Professional Spotlight Gripping New Generation of Eagles

The seniors of last year's Boston College women's basketball team heard the whispers turn into roars after seemingly every win. Every game, someone would predict a BC loss, but gritty desire persevered through to another victory. Excitement permeated the postgame, and the cavalcade of comments supported the team's continued breakthrough. Its own continuous news cycle, it was almost as if every game was the one where the momentum was going to end.

For Emma Guy, Georgia Pineau, and Taylor Ortlepp, that was never a satisfying feeling. They helped crumble walls around the Eagles and understood the team's positioning for better things. If not for a worldwide pandemic, they knew they would contend at a national level.

The start of the COVID-19 timeline prevented them from ever proving that right while on campus, but this fall, all three started the next phase of their careers. Still Eagles at heart, they departed Chestnut Hill and signed professional contracts to play basketball on a worldwide stage.

"We want to be about growth in every aspect," said Head Coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee of the accomplishment. "We want an 18-year old freshman to grow as a person, as a basketball player, and as a student. We want them to leave here loving basketball so much that they don't want to stop playing, even if that wasn't their main goal. When they leave BC, they aren't ready to hang it up. I want them to feel like their games are developing and continuing onto the next level, and they don't need to settle with anything."

The trio's individual signings collectively proved the team's ability to overcome obstacles. As juniors, a coaching change forced de facto leadership on their class without the insulation of any seniors, but their immediate buy-in enabled a wide-ranging freshman class to quickly adapt to a college game. There was an immediate growth period, though the season ended with a string of defeats.

The growth didn't hit home with any experts, though, and a blue ribbon panel picked BC to finish dead last in the ACC heading into this past season. It never foresaw the midseason breakout, and it couldn't predict the trigger run to the ACC semifinals. It wasn't until an eight-point loss to NC State that the experts acquiesced and formally placed the Eagles into a predictive NCAA Tournament berth.

COVID-19 prevented the theoretical conversion into reality when the NCAA canceled the national postseason and the subsequent shuttering scattered the team from campus. It prevented a proper send-off, and the players all entered their offseason with an unsure road ahead.

It turned a corner when the seniors started signing professional contracts. Ortlepp went first with her hometown Adelaide Lightning of Australia's WNBL, and Guy followed with a contract to play for Sporting Athens in Greece. Pineau, who very quietly joined Guy as a 1,000-point scorer last season, rounded out the perfect record by signing with the Bendigo Spirit. In total, the trio's franchises held nearly 30 championship banners and approximately double the number of domestic championship appearances.

"They worked and turned into professionals," Bernabei-McNamee said. "They're going to play as long as their heart's content. They're going to travel the world and make some money. That's a great start for us as a new coaching staff, that the first three seniors I coached graduate and all sign contracts. When you leave playing (at BC), you love the game, and you're ready to show what you can do to the world. They're going to represent BC with style and flair and have productive careers."

It formally stamped BC's efforts to convert the program into a resurgent team within the ACC's footprint, and it further, formally, signaled the groundwork for future success. Back at The Heights, the winning team drew accolades, but the Eagles sought to acknowledge how this particular program encompassed so much more.

A professional classroom didn't have to come at the expense of professional-caliber basketball, and student-athletes could be elite at both. Members of the program could carry pride in that knowledge and understand how BC could encompass so much more than just basketball or just a degree; there was, in actuality, an ability to do it all.

"It starts to establish our development and speaks to the kind of players we want in our programs," Bernabei-McNamee said. "When I talk to people about Boston College, it's the perfect place for people to have their cake and eat it too. Our players are able to play in the ACC, but they can also get unbelievable degrees. All three of those players - Georgia, Emma, and Taylor - laid that groundwork to show that they could also excel in the classroom.

"I was really excited for a player like Emma," she elaborated. "She was debating on going to law school or playing professional basketball. That education will allow her to play pro and then get back into the swing of things academically (once her career is over)."

It paves a road without a clearly-defined end date, an exciting fact for the Eagles' continued shattering of the perceived glass ceiling. There are new hurdles and new objectives, and the professional network on both ends is an exciting, two-pronged push. Women's basketball is now a year-round career, one exemplified by players who play both internationally and in domestic leagues.

It's a push led by last year's seniors and continued by both returning players and incoming recruits. Though former Eagles center Carolyn Swords has managed a nice 10-year career and is currently playing for the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA Finals.

"It's a feeling that all the returners and players that we're recruiting have," the coach said. "It's something we want to be. We want to be a program that supplies our players with the best experience they can have as undergrads, but we want them to have that development in their four years that WNBA scouts and agents are seeking them out because they're that good.

"And then once that ball stops bouncing, they're going to have a Boston College degree that makes them a professional in a different professional world," she reiterated. "If they can continue to do what they love, it would be crazy to ever turn that down. I think that's what you want as a basketball player - to play as long as you can. What I love about our program, though, is that they'll be able to lean on BC when they're done. They'll get job placement and have resources with contacts and advisors, and it will be more than just the degree."

Professional Spotlight Gripping New Generation of Eagles

Players Mentioned

Emma Guy

Taylor Ortlepp

Georgia Pineau

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