#16 Virginia Tech will look to right the ship when they travel to Chestnut Hill to take on Boston College on Saturday. This is the biggest matchup of the weekend in the ACC. The Hokies and Eagles are tied for second place in the ACC with a 6-2 record. Whichever team pulls out a victory on Saturday will take a giant leap towards the NCAA tournament.

The biggest news of the month for Boston College was the loss of center Sean Williams. Williams was dismissed from the team before the Eagles' game at Clemson on January 20. He was averaging 12.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, and he had blocked an incredible 75 shots by mid-January. Results for Boston College since the loss of Williams have been mixed.

BC got waxed in their first game without the big center. They lost to Clemson 74-54 on the road. They came back with an 85-82 home win over Florida State in which Sean Marshall hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to beat the Seminoles. The Eagles then went back on the road and were dispatched with relative ease by Duke, 75-61. BC beat overmatched Hartford 94-60 at home on Wednesday night.

By the beginning of February, we generally have a good feel for each team in the ACC. That's not quite true with BC. We weren't sure how good they were when ACC play began, and with Williams gone the mystery is even greater. He was a player who could record a triple-double in points, rebounds and blocks on any given night (19 points, 10 rebounds, 13 blocks against Duquesne), so his loss changed the team quite a bit.

BC has some good wins and some bad losses on the year. They have home losses to Vermont and Duquesne. They also lost at Providence, and they were completely crushed 84-66 when they visited Kansas back in December. But the Eagles also have victories over Michigan State, Maryland, Virginia and Boston College, all Top 50 RPI teams. They are very similar to the Hokies in that they can lose to anymore (Duquesne is just 8-11), but they can be very competitive with some very good teams.

Boston College Starting Lineup
Pos	Name	Ht	Wt	Year	Pts	Rebs
G	Tyrese Rice	6-1	190	So.	16.3	3
G	Sean Marshall	6-6	212	Sr.	15.7	5.2
F	Jared Dudley	6-7	225	Sr.	18.9	8.7
F	John Oates	6-10	255	Jr.	4.6	3.5
F	Shamari Spears	6-6	245	Fr.	8.6	6.2

In Jared Dudley, Boston College has arguably the best all-around player in the ACC. Dudley scores in a variety of ways, he rebounds, and he's a good passer. With his size and shooting ability, he is a matchup nightmare. He can post up a smaller player inside, beat a bigger defender on the outside, and get offensive rebounds.

Dudley gets a lot of close looks at the basket, and he shoots 56.6% from the field. He doesn't take a lot of three-pointers, but he's very efficient from the outside (22-of-47, 46.8%). He also has 58 assists on the year, second on the team, so if you double team him when he gets the ball inside, he could burn you.

BC gets most of their scoring from Dudley and their backcourt. Point guard Tyrese Rice is a very dangerous player. He has great range on his three-pointer, and he'll take a lot of long-range shots, though he doesn't knock them down with great efficiency (30.4%). The Virginia native has also dished out 128 assists on the year.

Shooting guard Sean Marshall is streaky. In some games he appears to be noticeably absent, but when he's on he is very good. He is big and physical, and he can knock down the open jumper. He can sometimes play out of control, but BC coach Al Skinner will take that because Marshall is a very emotional player and makes defenders work very hard with his aggressive style of play.

John Oates won't wow you with his stats, but he's a very dangerous player. Despite his size (6-10, 255), he is more dangerous from the outside than inside. He has a very soft touch on his jumper, and he can routinely knock down jumpers from the outside if left open. The Hokies can't forget about Oates. Every point he scores is an added bonus for the Eagles.

Shamari Spears brings a physical presence to the inside for BC. He is very similar to former BC star Craig Smith, although he isn't built as well and he's not as talented. But he's the same type of player. Spears has a pretty good jumper out to the free throw line, so you have to respect his shot, despite the fact that he doesn't look like a shooter.

Boston College vs. Virginia Tech (ACC Games Only)
Category	Boston College		Virginia Tech
Category	Stat	ACC Rank	Stat	ACC Rank
FG %	46.0%	6	46.9%	5
FG % Defense	45.5%	6	43.8%	4
3-Pt. %	33.3%	9	38.2%	2
3-Pt. % Defense	34.8%	6	30.6%	3
FT %	72.0%	6	70.8%	7
Rebounding Margin	+4.8	3	-4.2	9
Turnover Margin	-1.75	9	+3	2
Assist/TO Ratio	0.96	5	1.18	1
Scoring Offense	75.2	4	73.8	6
Scoring Defense	71.5	4	72.6	6
Average		5.8		4.5

From a percentage standpoint, BC is an average shooting team and an average defensive team in ACC play. The Hokies are better than the Eagles in every shooting category except free throws (and that's close, in ACC games at least). The Hokies take better care of the ball and have a better assist-to-turnover ratio.

The only real advantage BC has over the Hokies is their rebounding. They average 13.9 offensive rebounds per game in ACC play, so Virginia Tech needs to concentrate on boxing out.

Boston College may not seem like a very good matchup for the Hokies because of their strength and rebounding skill. However, consider the fact that both of Tech's losses to BC last season came after Zabian Dowdell missed potential-game winning three-pointers at the buzzer in each game. The Hokies could have easily beaten the Eagles both times last year. BC is not as good as they were last year, and Tech is better than last year.

Also, what BC gains in size and strength with Marshall and Dudley on the court, they lose in ball-handling. Tyrese Rice is their only good ball-handler in the starting lineup, and Marquez Haynes will fill that role when he comes off the bench. Virginia Tech needs to take advantage of this, and if they do, they can beat Boston College.

The Eagles run a very methodical offense. When unchallenged, it is very good. The key for the Hokies is to mess up the timing of BC's offense. Bring tough ball pressure against their half court offense, and mix in some occasional full court press and traps to throw BC's timing off and create some turnovers. Virginia Tech needs to challenge the passing lanes. If they make BC work hard offensively, things will be easier on the other end of the court as well.

Offensively, Virginia Tech needs to run, and they should have some opportunities. Despite their guard-heavy scoring, the Eagles' offense is very much interior-based. Their offense operates close to the basket, and they like to crash the boards. That should provide the Hokies with some runouts and some easy buckets.

When they operate in their half court set, the Hokies should be able to run their offense the way they want. Boston College doesn't apply a lot of ball pressure, and they don't play the passing lanes. They force an average of 12.6 turnovers per game in ACC play. The only team that forces fewer is NC State. Like they are on offense, BC is very methodical on defense, almost to the point of appearing lackadaisical at times.

The thing that Virginia Tech must do in this game is control the tempo, something they failed to do against NC State. They allowed themselves to get lulled to sleep in a slow, half court game, and they lost. They need to set the tempo defensively by applying tight ball pressure and playing the passing lanes. They need to make Boston College's players handle the ball in tight spots, which they are uncomfortable doing.

The Hokies also need to concentrate on boxing out and getting defensive rebounds. If they do that, they will get some easy baskets on the other end on fast breaks. Getting fast break points on offense and throwing off BC's timing with ball pressure and playing the passing lanes will give Virginia Tech the tempo advantage. They must get that advantage early, because BC is a very good first half team, as bourbonstreet points out below. It might not be a bad idea to come out with some full court pressure and traps at the very beginning of the game.

Boston College is also a depth-shy team, so getting into a running game could wear the Eagles down. That is another thing the Hokies failed to do against NC State.

With a tempo advantage, the Hokies stand a great shot to beat the Eagles and pick up a huge road win on Saturday.

Jamon Gordon has not topped four makes from the floor since January 13th and is shooting 32% over that span, Coleman Collins went from slumped, to somewhat improved, to �Mighty� Casey vs. N.C. State. Only one Hokie averages more than 11 and change per game, and no one off the bench (except A.D. Vassallo) contributes more than 3.5 points per game. That's where Tech is and where they were coming off of a nifty 12-2 run prior to N.C. State. But where will we go from here?

It's really odd to see me declaring any regular season game in the final 3rd of the year a turning point, but that's exactly what this Boston College Flying-Eagles game is this Saturday. Either some leader(s) will step up and turn this single, but ugly one game schnide around, or it will roll the wrong way. No matter how this one goes, this B.C. game is gonna snowball the rest of the year.

B.C. is a better team to me than their .700 winning percentage suggests. In fact they remind me of ... well ... the Hokies. They dropped a couple of games they should have easily won, they have beaten several name teams, they have precious little bench production, and they, like Tech, have morphed into a perimeter team (due to undisciplined off-court reasons however).

B.C. has a conspicuous +140 aggregate point margin in the first 20 minutes of play this year, so the Hokies need to �ante up and kick in� a glorified high octane effort level from the get go this time. Play a full 40 minutes, that's what I'm talking about, and thereby maintain contact to try to stave off the 27th scoring team who is the 30th best shooting team in D-1. But strangely enough, the Flying Eagles plummet to 193rd from down-town on the year. So the Hokie frontcourt must change the key to the paint, keep B.C. away from the hoop and make B.C. win from outside. B.C. has topped 51% from the floor in four of their last six Bean-Town games. That's gonna be a problem.