Earl Grant responds to fans on social media, Eagles lose to UMass
It’s been an ugly 24 hours for BC men’s basketball.
On Tuesday night, Earl Grant made national headlines in the college basketball world, going back and forth with fans giving him a hard time for a post on X about AJ Dybansta.
On Wednesday night, the team played against UMass out in Springfield for the first time since 2014. The Eagles trailed by as many as 14, led by seven with about six minutes left and eventually lost 76-74 to the Minutemen, falling to 5-6 on the year.
Chase Forte had a chance to give BC a lead with 21 seconds left, but missed two free throws with the game tied 74-74. Forte then fouled Marcus Banks Jr. on the other end. He knocked down both of his down with 5.1 remaining. BC ran the inbounds up the floor and then called timeout, leaving just 2.9 left on the clock. A wild Forte three at the buzzer was no good, sending BC to another late-game loss.
BC went on a 21-2 run over a 4:39 span to take a 61-56 lead with 6:44 remaining. Two technical fouls from Boden Kapke and Jason Asemota aided the Minutemen in coming back. Donald Hand Jr. tied the game at 74-74 on a driving layup with 47 seconds to play.
BC trailed 35-33 at halftime.
Both teams had plenty of ugliness to go around, as the Eagles were just 3-23 from three, while UMasswas 13-24 at the free throw line. UMass turned it over 15 times, BC had nine.
Here’s a few things that stood out from Earl Grant postgame:
Grant on the final play
“We had a couple options in there…the first option was something else, he (Forte) was the second option…we would have went for a two, but we needed to go with the best shot that presented itself to us.”
Grant on his interaction with fans on social media
“No. 1, we got the best fans in the country. Like, we’ve got passionate fans that are knowledgeable. This is a winning state, so they’re knowledgable. They know what winning is. They want to win, so they passionate. When, they show up, it makes a major difference in our arena. “So, that interaction was simply ‘hey, show up.’ Show up. Keep coming.
“I think, the amount of energy we’re putting into this program, myself, my staff and my team, I just want them (fans) to reciprocate that same energy. “So, the fact that that person had interest was actually a good thing. They passionate. So, we just need them to bring that in the building so we can have a home court advantage and then we can really find a way to make Conte one of the toughest places to play.”
Grant on not playing a game for 12 days
“Try to be the best, Top 5 in the country in improving. You know, like…we’ve got a lot of information. We’ve played a lot of games. This was game 11. So, it was a lot. Most teams have played eight or nine times. So, played a lot of games. Got exams coming up. So, they’ve got to take care of that. Exams is a real thing. So, they’ve got to take care of that. But, we’ve got to practice and we’ve got to become 2% better over the next two days, the next two weeks we have to try and figure out how we can improve.”
