Scouting Boston College

Boston College overview: The Eagles got off to a rocky start, but have been shooting the ball well of late and posted a key 96-81 win over Syracuse Jan. 1.

Boston College also has a 72-71 win over Auburn Dec. 12 and a 79-67 victory over Providence Dec. 23. NCSU and BC both played Fairfield earlier this season, with the Pack winning 99-78 Dec. 18 and the Eagles falling 89-83 Dec. 21.

Boston College has blended its youth movement with the addition of graduate transfers Connar Tava from Western Michigan and Mo Jeffers from Delaware to aid the backcourt.

In the last meeting between the two teams on March 2, 2016, NC State snagged a 73-72 home win over Boston College when Caleb Martin found Maverick Rowan for a layup as time expired.

Backcourt: The all-North Carolina backcourt of sophomore Jerome Robinson and freshman Kyran Bowman has bolstered the Eagles and given some hope for the future.

Robinson played high school ball at Raleigh Broughton High and is a product of Garner Road traveling team. He played with NC State walk-on wing Cameron Gottfried, the son of Wolfpack head coach Mark Gottfried, at Broughton.

Robinson has exploded this season after a promising but injury-plagued freshman year. He averaged 11.7 points per game and shot 42.9 percent from the field last season, but has increased his numbers in every key category this season excepts assists, where he matched last year’s average of 3.0 per game.

Robinson is shooting 46.3 percent from the field and 39.5 percent on three-pointers this season. He has been rock solid consistent and enters the NC State game with seven straight games of at least 20 points. He has scored 20 or more in 12 contests, including a season-high 32 in a 82-75 win over Sacred Heart Dec. 18. He also had 23 points and 11 rebounds against Auburn.

Bowman has taken an unusual path to Boston College. He originally committed to play wide receiver for North Carolina, while his older brother Michael Bowman was set to play wide receiver at South Carolina. Michael Bowman ended up getting arrested and eventually enrolled at Winston-Salem State, and Kyran decided to give up the idea of playing college football to concentrate on his dream to play basketball.

Bowman was lightly recruited in hoops, but parlayed a superb senior season into generating some recruiting interest last spring. He settled on Boston College and has been one of the biggest surprises of the ACC. He converted 7 of 8 from three-point land en route to 30 points, to go along with nine rebounds and five assists, in the win over Syracuse. He also had 33 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the loss to Fairfield.

Bowman is shooting a superb 50.0 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from three-point land, and has reached 12 points in the last seven games (10 contests for the season).

Sophomore guard Jordan Chatman is averaging 6.6 points and 2.1 rebounds in 20.6 minutes. The 6-5, 198-pounder is shooting 37.7 percent from three-point land, and is one of three graduate transfers on the roster. He averaged 2.7 points in 10.3 minutes per game for Brigham Young in 2015-16.

Chatman has scored at least 10 points in three games and has made at least two three-pointers in eight contests for the Eagles.

A third North Carolina native started off the season with Boston College, but freshman point guard Ty Graves of High Point (N.C.) Christian left after 11 games played to transfer to Saint Louis.

Frontcourt: Tava averaged 12.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game while shooting 46.4 percent from the field for Western Michigan in 2014-15, but was injured last year.

The graduate transfer was plugged into the Boston College starting lineup, but the sledding has been a little harder in the ACC. After cracking 20 points or more in five games his junior year at WMU, Tava has notched in double figures in just three games while grabbing 10 rebounds in two contests. He had nine points, 10 rebounds and seven assists against Syracuse.

Jeffers averaged 5.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game at Delaware last year. His stats have held steady in the jump in level, but he is rebounding better and is shooting 47.9 percent form the field.

Jeffers had eight points and 12 rebounds in the 93-82 loss at Duke last Saturday. He also had 13 points, nine rebounds and three blocks against Providence. He has scored at least 10 points in two games and grabbed at least seven boards in seven contests.

Sophomore A.J. Turner and senior Garland Owens tag-team the small forward position.

The slender Turner is a gifted outside shooter and is stroking 43.1 percent from three-point land. He also battled injuries last year and thus has increased his production across the board.

Turner has cracked double figures in all but four games, including eight of the last nine. He had a career-high 16 points, while hitting 4 of 7 from three-point range and dishing out six assists against the Orange. Turner also has 11 points and went 3 of 4 on threes against the Wolfpack last year.

The athletic 6-5, 222-pound Owens is averaging 2.1 points and 2.3 rebounds in 11.0 minutes per game. His role is down from a year ago, but he did have eight points and eight rebounds in the 74-66 loss versus Harvard Dec. 7. Owens had 11 points and six rebounds against NC State last year.

Freshman center Nik Popovic is averaging 6.6 points and 3.7 rebounds in 13.8 minutes per game off the bench. The native of Bosnia & Herzegovina had 13 points and five rebounds in an 82-75 win over Stony Brook Nov. 20, and 11 points and six boards against Syracuse.

Redshirt freshman Johncarlos Reyes was injured last year, but the 6-10, 214-pounder has appeared in 13 out of 16 games this season. He is averaging 1.5 points and 1.4 rebounds in 6.5 minutes per game off the bench.