Next up for Duke is a rematch with BC and after the taut game up there, you can’t rule anything out.
However, BC is still a very young team and young teams frequently struggle on the road and in Cameron.
And sure enough, BC has struggled on the road: they did manage to beat Virginia Tech 86-75, but then lost to Wake (by three), Maryland (by five), Virginia (by 14) and Miami (by 22).
There is a fairly short space between games – just two weeks – which seems inadequate. That’s the luck of the draw, though.
The game in Chestnut Hill was a bit out of the norm because Duke had to travel and play on the same day, due to the blizzard, and that throws everything – meals, warmups, sleep – off. Winning like that was pretty cool actually.
Almost all of Boston College’s nine Atlantic Coast Conference losses have been by painfully close margins.
The challenge coach Steve Donahue has faced this season has been balancing the urgency of winning with the natural maturation of a young team that is still figuring out how to win.
It was clear earlier this month when the Eagles had a 5-point lead over a Duke team that was drained and sluggish after flying into Boston the week of the region’s biggest blizzard in years, but failed to close the game out.
It would have been the biggest win in Donahue’s three-year tenure, and it would have been just BC’s third victory over the Blue Devils.
It’s been four years since BC stunned Duke at Conte Forum. Since then, the Eagles have lost six straight matchups.
