Sim Series Games 21-23: What if Teddy Hawkins Never Tore His ACL?
We're using WhatIfSports.com to simulate the 2017-18 BC season to see if a healthy Eagles team could have made a run to the NCAA Tournament.
Series Note: Using the What If Sports engine, we are simulating BC’s 2017-18 season from the point where Deontae “Teddy” Hawkins tore his ACL. The Illinois State grad transfer will remain in the Eagles’ rotation the entire season, and we have set the target minutes for each player based on BC’s actual games with Hawkins in the lineup. We are releasing outcomes and recaps of BC’s simulate games (five at a time).
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Part V Recap (Click here to read in full):
BC has made a habit of digging itself out of deep second-half holes in ACC play, and that was the case again versus Georgia Tech. Led by Ky Bowman, the Eagles erased a 15-point deficit in the final frame before holding off the Yellow Jackets in the waning minutes of regulation. Jim Christian’s team couldn’t end its 21-year drought at the Joyce Center, suffering a four-point defeat to Notre Dame, but the Eagles quickly responded with three straight victories.
The trio of Bowman, Jerome Robinson, and Jordan Chatman guided BC to a comeback win over No. 25 Miami—the Eagles’ third ranked victory of the year. Then, BC downed a bottom feeding Pittsburgh team, marking the program’s first win against the Panthers since March 2001. The five-game stretch concluded with a 10-point home victory versus Notre Dame: quite the revenge for the Eagles, who hadn’t topped their longtime rival in 13 years.
BC (19-8, 9-5 ACC) has strung together three consecutive ACC wins—more league victories than the program recorded in the previous two years combined—and already matched the team’s actual 2017-18 win total. Read on to see how the Eagles round out the regular season.
Feb. 20 @ North Carolina State: BC 99, N.C. State 97.
Four ACC regular season wins in a row—the last time BC achieved that feat was in 2008-09. It took a shooting clinic, and 50 points from Bowman and Robinson to keep the Eagles’ win streak alive. Both BC and N.C. State shot over 44 percent from downtown in the high-scoring thriller. To say the Wolfpack’s offense was balanced would be an understatement. Six N.C. State players finished in double figures, with Baylor transfer Allerik Freeman (19 points) leading the way.
The opening 10 minutes of regulation were relatively slow, especially compared to the high-octane second half. Neither team created much separation, but Markell Johnson closed out the frame with N.C. State’s final 11 points of the period, handing the Wolfpack a 42-39 halftime advantage in the process. Omer Yurtseven’s inside-out game and Sam Hunt’s perimeter shooting maintained N.C. State’s slim lead throughout the early portion of the second period. Yet a Bowman 3-pointer from the top of the arc at the 11:50 mark pulled the Eagles ahead, and from there, it was an all-out track meet.
Trading baskets at will, the teams totaled 72 points in the last 10 minutes of play. Another Bowman triple—his third and final 3-pointer of the game—turned a one-possession game into a six-point BC lead with 51 seconds left. Teddy Hawkins sank a pair of free throws on the next Eagles possession, and Christian’s group held tight for the win, despite a barrage of late-game N.C. State treys.
BC’s Sim Record: 20-8, 10-5 ACC
Feb. 24 @ Miami: Miami 91, BC 72.
BC entered Coral Gables, Fla. with its first 10-win ACC season since 2006-07. Miami put a damper on the Eagles’ milestone, though, with a 19-point win on home court—an entirely different result from BC’s actual one-point heartbreaker against the Hurricanes at the tail end of the 2017-18 season. Bruce Brown registered the first two baskets of the day, Miami started the game on a 10-2 run, and the ’Canes never looked back.
Although the Eagles converted on 45 percent of their shot attempts, the game was decided on the glass. Miami destroyed BC in the rebounding battle, 43-20, and it prevented the Eagles from stitching together a double-digit second-half comeback. Bowman, Robinson, and Chatman—the only three Eagles to reach or eclipse 10 points—came out firing in the second, but any sort of momentum they built was extinguished by a deep Miami offense. Six different ’Canes scored in the first five or so minutes of the final frame. At one point, Miami led by as many as 26, and, ultimately, BC left the Watsco Center with its second 19-point ACC loss of the year.
BC’s Sim Record: 20-9, 10-6 ACC
Feb. 28 vs. Syracuse: Syracuse 85, BC 76.
Bowman and Hawkins fouled out, Jim Boeheim’s vaunted 2-3 zone forced the Eagles into jacking up 30 triples, BC lost on the glass for the second game in a row, and Syracuse spoiled the Eagles’ regular season home finale with a nine-point win. Oshae Brissett (27 points) and Tyus Battle (22 points) played villain in Conte Forum, as the two teamed up for six of the Orange’s eight 3-pointers. Interestingly enough, however, neither scored in the first three and a half minutes of action. Still, Syracuse rolled out to a 10-7 lead, a thin margin that would hold for the rest of the period, in large part thanks to Frank Howard and the 6-foot-8 Matthew Moyer.
The second half was when Brissett and Battle took over the game. In the span of six minutes and 21 seconds, they racked up a combined 15 straight points. Luckily for BC, a slew of jumpshots from all five of its starters, including 6-foot-11 center Nik Popovic, enabled the Eagles to go toe-to-toe with their former Big East foe. Steffon Mitchell (10 points and seven rebounds) even got in the mix, too. Back and forth the teams went until the 4:27 mark when Battle hit a triple and a long 2-pointer, putting the Orange up, 77-72. A Paschal Chukwu bucket and two Brissett free throws increased that lead to nine, a deficit BC couldn’t cut below six the rest of the way.
BC’s Sim Record: 20-10, 10-7 ACC
March 3 @ Florida State: FSU 88, BC 83.
Since Bowman’s 30-point outburst at N.C. State, the point guard has struggled from the floor, and that was no different on the road in Tallahassee. Fortunately for BC, its offense still flourished without their red-headed phenomenon playing at his best. The Eagles, led by Robinson, Chatman, and Popovic, notched 49 first-half points and walked into the locker room with an eight-point advantage at the break.
Gradually, FSU chipped away at its three-possession deficit. Just like in the teams’ Jan. 15 meeting, Braian Angola found his rhythm from 3-point land. And 18 bench points from Mfiondu Kabengele and MJ Walker certainly made the comeback effort a bit easier, as well. It was Walker who delivered the most important shot of the game: a 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 1:14 remaining, one that gave the Seminoles a 82-78 lead. A Hawkins fadeaway drew BC within two, however, back-to-back misses from Popovic and Bowman allowed FSU to escape with a come-from-behind victory.
BC’s Final Regular Season Sim Record: 20-11, 10-8 ACC
What’s Next?
After logging their longest ACC regular season win streak since 2008-09, the Eagles dropped their final three contests of the 18-game conference slate. BC has 20 wins, three victories over ranked opponents, only one bad loss, and ranks seventh in the ACC standings, yet it will likely need at least one win in the conference tournament to secure a spot in the field of 64.
Here’s a look at the league table before the teams head to the Barclays Center for the ACC Tourney (Note: all outcomes for games unaffected by the simulator remained unchanged for every other team in the conference).
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