BOSTON (AP) Earl Grant is hoping to return Boston College to its distant glory by bringing back a style reminiscent of its Big East days.

"I think we've got to be gritty and not pretty," the former College of Charleston coach said Tuesday, a day after he was hired to take over in Chestnut Hill. "This is a fighter's place. This is a place where fighters play."

A longtime independent before joining the Big East Conference in 1979, Boston College found its greatest success in the physical league, reaching the NCAA Tournament 11 times in 26 years. But since the jump to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2005, things haven't been the same.