The Heights
Editors’ Picks
Thursday, December 9, 2010 The Week Ahead
Standings
Hockey takes a break, but there is plenty of basketball to be played over the next week. The men head to Maryland to kick off ACC play, while the women stay home to face Rutgers. Over break, football will play Nevada in San Francisco.
A11
Recap from Last Week
Maegan O’Rourke
28-27
Zach Wielgus
26-29
Paul Sulzer
25-30
Heights staff
21-34
For the second straight semester, Maegan held on to win the picks title. Football earned a berth in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. Women’s soccer lost in the College Cup to Stanford. Men’s hockey swept BU in a homeand-home series.
Guest Editor: Dan Ottaunick Collections Manager “No Sleep Week 2010.”
Zach Wielgus Sports Editor
This Week’s Games Football: Boston College vs. Nevada
Maegan O’Roruke Assoc. Sports Editor
Paul Sulzer Asst. Sports Editor
Dan Ottaunick
Collections Manager
Nevada
Nevada
BC
Nevada
Men’s Basketball: Boston College at South Carolina
BC
BC
BC
BC
Women’s Basketball: North Carolina at Boston College
UNC
UNC
UNC
UNC
Men’s Hockey: Boston College vs. Providence (series)
BC
BC
Split
BC
Atlanta Falcons
New England Patriots
New England Patriots
Atlanta Falcons
NFL: Best Record at End of Regular Season
BCnotes Men’s Hockey Four sophomore members of Boston College’s men’s hockey team – defenseman Brian Dumoulin, forward Chris Kreider, defenseman Phillip Samuelsson, and defenseman Patrick Wey – were selected to the 29-man preliminary roster for the 2011 U.S. junior national team, according to an announcement on Tuesday afternoon by USA Hockey. The next step for the players is to participate in a pre-tournament camp starting Dec. 17 in Troy, Rochester, and Amherst, N.Y. The team will compete in exhibition games against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s hockey team on Dec. 19 and the Czech Republic national team on Dec. 21. The final 22-man roster that competes in the 2011 World Championships will be announced on either Dec. 22 or Dec. 23. After the decision, the team is scheduled to participate in one last scrimmage versus the Norway national team that evening. The 2011 U.S. junior national team will compete at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, 2011, in Buffalo and Niagara, N.Y. Were any of the Eagles athletes to make the final cut, they will miss two BC games on Dec. 30 and Dec. 31 when the Eagles participate in the Leynard National Bank Classic, located in Hanover, N.H. The other schools represented in the four-team tournament include Colgate University, Dartmouth College, and Mercyhurst College.
Rejoice in the resurrection of the BC basketball teams Brad Zak “There’s a love of the game in this city that is difficult to put into words. You start off when you’re very young and you never get it out of your system. You might get married to a woman, but basketball is still your first love.” –Willie Hall, New York City playground ballplayer Without a doubt, I have always been a hoops guy. There has never been a question. This fact has frustrated me over the past three years, as Boston College basketball has been marred by a noticeable lack of consistency and passion. It wasn’t just the players. Throughout the season, there seemed to be a general joylessness that pervaded Conte Forum. The environment in the arena seemed similar to a Thursday night class. Everybody was looking at the clock wondering when they could leave. BC has undoubtedly been a hockey school for the past four years. Unfortunately, my relationship with hockey was like the interaction you had with that girl last weekend: awkward, forced, and ultimately unfulfilling. I gave hockey a chance but it never came close to matching the majestic game I grew up with. After only one NCAA tournament berth sandwiched between two disappointing seasons, I was impatiently waiting for a basketball resurgence at Conte Forum coming into this year. It’s only been a month, but both the men’s and women’s teams have undergone
nick rellas / heights staff
Alex Trautwig / heights Editor
Reggie Jackson (left) and Jaclyn Thoman (right) have led their basketball teams to impressive starts so far this season for Boston College. a complete makeover. Following two exciting wins in three games in Orlando, the men’s team delighted fans with victories over Indiana and UMass while the women’s team beat Penn State and UMass, scoring a combined 206 points in the two contests. Yes, you read that right. These women aren’t playing the run-and-chase middle school girls’ basketball that you grew up with, but rather a new, exciting brand of the game. An early loss to Yale made it seem like history was bound to repeat itself for the men’s team, though, as the
Eagles failed against yet another Ivy League school. It seemed inevitable that they would hover around .500 and leave Conte Forum emptier than a Fray concert. Head coach Steve Donahue, however, has begun to press the right buttons, first by inserting freshman Danny Rubin into the starting lineup and then allowing all of his players, with the possible exception of Josh Southern and Courtney Dunn, permission to fire at will from downtown. One of the many beautiful things about basketball is that despite the need
for chemistry and teamwork, one player can form the identity of the team. For the men, Reggie Jackson has become the indisputable leader. His game has developed this season as he has consistently showed the ability and willingness to take the big and difficult shot. During the UMass game, Jackson took over at the most critical juncture of the game after the Minutemen had cut the lead to two with only 3:48 to play. The Eagles made five more field goals to close the game. Jackson scored two of them and assisted on the other three.
Brad Zak is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@ bcheights.com.
Adjusting to change
club sports report
Rugby displaced
Change, from A10
tive lines following a Merrimack beating, hockey figured out its funk. The two forwards together accumulated six points as the team won three in a row, including a two-game romp of rival and then-No.2 Boston University by a combined score of 14-7. Watching from the stands of Agganis Arena on Friday, I couldn’t help but think of what further improvements Jerry York has up his sleeve. These changes, ones I once feared, have brought much-
By Paul Sulzer
Asst. Sports Editor When Boston College begins the construction of a new sports complex on Brighton Campus as part of the Institutional Master Plan, some club sports teams will be forced to find new practice fields, including the women’s rugby team. From the time construction starts to the completion of the club and intramural sports field, the rugby team will need a new home because the fields at St. John’s Seminary will be destroyed. Monica Capobianco, assistant director of intramural and club sports, is leading the search for new facilities. In recognition of her dedication to the rugby team, Capobianco received the Robert L. Laurence Award from the New England Rugby Football Union on Saturday. The award acknowledges a college administrator for outstanding support of rugby in New England. “She has been such a constant in our lives,” said Laura Cavicchi, the outgoing club president. “When the Seminary gets destroyed, we won’t have a place to play. Monica stepped right up and started looking for fields.” Most of the fields being considered are a lengthy car or T ride
Last year, there was a battle for alpha dog status between Jackson and Rakim Sanders. Both had the innate abilities, but only one has proven that he can rise to the occasion and elevate the play of his entire team. With Donahue at the helm, he has made Jackson his ambassador to a new era of BC basketball, and Jackson has shown he is worthy. For the women, Jaclyn Thoman has become the unifying force for the team with her up-tempo approach and playground flare. Thoman averaged 6.2 points and 4.2 assists per game last season, as the team often struggled to find a balance between its affinity for the deep ball and its incredible low post presence. She has doubled her scoring to 12 points per game this season and has played a significant part in keeping the Eagles undefeated thus far. During last week’s thrilling 113104 victory over Penn State, Thoman exploded for a career-high 25 points. She appeared comfortable leading the offense and directing the flow of the game. In basketball, the better team will always impose its will on the pace of the game and Thoman has kept the Eagles in overdrive all season long. They are averaging an astonishing 91.2 points a game this year, due in large part to the consistency of their senior floor general. The Eagles will go as far as Jackson and Thoman will take them this season. After three years of pain, it looks like BC basketball might actually bring us some excitement this March beyond the Qdoba burrito toss or halftime sumo wrestling. Talking myself into a 7-2 non-conference start and the excitement of women’s basketball? Yeah, I love this game.
Courtesy of allison holcombe
Monica Capobianco (center) won the Robert L. Laurence Award for helping the rugby team look for a new home. away from campus. The rugby team is considering facilities in Needham and South Boston. The public parks being considered in South Boston are about an hour away by T. Transportation could be an issue. Only two members of the team, along with head coach Ken Daly, have cars on campus. The A and B teams have a combined 40 players on the roster that need rides. “Moving off-campus will be tough,” said Allison Holcombe, the incoming club president. “We practice two hours a day, three days a week. If you have to com-
mute an hour to practice and an hour back, that’s asking too much of our team.” Spending more on transportation to practice would also limit the team’s ability to compete against schools farther away from campus. BC usually plays at least one team outside of New England each season. Last year, it was Georgetown University. That tradition might end if the team can’t afford to travel that far anymore. BC started slowly this year, losing three of its five regular season games before defeating Wellesley and Northeastern in
the playoffs. “We were really determined to turn our season around after not starting so well,” Holcombe said. For the second straight season, the team fell just short of nationals. BC won the lower division of the New England championships by beating Northeastern, 31-5, on Oct. 30. The win gave BC sixth place overall in New England. The top four teams qualify for the national tournament. “The end goal is always to play for nationals,” Holcombe said. “It just feels like we’ve been one game away for the past couple of years.” n
needed improvement to BC sports. It might have taken some time, but I finally understand just how well the University set itself up for the future. The Eagles are about to take full flight, and how lucky am I to come along for the ride, covering games as a new editor of this fine Sports section. My own recent change that, for once, I’m actually looking forward to.
DJ Adams is a Heights editor. He can be reached at sports@ bcheights.com.