Boston College Athletics
Photo by: John Quackenbos
February Begins With Eagles Dreaming of Dancing
February 04, 2020 | Women's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
Team momentum is forcing BC into a postseason discussion with a huge month on tap.
February is arguably the most critical month in college basketball. Urgency sets in as teams' fight for improved postseason resumes, and quality wins and losses start to become clearer. A crystallization befalls the bracketology conversation, and coaches and players begin honing in on the need to make moves for playoff positioning.
When the 2019-20 college basketball season began, Boston College wasn't a blip on anyone's postseason radar. The Eagles weren't a sleeper program and didn't factor into any fancy bracket predictor. Conversation steered elsewhere, especially to powerhouse Atlantic Coast Conference programs, and nobody expected BC to appear in the February conversation.
Nobody talked about Boston College then. They're all talking about Boston College now.
February's move kicked off on Sunday with the Eagles' 67-54 defeat over Wake Forest. The win improved the team to 12-9 on the season but evened its ACC record at 5-5. It also extended a thrust by BC into the postseason discussion, a teetering platform for the conference where the party crashers are from the league's most northeastern outpost.
"We do breakdowns after every game," head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. "More and more of those breakdowns have been about how good we've been and how awesome we are in some situations. That's exciting because you always want to reinforce the positives, but you also need positives to show. The last few games have just been getting more and more positive."
Fully understanding the team's surge requires a trip in a time machine to the beginning of December. BC lost consecutive games to Northwestern and Duke after splitting its Thanksgiving holiday break tournament games in Puerto Rico. The 1-3 stretch dropped the team to 5-5 overall before a couple of steady wins over Boston University and Delaware State shot it back to 7-5 at the end of non-league play.
It produced a fog of uncertainty because the ACC appeared daunting at its peak. NC State and Louisville stood atop the national radar as two of the country's best teams, and a host of other teams - Miami, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Florida State - all looked like tournament contenders. North Carolina and Duke were resurgent, and Notre Dame, even struggling through a rebuilding year, was still a two-time defending national finalist with a national championship.
The sheer quantity of games against good opponents made it easier to overlook individualized games. BC's win over Notre Dame was the first in South Bend, and the Eagles hung tough with Louisville for four quarters, only losing by 11. It wasn't until the team broke out at Georgia Tech that the thunderclap got louder, and it snapped even more heads when BC upended a nationally-ranked Florida State team on the road.
"This is a team that loves being together and traveling together," McNamee said. "They just genuinely enjoy spending time together, so when we were going on the road, they didn't view it as a challenge. They saw it as an opportunity to just be together and enjoy having that time to play basketball together."
It all led back to Sunday and the Eagles' dominating performance over Wake Forest in arguably their most complete game of the year. The Demon Deacons took a first quarter lead before BC revved up the defense and offense. Wake Forest shot 1-for-12 in the second quarter and watched the Eagles run the Conte Forum floor for 26 points in the third.
BC shot 12-for-16 in that quarter alone, part of a team-wide performance with 48 points in the paint. Emma Guy and Taylor Soule each had double-doubles, with the former registering 20 points and 12 rebounds en route to cracking the 1,000-point club. Soule's performance - 15 points, 11 rebounds - marked her sixth double-double of the season and ninth game with double-digit rebounds. The two also combined for 10 offensive rebounds.
Marnelle Garraud, meanwhile, had 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, with three assists, two rebounds and a steal. It was part of a complete team performance, one where eight players played ten minutes or more.
"Everyone is working," McNamee said. "When it shows up on the stat sheet, it's because they're working in practice against teammates who are driving each other and pushing each other. We try to reinforce what we are doing, not what we should be doing, and there's no question that the work put into the scout and the practice time is showing up in results right now."
It has BC poised for a potential run at a postseason tournament if - and only if - it can keep momentum in February. The most recent ESPN bracketology update for the NCAA Women's Tournament has five ACC teams inside the dance. NC State and Louisville lead the pack as potential top seeds, and Florida State is a No. 5 seed opposite both Iowa and South Carolina. North Carolina is further back as a No. 7 seed in UConn's bracket, while Virginia Tech is a No. 8 seed opposite the defending national champion, Baylor. Georgia Tech, a bubble team when BC beat it, is currently on the outside looking in.
Making a run at the NCAA Tournament would require a near-perfect finish to the season plus a deep run in the ACC Tournament, which itself amounts to a huge mountain, but there's a very real possibility a strong month puts BC on the Women's NIT radar. Virginia Tech went to the tournament in each of the last two seasons, earning the ACC's automatic bid with less than 20 wins and a six-win conference record. The ACC earned eight bids to the NCAA Tournament in those years, though, meaning lesser numbers this year translates into stiffer WNIT competition.
It places more importance on the upcoming home slate; BC has five of its next six games at home, starting Thursday against Syracuse. Like BC, the Orange hold an upset victory over Florida State after beating the Seminoles earlier this season in overtime. They've been a little bit up-and-down over the past month, losing three of their last four games, but the one win came against Virginia Tech, 67-65. The Orange also hold a victory over a nationally-ranked Michigan State team in a non-league game, and their win-loss record, at 10-11, included games against Oregon, Stanford, Michigan and West Virginia, all ranked teams with the latter two in the top three at the time of the game. Oregon was No. 1 in the nation when it beat Syracuse.
So the road is going to be difficult, but there's no questioning how the Eagles inserted into the conversation. It's a long, daunting road, but there's a direct path. It begins this week against a former Big East rival in the first of two games between the two teams this month.
Boston College hosts Syracuse (11-9, 4-6 ACC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. in a game televised on ACC Network Extra.
When the 2019-20 college basketball season began, Boston College wasn't a blip on anyone's postseason radar. The Eagles weren't a sleeper program and didn't factor into any fancy bracket predictor. Conversation steered elsewhere, especially to powerhouse Atlantic Coast Conference programs, and nobody expected BC to appear in the February conversation.
Nobody talked about Boston College then. They're all talking about Boston College now.
February's move kicked off on Sunday with the Eagles' 67-54 defeat over Wake Forest. The win improved the team to 12-9 on the season but evened its ACC record at 5-5. It also extended a thrust by BC into the postseason discussion, a teetering platform for the conference where the party crashers are from the league's most northeastern outpost.
"We do breakdowns after every game," head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. "More and more of those breakdowns have been about how good we've been and how awesome we are in some situations. That's exciting because you always want to reinforce the positives, but you also need positives to show. The last few games have just been getting more and more positive."
Fully understanding the team's surge requires a trip in a time machine to the beginning of December. BC lost consecutive games to Northwestern and Duke after splitting its Thanksgiving holiday break tournament games in Puerto Rico. The 1-3 stretch dropped the team to 5-5 overall before a couple of steady wins over Boston University and Delaware State shot it back to 7-5 at the end of non-league play.
It produced a fog of uncertainty because the ACC appeared daunting at its peak. NC State and Louisville stood atop the national radar as two of the country's best teams, and a host of other teams - Miami, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Florida State - all looked like tournament contenders. North Carolina and Duke were resurgent, and Notre Dame, even struggling through a rebuilding year, was still a two-time defending national finalist with a national championship.
The sheer quantity of games against good opponents made it easier to overlook individualized games. BC's win over Notre Dame was the first in South Bend, and the Eagles hung tough with Louisville for four quarters, only losing by 11. It wasn't until the team broke out at Georgia Tech that the thunderclap got louder, and it snapped even more heads when BC upended a nationally-ranked Florida State team on the road.
"This is a team that loves being together and traveling together," McNamee said. "They just genuinely enjoy spending time together, so when we were going on the road, they didn't view it as a challenge. They saw it as an opportunity to just be together and enjoy having that time to play basketball together."
It all led back to Sunday and the Eagles' dominating performance over Wake Forest in arguably their most complete game of the year. The Demon Deacons took a first quarter lead before BC revved up the defense and offense. Wake Forest shot 1-for-12 in the second quarter and watched the Eagles run the Conte Forum floor for 26 points in the third.
BC shot 12-for-16 in that quarter alone, part of a team-wide performance with 48 points in the paint. Emma Guy and Taylor Soule each had double-doubles, with the former registering 20 points and 12 rebounds en route to cracking the 1,000-point club. Soule's performance - 15 points, 11 rebounds - marked her sixth double-double of the season and ninth game with double-digit rebounds. The two also combined for 10 offensive rebounds.
Marnelle Garraud, meanwhile, had 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, with three assists, two rebounds and a steal. It was part of a complete team performance, one where eight players played ten minutes or more.
"Everyone is working," McNamee said. "When it shows up on the stat sheet, it's because they're working in practice against teammates who are driving each other and pushing each other. We try to reinforce what we are doing, not what we should be doing, and there's no question that the work put into the scout and the practice time is showing up in results right now."
It has BC poised for a potential run at a postseason tournament if - and only if - it can keep momentum in February. The most recent ESPN bracketology update for the NCAA Women's Tournament has five ACC teams inside the dance. NC State and Louisville lead the pack as potential top seeds, and Florida State is a No. 5 seed opposite both Iowa and South Carolina. North Carolina is further back as a No. 7 seed in UConn's bracket, while Virginia Tech is a No. 8 seed opposite the defending national champion, Baylor. Georgia Tech, a bubble team when BC beat it, is currently on the outside looking in.
Making a run at the NCAA Tournament would require a near-perfect finish to the season plus a deep run in the ACC Tournament, which itself amounts to a huge mountain, but there's a very real possibility a strong month puts BC on the Women's NIT radar. Virginia Tech went to the tournament in each of the last two seasons, earning the ACC's automatic bid with less than 20 wins and a six-win conference record. The ACC earned eight bids to the NCAA Tournament in those years, though, meaning lesser numbers this year translates into stiffer WNIT competition.
It places more importance on the upcoming home slate; BC has five of its next six games at home, starting Thursday against Syracuse. Like BC, the Orange hold an upset victory over Florida State after beating the Seminoles earlier this season in overtime. They've been a little bit up-and-down over the past month, losing three of their last four games, but the one win came against Virginia Tech, 67-65. The Orange also hold a victory over a nationally-ranked Michigan State team in a non-league game, and their win-loss record, at 10-11, included games against Oregon, Stanford, Michigan and West Virginia, all ranked teams with the latter two in the top three at the time of the game. Oregon was No. 1 in the nation when it beat Syracuse.
So the road is going to be difficult, but there's no questioning how the Eagles inserted into the conversation. It's a long, daunting road, but there's a direct path. It begins this week against a former Big East rival in the first of two games between the two teams this month.
Boston College hosts Syracuse (11-9, 4-6 ACC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. in a game televised on ACC Network Extra.
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