Everything Earl Grant said after Stanford loss

At some point, something has to change.

On another night where BC found itself in a close game late, it was the opponent finding a way to make plays down the stretch, as Stanford earned a 70-64 win at Conte.

It’s worth noting that Donald Hand Jr. was injured and missed a majority of the game, but the Eagles still had plenty of chances and couldn’t close. It was another poor shooting night from three (4-16) and BC committed 12 turnovers.

The Eagles did overcome a 15-point hole and led late, but the same theme keeps popping up throughout the season…they just can’t close.

The loss drops the Eagles to 9-15 overall and 2-9 in the ACC. BC is now fighting just for its ACC tournament life with seven games remaining. The Eagles failed to make the conference tournament last year even though 15 of the 18 teams get in. Right now, Pitt, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech all also have two ACC wins heading into action on Saturday.

Boston College has taken steps back in Grant’s fifth year. Would another missed ACC tournament finally be cause for a change? There’s still an opportunity for this year’s team to get hot and make a small run for a game or two in the ACC tourney, but it feels like another fizzling out in a long line of fizzle out seasons since 2009.

The Eagles host Cal (17-8, 5-7) at noon on Saturday. BC has road games left against Florida State (11-13, 4-7), SMU (17-7, 6-5), Miami (19-5, 8-3) and Virginia Tech (17-8, 6-6). The final three home games are Cal, Wake Forest (12-12, 3-8) and Notre Dame (11-14, 2-10). Getting even a small taste of the postseason won’t be easy.

Here’s everything Grant said after the Stanford loss:

Opening thoughts

“Yeah, obviously we praying for Donald Hand. He missed 30 minutes of the game, so we still don’t know what the situation is, we’ll find out tomorrow. He walked around in the locker room pretty good at the end. So, to be 30 minutes without our best player and to overcome a 15-point deficit, take the lead and have a chance to win, I’m proud of them for that effort. But, again, we lost a game and it seems like it’s a broken record. We lost in a possession game.

“You talking about two possessions and it’s like, all the time the same scenario. So, we have to be better. I think the first half we had a few too many turnovers. We gave them a chance at some easies and that’s the story of the game. Other than that, I thought we won the game, but the nine turnovers in the first half really gave them some opportunities for easy baskets. We really wanted to make sure we would be a little more stingy and guard them better, but those turnovers really hurt us.”

On covering Ebuka Okorie (and the job done by Payne and Forte)

“They did a good job. He’s a great player. We know the kid, he’s from New England. Signed with Harvard, flipped to Stanford. So, proud of him, know who he is. Would have been nice if he was in a BC jersey, but he ain’t. So, really happy to see what he’s doing as a freshman and he’s setting himself up for a great future. But, I thought Fred and Chase early did a great job guarding him. He’s had 40 points twice this year. Last game he had 40 against Georgia Tech. So, he’s a load, but we did a really good job making it hard for him.”

On how Forte stepped up once Hand Jr. went down

“Well, that’s the first time we’ve ever experienced that, so we didn’t know exactly which way we would go. So, we went with the three guards and he responded well. I thought he was aggressive and it really helped us having him and Fred in the game at the same time so Fred didn’t have to guard Ebuka the whole game. Chase could come in and hunt him, Fred could hunt him. They could took turns trying to wear him down. But, yeah, I thought Chase came in and did a great job. He’s never played with Luka in a game this year. It’s new for us and obviously, we learned something. It was actually a pretty good lineup.”

On the defense with the game close down the stretch

“Well, they played with a lot of energy. They were helping each other, they were flying around. I thought we would have had an elite defensive performance if we did a better job on (Benny) Gealer. To let their best three-point shooter get 13 attempts off, that’s too many. We lost him some and he made us pay. So, I thought we would’ve had an elite defensive performance if we could have done a better job on him, but he made us oay getting those 13 three attempts off and making six.”

On losing five ACC games in a row despite being in almost all of them

“Just stay focused on the process trying to become the best team we can become. I think what’s hard is, we only looking at the result. So, we would never know if we’re doing a good job coaching because we’re losing the games. But, maybe we doing a good job. Maybe we just got to get a little bit better. So, the loss is the result, but to come in this room every night and say ‘hey, two more possessions we could have won the game,’ just lets me know we really close. And so, we got to keep chopping at it, keep working and hopefully, we’ll get a breakthrough.

“It’s a lot of close games. A lot of heartbreak for the guys. A lot of hard days where you say ‘hey, got to get back up tomorrow and get ready for the next one,’ and you know you would have had a chance to win it if you were just a little bit better.”

On any early time frame for Hand Jr. possibly being out

“I don’t know. I’m not the doctor, so he looked good just now when I saw him in the locker room moving around. He’s got an MRI (Thursday) so we’ll find out more.”

On if he wanted the offense to go at a better pace when cutting into Stanford’s lead

“Yeah, you can capitalize on some misses, try to get some easy baskets if you don’t get organized, but we also had an unorthodox lineup in. Guys had never been in that situation before together in a close game. But, I thought we did a pretty good job managing it. We missed some stuff at the room too. I thought we missed some stuff at the rim. I thought we missed a few good-rhythm threes we had. So, we needed to be a little bit better. I can’t question our players’ effort or character, because again, we were down 15, it could have got really bad. I wish we were better in terms of our result, but I know when I really look at this season and reflect on what we’ve seen so far, you know, we’ve done a really good job with what we’ve got.

“We’ve been coming up short against every opponent. I don’t care who it is, we’ve been in the games with a chance to win and we need to be a little bit better.”