Boston College and Arizona State Pull Weekend Upsets in College Basketball

Boston College usually doesn’t come to mind when the subject of powerhouses of ACC basketball is brought up. The Eagles were frequent participants in the NCAA tournament in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s (many of those appearances occurred when the team was in the Big East conference before joining the ACC in the 2005-6 season) but hasn’t been back since 2009. Last year, BC closed out the season with 15 straight losses and finished 9-23 and just 2-16 in conference play, including a loss to Wake Forest in the ACC tournament.

This season started out in an encouraging manner, and the Eagles compiled a 6-3 record against non-conference opponents. However, the losses were to Texas Tech, Nebraska, and Providence, while the wins were over schools like Maine, Sacred Heart, and Colgate, from less prestigious basketball conferences. On December 9th, BC’s level of competition took a quantum leap when the Eagles hosted Duke in the first conference game of the season for both schools. The Blue Devils just happened to be ranked #1 in the country.

We don’t know if Duke was looking ahead to a nice break—the Blue Devils next game isn’t until December 20th—but Boston College was up to the task. The Eagles upset the Blue Devils 89-84 behind 30 points from Ky Bowman, 24 from Jerome Robinson, and 22 from Jordan Chatman. Boston College has finished last in the ACC twice in a row, but aren’t the automatic cellar dwellers now.

On the other side of the country, Arizona State basketball is usually upstaged by cross state rival Arizona, but this year, the Sun Devils got off to an 8-0 start, including a win over #15 Xavier. On December 10th, ASU traveled to Lawrence, Kansas, to take on the #2 ranked Kansas Jayhawks. The Sun Devils trailed by three at halftime, but outscored the Jayhawks 58-45 in the second half to win 95-85. The Jayhawks were shocked by another Pac-12 school, Washington, in a 74-65 loss to the Huskies on December 6th. Kansas lost consecutive games for the first time in four years, and is probably dreading its game to another Pac-12 team, Stanford, on the road on December 21st. Meanwhile Arizona State figures to be a major factor in the Pac-12 this season.