With no NCAA tournament appearances in the last 10 years, basketball has been in a period of decline at Boston College since leaving the Big East. In its earliest years in the conference, the Eagles made its mark in the backcourt, with a trio of point guards that were among the best in the league. The first of these was John Bagley.

Billed at 6-foot and 185 pounds, Bagley always looked a little heavier, but it did not stop him from outstanding guard play on both sides of the court. As a freshman, Bagley led the Eagles in scoring with an 11 points per game and earned all-freshman team honors in the conference's debut season. This freshman season did not compare to a dominant sophomore season where Bagley broke numerous BC records en route to a 20.4 points per game average and Big East Player of the Year Honors in 1981.

Bagley was a great fit for a BC team that didn't have much depth but could compete on any given night in the conference. He could drive, he could defend, and he was a relentless scorer, averaging 50 percent from the field. He led BC to an unlikely regular season championship in 1980-81 and its first NCAA appearance in six years, scoring 35 against Wake Forest in advancing to the regional semifinals before falling to St. Joseph's, 42-41.

As a junior, Bagley continued the trend, starting 31 of 32 games and averaging 21 points a game, which broke the single season scoring record of BC's John Austin in 1964-65 and earned him a second year on the All-Big East first team. While the Eagles finished fourth in a rapidly improving Big East, a 19-9 record earned BC its first back to back NCAA appearances in 14 years. Bagley averaged 18 points a game during BC's post-season run, which included 26 points and seven rebounds in an upset of #1-seeded DePaul and 26 points in the regional final, where Boston College fell to Houston, 99-92. He finished with 137 points in tournament play, second best in school history.

Much like contemporaries Eric Floyd and Dan Callandrillo, Bagley's numbers may not get the recognition they deserve in the years before the three point shot. Perhaps this comparison will assist: John Bagley's 21.0 points career average in Big East play has been matched by only two guards since the 1981-82 season: Georgetown's Allen Iverson and St. John's Marcus Hatten.

Following his junior season, Bagley became the first Big East player to exercise what was then known as the "hardship clause" for early entry into the NBA draft. In 1981, just five players across all of college basketball did so, but in 1982, Bagley was one of six early entry candidates selected in the first 12 picks of the draft. He played 11 years in the NBA, primarily with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics. Following the NBA, Bagley became a coach at the college and high school levels, returning to his home town of Bridgeport and his alma mater, Warren G. Harding HS, as head coach in 2017.