Boston College Athletics
Storylines Build As Season Opener Looms
November 19, 2020 | Women's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
The first game is less than a week away!
Joanna Bernabei-McNamee would normally approach Thanksgiving with general ideas about her basketball team. A month's worth of wins and losses would offer initial reviews, and practices and film sessions would emphasize the strengths and points of improvement within the early returns. The players would hang on her analysis and focus internally both individually and as a collective unit, and a potential getaway tournament at a destination venue for the November holiday might loom over critical team bonding opportunities.
Her Boston College Eagles aren't preparing to start conference play with some flashy tournament in a tropical destination, and they aren't gaining altitude towards a potential NCAA Tournament berth. They are instead looking towards one game, the first game, in a year defined as anything but normal. Next Wednesday, that clock will finally strike zero when the Eagles host New Hampshire in the opening game of the 2020-2021 season.
"This year, with the craziness of 2020, one of our calming salvations is our basketball team," McNamee said. "We get to be together and work hard, so even though it was crazy with masks and having to social distance, we're able to get after each other. There's still that fear of quarantine or of contracting the virus, but the joy of being together and having what I think is the most mature team we've had since we've been here is really exciting. We get after it every day, and we look forward to (the competition)."
That first game carries a host of storylines for BC after one of its most successful seasons in program history. At a surface level, it's a potential encore for the Eagles after they went 20-12 last season and won a program-record 11 conference wins. They finished sixth in the ACC, another program best, and set a record with five road conference wins.
They won five consecutive league games for the first time since 2005-2006 and earned program-defining wins. BC swept Notre Dame for the first time in program history and upset No. 14 Florida State to earn its first win over a ranked opponent since 2015. McNamee won the ACC's Coach of the Year Award, and rising junior Taylor Soule won the league's Most Improved Player Award.
Soule's return gives BC an All-ACC Blue Ribbon second team player and a nominee for both the Cheryl Miller Award and the Women's Naismith Trophy watch lists, but she's one of four returning starters, all in the junior class and all ready to contribute in newly-defined leadership roles.
"We're a mature team," Marnelle Garraud, one of those returning junior starters, said. "It's our third year in this offense, and the people that have been here know this system. It's not robotic. It's about playing basketball. We're more comfortable and more outgoing, and we can find our freedom in playing basketball."
That will operate against a backdrop featuring the ACC's toughest competition after the conference reconfigured its season model. It divided its 15 teams into three, five-team divisions and scheduled 20 games by offering a more-geographical schedule. Teams will play home and away games against their division with five home and five away games against individual, non-divisional opponents. Two additional non-divisional games were scheduled by the conference office with most teams being assigned a home and away partner.
BC split into the league's North Division, a pod with three nationally-ranked preseason teams in No. 5 Louisville, No. 22 Notre Dame and No. 23 Syracuse. It additionally scheduled extra games against defending league tournament champion and preseason No. 8-ranked NC State and a Georgia Tech team that finished seventh last year with 20 overall wins.
"We definitely have a challenging season," McNamee said, "but our players came to Boston College because of the great education and to play in the ACC with that challenge. We're excited. If we want to showcase what we're made of, we want to go against the best. We get to do that, night after night, in the ACC."
"We all came to Boston College to play in a Power Five conference," Soule said, "and we want to play those ranked teams. We're lucky to have that schedule. Obviously it's going to be difficult, but we're excited about it. We're excited about the group that we have right now and the work that we're putting in. It's definitely tough, but we're up to the challenge."
That road begins next Wednesday when the Eagles tip off against New Hampshire in one of their few non-conference games. NCAA guidelines stipulated a maximum of 25 games if the team does not compete in a multiple-team event, or 23 games if it does, and the ACC's 20-game schedule enabled BC to add up to five games to its slate. The Eagles ultimately added four local teams with the Wildcats preceding games against UMass-Lowell and Providence with one road game at Northeastern.
Those games are critical before the team's jump into league play because they offer a limited sample size before the opening ACC games against both Georgia Tech and NC State. UNH is the all-important first game, and UMass-Lowell finished last season over .500. Providence crucially defeated the Eagles last season, and Northeastern is the lone road game and last game currently scheduled before league play.
"Michael Gibson, our director of basketball operations, took a lot of that off my plate," McNamee said. "If you ask me, it was easy, but he might say that he worked really hard to find teams. It was hard with the Ivy League (canceling its winter season) and the Patriot League (canceling non-conference games), and the Big Ten canceled the (ACC/Big Ten Challenge). We had some hurdles to jump, but we found some good schools that were local. I didn't want to get onto airplanes or ask someone to travel by air. We wanted to keep it local to keep (our team) safe because we're ultimately excited about ACC play."
"We don't have the games to work the kinks out," junior Makayla Dickens said, "but at the same time, it's exciting to dive straight into league play because it's so competitive. We're playing the best of the best, and to have that is crazy and exciting."
"Nobody is really worried about traveling," McNamee said. "Outside of that, our life is going to be as normal as possible right now. Part of that normalcy is going to travel and play basketball. That's what the winter brings and what our season brings us. More pressure is from the fear of it ever being taken away from us."
Her Boston College Eagles aren't preparing to start conference play with some flashy tournament in a tropical destination, and they aren't gaining altitude towards a potential NCAA Tournament berth. They are instead looking towards one game, the first game, in a year defined as anything but normal. Next Wednesday, that clock will finally strike zero when the Eagles host New Hampshire in the opening game of the 2020-2021 season.
"This year, with the craziness of 2020, one of our calming salvations is our basketball team," McNamee said. "We get to be together and work hard, so even though it was crazy with masks and having to social distance, we're able to get after each other. There's still that fear of quarantine or of contracting the virus, but the joy of being together and having what I think is the most mature team we've had since we've been here is really exciting. We get after it every day, and we look forward to (the competition)."
That first game carries a host of storylines for BC after one of its most successful seasons in program history. At a surface level, it's a potential encore for the Eagles after they went 20-12 last season and won a program-record 11 conference wins. They finished sixth in the ACC, another program best, and set a record with five road conference wins.
They won five consecutive league games for the first time since 2005-2006 and earned program-defining wins. BC swept Notre Dame for the first time in program history and upset No. 14 Florida State to earn its first win over a ranked opponent since 2015. McNamee won the ACC's Coach of the Year Award, and rising junior Taylor Soule won the league's Most Improved Player Award.
Soule's return gives BC an All-ACC Blue Ribbon second team player and a nominee for both the Cheryl Miller Award and the Women's Naismith Trophy watch lists, but she's one of four returning starters, all in the junior class and all ready to contribute in newly-defined leadership roles.
"We're a mature team," Marnelle Garraud, one of those returning junior starters, said. "It's our third year in this offense, and the people that have been here know this system. It's not robotic. It's about playing basketball. We're more comfortable and more outgoing, and we can find our freedom in playing basketball."
That will operate against a backdrop featuring the ACC's toughest competition after the conference reconfigured its season model. It divided its 15 teams into three, five-team divisions and scheduled 20 games by offering a more-geographical schedule. Teams will play home and away games against their division with five home and five away games against individual, non-divisional opponents. Two additional non-divisional games were scheduled by the conference office with most teams being assigned a home and away partner.
BC split into the league's North Division, a pod with three nationally-ranked preseason teams in No. 5 Louisville, No. 22 Notre Dame and No. 23 Syracuse. It additionally scheduled extra games against defending league tournament champion and preseason No. 8-ranked NC State and a Georgia Tech team that finished seventh last year with 20 overall wins.
"We definitely have a challenging season," McNamee said, "but our players came to Boston College because of the great education and to play in the ACC with that challenge. We're excited. If we want to showcase what we're made of, we want to go against the best. We get to do that, night after night, in the ACC."
"We all came to Boston College to play in a Power Five conference," Soule said, "and we want to play those ranked teams. We're lucky to have that schedule. Obviously it's going to be difficult, but we're excited about it. We're excited about the group that we have right now and the work that we're putting in. It's definitely tough, but we're up to the challenge."
That road begins next Wednesday when the Eagles tip off against New Hampshire in one of their few non-conference games. NCAA guidelines stipulated a maximum of 25 games if the team does not compete in a multiple-team event, or 23 games if it does, and the ACC's 20-game schedule enabled BC to add up to five games to its slate. The Eagles ultimately added four local teams with the Wildcats preceding games against UMass-Lowell and Providence with one road game at Northeastern.
Those games are critical before the team's jump into league play because they offer a limited sample size before the opening ACC games against both Georgia Tech and NC State. UNH is the all-important first game, and UMass-Lowell finished last season over .500. Providence crucially defeated the Eagles last season, and Northeastern is the lone road game and last game currently scheduled before league play.
"Michael Gibson, our director of basketball operations, took a lot of that off my plate," McNamee said. "If you ask me, it was easy, but he might say that he worked really hard to find teams. It was hard with the Ivy League (canceling its winter season) and the Patriot League (canceling non-conference games), and the Big Ten canceled the (ACC/Big Ten Challenge). We had some hurdles to jump, but we found some good schools that were local. I didn't want to get onto airplanes or ask someone to travel by air. We wanted to keep it local to keep (our team) safe because we're ultimately excited about ACC play."
"We don't have the games to work the kinks out," junior Makayla Dickens said, "but at the same time, it's exciting to dive straight into league play because it's so competitive. We're playing the best of the best, and to have that is crazy and exciting."
"Nobody is really worried about traveling," McNamee said. "Outside of that, our life is going to be as normal as possible right now. Part of that normalcy is going to travel and play basketball. That's what the winter brings and what our season brings us. More pressure is from the fear of it ever being taken away from us."
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball#24 Baseball Defeats UConn (April 15, 2026)
Wednesday, April 15
#24 Baseball Defeats Northeastern in Beanpot Championship (April 14, 2026)
Wednesday, April 15
#23 Baseball Defeats Virginia Tech (April 12, 2026)
Tuesday, April 14
#23 Baseball Defeats Virginia Tech (April 11,2026
Saturday, April 11
