Let The Madness Begin

Nothing in sports tops the excitement and drama of March Madness basketball. A sense of critical urgency cloaks every tip-off, creating the kind of organic spectacle capable of consuming and captivating viewers. Every game has season-altering implications, and every result either continues or ends a season.

At Boston College, playing in March formerly translated to a "devil-may-care" attitude because the Eagles usually entered the month with nothing to lose. Playing at a No. 13 or No. 14 seed paved a longer road, but the team understood how it didn't need to play with any internal pressure.

Now, as it enters this year's ACC Tournament, the sixth-seeded Eagles are playing with a different perspective, one that's exciting for the stakes as the conference descends on Greensboro, N.C.

"This is what you live for in basketball," head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. "There's nothing better in this sport, and there's nothing better to be a part of, if you're a player or a coach. When you're in March, you don't have to be talked into anything to get up for a game."

This is a broad new outlook for the Eagles. They finished as part of a greater, three-way tie for fourth place with Florida State and Virginia Tech. All three teams went 1-1 against one another, forcing the ACC to a secondary tiebreaker scenario. The situation, which measured common records against the highest seed and working down, handed the Seminoles the No. 4 seed for their win over Louisville earlier this year. Virginia Tech, which lost to FSU but beat BC, earned the No. 5 seed by winning the remaining, two-way break.

That's just fine with BC, which earned the No. 6 seed by defeating Syracuse in the season finale. It was a mini-revenge tour after the Orange knocked off the Eagles at Conte Forum, and it earned BC a shot at a team forced to play on Wednesday night. The losing team in that game - in this case Syracuse - fell to the No. 8 seed and a game against Virginia, which earned an opening day bye.

"We didn't talk about anything with the numbers going into that game," McNamee said. "But we did acknowledge that it was an important game. We wanted to stress that it was going to be really important to play harder and sharper because Syracuse was also going to know it was an important game for its season."

The game itself proved the prediction correct. The teams exploded for a combined 55 points in the first quarter, with both teams hitting 50 percent of all shots taken. BC went 10-for-20 with seven shots coming from outside, while the Orange bombed five of their seven buckets for threes. It evaporated an early 11-0 run by the Eagles and created a flair right from the opening tip.

"Syracuse didn't switch anything from the first game," McNamee said. "They run their zone defense, which is hard to run against because it overloads against a defense. They're a team that sticks to it religiously, and they changed to man defense on only two or three possessions. So it's not supposed to give up that many threes, which is a credit to us getting our shots dropping."

The first quarter shooting clip didn't hold, but the energy remained over the next three quarters. The Carrier Dome turned into a basketball symphony punctuated by a cacophony of runs. The Eagles broke the zone defense and continued to hit key shots, especially in the fourth quarter when they hit 7-of-10 shots. The Orange counterpunched with their own lethal efficiency.

Kiara Lewis and Gabrielle Cooper led the charge for Syracuse, while Taylor Ortlepp led the maroon and gold response. Ortlepp went 6-of-12 from the floor, including 4-of-9 on threes, while grabbing six rebounds, including four on the offensive window. She drew four fouls en route to an 18-point performance, adding five assists and two steals. It was one of her finest performances in her final regular season.

Ortlepp was the perfect foil for Taylor Soule, who contributed yet another spirited performance with 26 points and eight rebounds. Soule shot 8-of-14 from the floor and damaged the Syracuse zone by getting to the line. She had six offensive rebounds and drew 10 fouls, resulting in 16 free throw attempts. She sank 10 of those, going 5-of-9 from the stripe in the second half.

It was exactly what the Eagles needed. BC entered its final two games on the NCAA bubble but suffered a loss at Louisville in the first of its final stretch. The loss didn't damage the team's NCAA chances but dropped it out of contention for the double bye. It created a sense of urgency for the Syracuse game against an Orange team vying for the No. 6 seed in the ACC standings.

"We didn't harp on that Louisville game at all," McNamee said. "We didn't self-scout it. We didn't want to pour any salt on our wounds, and Syracuse doesn't simulate anything like what Louisville did. I'll usually pull clips, and I did my breakdown after that last game, but it wasn't going to be anything that Syracuse does."

It kept BC in the NCAA Tournament game entering the most critical and exciting time of year. The Eagles are, to an extent, the hunted, even as they continue to track down a shot at the 64-team field. They finished ahead of Georgia Tech, which currently occupies one of the last four spots in the bracket, in both the ACC standings and in the RPI strength index. They also finished the season with a 6-1 record to surge into contention.

BC now awaits a Thursday tip-off against either Miami or Clemson, which play each other on Wednesday night in an opening night game. It's a challenge the coach understands from her time at both Maryland and Albany, that a team will enter that game with a certain amount of momentum, while the awaiting bye slot offers dormancy and rest.

"The only negative is that the first game in a tournament is always the toughest," McNamee said. "But we need to stay prepared and take advantage of the rest. Playing every day requires a high pace, but it's what we all live for."

Miami and Clemson will play at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday as part of the ACC Tournament's Regional Sports Network coverage. The winner advances to play Boston College on Thursday at 8 p.m. (RSN/NESN Plus). All games in the ACC Tournament are on Sirius 137/XM 194 (also on SiriusXM app, channel 956). Most games will also air on SiriusXM ACC Radio (channel 371 on SiriusXM radios and on the SiriusXM app).

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