Notebook: At ND, Eagles Continue to Find Success With Four-Guard Lineup
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Publisher
Earl Grant likes to play with four guards. It’s a lineup he often turned to during his seven-year tenure at College of Charleston. But the first-year Boston College men’s basketball head coach believes in finding minutes for his top players, regardless of formational preference.
“When you’ve got TJ [Bickerstaff] and Quinten Post with their size,” Grant said, “sometimes it’s hard. You have to put your best players on the floor. And it just so happened that it ain’t four guards. A lot of times, it’s a couple big guys and three guards.”
Grant had no choice Wednesday night at Notre Dame, though. Post, BC’s 7-foot, 1B option at center, was out for the second game in a row because of COVID-19 protocol. And Bickerstaff was sidelined with a calf sprain that he suffered during the first half of the Duke game.
So the already-thin Eagles went with a four-guard lineup, which included grad transfer Brevin Galloway, who hadn’t made a start since Dec. 11, 2020 when he and Grant were still at College of Charleston. Galloway finally regained his connection from downtown and delivered a trio of 3-pointers. And the Eagles, who even pivoted to a five-out motion offense when remaining centers James Karnik and Justin Vander Baan fouled out, shot 56.3% from the field.
That was their highest clip of the ACC slate. And it came on the road. Coming into Wednesday night, BC was converting a mere 36.4% of field goal attempts away from Conte Forum. Less than a month ago, the Eagles shot 25.4% at Wake Forest, recording their lowest single-game shooting percentage all-time against an ACC opponent. The stark difference Wednesday night was head turning.
What made BC's offense so effective against Notre Dame this season?
The Eagles opened up conference play with their largest margin of victory over Notre Dame all-time. Karnik was the focal point of the 73-57 win as he mounted 17 points and 13 rebounds. But Post quietly stacked 13 points and six boards in 19 minutes. Together, the center pairing bullied the Fighting Irish’s frontcourt duo of Paul Atkinson Jr. and Nate Laszewski as BC outrebounded its Holy War rival, 38-27.Even without Post, Grant wanted to go back to that strategy, which speaks to his confidence in Karnik and Vander Baan, a 7-foot sophomore.
“We really wanted to dominate inside and throw it in, but our bigs got in foul trouble so that element of the game—we couldn't really do too much with that.”
There were times during the teams’ first meeting when BC went to a four-guard look, Grant recounted, but the Eagles certainly relied on the lineup more Wednesday. It allowed BC to flex its athleticism, which frequently gashed the Fighting Irish’s matchup 2-3 zone. Notre Dame was slow on defensive rotations and sloppy on closeouts.
That said, the Eagles were smart about slashing to the hoop. For instance, on back-to-back possessions in the first half, Jaeden Zackery and DeMarr Langford Jr. each noticed that they had a less-than-100% 6-foot-10 Laszewski on them. Both blew by the center to the rack for a layup.
BC’s ball movement and ball security—it committed just nine turnovers in regulation—helped the Eagles carve up Notre Dame’s defense.
“All of the things we've been talking about for the last month kind of came together,” Grant said. “Take care of the ball, share it, make good decisions underneath the free throw line. Try to get some good baskets in transition.”
Karnik found himself in foul trouble again
Karnik has fouled out four times this year. All of those games have been on the road. He’s a physical player who has averaged 2.6 or more fouls four of his five collegiate seasons. Over the last 12 games, he’s committed 2.9 personals per game. Without Post, the pressure was on for him to stay out of foul trouble for the second game in a row.Unlike his Duke outing—during which he logged 21 points and nine rebounds with just one personal—the 6-foot-9 veteran picked up two quick fouls in South Bend and played just 12 first-half minutes. His second personal was a charge where he leaned his shoulder while pushing through the paint for a bucket.
Karnik registered his remaining three fouls in seven minutes of second-half action. He ended up fouling out with 3:39 left in regulation. At that point, Vander Baan had also fouled out. The sophomore had an even more difficult time avoiding whistles. He lasted a meager 11 minutes.
Although Karnik was one of five Eagles to finish in double figures (11 points on 5-of-8 shooting), his absence at the end of the second half and in overtime made it nearly impossible for BC to keep Notre Dame off the offensive glass and out of the paint in the waning minutes of play.
“Gotta be a little more disciplined,” Grant said. “Guard without fouling so we can keep our bodies on the floor and just be a little bit more disciplined defensively and rebounding the ball, which we typically do every night.”
Is this what Galloway needed to snap out of his funk?
Galloway has had the green light from 3-point land all season. Slump or not, he has launched from outside, often accounting for a good portion of BC’s 3-point attempts. After going 14-of-40 from long range in a four-game span in early January, Galloway shot a combined 3-of-41 on 3-point attempts over his next seven games. He shaved his head. Tried a headband.Nothing was working. Until Wednesday night at Notre Dame, where he got the start and poured in 17 points. The transfer guard was 6-of-13 from the floor and hit his first 3-point attempts in the second half.
While not perfect, his shot selection was improved, as he passed out of a few looks from outside in favor of better ones, like when he pump faked and swung an extra pass to Makai Ashton-Langford in the left wing for a first-half triple.
Galloway’s biggest mistake, on the other hand, came at the worst time. He turned the ball over on an inbounds pass with 10 seconds left in overtime and the Eagles trailing, 95-92.
To be fair, the play was a head scratcher because his teammates were set so far up the court. Langford started to come back to the ball, but it was too late. Galloway did, however, have a timeout in his back pocket that he could have used.
