Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Joe Sullivan
January 19, 2022 | Women's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
The loss to Louisville sparked something in Chestnut Hill.
Two years ago, Boston College's women's basketball program had never so much as won a game at Notre Dame. It was billed as a rivalry game, one of those annual matchups where teams played permanent home-and-homes against each other, but the greater truth spoke to the historical chasm between the Eagles and the Fighting Irish. BC had been a national contender and a tournament team, but its former Big East sister school was a national treasure coached by Muffet McGraw, a legend enshrined in both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
McGraw held over 900 career wins and led the Irish to 24 consecutive national tournaments. They had almost never been eliminated in the first round and advanced to nine different Final Fours. In 2014, the first year they were in the ACC, they met UConn in the national championship for a matchup between teams that combined for more than 75 wins without a loss that season.
In contrast, BC wasn't able to combine for 75 wins in the years between that national championship and still searched for its identity when it walked into the Joyce Center for its first game against Notre Dame during the 2019-2020 season to face an uncharacteristic, scuffling Irish squad. Gutted by the graduation of a WNBA starting five, Notre Dame was only 6-9 with two losses in its first three ACC games when it faced off with the Eagles, who were likewise 1-2 in the league despite holding a better, 8-6 overall record.
The past spelled defeat for BC in these situations, but head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee's team very quietly planted seeds for an upset weeks earlier in a loss to Duke. The Eagles treaded water in that game despite a slow first quarter and lost when the Blue Devils iced the game with a flawless fourth quarter. They shot over 63 percent and kept BC from rallying after the Eagles started shooting more exclusively from outside, but a clear message emerged for a future ACC game: start faster and commit to a better defensive effort for the full 40 minutes.
That blueprint benefited BC in time for the Notre Dame game. The Eagles still started slow offensively, but timely defense and rebounding anchored more shot attempts, which turned into enough points to tread the right water in the first quarter. They edged forward in the second quarter by heating up,before executing flawlessly out of halftime. By the end of the third quarter, a 15-point lead built a reliable cushion to withstand the Irish's eventual rally attempt down the stretch with a 10-point, 75-65 win.
The aftermath of that game, though, offered a window into what Bernabei-McNamee built with that particular team. It lost to NC State a week earlier, and regardless of the 18-point final difference, the Wolfpack, a national powerhouse, hadn't blown the Eagles out of the water. BC itself was disappointed in the outcome of that game and used the Pittsburgh game a week later to iron out the kinks from another game that simply got away in the first quarter.
This year's BC team isn't like the team two years ago. Every annual team within a program is unique and possesses its own character and individual take on a coach's style or system, and this year's team, like last year and the year before that, is like every other team to take the floor for Bernabei-McNamee in that regard. It's different, the idiosyncrasies are different, and the personnel can do different things within that system.
Yet there's still hope that this year's home game against Notre Dame is the same type of inflection point that was offered by the early January meeting two years ago. Even after losing to Louisville for a second time, this year's BC team is rising through the ranks of the national conversation but is still something of an outsider to a discussion rooted in traditional team names. New tournament contenders, even the ones who are heralded as good to elite, are often looked at with a hint of skepticism, as if they aren't supposed to belong in the conversation.
"At the end of the day, we're not playing horseshoes," head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. "Coming close doesn't really mean a lot to a lot of people. I hope [losses like last week's Louisville game] builds confidence and doesn't break them down. We feel okay, we played pretty tough against a really tough team, against the No. 3 team in the country, but we still have to take better care of the ball to get more opportunities. We have to do a little bit better job at the free throw line. But if we can make those little adjustments, offensively and defensively, and continue to play with that kind of intensity, no matter who we're playing, it's going to be a fun season for us. There's a lot of ifs and things that we've got to make happen, but I believe in this team, and I love the leadership."
The older, more traditional powers are more embraced and welcomed back to the fray, and teams like Notre Dame, which are deservedly recognized for their history, coaching and talent, typically rocket up the rankings when they earn the right win in the right situation. That potentially came four days ago when the Irish beat North Carolina in a matchup between two evenly-ranked teams.
It improved Notre Dame to 13-3, which is highly impressive, but it also glossed over a resume more resembling what happened to BC earlier this year when the Irish beat a number of mid-major programs. They beat Syracuse on the road in November but otherwise beat Fordham, Bryant, Ohio, Western Illinois, Valparaiso and Purdue-Fort Wayne. The wins over Oregon State and Michigan State mirrored BC's wins over Penn State and Providence, a power conference basketball school, while the three losses came against Georgia, UConn and Duke.Â
The lone difference between the two currently sits in that game against UNC, which BC lost after memorably building a double-digit lead through three quarters. Notre Dame played DePaul, akin to a Providence, and started ACC play in earnest with Duke and Wake Forest after the NC State game was postponed. BC has already played the Wolfpack and met Louisville twice, a fact it hopes is more of the gauntlet test to prepare for games like Thursday.
"The biggest thing is that now we know that everyone that is in Conte every day sees how hard we work," senior Taylor Soule said. "[Everyone] knows we're a top team in the nation, but I think now it's just proving people with box scores and with [wins]. At the end of the day, you can pat yourself on the back for a hard-fought loss, but if it's not a W, no one's going to respect you enough. So I think for us to switch those L's to W's is really what we need. That's what we want, and we're not going to stop until we get it."
None of this is meant as a disrespect to Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish split BC last year after losing again in Conte Forum but banished any thought of a second consecutive sweep by winning in South Bend. It underscores the necessity of this game, a game the Eagles won two years ago on a last second layup by Emma Guy to cap the first-ever sweep of Notre Dame in program history.
Conte Forum doesn't have the banners, the tradition, the national championships or even Notre Dame's "Here Comes The Irish" song. Boston College doesn't have the same overwhelming fear factor as a Purcell Pavilion, a Gampel Pavilion or a Thompson-Boling Arena. There isn't the same historical credential built by Muffet McGraw or one of her peers. The Eagles haven't fielded a starting five that entirely went to the WNBA in the same year.
That's perfectly fine. It's a little grittier, a little messier, and a little dirtier. It's a place where the hard work has to happen, and the wins have to be earned a little bit harder. It's a little bit more of a place where wins aren't preordained. On Thursday, that's the opportunity the Eagles have to embrace if they want to turn back the tides and build the next chapter of their tournament resume.
"Being in that locker room [after Louisville], you can hear the talk of the girls and the confidence that's coming out of that game," senior Cameron Swartz said. "The confidence that we got from this, knowing that it's not that we lost by 10, it's that we had that game, we know we're better. If they were No. 3 in the country, then we were better than No. 3. I just think that's how it is in that game. We showed that we are a better team in the ACC when we play right, and that's what we have to take the opportunity to do and that's what we're going to do."
Boston College and No. 17 Notre Dame will tip off on Thursday at 6 p.m. from Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on the ACC's Regional Sports Network coverage, locally in Boston on NESN.
McGraw held over 900 career wins and led the Irish to 24 consecutive national tournaments. They had almost never been eliminated in the first round and advanced to nine different Final Fours. In 2014, the first year they were in the ACC, they met UConn in the national championship for a matchup between teams that combined for more than 75 wins without a loss that season.
In contrast, BC wasn't able to combine for 75 wins in the years between that national championship and still searched for its identity when it walked into the Joyce Center for its first game against Notre Dame during the 2019-2020 season to face an uncharacteristic, scuffling Irish squad. Gutted by the graduation of a WNBA starting five, Notre Dame was only 6-9 with two losses in its first three ACC games when it faced off with the Eagles, who were likewise 1-2 in the league despite holding a better, 8-6 overall record.
The past spelled defeat for BC in these situations, but head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee's team very quietly planted seeds for an upset weeks earlier in a loss to Duke. The Eagles treaded water in that game despite a slow first quarter and lost when the Blue Devils iced the game with a flawless fourth quarter. They shot over 63 percent and kept BC from rallying after the Eagles started shooting more exclusively from outside, but a clear message emerged for a future ACC game: start faster and commit to a better defensive effort for the full 40 minutes.
That blueprint benefited BC in time for the Notre Dame game. The Eagles still started slow offensively, but timely defense and rebounding anchored more shot attempts, which turned into enough points to tread the right water in the first quarter. They edged forward in the second quarter by heating up,before executing flawlessly out of halftime. By the end of the third quarter, a 15-point lead built a reliable cushion to withstand the Irish's eventual rally attempt down the stretch with a 10-point, 75-65 win.
The aftermath of that game, though, offered a window into what Bernabei-McNamee built with that particular team. It lost to NC State a week earlier, and regardless of the 18-point final difference, the Wolfpack, a national powerhouse, hadn't blown the Eagles out of the water. BC itself was disappointed in the outcome of that game and used the Pittsburgh game a week later to iron out the kinks from another game that simply got away in the first quarter.
This year's BC team isn't like the team two years ago. Every annual team within a program is unique and possesses its own character and individual take on a coach's style or system, and this year's team, like last year and the year before that, is like every other team to take the floor for Bernabei-McNamee in that regard. It's different, the idiosyncrasies are different, and the personnel can do different things within that system.
Yet there's still hope that this year's home game against Notre Dame is the same type of inflection point that was offered by the early January meeting two years ago. Even after losing to Louisville for a second time, this year's BC team is rising through the ranks of the national conversation but is still something of an outsider to a discussion rooted in traditional team names. New tournament contenders, even the ones who are heralded as good to elite, are often looked at with a hint of skepticism, as if they aren't supposed to belong in the conversation.
"At the end of the day, we're not playing horseshoes," head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said. "Coming close doesn't really mean a lot to a lot of people. I hope [losses like last week's Louisville game] builds confidence and doesn't break them down. We feel okay, we played pretty tough against a really tough team, against the No. 3 team in the country, but we still have to take better care of the ball to get more opportunities. We have to do a little bit better job at the free throw line. But if we can make those little adjustments, offensively and defensively, and continue to play with that kind of intensity, no matter who we're playing, it's going to be a fun season for us. There's a lot of ifs and things that we've got to make happen, but I believe in this team, and I love the leadership."
The older, more traditional powers are more embraced and welcomed back to the fray, and teams like Notre Dame, which are deservedly recognized for their history, coaching and talent, typically rocket up the rankings when they earn the right win in the right situation. That potentially came four days ago when the Irish beat North Carolina in a matchup between two evenly-ranked teams.
It improved Notre Dame to 13-3, which is highly impressive, but it also glossed over a resume more resembling what happened to BC earlier this year when the Irish beat a number of mid-major programs. They beat Syracuse on the road in November but otherwise beat Fordham, Bryant, Ohio, Western Illinois, Valparaiso and Purdue-Fort Wayne. The wins over Oregon State and Michigan State mirrored BC's wins over Penn State and Providence, a power conference basketball school, while the three losses came against Georgia, UConn and Duke.Â
The lone difference between the two currently sits in that game against UNC, which BC lost after memorably building a double-digit lead through three quarters. Notre Dame played DePaul, akin to a Providence, and started ACC play in earnest with Duke and Wake Forest after the NC State game was postponed. BC has already played the Wolfpack and met Louisville twice, a fact it hopes is more of the gauntlet test to prepare for games like Thursday.
"The biggest thing is that now we know that everyone that is in Conte every day sees how hard we work," senior Taylor Soule said. "[Everyone] knows we're a top team in the nation, but I think now it's just proving people with box scores and with [wins]. At the end of the day, you can pat yourself on the back for a hard-fought loss, but if it's not a W, no one's going to respect you enough. So I think for us to switch those L's to W's is really what we need. That's what we want, and we're not going to stop until we get it."
None of this is meant as a disrespect to Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish split BC last year after losing again in Conte Forum but banished any thought of a second consecutive sweep by winning in South Bend. It underscores the necessity of this game, a game the Eagles won two years ago on a last second layup by Emma Guy to cap the first-ever sweep of Notre Dame in program history.
Conte Forum doesn't have the banners, the tradition, the national championships or even Notre Dame's "Here Comes The Irish" song. Boston College doesn't have the same overwhelming fear factor as a Purcell Pavilion, a Gampel Pavilion or a Thompson-Boling Arena. There isn't the same historical credential built by Muffet McGraw or one of her peers. The Eagles haven't fielded a starting five that entirely went to the WNBA in the same year.
That's perfectly fine. It's a little grittier, a little messier, and a little dirtier. It's a place where the hard work has to happen, and the wins have to be earned a little bit harder. It's a little bit more of a place where wins aren't preordained. On Thursday, that's the opportunity the Eagles have to embrace if they want to turn back the tides and build the next chapter of their tournament resume.
"Being in that locker room [after Louisville], you can hear the talk of the girls and the confidence that's coming out of that game," senior Cameron Swartz said. "The confidence that we got from this, knowing that it's not that we lost by 10, it's that we had that game, we know we're better. If they were No. 3 in the country, then we were better than No. 3. I just think that's how it is in that game. We showed that we are a better team in the ACC when we play right, and that's what we have to take the opportunity to do and that's what we're going to do."
Boston College and No. 17 Notre Dame will tip off on Thursday at 6 p.m. from Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on the ACC's Regional Sports Network coverage, locally in Boston on NESN.
Players Mentioned
Sunday, October 25
Sunday, October 25
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