ACC TEAM PREVIEW #1 BOSTON COLLEGE EAGLES

Boston College head coach Earl Grant enters the 2025-26 season somewhat on the hot seat after a disappointing 2024-25 season. The Eagles are coming off a season where they were unable to win a single road game out of 10 attempts. Their four wins in conference play last year were against Miami, Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech, all of whom weren't selected into the NCAA tournament. Boston College head coach Earl Grant enters the 2025-26 season somewhat on the hot seat after a disappointing 2024-25 season. The Eagles are coming off a season where they were unable to win a single road game out of 10 attempts. Their four wins in conference play last year were against Miami, Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech, all of whom weren't selected into the NCAA tournament.

Projected starting lineup:

G Fred Payne

G Chase Forte (South Dakota transfer)

G Donald Hand Jr

F Aidan Shaw (Missouri transfer)

C Boden Kapke (Butler transfer)

It's safe to say that Boston College fans can enter this season with some optimism as they return last season's leading scorer, Donald Hand, to their backcourt. Hand was one of the biggest breakout candidates in the ACC last season as he went from averaging just five points per contest in 2023-24 to averaging 15.7 points per game, which was 14th in the ACC. Hand will enter this season as one of the best scorers in the conference and should be in the mix for an All-ACC first team selection. They also have a couple of other notable returners in Fred Payne and Jayden Hastings, both of whom will be looking at a bigger role this season.

Head coach Earl Grant landed a total of four transfers in the portal cycle. The one who will likely make the biggest impact is South Dakota State transfer Chase Forte. He's now on his fourth school in four seasons and is coming off a year where he averaged 17.9 PPG and was an All-Summit League selection. They were also able to land Baylor transfer Jason Asemota in the portal. He transferred after getting minimal playing time at Baylor last season, but was a very highly-regarded recruit out of high school.

Boston College could have a legitimately good backcourt next season, led by Forte and Hand, but in the frontcourt, they'll be heavily reliant on Butler transfer Boden Kapke and Missouri transfer Aidan Shaw, who are both coming off seasons where they had much smaller roles with their respective teams.

Prediction: 16th in ACC