Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Farrell decommits and other links

At times it would be nice to if coaches could talk about recruits. If Donahue could talk, maybe he could fully explain what is going on with Matt Farrell. He's the below radar basketball recruit who surprised everyone when he announced he had committed to BC. Even when word got out, there were pretty well sourced rumors that Farrell never had a binding offer from BC. What I heard consistently was that it was a preferred walk-on invitation. I don't know if Farrell spun it to the local media or if they never understood. Regardless, he is no longer committed to BC. Farrell says he'll still give BC a chance. I don't really care. Right now Donahue only has one scholarship for this class. He needs to use it on someone who can make a difference right away. Not a project.

The Maxwell Club named Addazio as a finalist for their Coach of the Year award.

The Basketball team will play in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off next Fall.

The Hartford Courant revisited the UConn-BC basketball rivalry in time for our Thursday game. I love how Jim Calhoun has altered his story on the BC departure. Where is all his bluster about it being a dumb and traitorous?

Maryland -- like every other team we play -- is focused on Andre Williams.

Do you remember Dorien Bryant? If you followed BC recruiting and message boards in the early aughts, you probably recall his recruiting roller coaster. He committed to BC and then had to go to prep school to become eligible. He then recommitted the following recruiting cycle only to spurn BC at the last minute. At the time many felt letting him getaway was a sign that TOB was losing interest in recruiting. Bryant is back in the news now for coming out of the closet. Bryant had relationships while at Purdue but was still uncomfortable coming out while still playing. I wonder if things would have been different at BC.

5 comments:

Walter said...

I don't think conservative Boston College is a particularly welcome place to come out for its students, let alone for its student-athletes...

Matt said...

Walter, I'm going to have to disagree to some extent. BC is pretty open-minded. I certainly didn't feel indoctrinated by religious dogma...especially considering it's Jesuit.

It is still probably tough for an openly gay football player to feel comfortable, but I think that is more an issue with football culture generally.

ObserverCollege said...

Father Leahy would absolutely make a gay football player feel most welcome on the campus. David Quigley would guarantee with his life and career an academic environment that treats the gay football player with the utmost of respect. And Jack Dunn would ensure the finest public relations possible for the inevitable media campaign highlighting the presence of an out Gay player. Or a bisexual player. Or a Transgender player. Or one who simply identifies as Queer. It doesn't matter, because we're all the same Children of God.

Bravesbill said...

Walter, BC is a fairly liberal school because it is run by the Jesuits after all.

Walter said...

Well, if you do a quick google search for boston college and lgbt related issues, you'll find that we've been ranked, as recently as at least 2011, as one of the top ten least lgbt-friendly campuses.

Are the Jesuits liberal? Sure - but compared to who? The Catholic church, and the jesuits included, haven't done all that much for meaningful inclusivity.

That said, I recognize this is a sports blog and maybe not the most obvious place for this discussion. Atleagle mentioned it, so I figured to chime in, too.