The extraordinary weather in New England forces an unconventional path, as Duke will arrive in Boston at 12:00, take the 10 mile trip on I-90 to Chestnut Hill, presumably eat, shoot around some, then play from 6:00 to roughly 8:00, head back to the airport and back home.
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Not your normal routine, to be sure, and probably not a great thing for Ryan Kelly, who, assuming he goes, is still on crutches. The transportation is surely from door to door, but it's still not ideal to be on crutches in that weather.
But we digress.
The weather hands BC some advantages: proximity, comfort, more practice time and awareness of the environment among them.
What they may not have is a significant advantage in the stands. Who knows how many people will turn out? We remember Georgia Tech coming to Cameron one year when an ice storm hit and about 2,000 people showed up.
BC is young and short, but they've done fairly well at home. They lost to State by just five, very nearly took Miami and beat Clemson by seven.
Their primary players are likely to be Ryan Anderson (6-8), who has had some sensational games this year and the rookie backcourt of Olivier Hanlan and Joe Rahon, both of whom have certainly had their moments. They've had to mostly play without Dennis Clifford, who is still limited by an injury. He would have been a much more critical player for the Eagles if he had been healthy.
Lonnie Jackson's not far behind the rookie duo and is a dangerous player.
They've also gotten some nice performances from Patrick Heckmann, Eddie Odio and grad student Andrew Van Nest, who has somehow been a much better player for BC than he was at Harvard.
Presumably BC will face a stiff challenge in Mason Plumlee, who has a significant advantage over the smaller Eagles.
Otherwise Duke matches up reasonably well, with Anderson the toughest to figure. He's likely to draw Plumlee.
Look for Duke to try to deny the three point attack and to run a lot as BC's game encourages it. They'll need strong games from Rasheed Sulaimon and Quinn Cook and possibly Tyler Thornton as well.
Presumably Josh Hairston will be back, which will be a big plus. He's a solid defender and gives more depth.
The situation is a bit unusual because of the weather, but our guess is that Duke will do reasonably well as long as they defend aggressively and remember that this team is very dangerous at home.