No. 1 Awaits In BC's Return to Conte Forum
February 03, 2021 | Women's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
Eagles are hoping eight is enough to score a monumental upset
Joanna Bernabei-McNamee is the kind of coach that enjoys a good challenge, but even she couldn't predict the last three weeks.
Her Boston College Eagles were on the heels of a 10-point loss to Notre Dame but were primed to bounce back with a stretch of basketball at Conte Forum. It was a huge portion of the schedule, a time when they could finally tackle the middle of the ACC standings, and their battle-hardened soul primed to go an extra mile. Clemson, Florida State, Pittsburgh and Miami crested on the horizon, all winnable games if the team's steam engine could move forward.
Unfortunately for BC, the 2020-2021 season isn't that clean, and the constantly-discussed fear turned into reality. COVID-19 forced the team into protocols, and the season, thick with possibility, instead evaporated into the unknown.
Three weeks later, the Eagles are back, but their reality is very different from the one they faced after the Notre Dame game. The roster is still understaffed, and the No. 1 team in the nation is in Chestnut Hill. The return match from a January game at Louisville, 21 days removed from the disappointing finish against Notre Dame, it's the first game against a top-ranked team at Conte Forum since the halcyon Big East days in 2003.
Oh, and the Cardinals just lost by 14 to No. 4 NC State on Monday.
Challenge: accepted.
"We are really excited to be back, but it just so happens that we're back with another big challenge," Bernabei-McNamee said. "But I like to tell our players and they agree that they came to Boston College to get a great education and to compete in the ACC at the highest level. In order to prove that you can be the best, you have to play against the best."
Playing out a basketball season during a global pandemic meant COVID-19 was always a conversation piece, but there was solace on the basketball court throughout the first two months of play. Those hardwood X's and O's offered a comfortable familiarity, and the return to play protocols helped BC get through 12 games with few issues beyond the disappointing finishes.
Even BC's loss to Notre Dame offered no vision of the oncoming pause. The Eagles lost that game by 10 after putting the Fighting Irish on their heels, and the trench-style matchup exploded into an offensive barrage when BC hit 13 three-pointers at Purcell Pavilion.
Both Makayla Dickens and Marnelle Garraud finished with 18 points, the latter entirely in the second half, and Taylor Soule finished one rebound short of a double-double. Soule added a career-best five assists, and the Eagles picked the Notre Dame defense apart with 21 helpers on 28 made field goals. The ultimate outcome fell short, but BC earned another measure of respect in a rivalry increasingly defined by parity between the Holy War participants.
Two days later, the entire perception of the season changed. BC announced a positive COVID-19 test result and entered new protocols based on quarantining and contact tracing. The Clemson game scheduled January 21 was postponed, followed by the Pittsburgh game met a similar fate on the 22nd. BC eventually postponed four games, including one road game at Miami, as it waited out its storm.
The Eagles received clearance to return to play this week, but the three-week break inevitably altered the perception of the time spent on the court. The last game was a glimpse into a tired team battling through the disappointment of a stinging defeat, and Thursday's game is more of an opportunity to reset the season back to the excitement felt when December started the calendar.
"For the body, when you get back in, your dogs might be barking (because of the inactivity)," Bernabei-McNamee said, "but I think all of that will make us extra excited to get on the floor and compete. It will be a good thing for us to reset our brain for basketball. I hope that we come out ready and don't look rusty because we had a great day of practice. We're pushing through that little bit of fatigue from the time off."
It's the light shining through an otherwise-daunting task for Thursday night. Top-ranked Louisville is BC's first No. 1 opponent since a game at Notre Dame two years ago and the 12th such game in program history. It's the first home game against the best in the land since a 2003 loss to UConn. Interestingly enough, the Cardinals are only the fourth program to play BC as a No. 1 team because of those Huskies, a former Big East opponent in possession of the first nine games on that list. The Eagles have never beaten a No. 1 team and lost its last two games against Duke and Notre Dame in 2007 and 2019, respectively, by an average of 25 points.
The Cardinals are still the best in the land, but their 74-60 loss to No. 4 NC State on Monday threatens that standing for next week's national poll. It was their first loss of the season and is an unfortunate wake-up call for a team averaging 81 points per game and a plus-19.6 advantage over opponents.
"I know that Louisville really wants to push tempo," Bernabei-McNamee said. "We're still getting good at it, but we probably have to change our methods to our madness a little bit. We like to crash the boards because we can get back, but against the No. 1 team, it's really hard to do because they're so athletically fast. So we'll probably send two back and only crash three, but it's going to be up to those three that are crashed to work really hard.
"Defensively, we'll change up our schemes a little bit more because if you play them the same the entire game, they will pick apart our weaknesses on defense," she added. "We'll do things that help, but at the end of the day, it's going to be a matchup where we have to do everything to the best of our ability and take advantage of the minor weaknesses and the small weaknesses that Louisville has."
It's a science experiment for a BC team still rounding into game shape after the long layoff. Bernabei-McNamee didn't have the personnel to play full five-on-five in practice and staged more sprint-based practices to compensate for the lack of opportunity to create basketball simulations. The team itself will enter Thursday with only eight available personnel, and some won't be available to suit up until the actual game day.
It's a subtle irony given the semester break swelled the roster back up to 12 players with the addition of freshman Allie Palmieri. The Trumbull, Connecticut native committed to BC in the fall but opted to take advantage of the NCAA's ruling regarding eligibility by matriculating to college for the second semester. This year is essentially free for her, and her addition, like Ally VanTimmeren's against NC State, occurs during a huge stage in the BC season.
"The way I think is that we haven't had the best season thus far," Bernabei-McNamee said. "But we can come out on Thursday and knock off No. 1, and then we're back. We always think like that. That's how my players think because they feed off that excitement. There's that drive just to get back out there and prove themselves."
BC and No. 1 Louisville will tip off on Thursday at 8 p.m. from Conte Forum. The game can be seen on the ACC Network with streaming available on the ESPN online platform for network subscribers.
Her Boston College Eagles were on the heels of a 10-point loss to Notre Dame but were primed to bounce back with a stretch of basketball at Conte Forum. It was a huge portion of the schedule, a time when they could finally tackle the middle of the ACC standings, and their battle-hardened soul primed to go an extra mile. Clemson, Florida State, Pittsburgh and Miami crested on the horizon, all winnable games if the team's steam engine could move forward.
Unfortunately for BC, the 2020-2021 season isn't that clean, and the constantly-discussed fear turned into reality. COVID-19 forced the team into protocols, and the season, thick with possibility, instead evaporated into the unknown.
Three weeks later, the Eagles are back, but their reality is very different from the one they faced after the Notre Dame game. The roster is still understaffed, and the No. 1 team in the nation is in Chestnut Hill. The return match from a January game at Louisville, 21 days removed from the disappointing finish against Notre Dame, it's the first game against a top-ranked team at Conte Forum since the halcyon Big East days in 2003.
Oh, and the Cardinals just lost by 14 to No. 4 NC State on Monday.
Challenge: accepted.
"We are really excited to be back, but it just so happens that we're back with another big challenge," Bernabei-McNamee said. "But I like to tell our players and they agree that they came to Boston College to get a great education and to compete in the ACC at the highest level. In order to prove that you can be the best, you have to play against the best."
Playing out a basketball season during a global pandemic meant COVID-19 was always a conversation piece, but there was solace on the basketball court throughout the first two months of play. Those hardwood X's and O's offered a comfortable familiarity, and the return to play protocols helped BC get through 12 games with few issues beyond the disappointing finishes.
Even BC's loss to Notre Dame offered no vision of the oncoming pause. The Eagles lost that game by 10 after putting the Fighting Irish on their heels, and the trench-style matchup exploded into an offensive barrage when BC hit 13 three-pointers at Purcell Pavilion.
Both Makayla Dickens and Marnelle Garraud finished with 18 points, the latter entirely in the second half, and Taylor Soule finished one rebound short of a double-double. Soule added a career-best five assists, and the Eagles picked the Notre Dame defense apart with 21 helpers on 28 made field goals. The ultimate outcome fell short, but BC earned another measure of respect in a rivalry increasingly defined by parity between the Holy War participants.
Two days later, the entire perception of the season changed. BC announced a positive COVID-19 test result and entered new protocols based on quarantining and contact tracing. The Clemson game scheduled January 21 was postponed, followed by the Pittsburgh game met a similar fate on the 22nd. BC eventually postponed four games, including one road game at Miami, as it waited out its storm.
The Eagles received clearance to return to play this week, but the three-week break inevitably altered the perception of the time spent on the court. The last game was a glimpse into a tired team battling through the disappointment of a stinging defeat, and Thursday's game is more of an opportunity to reset the season back to the excitement felt when December started the calendar.
"For the body, when you get back in, your dogs might be barking (because of the inactivity)," Bernabei-McNamee said, "but I think all of that will make us extra excited to get on the floor and compete. It will be a good thing for us to reset our brain for basketball. I hope that we come out ready and don't look rusty because we had a great day of practice. We're pushing through that little bit of fatigue from the time off."
It's the light shining through an otherwise-daunting task for Thursday night. Top-ranked Louisville is BC's first No. 1 opponent since a game at Notre Dame two years ago and the 12th such game in program history. It's the first home game against the best in the land since a 2003 loss to UConn. Interestingly enough, the Cardinals are only the fourth program to play BC as a No. 1 team because of those Huskies, a former Big East opponent in possession of the first nine games on that list. The Eagles have never beaten a No. 1 team and lost its last two games against Duke and Notre Dame in 2007 and 2019, respectively, by an average of 25 points.
The Cardinals are still the best in the land, but their 74-60 loss to No. 4 NC State on Monday threatens that standing for next week's national poll. It was their first loss of the season and is an unfortunate wake-up call for a team averaging 81 points per game and a plus-19.6 advantage over opponents.
"I know that Louisville really wants to push tempo," Bernabei-McNamee said. "We're still getting good at it, but we probably have to change our methods to our madness a little bit. We like to crash the boards because we can get back, but against the No. 1 team, it's really hard to do because they're so athletically fast. So we'll probably send two back and only crash three, but it's going to be up to those three that are crashed to work really hard.
"Defensively, we'll change up our schemes a little bit more because if you play them the same the entire game, they will pick apart our weaknesses on defense," she added. "We'll do things that help, but at the end of the day, it's going to be a matchup where we have to do everything to the best of our ability and take advantage of the minor weaknesses and the small weaknesses that Louisville has."
It's a science experiment for a BC team still rounding into game shape after the long layoff. Bernabei-McNamee didn't have the personnel to play full five-on-five in practice and staged more sprint-based practices to compensate for the lack of opportunity to create basketball simulations. The team itself will enter Thursday with only eight available personnel, and some won't be available to suit up until the actual game day.
It's a subtle irony given the semester break swelled the roster back up to 12 players with the addition of freshman Allie Palmieri. The Trumbull, Connecticut native committed to BC in the fall but opted to take advantage of the NCAA's ruling regarding eligibility by matriculating to college for the second semester. This year is essentially free for her, and her addition, like Ally VanTimmeren's against NC State, occurs during a huge stage in the BC season.
"The way I think is that we haven't had the best season thus far," Bernabei-McNamee said. "But we can come out on Thursday and knock off No. 1, and then we're back. We always think like that. That's how my players think because they feed off that excitement. There's that drive just to get back out there and prove themselves."
BC and No. 1 Louisville will tip off on Thursday at 8 p.m. from Conte Forum. The game can be seen on the ACC Network with streaming available on the ESPN online platform for network subscribers.
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