Men’s College Basketball 2021-2022 Season Preview: Boston College Eagles

The college basketball season is just over two weeks away — time is just flying by. To get you ready for the season, I’m previewing the season in men’s college basketball, team by team. In these previews I will highlight key departures, additions, returners and overall DFS viability for each team. These previews will be heavily focused on DFS and fantasy in general, so keep that in mind when I’m talking about the relevancy of a player or team rotations.

We kick things off with the ACC, a conference that severely underperformed in the pandemic-impacted season last year. While the conference will inevitably have a handful of DFS staples for us to use each slate, it still seems like the ACC lost more talent than it was able to gain. With the transfer rules changing after March Madness ended it ultimately led to what was essentially free agency in CBB. There were coaching changes as well which I will talk about throughout this breakdown because new philosophies will mean new strategies for our DFS builds. 

In this one, Boston College.

(Check out our full college basketball season preview!)

Boston College Eagles 2021-2022 Season Preview

2020-2021 record: 4-16 (2-11 ACC), 15th/last in ACC
Postseason: None

Key Departures | Boston College Eagles

• Wynston Tabbs (transferred to ECU)
• Steffon Mitchell (left to play professionally)
• CJ Felder (transferred to Florida)
• Jay Heath (transferred to Arizona State)
• Rich Kelly (transferred to UMass)
• Kamari Williams (transferred to Miami Ohio)

Key Additions | Boston College Eagles

• TJ Bickerstaff (transferred from Drexel)
• Quinten Post (transferred from Miss State)
• Brevin Galloway (transferred from College of Charleston)
• Gianni Thompson (4 star recruit)

Returners | Boston College Eagles 

• Makai Ashton-Langford (9.7 PPG/3.3 RPG/3.2 APG/1.7 SPG)
• Demarr Langford (6.7 PPG/4.2 RPG/1,1 SPG)
• James Karnik (6.8 PPG/5.4 RPG)
• Frederick Scott (7.6 PPG/3.9 RPG)

Boston College Eagles Outlook for 2021-2022

The mediocre era of Jim Christian is finally over at Boston College as the team brings in former Charleston coach Earl Grant. There seems to be stark contrast in styles between the two coaches, which is something that will change our perception of this team from a DFS perspective. Under Christian, they played fast and tried to outscore their opponents — something they never could seem to do — making stacking against them a profitable strategy. Grant plays at a much slower pace and his teams at Charleston took care of the basketball. Low turnover rates and slower tempo will be the name of the game for BC now. Earl Grant brought Brevin Galloway with him from Charleston to help run his system and teach his new teammates. Galloway has been a standout under Grant averaging 15/3/3 before going down to an early season injury last year. Galloway has been an effective shooter during his four-year career and a plus defender that had a top-two steals rate in the CAA during the 19-20 season.

Makai Ashton-Langford will be in his fourth year now after playing a couple seasons for Providence and BC last year. He is a dynamic offensive creator that had a high assist rate and a top-25 turnover rate in the ACC last season. He is an ideal fit for the way Earl Grant wants to play. Dermarr Langford is a hard-nosed defender that should also see his overall numbers go up in most categories.

Grant has a plethora of front court options to use with super seniors James Karnik and Frederick Scott back in the fold along with seven-footer Quinten Post from Miss State and Drexel forward TJ Bickerstaff who was a 10 PPG/5 RPG guy a season ago. Frosh Gianni Thompson should challenge for PT right away and is a talented hybrid forward that can knock down shots from deep but also take his man off the dribble. I am intrigued to see him play but with all the upperclassmen ahead of him it might not be until Year 2 where he really becomes useful in fantasy.

(Check out our rankings of the top 100 teams and top 100 players for men’s college basketball in 2021-2022.)

Summary

There is a big-time philosophy change with Earl Grant coming to town, which means we could see some early-season struggles as the team learns his system. Expect Brevin Galloway to be a stat padder early on with guys like Makai Ashton-Langford and Dermarr Langford being serviceable DFS options throughout.