Photo by: Nell Redmond, theACC.com
Unknown and Unheralded Eagles Ready To Battle ACC's Elite
October 07, 2025 | Women's Basketball, #ForBoston Files
Beware of BC's past, present, and future.
Joanna Bernabei-McNamee's positioning on stage during the start of Monday's ACC Tipoff event had little explanation or outline towards the future of her Boston College women's basketball program. The nationally televised conversation carried little deeper meaning towards the 2025-2026 college basketball season, and nobody in attendance at the Atlantic Coast Conference's preseason media event found some innermost definition in the placement of a coach or her two student-athletes.
That said, the symbolism behind a coach flanked between a league media moderator and her two student-athletes in full uniform cast the perfect light on Bernabei-McNamee and the greater mission within her current program. For seven years, a doorway between the coach and her players enabled BC to bridge its team into the current college basketball realm. Now six months removed from their near-upset over seeded Villanova as part of a berth in the Women's Basketball Invitational Tournament, the history of a team that's constantly overperformed expectations sought its next chapter from a group of players who competed elsewhere during the 2024-2025 season.
Yet the untapped mythology within college basketball's potential was laid bare front and center for anyone to watch and see. Unknown players, an overlooked team and a coach who constantly keeps the program punching into the upper weight classes of one of the best leagues in women's college basketball - it was all on display for the unheralded team formally beginning its 2025-2026 season on Charlotte's grand stage.
"This team has really embraced that underdog mentality," said Bernabei-McNamee. "We have a lot of unselfish players that are also working hard, and I think when you have hard workers that can give of themselves and be great teammates and they've really bought into playing together as one, I think we could surprise some people this year."
Bernabei-McNamee's overall era at Boston College never once began with weighted favoritism or optimism towards the Eagles. They've never been placed higher than ninth in a preseason poll and rarely featured onto voted-on watch lists. The last player to receive all-conference preseason consideration was Taylor Soule in 2021, and there's never been a player that landed on the newcomer watchlist as a hot-to-trot fresh face for league play.
The long supporting argument naturally stems from the postseason NCAA Tournament drought that dates back to when Cathy Inglese led BC to the Sweet Sixteen, but Bernabei-McNamee's resume is impossible to ignore. In seven years, two of her teams were national tournament contenders with one iteration in 2019-2020 sitting comfortably inside of the NCAA's bubble when COVID-19 canceled the entire postseason. Two years later, BC advanced through two rounds of the Women's NIT before Columbia's three-point upset bid derailed the Eagles in New York City, and three years after that, last year's team earned an invitation to the bracket's spiritual successor when it played Villanova in the WBIT.
"I think last year, we did a really good job of approaching each game as 'that game' and looking at it [without] looking ahead," said Bernabei-McNamee. "I think that's something that this year's team is really going to do as well. Don't worry about the next game or the game after that; let's just control the controllable and worry about 'today.'"
Preaching that mantra deeply positions BC for its upcoming upstart and underdog season. Inherent unknowns owe their questions to the obvious roster turnover in Chestnut Hill, but the Eagles are one of the more capable teams of gelling as the year progresses. Just one season - Bernabei-McNamee's first year at BC - ended with an elimination in the first round of the ACC Tournament, and last year featured a three-point win over Syracuse less than three full days after losing to the Orange by 25 points in the JMA Wireless Dome. The next day, the Eagles dragged fifth-seeded North Carolina to a seven-point result that ultimately earned them an unexpected trip to the WBIT.
There was no way of foreshadowing that it would ultimately end in a full-fledged roster overhaul wrought by the program's dozen-plus departures. A perfect storm of graduation and the transfer portal was to blame, but in its own way, the program allowed itself a chance to reform and rebuild through the same manner of which it was disassembled. Though the overall continuity in player personnel changed, the mentality and installed core values transcended the roster, and the result was a new team of players formed by the same desire that forced the coaching staff to fully examine and evaluate how to compete in the modern era.
"Boston College is an unbelievable academic institution," said Bernabei-McNamee, "so it really does feed off of bringing in high school players that can really thrive. I love to coach players for as long as possible, but I also think there's a need for transfers that can come in and make a difference as older players with more experience."
That's how the Eagles taking the floor for Monday's exhibition game against Connecticut's defending champions possess a luxury straddling the line between an experienced and newborn roster. Athena Tomlinson and Ava McGee are the only returners, but the roster is a bigger blend than four talented freshmen suddenly being thrust into the limelight of an exhibition against the top-ranked Huskies. They include older transfers like Teionni McDaniel and Erin Houpt while reaching outside of the box for players like Emma LoPinto, a fifth-year senior with national championship experience - for BC's lacrosse program.
Australian import Lily Carmody was one of two Big East freshmen with 200 points, 85 rebounds, 60 assists, 50 steals and 10 blocks while Kaia Henderson spent three seasons with the Ohio State program that advanced to three NCAA Tournaments and an Elite Eight appearance. Among returners, Tomlinson earned four starts and grabbed five rebounds alongside her seven-point scoring performance in the WBIT game against Villanova.
So while that's not going to be good enough to crack the league's preseason prognostications, danger - the kind capable of ending and derailing seasons - is continuing to lurk for anyone foolish enough to overlook the team situated in the Northeast corridor of the ACC's national footprint.
"One thing that I love about this team is that we have some really good shooters," said Bernabei-McNamee, "and we have unselfish players that can spread the floor. I think whenever you put that together in women's basketball, you can have a dangerous team."
That said, the symbolism behind a coach flanked between a league media moderator and her two student-athletes in full uniform cast the perfect light on Bernabei-McNamee and the greater mission within her current program. For seven years, a doorway between the coach and her players enabled BC to bridge its team into the current college basketball realm. Now six months removed from their near-upset over seeded Villanova as part of a berth in the Women's Basketball Invitational Tournament, the history of a team that's constantly overperformed expectations sought its next chapter from a group of players who competed elsewhere during the 2024-2025 season.
Yet the untapped mythology within college basketball's potential was laid bare front and center for anyone to watch and see. Unknown players, an overlooked team and a coach who constantly keeps the program punching into the upper weight classes of one of the best leagues in women's college basketball - it was all on display for the unheralded team formally beginning its 2025-2026 season on Charlotte's grand stage.
"This team has really embraced that underdog mentality," said Bernabei-McNamee. "We have a lot of unselfish players that are also working hard, and I think when you have hard workers that can give of themselves and be great teammates and they've really bought into playing together as one, I think we could surprise some people this year."
Bernabei-McNamee's overall era at Boston College never once began with weighted favoritism or optimism towards the Eagles. They've never been placed higher than ninth in a preseason poll and rarely featured onto voted-on watch lists. The last player to receive all-conference preseason consideration was Taylor Soule in 2021, and there's never been a player that landed on the newcomer watchlist as a hot-to-trot fresh face for league play.
The long supporting argument naturally stems from the postseason NCAA Tournament drought that dates back to when Cathy Inglese led BC to the Sweet Sixteen, but Bernabei-McNamee's resume is impossible to ignore. In seven years, two of her teams were national tournament contenders with one iteration in 2019-2020 sitting comfortably inside of the NCAA's bubble when COVID-19 canceled the entire postseason. Two years later, BC advanced through two rounds of the Women's NIT before Columbia's three-point upset bid derailed the Eagles in New York City, and three years after that, last year's team earned an invitation to the bracket's spiritual successor when it played Villanova in the WBIT.
"I think last year, we did a really good job of approaching each game as 'that game' and looking at it [without] looking ahead," said Bernabei-McNamee. "I think that's something that this year's team is really going to do as well. Don't worry about the next game or the game after that; let's just control the controllable and worry about 'today.'"
Preaching that mantra deeply positions BC for its upcoming upstart and underdog season. Inherent unknowns owe their questions to the obvious roster turnover in Chestnut Hill, but the Eagles are one of the more capable teams of gelling as the year progresses. Just one season - Bernabei-McNamee's first year at BC - ended with an elimination in the first round of the ACC Tournament, and last year featured a three-point win over Syracuse less than three full days after losing to the Orange by 25 points in the JMA Wireless Dome. The next day, the Eagles dragged fifth-seeded North Carolina to a seven-point result that ultimately earned them an unexpected trip to the WBIT.
There was no way of foreshadowing that it would ultimately end in a full-fledged roster overhaul wrought by the program's dozen-plus departures. A perfect storm of graduation and the transfer portal was to blame, but in its own way, the program allowed itself a chance to reform and rebuild through the same manner of which it was disassembled. Though the overall continuity in player personnel changed, the mentality and installed core values transcended the roster, and the result was a new team of players formed by the same desire that forced the coaching staff to fully examine and evaluate how to compete in the modern era.
"Boston College is an unbelievable academic institution," said Bernabei-McNamee, "so it really does feed off of bringing in high school players that can really thrive. I love to coach players for as long as possible, but I also think there's a need for transfers that can come in and make a difference as older players with more experience."
That's how the Eagles taking the floor for Monday's exhibition game against Connecticut's defending champions possess a luxury straddling the line between an experienced and newborn roster. Athena Tomlinson and Ava McGee are the only returners, but the roster is a bigger blend than four talented freshmen suddenly being thrust into the limelight of an exhibition against the top-ranked Huskies. They include older transfers like Teionni McDaniel and Erin Houpt while reaching outside of the box for players like Emma LoPinto, a fifth-year senior with national championship experience - for BC's lacrosse program.
Australian import Lily Carmody was one of two Big East freshmen with 200 points, 85 rebounds, 60 assists, 50 steals and 10 blocks while Kaia Henderson spent three seasons with the Ohio State program that advanced to three NCAA Tournaments and an Elite Eight appearance. Among returners, Tomlinson earned four starts and grabbed five rebounds alongside her seven-point scoring performance in the WBIT game against Villanova.
So while that's not going to be good enough to crack the league's preseason prognostications, danger - the kind capable of ending and derailing seasons - is continuing to lurk for anyone foolish enough to overlook the team situated in the Northeast corridor of the ACC's national footprint.
"One thing that I love about this team is that we have some really good shooters," said Bernabei-McNamee, "and we have unselfish players that can spread the floor. I think whenever you put that together in women's basketball, you can have a dangerous team."
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