love of music.

Those activities, among others, kept him busy as a kid. And that was before basketball had even entered the picture. He never played, according to his mother, because he didn’t want people making assumptions about him based on his height.

“He used to say, ‘Because I’m tall, they think I’ll always know what to do,’” Delk said.

She also didn’t want him playing out on the streets in the inner city, so she kept his schedule full with other things. When he finally told her in eighth grade that he wanted to try it, she supported him, getting a hoop to put up next to their house. He and his friends took advantage of it.

Before he could really play at a competitive level, however, Jeffers had some business to take care of.

He needed people to know he was more than just a tall guy playing the sport, so he sat down at the computer one weekend and taught himself the rules. Until he felt comfortable with the fundamental points and the basic, overall strategy, he wouldn’t try out.

“He’ll research something until he gets it, and then he’ll go full throttle,” Delk said.

The work paid off. After playing for two seasons at Woodrow Wilson High School, he transferred to finish at Calvin Coolidge, a school he led to the DCIAA semifinals as District All-Star. Jeffers served as a good role player his junior year and began as a starter for Delaware last season, but then his offensive production slipped—after shooting 57 percent in 2014-15, his production dipped to 40.2 percent the following year.

At times like that, his mother can tell when he feels he’s struggling on the floor. He’s not religious, she said, but is very spiritual. On the sideline, Jeffers will sometimes pause for a minute, putting his head down in his hands to think over a past play. He goes back to that research, taking in the game and analyzing what he could have done differently.

In completing his third season of NCAA eligibility, Jeffers decided he wanted a change. Before he could make any moves, he first had to graduate from Delaware, though he was just shy of the necessary credits.

To get the final ones he needed, he took on an internship over the summer working at a group home in Pennsylvania that housed misbehaved kids. The director, who knew the family and gave him the position, was hesitant about Jeffers’s ability to handle it, since he comes off as a very quiet kid.

She need not have worried.

The kids grew fond of him quickly, waiting, excited, for him to show up every day. The internship was only scheduled to last for a couple weeks, but he stayed for over a month to keep volunteering.

Now, at BC, he’ll continue his role as a mentor—even if he didn’t like the idea of making the trek up to New England to do it. Jeffers hates the cold, his mother said—she had to give him a bit of a push to get them on the plane. In arriving and meeting the coaching staff and some players, as well as former graduate senior Dimitri Batten, Jeffers found a place where he felt both comfortable and needed. He was sold from there.

I

n the past two years under Christian, men’s basketball has taken on three graduate transfers. In year one, he had Batten and Aaron Brown, two hard-working guys who rarely filled the stat sheet but served as decent role players behind Olivier Hanlan.

In year two, Christian brought in Eli Carter, a point guard from Florida who took over the reigns as the team’s main offensive weapon.

Carter was supposed to be the guy that helped BC stay competitive while getting those underclassmen ACC-ready. Instead, he spent much

of the season struggling to remain efficient, taking 33.2 percent of the team’s shots—the 14th-highest by any player in the country—many of which were poor-look threes.

He led the team in assists with 4.0 per game, but also led with 3.5 turnovers a game, and the team’s offensive efficiency as a whole ranked in the bottom 10 percent in the country, according to kenpom. com.

Carter was, overall, a veteran guy used to running the show. He needed to keep the ball in his own hands to be productive—that just wasn’t a formula that worked. It also limited the visible on-court improvement by the younger guys around him, something fifth-year players should be expected to cultivate. Jeffers and Tava have already addressed that goal.

“It’s exciting to see all of the potential that we do have,” Tava said. “We’re only here for one year, but definitely going to follow them and try to help them, cause they have the talent and work ethic to do something great.”

Their playing styles should also fit better with the scheme.

They came not primarily for their offensive potential—though they will be utilized there—but to just be the big guys.

“I was brought here not only to come contribute for this year, but to make our bigs a little tougher,” Jeffers said. “That’s my thing. I wanna get everyone tougher for the ACC.” They know they’ll have to be tough—Tava will be working as a power forward at 6-foot-6, and Jeffers as the center at 6-foot-9.

They’re not short, but they will have to go up against strong ACC opponents with a couple inches of an advantage. This season, BC’s forwards and centers are, on average, the shortest compared to every other team in the conference.

The key thing is, these aren’t guys who will be weak in the post.

BC lists Jeffers at 240 pounds and Tava at 250. Maybe more importantly, they have the in-person look that they’re tough. Definitely more importantly, they have the attitude that they’re tough.

“I’m a little bit smaller, so I make up with it in strength,” Tava said.

“I’m undersized, too,” Jeffers added. “So just gotta stay stronger, have a lot of attitude. I’m not gonna let nobody push me around.”

But it would be a great oversimplification to just call them tough.

That’s where it comes back to the small stuff, the intellectual parts of the game. Picking up the right man on a switch, bodying up your man as a shot goes up, making a cut to the hoop when a play breaks down instead of idling on the perimeter— those all make a difference.

In their own ways, Tava and Jeffers have been learning to play that type of basketball throughout their careers. Neither ever really needed that part of the game to succeed, since their size at every previous level would have given them good odds of succeeding.

Now the time has come to put it to use. They know it.

“It’s the little fundamental technique things that you have to do right when you’re undersized, you have to do everything perfect to make that play,” Tava said. “If you do one thing wrong, someone who’s a little bit larger can make up for that.”

Both guys have also come in with optimistic attitudes. In addressing the team’s goal, they answered at the same time, without hesitation: “Get a bid” and “Make it to the NCAA tournament.” They’re aware the realistic odds are low, but they want to build a positive culture, buying into and building off of Christian’s vision to make the Eagles competitive in the ACC. And at the very least, they’re determined to make it hard and aggravating for teams to come play BC. “The big guys, they hate those little, annoying, energetic dudes that won’t let them have their spot.”

Jeffers said with a chuckle. “It makes them mad. So that’s what we do.”

NOV. 10, 2016 THE HEIGHTS 5

BASKETBALL PREVIEW SCOUTING REPORT

KY BOWMAN CLASS: Freshman PROJECTED ROLE: Starting Point Guard 2015-16 PER GAME STATS: 23.4 Points, 8.7 Rebounds, 4.7 Assists, 2.4 Steals Havelock High School, North Carolina

B

owman, who has focused exclusively on basketball for just over one year, is a former North Carolina football commit. Much to the delight of the coaching staff, he brings that physicality to the hardwood. At 6-foot-1 and a chiseled 180 pounds, Bowman is far from the typical freshman that needs time to physically adjust to the collegiate game. In addition to his frame, he boasts the best athleticism on the roster. Already, he shows promise as a lockdown defender, with the foot speed to move laterally with any assignment and the strength to keep his body in front of the offensive player. If Bowman can force a turnover on defense, he has the ability to run a one-man fast break. His potential as a nightmare in transition has led Christian to place an emphasis on increasing the Eagles’ pace during the preseason.

Offensively, Bowman initially projects as more of a driver and secondary creator in the half court. He can use his speed and strength to drive through a defense that has already been bent and either finish at the rim or kick the ball to an open shooter. In pickand-rolls, Bowman’s energy can sometimes get the best of him, and he needs to learn how to change speeds a bit more. He commits some turnovers simply because he’s playing too fast. Bowman’s jumper, while at times inconsistent, will develop as the season progresses. He should be capable of making catch-and-shoot 3-pointers from the beginning of the season.

At least initially, look for Bowman to have a role similar to the one Marcus Smart plays on the Boston Celtics. Play physical defense on opposing ball handlers, run in transition, and attack the rim in the halfcourt.

SCOUTING REPORT CHRIS NOYES HEIGHTS staff

J

effers will man the center position for the Eagles this season, after the graduation of Dennis Clifford. While his offensive skill set will likely be limited to dunks and putbacks, Jeffers is a player who knows his role and won’t try to go outside it.

Though he shot just 40.2 percent last season, after shooting 57 percent the prior season, Jeffers has surprised coaches in practice with his energy and ability to finish around the rim. Against Stonehill, he managed to score 20 points, even mixing in some rare postups against much smaller defenders. Jeffers struggles to shoot jumpers and free throws, but if he continues to run the floor hard and

against Stonehill last week. Off the dribble, he’s most effective at shooting mid-range jumpers.

Though he shot 38 percent on 3-pointers last season, most of them were of the catch-andshoot variety.

Robinson shot well in limited post-up chances last season, using his height to score over smaller guards on quick-hitting plays. In the paint, Robinson has a variety of finishes, with both hands. Though he sometimes struggled to score efficiently there early last season, he improved by the end of the campaign, showcasing deceptive explosion.

One area of improvement for Robinson is free throws—for a player that constantly drives to the rim, he shot just three free throws per game his freshman season. Against Stonehill, he got to the line eight times, highlighting his new emphasis on aggression and finishing through contact, something Christian has been drilling hard in preseason practice.

PROJECTED ROLE: Backup Point Guard 2015-16 PER GAME STATS: 11.2 Points, 2.2 Rebounds High Point Christian Academy, North Carolina

G

raves, though a more highly touted recruit that Bowman, appears set to start the season as the backup point guard. This mainly stems from his transition to the physicality of college basketball, as Graves’s 6-foot, 160-pound frame is significantly smaller than the majority of starting ACC guards. In practice, Bowman has sent Graves clattering to the floor a few times on bull rushes to the rim.

Much like he did in high school, it will only be a matter of time before Graves figures out how to compensate. And when he does, he will pull neck-and-neck with Bowman for the top point guard spot on the team. Graves is extremely athletic for

PROJECTED ROLE: Starting Small Forward 2015-16 PER GAME STATS: 5.8 Points, 3.5 Rebounds, 1.6 Assists Boston College ferent role, he might be able to have a rebound.

Instead of lead scorer, he may be better cast as a perimeter shooter and secondary creator. Toward the end of last season, Turner displayed good passing vision, especially on the break.

Against Stonehill, he had a team-leading seven assists. He made several nice passes from the post, where he can use his size to see over the defense and pick out open shooters.

On defense, though his frame leaves him at a bit of a disadvantage, Turner’s lengthy wingspan presents opponents with a stiff challenge. He’s capable of guarding wings and stretch power forwards, allowing Christian lineup flexibility.

such a small guard, needing just one step from a standing position to dunk the ball.

He has mastered the change-of-pace game that Bowman still needs and has a very tight handle.

Graves also has the vision of a true point guard, seeing his teammates at all times. He has honed the mental aspect of the position and knows how to set up the offense. While he may not possess the transition skill of Bowman, he makes up for it with half-court acumen. Graves will likely struggle finishing around the rim early in the season, but he has developed a very smooth 3-point stroke, which will enable him to make an impact on the scoreboard.

JORDAN CHATMAN CLASS: Sophomore PROJECTED ROLE: Backup Shooting Guard

GORDON GEHAN

2015-16 PER GAME STATS: 2.8 Points, 1.0 Rebounds, 0.8 Assists Brigham Young

CLASS: Sophomore

C

PROJECTED ROLE: Reserve Guard/Forward

G

set good screens, he can still have a positive impact on this offense.

His main contribution to this team will come on the defensive end of the floor, where Christian is counting on him to be the lynchpin of his scheme. Though his 6-foot-9 frame is smaller than many ACC centers, his bulk will allow him to control the boards.

Jeffers’s biggest test will come in his ability to defend pick-and-rolls, jumping out at the ball handler and scurrying back to protect the rim in time. Not the most explosive leaper, his rim protection skills will be tested against the elite athletes that ACC teams have on the wing.

CLASS: Freshman

CLASS: Sophomore

hatman, a 23-year-old sophomore transfer from Brigham Young, will fill the role of the departed Milon.

He shot 34 percent on limited chances last season, but has flashed a quick, compact shooting stroke in practice. Chatman will excel on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, forcing his defender to stay attached to him at all times. He has a bit more athleticism than Milon, showing the ability to slash to the rim

2015-16 PER GAME STATS: 0.6 Points, 0.3 Rebounds Boston College pure 3-point shot, with textbook form. He might even be the most deadeye, gritty catchand-shoot marksman on the team, a skill he’ll showcase in garbage time minutes.

glass. He attacks relentlessly and shot over five free throws per game during his last two seasons at Western Michigan. If anything, his size only proves to be a disadvantage on the defensive end of the floor, where larger players can shoot over him in the post.

Tava has excellent handles for a power forward, capable of taking a rebound from one end of the floor to the other. He is also comfortable initiating the offense from either the low post or the high post, having averaged at least three assists his last two seasons at Western Michigan. Tava’s jumper is a weakness. He has shown occasional ability to hit a 3-pointer or mid-range jumper, but those will be shots that an elite defense will willingly concede to him.

TY GRAVES

A.J. TURNER

ehan, who joined the team as a preferred walk-on last season, played in seven games, seeing no more than four minutes of action each time. He has a

T

ava, a graduate transfer from Western Michigan, redshirted during the 2015-16 season as he rehabbed a broken foot. While undersized at just 6foot-6, Tava brings a highly skilled, albeit floor-bound, presence to the Eagles’ front line. BC has been looking for a playmaking four since Patrick Heckmann graduated two years ago.

One of the first things that sticks out about Tava is his hands. He has exceptional hands, snagging nearly everything in sight, from rebounds and loose balls to tough passes in traffic. He has learned to compensate for his lack of size with an array of finishes around the rim, designed to ward off bigger rim protectors and quickly get the ball on the

2015-16 PER GAME STATS: 5.2 Points, 4.8 Rebounds, 1.1 Blocks Delaware

2015-16 PER GAME STATS: 11.7 Points, 4.0 Rebounds, 3.0 Assists Boston College

B

2015-16 PER GAME STATS: 12.3 Points, 6.2 Rebounds, 3.3 Assists Western Michigan

PROJECTED ROLE: Starting Center

PROJECTED ROLE: Starting Shooting Guard

C’s highest-ranked recruit since 2007, Turner had an extremely disappointing freshman campaign. Shooting just 33.8 percent from the field and 26 percent from beyond the arc, he struggled to establish any offensive consistency. While looking smooth in practice, Turner’s shooting stroke sometimes betrayed him during games.

Turner’s thin frame—he packs just 190 pounds on his 6-foot-7 frame—often made driving all the way to the rim difficult and finishing in traffic nearly impossible, especially against top-tier competition. He attempted just 15 free throws in ACC games.

This season, if Turner plays to a slightly dif-

PROJECTED ROLE: Starting Power Forward

CLASS: Graduate

CLASS: Sophomore

O

CLASS: Graduate

MO JEFFERS

JEROME ROBINSON

ne year after surprising the ACC as an unheralded recruit from North Carolina, Robinson finds himself the face of BC’s basketball team. A 6-foot-5 combo guard, Robinson possess a creative ability to get his shot off anywhere near the basket. He is easily the team’s best player in pick-and-rolls, with the handles to slice through a defense and the ability to calmly make routine passes. Showing maturity beyond his years, Robinson already grasps the nuances of playing at different speeds, with excellent change-of-pace dribbles.

He is also the only player on the roster capable of reliably creating his own shot in one-on-one situations.

The presence of Bowman, as well as Graves, will help Robinson play the role he is best suited for. He works more efficiently by starting possessions off the ball, even if many possessions will finish with the ball in his hands—Robinson had 22 shots in the Eagles’ exhibition game

CONNAR TAVA

KAITLIN MEEKS / HEIGHTS STAFF | AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

with one or two dribbles. Chatman will likely serve as the consummate role player, sticking to spot-up 3s and the occasional drive, while keeping the ball moving if he’s not open.

On defense, he knows his positioning at all times and possesses solid fundamentals.

He will not be a liability on that end of the floor, as Milon was. Additionally, Chatman’s maturity and work ethic will leave a big imprint on the young guards.

6 THE HEIGHTS NOV. 10, 2016

BASKETBALL PREVIEW JEROME ROBINSON

NOV. 10, 2016 THE HEIGHTS 7

WAKE UP

11

Points per Game

.429

Field Goal Percentage

J

erome Robinson hadn’t felt well when he went to bed, and it had only gotten worse throughout the night. It was 5 a.m. and he needed to puke, so he rushed to the nearest bathroom in Cheverus Hall and slumped in a stall. An hour later, he woke up in a cold sweat, returned to his room, and fell back asleep. He had three hours before 9 a.m. walkthroughs, and eight hours before a Sunday afternoon game against UMass Lowell.

On the other side of campus, Dennis Clifford was experiencing the same symptoms. The senior center called head coach Jim Christian and told him that he wouldn’t be available for the 2 p.m. matchup with the River Hawks.

Somehow, Robinson managed to roll out of bed, body aching, and limp down to Conte Forum’s Power Gym for the morning run-through. Barely able to move, the freshman huddled with a hoodie and a trash can on the sidelines. What he saw didn’t make him feel any better: Eli Carter, the graduate transfer point guard who led BC in scoring last season, injured his ankle during the warmup session. Just hours before tipoff, the Eagles had lost their only two non-freshman starters.

Robinson knew how essential his presence on the court would be with the team’s senior leadership absent, so he made his way to Christian’s office and sprawled out on the couch to get some more rest, garbage can glued to his side. Four hours later, he got up and put on his No. 1 maroon and gold uniform.

It was game time.

Despite the sickness, which would later be revealed as norovirus contracted on a team trip to Chipotle, Robinson took the floor with four other freshmen, two of whom had never started before, against Lowell. The last time this many first-year players had seen action in a game was in the early-season blowout of St. Francis Brooklyn, when Robinson gave fans one emphatic, convincing reason to trust the process.

At first, their youth showed. Robinson opened the game with a turnover, then freshman Johncarlos Reyes turned the ball over, then freshman A.J. Turner completed the hat trick with a third consecutive giveaway. But then Robinson, crippled by stiffness and nausea, willed his body into rhythm. Down 9-7 early in the first half, the do-it-all guard suddenly took over the game, scoring or assisting on 14 straight BC points over the next four minutes.

Robinson finished the half with 13 points behind 3-of-5 shooting from deep, including a three that beat the buzzer. Without much hesitation, the 6-foot-5 guard jogged off the court back to the locker room, hustled to the bathroom, and vomited. He was pushing his body to the limit.

When it came time to take the court again for the second half, Robinson’s body was telling him no.

Eventually, though, he emerged from the tunnel and subbed himself back in the game. Perhaps the extra motivation came from a special guest in attendance.

His dad, Jerome, Sr., a former college basketball player who later played professionally overseas, had surprised him all the way from home.

As much heart as Robinson showed by competing when most would have sat out, it wasn’t enough against the River Hawks and point guard Isaac White, who caught fire for 17 points in the final seven minutes of the game. Lowell’s 68-66 upset capped off an exhaustingly wild 12 hours for Robinson, during which he played with norovirus, felt the bodily consequences of it, and lost 15 pounds in the process.

After the game was over, he slept for an entire day while his body recovered.

It’s fitting, actually—Robinson has been a sleeper his whole life.

1st

Among ACC Freshman

32

Steals

2nd

Among ACC Freshmen

14

Number of Times Scored in Double Figures

20

Season High in Points against Miami on Jan. 20

R

70

Assists in 2015-16

2nd

on the team KAITLIN MEEKS / HEIGHTS STAFF

aised in a suburb outside of Raleigh, N.C., Robinson grew up in the heart of ACC country, and his household was split accordingly. His mom, Amy, is an avid Duke fan. Jerome, Sr. bleeds Tar Heel blue, but was also recruited by NC State for basketball. Robinson roots—well, rooted—for UNC, but also has ties to NC State through his friendship with Wolfpack head coach Mark Gottfreid’s sons. He often played pickup games with NC State players, including current Phoenix Suns guard, T.J. Warren.

Despite being right under their noses, it wasn’t Tobacco Road that came knocking when Robinson transformed into a standout two-way guard at Broughton High School. No, it was the ACC’s Ugly Stepsister From The Northeast, Boston College. Assistant coach Scott Spinelli made a recruiting stop to see Robinson, a self-described “late-bloomer,” and raved about the results to Christian. The third-year head coach was sold.

The coaching staff described him, as many scouting reports did, as “underrated” with “a lot of potential.” Specifically, they hailed Robinson as a “cerebral player.” It’s really just a fancy way of saying he’s a smart player and a gifted decision-maker.

The lanky perimeter playmaker, who is primed to thrive in an era of increasingly positionless basketball, has an analytical mind that comes in handy on both sides of the ball. Offensively, he reads defenders exceptionally well, passes the ball with the precision of a point guard, and has a knack for finishing, sometimes acrobatically, around the rim. Defensively, he anticipates his man’s movements and forces turnovers with active hands. Following the loss to Lowell, Robinson tallied nine steals over his next four games.

It was this combination that prompted Christian to fly Robinson out to Chestnut Hill for an official

visit. Robinson was done being a sleeper, and he certainly didn’t want to be buried toward the end of a stacked Blue Devil or Tar Heel roster. And so the North Carolina native made it his mission: he was going to carve out his own path in the ACC as an Eagle, 700 miles away from home, and show the rest of the conference what exactly they were missing out on.

B

rooklyn’s Barclays Center doesn’t have quite the history of its Manhattan counterpart, Madison Square Garden. It’s home to the Nets, Islanders, and Jay-Z, a trio that rivals MSG’s Knicks, Rangers, and Billy Joel. But in terms of legacies, the Barclays Center is still a toddler, only five years old, while the Garden is the granddaddy of them all.

Nevertheless, the setting is enough to give any college basketball player butterflies.

For Robinson, though, BC’s clash against Fordham in New York City was mere child’s play. Bred in an environment in which amateur basketball rules everything, he learned how to deal with pressure from a young age. During his sophomore year of high school, his varsity basketball team at Broughton qualified for the state tournament and won its first three matchups. The Capitals continued their dominance and beat Hillside in the quarters, then topped Seventy-First in the semis to earn a berth in the championship game.

Robinson’s squad would lose out on the state title to Olympic, but he still got a taste of the big stage. By his senior year, the McDonald’s All-American nominee had developed an insatiable appetite.

When Broughton hosted rival Millbrook in the championship of a 2014 holiday tournament, Robinson carried the hopes of thousands of fans on his shoulders. Students packed into the high school gym, selling out the title game more than two hours before tipoff, to watch their favorite scoring sensation put on a show in a 78-74 win.

“I won’t forget that one,” Robinson said. “I think I had 20, I got MVP. That game was lit. It was dumb lit.”

It won’t come as a surprise, then, what happened last year when he took the Barclays court against Fordham, just two weeks after the norovirus nightmare.

Robinson established himself as the best player on the court, even without his usual lethal perimeter shooting. After starting the first half 0-for-3 from behind the arc, he maturely recognized his own limits, abandoned his 3-point shot altogether, and shifted his focus to finding ways to score in the paint. With Fordham storming back to within two possessions late in the game, Robinson drained two free throws with 30 seconds remaining to seal it. Robinson led the Eagles in scoring with a season-high 19 points and six rebounds as they outscored the Rams 28-14 inside. He added three steals in the victory, BC’s best all-around defensive effort of the season, holding the Rams to only 55 points and snapping their nine-game winning streak.

At the helm of the lockdown defense was Robinson, who prevented one of the nation’s best three-point shooting teams from breaking free for open looks. He stayed glued to his defensive assignments, forcing turnovers and disrupting any pick-and-roll offense. It was a brief, 40-minute teaser of what the future of the program might look like if Christian can surround Robinson with athletic recruits who wreak havoc with on-ball pressure and run fast breaks with the ease of an up-tempo offense.

It also marked a key milestone in his metamorphosis from sleeper to star. With his seventh double-digit scoring effort in his first 12 collegiate games, Robinson was sending a message that he was done being overlooked. Nothing, not even a graduate transfer point guard that demanded more touches than Kobe Bryant in the final game of his career, was going to stand in his way.

But if Robinson thought success in non-conference play meant success against the top teams in the ACC, then he was foolish. The next step in his basketball career would be the steepest, most difficult one yet.

J

erome Robinson isn’t a volume shooter—at least he wasn’t last year, anyway.

That role belonged to Carter, who should really be exclusively referred to as Tha Carter III. He took one-third of the shots on a team that ranked toward the bottom of the country in offensive efficiency. Meanwhile, Robinson ranked ahead of all conference freshmen in field goal percentage. Never was this contrast between BC’s two leading scorers clearer than against Florida State, in the team’s seventh ACC contest of the season.

Carter needed 18 shots to make six buckets. Robinson needed just 10 attempts to register the same.

This time, he had his 3-point stroke, too, finishing 3-of-4 from downtown to supplement Carter’s 3-for10 effort from deep.

His performance was no anomaly. It echoed his outing against No. 15 Miami six days prior, when Robinson poured in a career-high 20 points on 9-for14 shooting. Now, with a string of impressive performances against elite ACC schools, it was impossible to sleep on Jerome.

But then, in the blink of an eye, Robinson’s season

The ACC has been sleeping on Jerome Robinson since high school. Is this the year that he proves the conference wrong once and for all?

riley overend assoc. sports EDITOR

was derailed—not by a hard foul or a rolled ankle, but by a dunk.

The 10-foot free fall from rim to floor took a toll on Robinson’s right wrist. The diagnosis was crushing: the breakout freshman scorer would miss up to six weeks with a broken wrist.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Not only had Robinson just hit his stride, but the Eagles had lost their first seven conference games, and the most turbulent stretch of their schedule was ahead of them.

To make matters worse, Turner also went down with an injury days later. BC was slated to visit No. 1 UNC, No. 12 Virginia, and No. 14 Louisville on an upcoming road trip that threatened to send the season into utter disarray without its two best freshmen.

Unsurprisingly, the threat soon became a reality, and the losing streak reached double digits. The streak became a storyline in itself, as a blowout loss to lowly Wake Forest pushed the winless stretch to 14 games. Tired of watching helplessly from the bench, Robinson accelerated his recovery process and made his return to the court with Turner for the secondto-last regular season matchup against NC State, on the same court that served as his second home while growing up.

Both youngsters filled the stat sheet, including 13 points, six rebounds, and four assists for Robinson.

The resurrection of Christian’s youth movement prompted the Eagles to play their most competitive conference game of the season against the Wolfpack.

With 14 seconds left, in front of his hometown fans, Robinson hit a free throw to give BC a 72-71 advantage.

But as with most stories of BC Athletics over the past year, the ending was far from fairytale. NC State exposed a defensive miscommunication on an inbounds pass and snuck in a layup to beat the buzzer.

73-72, Wolfpack. The streak lived on.

When all was said and done, the Eagles had dropped their final 19 games of the season and finished 0-18 in the ACC, the first program to do so in three decades.

In Robinson’s first season in the ACC, his team went winless and injury kept him off the court for a big portion of the regular season. It wasn’t exactly the I-told-you-so memo that he wanted to deliver to the conference. But even in a season cut short by injury, Robinson’s impact was felt across the league, the silver lining in an otherwise extraordinarily dim year.

He recorded four games of double-digit scoring and over 50 percent shooting from the field in onlyy nine

age, high-volume shooter, and Robinson will tiptoe that boundary this year.

“There are times, like yesterday, when we were so stagnant and weren’t scoring, I felt like I had to take over at certain times—either get to the free throw line or get a quick basket,” Robinson said. “But there’s no reason to force it. If I can drive and create for someone else, then that’s what happens.”

Once again, Robinson’s basketball identity will be challenged. Questions linger about a team very much still in rebuilding mode. Will Robinson devolve into a less efficient scorer? Will Christian’s defensive-oriented squad be able to put up enough points each night? Will the pressure defense be able to create turnovers against some of the best teams in the country? Will Robinson attempt another risky dunk—and he’ll have plenty of opportunities to do so on

fast breaks—in transition over his opponent?

U

nfortunately for BC fans, those answers will have to wait until Friday, when the Eagles begin their regular season versus Nicholls State.

Until then, though, Robinson only has a hint for the final question. If you thought he would shy away from posterizing his defender because of some injury he suffered last season, then you don’t know Jerome.

“I’ve dunked on people since then,” he said with a slight smirk.

Hell, if diarrhea-inducing, vomit-triggering norovirus can’t keep this kid off the court, then not much will.

“” There no There’s o reason reaso to force it.

If I can drive an and create for someone else, then hen th that’s what happens.

JE

regular season ACC games. By comparison, Brandon Ingram, Duke’s consensus ACC Freshman of the Year and No. 2 overall draft pick, logged five such games in 18 regular season ACC games.

Most importantly, he proved that he was no longer a sleeper. He didn’t just show potential. He wasn’t going to be good in a few years. He is competing at an All-ACC level now.

That’s why Christian and Co. are so confident that 2016-17 is the season in which BC shakes its demons. The coaching staff has handpicked a supporting for Robinson, now a sophomore, featuring dynamic two-way players that can run the floor and play with a fast-paced style. Gone are the days of contested Carter 3s early in the shot clock, or postups to Clifford. Rather, the offense will whip the ball around the perimeter, looking for any openings that shifty guards like Robinson or newcomers Ty Graves and Jordan Chatman can exploit. Transfers Connar Tava and Mo Jeffers will provide answers to an Eagles interior that was left with serious depth questions after Clifford’s departure. And the addition of Kyran Bowman, a former UNC football recruit who flipped his commitment late to switch to basketball, could make BC’s unit of perimeter defenders one of the best in the conference.

Christian will unleash his pack of physical, raw, and at times undisciplined underclassmen on fullcourt and half-court presses in an attempt to force mistakes and fuel transition basketball in the open court. In last week’s exhibition game against Stonehill, Robinson dropped a whopping 27 points on 10-for-22 shooting, picking up the slack for a lineup that occasionally looked lost without a score-first guard like Carter. There’s a fine line between being the No. 1 scoring option and being a low-percent-

AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

8 THE HEIGHTS NOV. 10, 2016

BASKETBALL PREVIEW ADS

INSIDE FOCUS

BASKETBALL PREVIEW QUANDT AND FASOULA

NOV. 10, 2016 THE HEIGHTS 9

Katie Quandt and Mariella Fasoula look to team up and lock down the post for Boston College.

ANDY BACKSTROM HEIGHTS STAFF

K

atie Quandt was a basketball player born in the land of hockey. Unfortunately for the Minnesota native, the ice was never that interesting. Having participated in everything from volleyball to shot put, Quandt purposely avoided hockey, largely because, at 6-foot-3, she reckoned that her figure wouldn’t fit The North Star State’s sport of choice.

Thankfully for KQ, as her high school teammates and coaches called her, you can never be too tall for basketball. She has graced the court ever since her parents decided to sign her up for house-league play in second grade, and even then, she was much taller than most of her peers.

Quandt’s height pushed her toward shootaround play at the age of 8. Yet, she often found herself grappling with what her stature would mean.

“Sometimes I felt like, ‘Why am I taller than everybody else?’, and it kind of sucked,” Quandt said. “But it’s also cool, because it makes you different.”

Just as when she rejected hockey, Quandt is known to be different, on and off the court. After all, the Boston College center is one of only two women’s basketball players in Lakeville South High School’s history to play in Division I. Angie Iverson-Ohnstad, Lakeville South’s head coach, saw Quandt mature throughout her final three years of high school. Although she graduated in 2014, Quandt, the school’s all-time leader in blocks, remains a role model for younger players in the basketball program.

Without purely relying on her own play, Quandt piloted her team to success. Complementary to her skill, KQ’s care for her team facilitated a winning atmosphere.

During her senior year, Quandt led Lakeville South to the section semifinals in postseason play—farther than Iverson-Ohnstad had ever taken the team.

She towered over most of the opposing centers and power forwards, enabling her to establish a scoring and defensive presence. Iverson-Ohnstad explained that, as long as Quandt was on the court, the team had more flexibility with its play. If all else failed, KQ, was there. In fact, the entire game plan revolved around her.

“Our goal on offense was: KQ needs to touch the ball at least once, every half court possession,” Iverson-Ohnstad said.

But in college, Quandt was no longer taller than everybody else. And, she was joining a perimeter-oriented team that was unfamiliar with consistently attacking the defense inside the paint. Once a double-digit scorer in high school, Quandt’s production has been limited to 4-to-5 points per game at BC. Regardless, for last year’s Eagles Coaches Award recipient, statistics are trivial. Quandt is completely invested in the team’s needs. If that means distributing the ball, focusing on her defensive play, or just looking out for her teammates on a personal level, she’s all in.

This mindset has consistently defined KQ, even when she was Lakeville South’s primary scorer.

“She’s a mother hen—she would always worry about everybody and she wanted to make sure that everybody felt good,” Iverson-Ohnstad said.

Even so, KQ is relatively reserved and leads by example. Whether it’s taking care of Iverson-Ohnstad’s bleacher-climbing daughters in the middle of practice or leading a drill, Quandt shows her teammates how to conduct themselves as people and as players.

As a freshman, fellow center Mariella Fasoula viewed Quandt as an excellent mentor. Fasoula cited KQ’s admirable effort on the court and her willingness to help her adjust to the team’s practice routines.

Not everything she learned in high school helped her out. While she entered BC with leadership qualities and a high basketball IQ, she lacked the fitness level required for ACC play.

Incapable of doing a situp, Quandt immediately faced the harsh reality of NCAA expectations. Rather than surrendering to the pain, like many transitioning college athletes, she kept grinding. Her efforts were seen time and time again during practice. Even if she already knew she was bound to finish last in her sprint line, Quandt would run as hard as she could, at times crashing into the wall of Power Gym. “I swear her first couple weight room experiences might have been the most harrowing of her whole life, and she never quit,” head coach Erik Johnson said.

Quandt was making a statement, not with her words, but her actions. To compensate for a lack of gifted athleticism, she relies on her work ethic.

“I know I’m not the fastest on the team or the strongest, but I’ll always try my best

to get better every day,” Quandt said.

Offense can come instinctively. But defensive skill is measured by the hours spent working on your craft. Quandt values the art of protecting the basket—it’s where her self-discipline shines. Despite contributing little on the scoring front, KQ proved to be one of the most important Eagles on the roster. She was a symbol for what was to come.

In Johnson’s mind, Quandt was the foundation of BC’s transformation—she was the Eagles’ first step toward becoming bigger on the inside. The next part of the equation: Fasoula.

A

side from sharing the same position, Fasoula and Quandt are as different as two players can be.

Fasoula, a Greek native and daughter of former NBA player and FIBA Hall of Famer Panagiotis Fasoulas, has grown up with an innate knack for putting the ball in the basket.

Point guard Stephanie Jones marvels at Fasoula’s polished play and demeanor.

As a floor general, Jones has the best seat in the house when it comes to watching No. 34 work in the paint.

Especially famous for her finesse around the rim, she is most notable for her ice-cream scoop, something she has been mastering since her senior year of high school. Fasoula reverse spins toward the basket and dishes the ball into the net.

A vast majority of her uncoachable moves were developed away from the States.

Johnson observed that international players often come to the United States more game-ready than American-born players. Having already played for the Greek national team, Fasoula didn’t have to make the dramatic adjustments that college basketball demands from high school stars like Quandt. Still, Fasoula outperformed Johnson’s immediate expectations. He knew she’d be good eventually, but he had no idea how dominant she would be from the start.

Once Fasoula scored 23 points and hauled in nine rebounds in BC’s road victory over Purdue, seven games into the 2015-16 season, Johnson understood what he had on his hands. As the runner-up for ACC Rookie of the Year, Fasoula averaged 15.4 points per game against ranked opponents. She effectively established a tagteam scoring threat with 3-point specialist Kelly Hughes.

Fasoula is a gifted inside scorer who also has a mid-range game comparable to Hughes’s.

“You don’t see kids who shoot the ball like that,” Johnson said.

But as talented as Fasoula is, she didn’t start showing flashes of the kind of player she is today until her high school years.

As a result, the beginning of her journey was riddled with adversity. On occasion, coaches advised her parents to move her away from the sport and ignored her in practice. Even now, she uses these memories as motivation.

Fasoula no longer has to worry about being overlooked. Johnson sees her, now paired with Quandt, as the face of this Eagles team.

That the Quandt-Fasoula duo is composed of two starkly dissimilar players may raise questions for some. But in Johnson’s mind, it is the perfect mix.

“You don’t have to have a homogeneous group of individuals,” Johnson said. “I love that they have very different approaches.”

Last year, in their first season together, Quandt and Fasoula split time at the five.

Fasoula put up bigger numbers than her older teammate. Yet tensions never flared.

Jones sums up their chemistry succinctly: “They’re homies.”

As far as the scoring distribution goes, the two couldn’t care less—that’s just the Eagle way.

“I want five unselfish scorers,” Johnson said. “I want five players, who all can score, but they don’t caree who en scores. And the two women that you’re talking about, Katie and Mariella , they’re great with th at . M a r i el l a’s not scoring because it makes her feel good.

She’s scoring because we need her to score.

A n d that’s w h a t she can do best for the team.”

T

he addition of Fasoula was a step toward producing a dominant inside-out offense. But without a true power forward, Johnson had to improvise all of this past season. He took Ellen Awobajo and Emilee Daley, both of whom are natural guards, and played them at the four. Effectively, Quandt and Fasoula stood as the only bigs on the court for the Eagles.

Now, with incoming power forwards Emma Guy and Georgia Pineau, who stand at 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-1, respectively, BC will finally feature a balanced interior. Not to mention that Shannon Ryan, who is listed at a team-tallest 6foot-5, will join Quandt and Fasoula at the center position. Ryan may not earn too many minutes this year, but the fact that she is on the roster shows Johnson’s commitment to this offensive philosophy.

This increased depth on the bench will vastly help.

Quandt and Fasoula spent almost all of their time in the paint this past season.

But with the incorporation of Guy and Pineau, the centers will be rotating more often in the half-court offense. Occasionally, they will even have the opportunity to pull up from 12 or 15 feet out.

Instead of solely relying on Quandt and Fasoula for inside production, BC will always have a power forward-center tandem on the court that has the size to compete with any interior in the ACC. Previously, the Eagles only played one traditional “big man” on the court at a time, which was a disadvantage when it came to boxing out defenders on the glass.

With many possible power forward-center combinations at Johnson’s disposal, BC will have a more commanding existence in the hole.

“Defensively, we’re going to have two towers on the inside,” Jones said.

Last year, the Eagles won 12 of their 13 nonconference games. But when they hit ACC play, they dropped several close contests, including five that were decided by six points or less. Johnson points to one reason why his team could not finish during crunch time: rebounding, a problem he feels will be solved this year.

“I think we’re going to be that team that is going to be tough to keep off the boards,” Johnson said.

Outworking opposing teams on the boards can lead to fast-break opportunities and second-chance shots. Plus, it allows BC to control the pace of the game.

All of the above can determine the fate of a one-possession game.

The fourth-year head coach wants his perimeter players to understand that throwing the ball inside collapses the defense. And he wants his power forwards and centers to realize that, if the defense caves, outside shooters will be left open.

Johnson’s offense has bought into this inside-out mentality.

At times, Johnson plans to play Quandt at the four and Fasoula at the five. But, most likely, this will not be the default starting formation. Rather, it will be used only for specific matchups. Still, having the two on the court together is bound to confuse the opposition.

“But having just two big bodies, like who are you going to guard?” Fasoula said. “That gets the ball inside. One of us has to attract some attention. And that doesn’t mean that if we get it, we have to score. If we get it, two big bodies on the court makes everyone as a guard open up, so that gets us shots from our guards and more rotations of the ball.”

BC hasn’t had a winning season in six years. Perhaps it’ll take the Quandt and Fasoula-led interior to see over that statistic. Embracing the identity of the inside-out game, the unlikely duo will attempt to lead the Eagles out of the ACC’s cellar. Sooner or later, we’ll find out if the task is taller than the players pursuing it.

Defensively, we’ we’re going to have two to towers on the inside.

AND A JOHN QUACKENBOS / BC ATHLETICS

10

THE HEIGHTS NOV. 10, 2016

BASKETBALL PREVIEW ORTLEPP AND PINEAU

THUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER

Georgia Pineau and Taylor Ortlepp have arrived from Australia to help Erik Johnson and the Eagles conquer the U.S.

G

jack stedman HEIGHTS senior STAFF

eorgia Pineau couldn’t keep a straight face.

With the lights shining down and camera pointed at her, Pineau kept laughing mid-shot, unable to pose seriously for the photographer. It was a strange situation for Pineau, having someone with a large camera tell her to look one way while holding the ball up or pretending to shoot.

She’s certainly done many different things with the ball in her hands as a player, but never used one as a prop. In the end, the photographer only captured about three good shots.

“Basketball has never been the type of thing where you go stand in the spotlight,” Pineau said. “Basketball has always just been the sport.”

All of this new attention is just one of the many new experiences and challenges facing Pineau and Taylor Ortlepp, Boston College women’s basketball’s pair of Australian freshmen, since they move some 10,000 miles to join head coach Erik Johnson’s team.

So far, the pair has taken everything in stride, with plenty of laughter along the way. Sitting in a basketball office in Conte Forum, Pineau munches on a bag of Pirate’s Booty, looking at Ortlepp and laughing before answering many of the questions about adjusting to life on the other side of the planet.

Pineau, a 6-foot-1 forward from Victoria, is looking to bring versatility to the team with more power inside.

“Taylor has the ability to make an immediate impact on our back court,” Johnson said after signing Ortlepp in April. “She is very valuable as a scoring point guard who can also set up her teammates for scoring opportunities. Taylor is an intense defender and also an excellent leader on and off the floor.”

Ortlepp, a 5-foot-9 point guard from Adelaide, hopes to step into a leadership role as one of the floor generals for Johnson’s squad.

“Georgia is a versatile forward who plays tough and physical around the basket,” Johnson said last November, when he first announced the class of 2016. “[She] is a relentless worker whose competitiveness has made her into a proven winner.’’

Together, they’re bringing new energy as part of a group of five freshmen adding to Johnson’s program that is still growing.

T

hough their homes are separated by an eight-hour drive, the basketball community in Australia is relatively small. Ortlepp and Pineau have known each other for years, playing in the same leagues and tournaments. They had played against each other on a number of occasions, mostly in tournaments while competing for their states—and in 2014, they were both part of the U17 Australian women’s national team in that year’s FIBA World Championships.

During that year, the team traveled around China for three weeks before heading to the tournament’s host country, the Czech Republic. While in China, Ortlepp and Pineau were roommates and first began to develop a friendship.

While basketball was always the sport to play back home, the U17 tournament was the duo’s first look at a whole new level of the game. In particular, the Aussies were amazed by the home crowd while playing the Czechs in Prague.

“Going in there, seeing the atmosphere, it was so unreal,” Ortlepp said.

That was one of their first looks at a different type of basketball culture. With basketball somewhat overshadowed

by Australian rules football and rugby union, crowd size had always been small for their various teams in Australia. While most will look at the 20-person crowd at BC’s Fan Day as somewhat underwhelming, that size crowd would have been welcomed at many of the games for Ortlepp and Pineau back home.

That game was the only one that the team lost in the tournament, after sweeping the group stage and beating Mali in the Round of 16 before falling to the hosts in the quarters. Ortlepp and Pineau began to see a global game with much bigger lights, perhaps none bigger than the vaunted ACC. Pineau, who averaged 8.3 points per game, and other players got exposure and recognition from coaches around the world during the month-long, high-profile tournament. Five months after the tournament, Johnson began seriously recruiting Pineau through an Australian connection of his.

Many thought Pineau would choose St. Mary’s College of California, where her brother Dane plays. The Gaels are known for having a strong Australian presence on both the men’s and women’s programs, with recent alumni including NBA players Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova. Ultimately, the opportunity to play in one of the most competitive conferences in the nation and attend a strong academic program at BC was too much to pass up.

Ortlepp’s journey is a much different one, one that only started in February of this year. She can thank Pineau for helping to get her to BC. While watching film on Pineau from the U17 Tournament, Johnson and his staff texted Pineau about another player they had noticed, a point guard named Ortlepp.

When asked what she thought about Ortlepp, Pineau enthusiastically responded, heaping praise on her former roommate about how great she is and how much she loves her. Ortlepp had one other official visit from Virginia and interest from some mid-majors on the West Coast, but BC was the pretty obvious choice at that point.

T

he two Aussies are the latest in a recent string of international recruits for Johnson. With the addition of the Aussies, BC now has five international players, second in the conference behind Georgia Tech’s six, while the majority of teams have two or three.

The elite programs of the conference like Louisville, Notre Dame, and Duke can draw from the top of the American talent pool, where the world’s best women’s basketball players reside. As a result, they don’t need to go outside the United States to attract talent. Like BC men’s soccer, which fields a team mostly of international players, Johnson is broadening his recruiting scope to stay competitive, and so far it is paying off. Marti Mosetti from Italy has become the starting point guard and led the team in assists last year; Ella Awobajo from Nigeria has become a valuable guard in the rotation; and Mariella Fasoula from Greece was named to the ACC All-

Freshman team last year.

Ortlepp and Pineau are also part of a strong group of Australian players joining the college scene this season.

Oregon’s Morgan Yaeger is the only Aussie in ESPN’s list of top 100 recruits, and Ortlepp and Pineau will get the chance to play against compatriot Alex Sharp at Wake Forest. BC will also host St. Mary’s, which features three Australians, on Nov. 20.

With an influx of international players comes a wide range of different styles. In Australia, that technique revolves around sound and gritty defense. Ortlepp and Pineau have always played with a focus on locking down on D first, and then transitioning success there into offense. For Ortlepp, that means getting the early break and pushing the ball down the court in transition. For Pineau, the bulk of her work comes on the boards. Upon arriving in Chestnut Hill, the pair has found that the American style here has been focused much more on offense, especially in the ACC. While the pair can most certainly develop a sharp offensive game, their strengths comes in the fundamentals of the tenacious defending for Ortlepp and hard work on the boards for Pineau.

With the season starting on Friday, Ortlepp and Pineau have been busy with preseason and now full-time practices, spending five to six hours a day in Conte Forum and Power Gym, which has helped with the transition.

“The days have been so busy that you don’t really have time to miss every aspect of home,” Ortlepp said.

While they don’t have a language barrier to overcome, the jump from Australia to the U.S. is a big one. And though they are not roommates—both live with volleyball players in separate dorms—coming over to college together has been a major help.

“If Tay wasn’t here I would be missing home a lot more,” Pineau said. “It helps having another Australian to reconcile with.”

The biggest challenge has been the inability to return home easily. While a lot of the players can make the drive to nearby towns in Massachusetts and Connecticut or the manageable trip to New York and New Jersey, Ortlepp and Pineau face a day’s worth of flying.

With a solid group of five players from overseas, the foreign players can lean on each other as they adapt to college life in America, far from home.

For now, the Aussie duo can focus on basketball, which is all they have been doing thus far. While the beauty of New England in autumn can be seen on campus, a lot remains before the pair get fully acclimated to the region. Both Ortlepp and Pineau fell into laughter about how they have to get out more. Before they get out, though, the duo is looking forward to their first taste of college ball.

“I’m excited to see the big hype around the ACC players,” Ortlepp said.

In practice, coaches will often refer to conference play as the benchmark, often telling players that they wouldn’t be able to do such and such a play against players in the ACC. Whether it’s growing their offensive game or simply having all this attention during a photoshoot, the easygoing Aussies are ready to step out from down under and into the spotlight of the best conference in the world.

“

Basketbal has Basketball the never been th type of thing where ere you go stand nd in the spotlight. ht.

JOHN QUACKENBOS / BC ATHLETICS

NOV. 10, 2016 THE HEIGHTS

BASKETBALL PREVIEW EMILEE DALEY

11

OVER PREVIOUS 3 YEARS: 505 POINTS 71 ASSISTS 196 REBOUNDS

DUKE-ING IT OUT V

ietnam gets hot in the summer.

We’re talking heavy, humid heat, too, not just dry heat. In the Mekong Delta, a rural region located in the southern part of the country, temperatures regularly can climb above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat is stifling even as you go about your daily business. Forget trying to exercise—you might melt in the process.

But for three weeks this summer, deep in the countryside, you would have seen someone exercising dutifully. A tall, dark-haired American woman running every day. The heat affected her—of course it did—but she didn’t let it stop her. Forget the temperature.

Forget the humidity. It was dedication. For the woman—Boston College women’s basketball guard Emilee Daley—it was the least she could do.

You might be asking yourself what Daley was doing in Vietnam this summer. After all, at a college full of students finding prestigious summer jobs in the likes of New York City and Washington, D.C., Vietnam jumps out at you. But what Daley was doing in Vietnam was more fulfilling than finding that sweet internship on Capitol Hill.

Every summer, Coach for College sends American college athletes abroad to developing, rural areas of Vietnam for service. When they arrive, the athletes are paired with bilingual Vietnamese college students who assist them with translations throughout their stay.

The athletes teach classes—math, biology, English, and physics—and coach sports like basketball, soccer, and volleyball. The program began in 2008 and has grown in popularity ever since—in 2014, more than 60 athletes traveled to Vietnam to serve as coaches and mentors to the youth.

This summer, Daley was one of the athletes participating in the program. She packed her bags, got on a plane, and flew across the Pacific to teach math and basketball. And in her downtime, Daley went on runs.

Running through the dead heat sounds like torture, honestly. Ask Daley, though, and she’ll tell you it’s the least she could do. Literally.

Mekong Delta is deep in the rural countryside of Vietnam, so there wasn’t exactly a Plex she could use to keep up with her workouts. And Daley had to stay in shape—she’s a college athlete, after all, so she wanted to be ready to dive back into practice when she returned to the United States.

According to Daley, though, the runs weren’t quite good enough. Sure, she may have improved her mile time, but the absence of a weight room left her considerably weaker than before.

“I had literally no muscle on my body,” she said with a chuckle.

She may have sacrificed her strength, but it was definitely worth it. For Daley, the opportunity to teach and coach in Vietnam was like nothing else. She spent hours every day with the children. In teaching the students, she got to know them in the classroom. In coaching the students, she got to know them on the court and see their determination and willpower to improve and succeed. In the span of just a few weeks, the children changed her life—and she changed theirs.

Her decision to give up her summer and serve others did not surprise anyone who

knows her. Daley is a big sister with the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston and has always prioritized service, so her family was impressed but not surprised by her choice.

Her mother, Sue, was especially proud of her dedication, flying halfway across the globe to serve others.

When Daley had to leave Vietnam, the goodbyes were emotional, to say the least.

“The last day we were there, they were all crying and saying, ‘We’re going to miss you so much,’” she said.

But there was no denying it—the time had come for her to leave Vietnam and return to the U.S. She left Mekong Delta behind, got on a plane, and flew back to what she considers the greatest city in the world: Boston.

D

aley’s love for Boston isn’t all that surprising. She grew up in Sharon, Mass., a town about half an hour south. Beyond that, she had strong ties to BC while she was growing up. Her father, grandfather, and other relatives all attended BC. None of them played sports—her father was in the marching band, and that was the closest it got—but she still held a soft spot for the Eagles in her heart.

Daley grew up with an older sister, Liz, and a younger sister, Kristen. All three of the Daley sisters are talented basketball players—Liz played at Emmanuel College and Kristen plays for the University of Pennsylvania. Though they are now skilled, everyone has to start somewhere.

When Liz started playing basketball, it opened up a whole new world for Daley. She wanted to be like her older sister, so when she was in fourth grade she joined a team and began playing seriously for the first time.

From the beginning, Daley was hooked on basketball. She’d always been an athlete and loved sports, but basketball quickly became her true passion. She welcomed the challenge of learning and conquering new skills. According to her father, Kevin, she could often be found practicing drills in the backyard after practice had ended, determined to master the skills and push herself. As she improved, Daley grew to love the freedom she felt on the court.

Her love showed on her face every time she stepped on the hardwood. “[I loved] the perpetual smile on Emilee’s face while playing, regardless of the outcome,” Sue said.

Of course, it wasn’t always fun and games.

Growing up in a family with two siblings who also played basketball meant that competition was an accepted part of life. While the sisters are now nothing but supportive to one another, when they were younger it was a different story.

“We could never play together one-on-one because we’d always try to kill each other,” Daley said.

Daley left middle school behind and moved on to Sharon High School. There, she played for the Sharon Eagles. It was during her second year of high school that she first got recruited by a college coach, and this experience was eye-opening for her. It was the first time that Daley really considered the possibility of playing in college.

After that year, she transferred to The Rivers School, a private school in Weston, Mass.,

JOHN QUACKENBOS / BC ATHLETICS

After a summer in Vietnam, Emilee Daley looks to make her last season memorable.

ANNABEL STEELE ASST. SPORTS EDITOR

and repeated her sophomore year. With a stronger education, smaller class sizes, and a better basketball program, The Rivers School was a perfect fit for Daley. She started her playing career there in the 2010-11 season.

Over her three years playing for the Red Wings, the team went 69-8, capturing two New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) titles and finishing as the runner-up once.

In high school, Daley, who can play guard or forward, established herself as a dangerous shooting threat with deep range. As a senior, she both won the Coaches’ Award for the women’s basketball squad at The Rivers School and was named a McDonald’s All American.

Her former coach, Bob Pipe, valued her contributions all over the court. He praised her ability to lead on the court, defend, and distribute the ball all over the court. Most of all, though, he praised her shooting range.

“Emilee will shoot NBA 3s without even thinking about it,” Pipe told Boston.com in 2013. “She is very long and athletic, which makes her a good defender as well and a good passer … Emilee will shoot NBA 3s without even thinking about it.”

Her leadership and undeniable talent caught the attention of college coaches, but for Daley, there was ultimately only one choice.

BC had always been an option in the back of her mind because of her family connections, so when the Eagles began to recruit her, she was only too happy to visit the Heights.

The fact that the Eagles play in the ACC sealed the deal. Sue said that they let Daley choose where she wanted to go without pressuring her, but that the family was overjoyed when she elected to attend BC. An added bonus? Daley is still close to home, so she can see her family every once in a while.

“Every two weeks I try to go home and do laundry,” Daley said. “And the fact that it’s close, everyone in my family can always come to my games.”

With this, Daley made her decision. She was ready to become an Eagle.

L

auren Engeln is a forward on the German women’s basketball team, SV Halle Lions. She is in her second year with the team, which is currently resting at No. 9 in the Bundesliga. She averages 4.9 points per game while also contributing 2.6 rebounds per game.

Back in summer 2013, Engeln was a redshirt junior at BC. She transferred over from UConn, ready to lend her skills to the Eagles for a couple of years. And her summer roommate was none other than Daley.

Daley was just three weeks out of high school, and, as she put it, still felt like a child when she arrived on campus. But her older roommate quickly made her feel welcome and settled at BC. “Lauren Engeln and Vic Lesko … kind of took me under their wing,” Daley said. “They are just great people, and they were my first two friends.”

Even with friends and mentors on the team, Daley says the adjustment to playing at the collegiate level was still challenging. She went from being one of the best players on

her high school team to being just another young player at BC. Even so, she still saw playing time during her freshman season. Daley played in 19 games as a freshman, averaging just over 11 minutes per game. She scored 80 points on the year, including 18 made 3-pointers for 54 points.

As a sophomore, Daley began to pick up steam. She played in 30 games, starting 17, and accumulated 262 points over the course of the season. She also continued to show off her shooting range, sinking 49 3-pointers over the course of the season. The best moment of her sophomore season came in January when the Eagles went up against then-No. 13 Duke.

Daley showed up ready to play and totaled 17 points in the game. The Eagles defeated the Blue Devils 60-56, largely boosted by Daley’s late-game heroics. With roughly 2:40 remaining in the game, Duke led BC by five points.

Daley scored three straight 3-pointers within one minute to erase the Blue Devils’ lead and secure the victory for the Eagles.

Her family, which tries to send at least one member to every game—both home and away—remember the Duke matchup fondly.

It was an explosive performance from Daley, who demonstrated that she had the clutch gene, the ability to use her lethal range to erase deficits and win games for the Eagles.

Even with her early success, Daley feels like she could have been even better as a young member of the team.

“I wish I worked harder, but it was a really good eye-opening experience,” she said.

As a junior, Daley saw her numbers dip a little bit. She played in 27 games, averaging just over 14 minutes per game. Over the course of the season, she made 28 3-pointers en route to totaling 163 points. But she has also struggled to stay healthy.

The years of pounding down on the hardwood have caught up to her. Daley has sustained sprained ankles numerous times throughout her playing career, and also struggles with tendinitis. But if she can stay healthy and injury-free, Daley is primed for a superb senior season.

S

ome people have superstitious pregame rituals. Daley isn’t superstitious, but she does have a consistent habit before games—taking a nap.

“I love to sleep,” she said.

Who doesn’t? And it works for Daley, so she’s happy to keep doing it. When she comes back to Conte Forum about an hour before game time, she’s rested and ready to play.

When she looks to the upcoming season, there are some games that catch her eye. Daley is pumped for pretty much any ACC game, for example. But there’s one in particular that she is especially looking forward to, though it won’t come for a few months.

On Jan. 22, BC will once again welcome Duke to Conte Forum for another home matchup against the Blue Devils. Daley is itching for that game to come, because she remembers how good it felt to knock the nationally ranked Blue Devils down two years ago. It would feel nice to do that again, to say the least.

If Daley has any goal for the season, it’s to stay healthy. She knows that if she can stay healthy and positive, her senior season will be memorable.

Last season, with an absence of height, Daley played in more of a forward role. This season, the Eagles have more depth with forwards and centers. Mariella Fasoula and Katie Quandt will likely be the most consistent interior presences. With Fasoula and Quandt taking over the interior, Daley can move back to playing guard and doing what she likes best—shooting the ball.

As a senior, she is now in a leadership role on the team. Whereas just a few years ago Daley was a young member of the team, looking up to the seniors and older teammates, she is now the role model for her younger teammates. For Daley, the Boston Big Sister and athlete who spent her summer volunteering with Vietnamese children, the task of setting a good example and being welcoming won’t be too difficult.

“I think the best quality I have is to bond and make the younger players feel comfortable to come up to me and talk to me about anything,” Daley said.

Daley is determined to make this season her best yet. All of the hard work she’s put in since fourth grade—from the countless hours spent in the backyard perfecting her skills to the hard work put in during her high school career to the time she’s spent in the gym at BC—has been leading her to this, her final collegiate season.

Daley is now a role model on the Eagles.

She’s a leader on the team, ready to give it her all for one last season. Now that she will be playing primarily guard again, she will be free to use her greatest strength to her advantage and shoot the ball. She’s itching for the season to start up again. And she’s got her heart and eyes set on BC’s conference opponents.

Duke should be pretty worried right about now.

JOHN QUACKENBOS / BC ATHLETICS

the heights basketball preview 2016

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JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

KATIE QUANDT AND MARIELLA FASOULA, C9 TAYLOR ORTLEPP AND GEORGIA PINEAU, C10 EMILEE DALEY, C11