Boston College Athletics
Emma Guy
Photo by: John Quackenbos
Guy Takes Flight For Greece
August 23, 2020 | Women's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
Emma Guy is headed to the cradle of civilization to play for Sporting Athens.
The Boston College women's basketball team spent more than 6,000 minutes on the hardwoods in its 2019-2020 season, but the defining moment took the Eagles less than two seconds to execute.
It came on a cold February night against Notre Dame. BC trailed by one after Destinee Walker threw a desperation put back through a Conte Forum hoop, and less than two seconds sat on the second half clock. The Eagles sought their first season sweep over the national powerhouse, but a darkness clouded any thoughts of celebratory dances at the expense of the Fighting Irish.
That's when head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee called a last-second play for senior center Emma Guy. She broke free from coverage under the basket as the whistle blew, and fellow senior Georgia Pineau floated the perfect pass into her awaiting arms. Guy touched it up off the rim, and momentum dropped the ball through the bottom of the hoop.
The moment clinched a season sweep over Notre Dame for the first time in Boston College program history and stamped the Eagles' arrival on the national scene. Guy transformed into the center figure of college basketball's feel-good story, an effervescent smile for a team the entire nation rallied around.Â
She was the centerpiece of the spotlight story and the unofficial mascot of BC's renaissance. Now she's something altogether different: a professional athlete. Next month, Guy will suit up for the winningest franchise in the Greek Women's Basketball League when she joins Sporting Athens.
"I just want to put 120 percent of my effort into this team," Guy said. "I know my expectations, but I just want to hone my skills in Greece. For me, it's a dream come true because I was a little hometown girl from Ontario, New York. I moved to bigger towns and cities, and now this is a really big step. I've never traveled outside of the country, and this is a step that I need to take to grow as a player and as a person. I'm going to get to experience the world for myself, and I'm just more excited than I am nervous for anything."
Guy's professional contract is the ultimate reward for a player with an entrenched reputation for perseverance and toughness. This past year, BC awarded her with the Female Eagle of the Year award after she won First Team All-ACC and Second Team All-ACC Blue Ribbon Panel honors.Â
She was the only player to start every game last year and averaged over 13 points and six rebounds. A two-way player, she upped those numbers against conference opponents while converting a career-high 36 steals. She had 20 points in six games, including five in ACC competition, and posted nine consecutive games in double figures. Against Wake Forest in particular, she posted 21 points and 12 rebounds to break the 1,000-point barrier for her career, one of two Eagles that entered the club last season.
Guy posted 1,164 points and 635 boards for her career, 18th and 11th most in program history, respectively. Combined with the 11th most blocks in recorded program history, the numbers established a reputation enhanced by her toughness. It also placed her on the radar for a number of international basketball clubs, including clubs in Israel and Russia.
"It took a while to find a team because (my agent) was hesitant to find me a team during COVID-19," Guy said. "We didn't want to send me somewhere where a league or team wouldn't have a full season or shutdown to the point of not playing. Greece is pretty healthy right now, and that became my best bet to completely play."
Guy now hopes her relentless work ethic translates BC's national contendership into a resurgence for Greece's all-time winningest franchise. A staple franchise in Athens since 1936, Sporting holds 21 championships in the Greek Women's Championship, more than four times the amount of the next closest contender. It won three Greek Women's Cups, most recently in 2005, and advanced to the EuroLeague Final Four twice, including a Third Place finish in 1991.
Its last championship was in 2004, though, and Olympiacos supplanted its spot atop the basketball Acropolis with five consecutive championships, including this year. Sporting slipped into relegation in 2009 when it fell to the A2 Division, but it regained top flight status two years ago. This past season, the club finished fifth in the A1.
"I was excited to be placed onto a team," Guy said, "but no less is a successful team. This team is a .500 team but is on the rise. It's not a far cry from how I played at Boston College, where I was a team on the rise. I can't wait to put that name back on the map. Plus I'll be playing in Greece, which is a beautiful country, and it all just adds to the excitement."
Guy's contract makes her the 22nd Eagle to sign to play women's professional basketball overseas, and she joins classmate Taylor Ortlepp after the Australian signed with the Adelaide Lightning in the Australian Basketball League. She is the first Eagle to sign with a Greek team since Brooke Queenan played for three clubs, including Aris Thessaloniki's promoted A1 roster in 2009-2010.
It's a common route for women's basketball players, many of whom continue professional seasons overseas after the WNBA year concludes. BC assistant coach Yolanda Griffith, for example, notably played in both Italy and Russia during her WNBA career, and she won the Russian League Player of the Year in the same year that she was named All-WNBA First Team.
"I never really played attention to overseas basketball because I was so focused on playing for Boston College," she said. "So I didn't really know what to expect. Then I talked to Coach Yo, and I just started getting more and more excited to finally go play."
It turns this into a great opportunity for a player whose senior season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts widely recognized Boston College as an NCAA Tournament team after the Eagles' run to the ACC semifinals, but the American pandemic breakout forced the cancellation of the national bracket. The subsequent months robbed Guy and many others of a proper college send-off and continued to cast a cloud over any professional training.
"I live in New York, which was in a state of continuous lockdown," Guy said. "The most I could do was go to a park and play, but even then, those were getting shut down at one point. As summer started to turn, more gyms did remote learning, and I was able to start training with an outdoor workout experience for strength training and conditioning. Then I lucked out that a basketball gym opened in July, and everything fell into place."
The trajectory leads directly into September's start of the Greek season in a nation with a proud basketball tradition. The league itself only allows a limited number of American imports to play in a domestic league recognized for its competitiveness. The league feeds a national team ranked 13th in the world rankings, and Greece is three years removed from finishing fourth in the FIBA EuroBasket competition after it defeated Russia and Turkey - two top-ranked nations - in the knockout round.
Still, Guy is both proud and undeterred. She is, in many ways, still an Eagle, even though it will be admittedly strange to wear colors other than maroon and gold. She's the next representative on the international stage for a program with an elite tradition, now revived by the players dispersing to all corners of the globe.
"I talked to (head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee) after I signed," she added, "and she got really excited for me. She was screaming over the phone, which was really funny at the time. It just validated that I made the right decision and that I have people behind me, supporting me the whole way."
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It came on a cold February night against Notre Dame. BC trailed by one after Destinee Walker threw a desperation put back through a Conte Forum hoop, and less than two seconds sat on the second half clock. The Eagles sought their first season sweep over the national powerhouse, but a darkness clouded any thoughts of celebratory dances at the expense of the Fighting Irish.
That's when head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee called a last-second play for senior center Emma Guy. She broke free from coverage under the basket as the whistle blew, and fellow senior Georgia Pineau floated the perfect pass into her awaiting arms. Guy touched it up off the rim, and momentum dropped the ball through the bottom of the hoop.
The moment clinched a season sweep over Notre Dame for the first time in Boston College program history and stamped the Eagles' arrival on the national scene. Guy transformed into the center figure of college basketball's feel-good story, an effervescent smile for a team the entire nation rallied around.Â
She was the centerpiece of the spotlight story and the unofficial mascot of BC's renaissance. Now she's something altogether different: a professional athlete. Next month, Guy will suit up for the winningest franchise in the Greek Women's Basketball League when she joins Sporting Athens.
"I just want to put 120 percent of my effort into this team," Guy said. "I know my expectations, but I just want to hone my skills in Greece. For me, it's a dream come true because I was a little hometown girl from Ontario, New York. I moved to bigger towns and cities, and now this is a really big step. I've never traveled outside of the country, and this is a step that I need to take to grow as a player and as a person. I'm going to get to experience the world for myself, and I'm just more excited than I am nervous for anything."
Guy's professional contract is the ultimate reward for a player with an entrenched reputation for perseverance and toughness. This past year, BC awarded her with the Female Eagle of the Year award after she won First Team All-ACC and Second Team All-ACC Blue Ribbon Panel honors.Â
She was the only player to start every game last year and averaged over 13 points and six rebounds. A two-way player, she upped those numbers against conference opponents while converting a career-high 36 steals. She had 20 points in six games, including five in ACC competition, and posted nine consecutive games in double figures. Against Wake Forest in particular, she posted 21 points and 12 rebounds to break the 1,000-point barrier for her career, one of two Eagles that entered the club last season.
Guy posted 1,164 points and 635 boards for her career, 18th and 11th most in program history, respectively. Combined with the 11th most blocks in recorded program history, the numbers established a reputation enhanced by her toughness. It also placed her on the radar for a number of international basketball clubs, including clubs in Israel and Russia.
"It took a while to find a team because (my agent) was hesitant to find me a team during COVID-19," Guy said. "We didn't want to send me somewhere where a league or team wouldn't have a full season or shutdown to the point of not playing. Greece is pretty healthy right now, and that became my best bet to completely play."
Guy now hopes her relentless work ethic translates BC's national contendership into a resurgence for Greece's all-time winningest franchise. A staple franchise in Athens since 1936, Sporting holds 21 championships in the Greek Women's Championship, more than four times the amount of the next closest contender. It won three Greek Women's Cups, most recently in 2005, and advanced to the EuroLeague Final Four twice, including a Third Place finish in 1991.
Its last championship was in 2004, though, and Olympiacos supplanted its spot atop the basketball Acropolis with five consecutive championships, including this year. Sporting slipped into relegation in 2009 when it fell to the A2 Division, but it regained top flight status two years ago. This past season, the club finished fifth in the A1.
"I was excited to be placed onto a team," Guy said, "but no less is a successful team. This team is a .500 team but is on the rise. It's not a far cry from how I played at Boston College, where I was a team on the rise. I can't wait to put that name back on the map. Plus I'll be playing in Greece, which is a beautiful country, and it all just adds to the excitement."
Guy's contract makes her the 22nd Eagle to sign to play women's professional basketball overseas, and she joins classmate Taylor Ortlepp after the Australian signed with the Adelaide Lightning in the Australian Basketball League. She is the first Eagle to sign with a Greek team since Brooke Queenan played for three clubs, including Aris Thessaloniki's promoted A1 roster in 2009-2010.
It's a common route for women's basketball players, many of whom continue professional seasons overseas after the WNBA year concludes. BC assistant coach Yolanda Griffith, for example, notably played in both Italy and Russia during her WNBA career, and she won the Russian League Player of the Year in the same year that she was named All-WNBA First Team.
"I never really played attention to overseas basketball because I was so focused on playing for Boston College," she said. "So I didn't really know what to expect. Then I talked to Coach Yo, and I just started getting more and more excited to finally go play."
It turns this into a great opportunity for a player whose senior season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts widely recognized Boston College as an NCAA Tournament team after the Eagles' run to the ACC semifinals, but the American pandemic breakout forced the cancellation of the national bracket. The subsequent months robbed Guy and many others of a proper college send-off and continued to cast a cloud over any professional training.
"I live in New York, which was in a state of continuous lockdown," Guy said. "The most I could do was go to a park and play, but even then, those were getting shut down at one point. As summer started to turn, more gyms did remote learning, and I was able to start training with an outdoor workout experience for strength training and conditioning. Then I lucked out that a basketball gym opened in July, and everything fell into place."
The trajectory leads directly into September's start of the Greek season in a nation with a proud basketball tradition. The league itself only allows a limited number of American imports to play in a domestic league recognized for its competitiveness. The league feeds a national team ranked 13th in the world rankings, and Greece is three years removed from finishing fourth in the FIBA EuroBasket competition after it defeated Russia and Turkey - two top-ranked nations - in the knockout round.
Still, Guy is both proud and undeterred. She is, in many ways, still an Eagle, even though it will be admittedly strange to wear colors other than maroon and gold. She's the next representative on the international stage for a program with an elite tradition, now revived by the players dispersing to all corners of the globe.
"I talked to (head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee) after I signed," she added, "and she got really excited for me. She was screaming over the phone, which was really funny at the time. It just validated that I made the right decision and that I have people behind me, supporting me the whole way."
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Players Mentioned
Monday, October 19
Monday, October 19
Monday, October 19
Monday, October 19
