Standing at the podium on Senior Day at the Conte Forum postgame press conference, men’s basketball coach Al Skinner was fielding questions about his two senior starters and their importance to his program over the past four years. “I know that Louis [Hinnant] and Craig [Smith] will probably be asking for a part of my paycheck,” Skinner joked.

In the inaugural ACC year that many predicted would challenge the Eagles, the two seniors led their team to 28 wins, the final game of the ACC tournament, and the University’s first appearance in the NCAA Sweet 16 since the 1994 run to the Elite Eight. With Hinnant and Smith starting all four years, the Class of 2006 enjoyed the most victories in BC history—96—along the way collecting three NCAA tournament appearances following an NIT bid in their freshman year.

“We raised the bar for guys like Jared [Dudley '07] and the other guys who are coming up in the program,” Hinnant said. “We learned from Troy [Bell '03] and guys like Nate [Doornekamp '05] that we had to work hard to get what we want, and I think that the next classes will carry that torch.”

Smith was named to the All-ACC first team—a year after making the Big East’s first team—and finished his BC athletics career in second place for points (2,349; behind Bell’s 2,632, and ahead of Dana Barros ’89 by seven points) and in first place for rebounds (1,114; breaking Terry Driscoll’s record of 1,071, set in 1969). The season also provided Al Skinner with his 300th career win.

Cathy Inglese’s women’s basketball team also made it to the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament, a finish that seemed out of reach as the season ended. In ACC conference play, BC finished 6–8 (they were 21–12 in overall season play), handicapped by a pair of losing streaks, their first four ACC games and their final four regular season games. Selected as a number eight seed in the NCAA tournament, the women then posted wins over Notre Dame and Ohio State, the top-seeded team in BC’s region, to vault themselves into the Sweet 16 for the third time in four years. A close loss to Utah sent BC home, but the season’s bottom line had been raised.

“It wasn’t like we were getting blown out [in the regular season],” said Inglese. “It turned out that three of the Final Four in Boston were from our conference. We were taking things from each game, going back to work in the Power Gym and making sure that progress was being made,” Inglese said. “That was the key. We were never in awe or let the new settings get to us.”

Kevin Armstrong ’06

Read more by Kevin Armstrong