The composition of Division I men’s basketball programs can undergo total transformations on a yearly basis in the topsy-turvy state of intercollegiate athletics.
That is the situation Boston College coach Earl Grant is attempting to manage as he prepares his squad for the upcoming season with an expanded ACC roster that now includes SMU, Stanford and California.
Even in the new age of open transfer portals, NIL payments and shifting institutional allegiances, Grant was flush with continuity at this point last season. According to Grant, BC and Marquette were the only power programs in the country that started the 2023-24 campaign with three returning starters and nine returning lettermen on the roster.
Grant’s numerical pat hand generated the Eagles’ first 20-win season since 2010-11 that included two victories in the ACC Tournament and a road win over Providence in the opening round of the NIT.
Fast forward to this season, and Grant is in a wholly different place. Through graduation and the transfer portal, BC lost its five starters and two bench players that contributed significant minutes. BC lost a staggering 88% of its scoring, 82% of its rebounding and 88% of its assists through attrition.
“It’s different and obviously it is different for me and it is different for a lot of people,” Grant said. “We are really trying to take the next step and move the program forward and as you climb the mountain, they say the mountain don’t care.
“We’ve been climbing the mountain since day one and we are not at the bottom where we were, and we are not at the top. We are somewhere in between, and we want to look up. We want to continue to climb and bring our program to the next phase.
“That’s our play, that’s out pursuit and we have a group we think can do it. But we’ve got keep working and get guys to buy into their roles for us to be successful.”
The transfer portal is a two-way street, and Grant mined it to replace the outbound players. Grant restocked the roster with seven new players, four from the portal and three freshmen, two of whom could be in the rotation when BC opens the season against The Citadel at home on Nov. 4.
“The opportunity to bring in new players that are experienced but all from other places,” Grant said. “We have a team that has half its players back from last year and there is another half that that is new guys.
“But the good thing is they are new guys that produced. New guys that were all-conference players, new guys that averaged a lot of points and were productive so at least we don’t have all new freshmen. We have new experienced players so we are a little older than we were last year.”
The imports are guards Joshua Beadle (Clemson), Dion Brown (UMBC) and Roger McFarlane (SE La.) and power forward Chad Venning (St. Bonaventure). The three freshmen are guards Nick Petronio of Needham, Luka Toews and Congolese winger Kany Tchanda. Toews is described as a “complete” point guard while the 6-8, 200-pound Tchanda, is a ball-handler in a forward’s body.
Redshirt freshman forward Jayden Hastings and sophomore guard Fred Payne missed last season with injuries. The returning three players that saw limited minutes are forward Elijah Strong and guards Chas Kelley III and Donald Hand Jr.
Grant’s biggest rebuild dilemma is replacing 7-0 pivotman Quinten Post, a self-described “modern big” who was drafted in the second round by the Golden State Warriors.
Despite a penchant for picking up early fouls, Post logged 31.9 minutes per game in 35 starts and averaged 17.0 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists. Post could set up on the blocks or along the perimeter, where he averaged .431% shooting from behind the arc. He was named to the All-ACC second team.
Venning is more of a “traditional big,” and he put up good numbers for the Bonnies. He appeared in 106 games, scored 1,062 points and averaged 5.1 rebounds per game over the last two seasons. Hasting and Strong will compete with Venning for minutes.
“Quinten Post was a rare case, I never coached a guy like that,” said Grant. “He could shoot 3s while all my (previous) big guys would dunk and rebound the ball and score around the basket and be physical inside the paint.
“We have more that type of a team now from a physicality standpoint, a traditional big guy standpoint and there is a collection of them.”
BC and Clemson had an exchange of players that greatly favored the Tigers. Indestructible all-purpose guard Jaeden Zackery rode the portal to Clemson while the Eagles acquired Beadle, a 6-3, 180-pound, guard from Charleston, S.C. Grant coached at the College of Charleston before coming to BC and knew Beadle when he played for Cardinal Newman High School in Columbia, S.C.
“I’ve known Jost since the ninth or 10th grade,” said Grant. “When you go into the transfer portal you do have to seek out some character and with a guy like Josh, I was very familiar with from a character standpoint.”
