ACC Women's Basketball Media Day
Notes and quotes from the Atlantic Coast Women's Conference Media Day, as head coaches and players make the rounds Thursday at the Westin Charlotte ...
Continuing what has become a tradition at ACC Women’s Basketball Media Day, Senior Associate Commissioner Nora Lynn Finch opened Thursday’s proceedings by glancing briefly back at last season and looking ahead with great anticipation.
And there was certainly just cause to engage in the latter.
As many as five ACC teams have been ranked among the Top 25 of some 2017-18 preseason polls and three teams have been placed among the top 10. Four-time defending champion Notre Dame, Duke, Louisville and Florida State remain on every national radar.
But don’t stop there, Finch advised.
“I say keep an eye on Virginia … I think North Carolina will be better,” Finch said. “This league is set to be more competitive than it has even been from top to bottom. I don’t think the bottom four teams – whichever four that winds up being – can ever be overlooked. It should be exciting for the fans.”
ACC teams return a combined 46 starters, including six All-ACC performers from 2016-17 and all eight members of last season’s All-ACC Freshman Team.
Youth also figures to serve the conference well. Five McDonald’s All-Americans will make their freshmen debuts, and the ACC boasts six of the top 20 freshman classics as ranked by ESPN’s Hoopgurlz – No. 4 Louisville, No. 11 Duke, No. 12 Georgia Tech, No. 13 Miami, No. 14 Syracuse and No. 19 Notre Dame.
“We’ve got outstanding returning talent,” Finch said. “How it blends with the new talent is always the coaches’ challenge. Young talent is always fun because they are so unpredictable. It gives gray hairs to the coach, but it’s exciting for the fans.”
The ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament will return to the Greensboro Coliseum in 2018 (Feb. 28-March 4). It will mark the 18th time in 19 years that the Gate City has welcomed the event. Coastal Carolina hosted the tournament in 2017 to sellout crowds and drew nothing high praise from Finch and the ACC.
But Greensboro is … well, Greensboro.
“Coastal Carolina did a great job of stepping up and hosting our tournament for the one-off year,” Finch said. “It was fun to fill the building and have the kind of energy we had there. Myrtle Beach hotels stepped up and took care of our teams and our fans.
“But I am so glad to be coming home to North Carolina and to Greensboro,” she added. “And that coliseum
is home to us. I think our players look forward to returning to that size coliseum and that kind of atmosphere.”
Sometime around midseason, the total wins total by current ACC head coaches will reach the 6,000 mark. ACC coaches enter this season with a combined 5,843 victories, which ranks first among Power 5 conferences. The ACC’s six coaches that rank among the nation’s top 20 in terms of winning percentages also leads the nation.
“There is not a conference with better coaches than the ACC. We are so, so solid. Our coaches are the key – pure and simple,” Finch said.
Seven ACC teams were selected for the 2017 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, but that was business as usual. The ACC has placed at least seven teams in the tournament three of the past four years, and the conference has one or more teams advance to at least the regional semifinal round every year since the NCAA Women’s Championship began in 1982.
“I was personally disappointed we didn’t have eight teams,” Finch said. “I thought Virginia was very worthy of being included. But I didn’t get a vote.”
For first time in 2017-18, every women’s basketball conference game will be televised via a linear network or ACC Network Extra.
“And our attendance this past year was up over seven percent,” Finch said. “We’ve made some good strides, but we need to make even more strides incorporating the best things that our member institutions are doing.”
Earlier Tuesday morning, the ACC announced that the league’s athletics directors have approved an 18-game conference schedule for women’s basketball, beginning with the 2019-20 season – a move that will make it tougher on head coaches but should excite fans and enhance NCAA resumes.
“That’s big news,” Finch said. “Stay tuned.”
Finch noted that athletes at both the professional and collegiate levels have become more involved with social issues, with many making strong personal statements through pregame demonstrations.
“The ACC sets policies when it comes to scheduling, officiating, and things of that nature,” Finch said. “But our member institutions determine what their team policies are, what their team rules are. We ask that whatever they determine their policies are, convey them to their student-athletes. As a conference, we are 15 of some of the most academically prestigious institutions in the world. You can’t be the status we are and not have student-athletes who are aware and engaged.”
NC STATE – 9:30 a.m.
With four seniors and 43.5 points per game having graduated from the Wolfpack’s successful 2016-17 season, expect forward Chelsea Nelson to be an even bigger part of the equation in the year ahead. Nelson averaged 11.2 points and six rebounds last year while shooting a team-high .567 from the floor. The 6-foot-2 Nelson was at her best in wins over No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 7 Louisville.
“Each game we learned more about what we could do,” Nelson recalled of a season that produced a top-four ACC finish and an NCAA berth. “Each game we improved, and our confidence sky-rocketed.”
Nelson will join fellow senior Akela Maize this season to provide continued inside scoring and rebounding.
“I think that will be very significant,” head coach Wes Moore said. “Both of them work very hard, and that is why they have improved so much. I like our talent (overall as a team), but we definitely have some growing up to do. I know these two will provide the work ethic and the passion you need to compete at this level.”
Moore said Nelson must avoid the foul trouble that often plagued her in her first two collegiate seasons and sometimes last year.
“If you broke it down to scoring per minutes played, she might lead the country,” Moore said. “But she might also lead the country in fouls. She is relentless. She goes as hard as anyone in the country when she is on the floor. But she needs to stay on the floor. This team looks to her for a lot of leadership.”
Nelson said it is a matter of finding a happy medium, of playing hard while playing smart.
“It’s something I do think about during the games,” Nelson said. “For me, it’s matter of being aware of when to be aggressive, when not to be aggressive – of being aware of the opponent I am playing and adjusting my game accordingly."
FLORIDA STATE- 9:45 a.m.
The Seminoles have been a model of consistency under head coach Sue Semrau the past three years, averaging more than 13 wins in ACC play, never falling out of the nation’s top 15 and advancing to three consecutive Sweet 16s and two Elite Eights.
The next goal is obvious, and Semrau believes the program is positioned to take that giant step.
“You keep knocking (at the door),” Semrau said. “We did the same thing (in eventually reaching) the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight. I think every year you learn something different.”
Despite the loss of several key players from last season’s Elite Eight squad, the Seminoles remain talented. It starts with preseason All-American Shakayla Thomas, who declared Thursday that she and her teammates “are ready to break that door down.” And Semrau senses that this could be a special squad.
“I like the makeup of this year’s team better,” Semrau said. “We lost a lot of talent and some great individuals from last season. But this group really doesn’t care who gets the credit. We have five great upperclassmen. The challenge will be finding that depth. But we have some younger players who can do that. We have some younger players that are chomping at the bit to play.”
SYRACUSE -10:05 a.m.
Gabby Cooper established herself as one of the ACC’s top sharpshooters as a freshman in 2016-17, setting a school record for a first-year player by connecting on 81 shots from 3-point range.
Head coach Quentin Hillsman looks for more of the same in the year ahead.
“She just pretty much just needs to progress on the things she has been doing – to stay on the floor and make shots,” Hillsman said “We tell our players, ‘You have to play to learn,' and she definitely played a lot a freshman.”
Cooper will be the Orange’s lone returning starter, but she learned a lot from a departed senior class that included former All-American and current WNBA star Brittney Sykes.
“They taught me how to lead by example,” Cooper said. “Just because you are not the most vocal player doesn’t mean you can’t lead by example. They were great players to learn from, and I learned a lot from them.”
But expect Cooper, now a year older and a shade bolder, to speak up more as she mixes with Syracuse’s highly-touted freshman class and three incoming transfers.
“We have the talent,” she said. “We are buying in and we are working hard. It is very important to be a vocal leader as well as to lead by example. I am trying to be both.”
MIAMI - 10:20 a.m.
With six new players in the fold, there is a definite sense of mystery as the Hurricanes prepare to launch a new season under 13th-year head coach Katie Meier.
“Every practice to me feels like a game prep,” Meier said of readying her troops for the battles ahead. “A lot of coaches don’t like surprises. I like surprises, and there are definitely going to be a lot of those in the first few months. But by January, I think we will clearly know who were are.”
While Meier coaches up her young talent, she will also rely on veterans such as 6-foot-2 senior Erykah Davenport, who she says needs to “double her stats” from last season.
“There is the pressure of being important,” Meier said of Davenport and other returnees who will be called upon for increased roles. “I am not saying they weren’t important before, but there is more pressure to pull your weight, to not get two fouls in the first two minutes you are in a game.”
Davenport is embracing the chance.
“You get that butterfly feeling, but nervous is OK,” Davenport said. “Nervous means anxious. And I am anxious and excited about the opportunity.”
In that respect, she and Meier have much in common.
“There are just so many things you have to find out,” Meier said. “I am having a blast.”
WAKE FOREST - 10:40 a.m.
The Demon Deacons return four of their top five scorers from last season’s squad that made the program’s second consecutive postseason appearance. That is somewhat comforting, but nothing can be expected to come easy as Wake Forest prepares to tackle a schedule that includes 15 teams that appeared in postseason play last season.
“We talk every day about raising the bar,” Wake Forest head coach Jen Hoover said. “We don’t accept anything less. We are looking to raise it to the next level. We can’t accept anything less."
The challenging schedule epitomizes that mentality.
“We want to make that next jump,” Hoover said. “We want to be the next Wake Forest team to go to the NCAA Tournament. Our purpose in scheduling was to play postseason teams so that night-in and night-out we are getting challenged. With a veteran squad that has been to two WNITs, we now understand what that is.
“You can’t have off games. Not in this conference, and not with our non-conference schedule being what it is. It is about the name on our jersey. We have to bring what Wake Forest basketball means every night … every game is going to matter.”
LOUISVILLE - 10:55 a.m.
The Cardinals return two All-Americans and 1,000-point scorers in senior forward Myisha Hines-Allen and junior guard Asia Durr. But Louisville also welcomes the nation’s No. 4 ranked recruiting class and should receive a boost from the return of redshirt junior guard Arica Carter, who missed all of last season with a groin injury.
Head coach Jeff Walz is particularly excited about the return of Carter, whose has made tremendous strides during her time at Louisville and may have only benefited from her redshirt 2016-17 season.
“Do you know how many 3-pointers she made her freshman year?” Walz asked rhetorically. “None. Now when she shoots a 3, we’re like, ‘It’s going in.’ The last 2 ½ years, she has put the time Everyone wants to be that great shooter, that great player. But that takes being in the gym, putting in the work.”
Carter continued to work after her injury healed, but she also made the most of her chance to observe.
“Missing last year was hard, but I think it was also really good for me,” Carter said. “I got to watch a lot – and I learned. For example, coach talks all the time about the important of making a hard pass as opposed to a soft pass. Watching a game, you can actually see that. Simple things, but I think they will have a huge impact on my game.”
DUKE - 11:15 a.m.
The Blue Devils’ backcourt of Lexie Brown and Rebecca Greenwell averaged close to 35 points per game last season. They were the highest scoring duo in the ACC and combined to connect on an eye-opening 156 shots from 3-point range.
“I think both can take the next step,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “Both Lexi and Becca have a chance to take that next step forward, not only with their own games, but with the team game.”
Part of the “team game” involves blending with and helping a crew of talented freshman, and neither Brown nor Greenwell have found that to be a difficult task.
“The freshmen came in super ready for college basketball,” Brown said. “Two came in early before any of us arrived on campus. They’ve been eager to learn. We got super close, super fast.”
“They’ve made our jobs easy as captains,” Greenwell added “It’s been an easy transition so far.”
Brown, Greenwell and Fresno State transfer Bego Faz Davalos will play this season as graduate students. All three are enrolled in the highly acclaimed Duke Fuqua School of Business-MMS program.
“It’s been very enjoyable,” Brown said. “It is difficult at times, but we knew that going in. Sometimes we’re all confused and looking at each other like, ‘What?’ … But it is fun. I tell everyone it is like two complete, different worlds. We are in the business world, the real world so to speak. Then we go back and are with the 18- and 19-year-olds, and I feel like a little kid again.”
BRUSHING UP ON THE RULES - 1:35 p.m.
Charlene Curtis, the Supervisor of ACC Women’s Basketball Officiating, noted that there are really no dramatic rule changes on tap for the 2017-18 season. But fans may notice a few new wrinkles. Among the adjustments:
- A team will no longer lose a 30-second timeout when it chooses not to take one in the first half.
- A player will be ejected from the game when she is assessed a disqualifying foul, a second unsportsmanlike foul or a second technical foul.
- Officials
may use a courtside monitor in the last two minutes of a game to determine the location of players involved in a restricted area/lower defensive play box. But the review may only occur if the ruling on the floor was a player-control foul on the offensive player or a blocking foul was called on a defender located within the restricted-area arc.
GEORGIA TECH - 2 p.m.
Yellow Jacket senior forward Zaire O’Neil enters this season just 12 points shy of the 1,000-point plateau. O’Neil led Georgia Tech offensively as last season as the Jackets reached the WNIT finals, averaging 12.9 points per game. O’Neil saw action in all 37 contests, starting 26. She was second on the team in rebounding, pulling down 5.7 per game. She is one of nine letter-winners and four starters returning to the team in 2017-18.
“She’s had the potential to be an impact player since she got here,” head coach MaChelle Joseph said. “She had a knee injury her freshman year that set her back, but last year, I felt she started to come into her own, especially at the end of the season. She averaged a double-double throughout the WNIT.
“She worked hard this summer to get into shape. I have challenged her, and I think the sky is the limit for Zaire. She has the potential to be one of the best players in the ACC.”
O’Neil is one of a group of Georgia Tech senior players that will be attempting to earn their first NCAA Tournament berth in their final go-around.
“There is definitely a sense of urgency,” O’Neil said. “We lost games last year that could have put us in the NCAA where we were the deciding factor – little things like missing free throws and rebounds. But that has made us confident heading into this season. We know what it takes and what we have to do to get there.”
VIRGINIA TECH - 2: 18 p.m.
The Hokies are coming off a 20-14 season in which they reached the Elite Eight of the WNIT. Then first-year head coach Kenny Brooks engineered Virginia Tech’s first 20-win season since 2005-06. Tech returns two starters from that squad in Regan Magarity and Chanette Hicks.
“We have a lot of new faces this season, and we are taking things very slow – which is probably boring Regan and Chanette a little bit," Brooks said. "But we have to find our identity and as we put our team together, we are going to have to learn quickly.”
The Hokies have a solid foundation in Magarity, who averaged 13.5 points and 9.6 rebounds last season, including a double-double in league play. She had 15 double-doubles on the season, and set the Virginia Tech program record with 316 rebounds. She was the only player to average a double-double in ACC play.
“With those stats I can’t believe is not preseason All-ACC, but good for her – that is more motivation,” Brooks said. “She is one of the most underrated players in our conference. To be honest, before last year I heard so much that she was a finesse player. But what she did for us last year was all about toughness.”
The 6-foot-3 Magarity is trying to take a leadership role as Virginia Tech attempts to acclimate its new but talented cast to the college game.
“We try to come in and compete every practice,” Magarity said. “Compared to last year, we compete a lot more in practice and we have more depth so we can go harder.”
BOSTON COLLEGE – 2:35 p.m.
The Eagles will rely heavily on their sophomore class – Emma Guy, Georgia Pineau and Taylor Ortlepp – to lead the team in the season ahead. Combined, the trio started 48 games in 2016-17.
“We are going to be lot more fun team to watch,” said head coach Erik Johnson, who will attempt to flip the Eagles’ fortunes following last year’s 9-21 season. “The 21 losses last season didn’t come from a lack of talent. We needed a culture change. As a coach you are trying to build that. I am proud of this group. It is nice as a head coach when you can get off your soap box and stop preaching and just start watching. I am very excited about this season.”
Ortlepp, a 5-foot-9 guard, missed the first nine games of last season with a nagging injury. She played in 22 games and started the last 12 at the point. A native of Australia, Ortlepp averaged 7.3 points, 2.6 assists and 2.0 rebounds per game.
“Taylor got a trial by fire,” Johnson said. “Being a freshman point guard in the ACC is like being a rookie quarterback in the NFL. But she was among our leading scorers the last 12 games of the season and she has really come a long way.”
Ortlepp could be called upon to score more this season on a consistent basis this season, but she believes she has multiple options.
“As a scoring point guard, I am always looking to score in some way,” she said. “But everyone on the team has the ability to score and I need to find ways to get them the ball and get them involved. I am looking forward to it.”
CLEMSON - 2:52 p.m.
Clemson made dramatic improvements in 2016-17, winning 11 more games than the previous season to finish the year with a 15-16 record. The Tigers also picked up a win over Virginia Tech in the first round of the 2017 ACC Tournament, the program’s first ACC tourney win since the 2014 season. The Tigers were 11-2 in nonconference play in 2016-17, which was the program’s best nonconference record since 2003-04. The team’s only two nonconference losses came to top-25 teams (No. 6 South Carolina and No. 25 Oregon).
The key now is to maintain that success into the course of an entire season, particularly in ACC play. The Tigers have one thing heading into this season that has been missing in recent years – a few veterans.
“I finally have a senior class,” joked fifth-year head coach Audra Smith, who entered the past two seasons with no fourth-year players. Smith also welcomes back a rugged rebounder in 5-10 junior Aliyah Collier and a seasoned junior point guard in Danielle Edwards, who has started all 61 of her collegiate games to date
.
Smith recalled meeting with the team last year following an ACC Tournament loss to Louisville and consoling a squad that finished one game below postseason eligibility. Not the ending she or her team wanted, but a step up from recent years in which the Tigers closed the year hopelessly off the radar.
“I think it is on another level heading into this season,” Smith said. “We are thinking about what we have to do to get to that next level.’’
That is definitely true of Edwards.
“We got a taste of what it was like to be somewhat successful,” Edwards said. “I think we are going to be able transfer that over to this season. It’s been very difficult for me the past two years, but it has been a good learning experience. I have learned that I can talk to some of the girls a certain way and they will respond, but I can’t to talk to other girls in the same way.
“Now, I want to take the positives from last year and help us become a consistent team in the ACC, one that is good enough to (play in) the postseason.”
PITT - 3:11 p.m.
The Panthers posted a 3-0 record against international competition during a 10-day tour of Italy in August. The Panthers topped TK Hannover (Germany), 47-37, defeated All-Star Italy, 74-44, and conquered FSG Academy (Holland), 66-61. Newcomer Danielle Garven led Pitt with 13.3 points per game over the three games, including 21 points against FSG Academy.
The Panthers visited seven destinations in Italy, including Rome, Vatican City, Florence, Lucca, Venice, Verona and Cernobbio. They toured such sites as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, Piazza San Marco, Casa di Giulietta and Lake Como.
“Having five freshman and one junior college player, trip was so beneficial to us,” said head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio. “I think one of the biggest things that clicked was our team chemistry. When you are able to take one of those tours and spend all that time – not only playing and practicing, but seeing all the sites and traveling together, eating together – it can make or break a team.”
Junior forward Kauai Bradley, who McConnell-Serio felt played some of her best basketball during the tour, said the Panthers returned as closer unit intent on improving on last season’s disappointing, injury-plagued campaign.
“We just clicked automatically,” Bradley said. “Everyone kind of found their role, playing off each other and we became a better team during that time.”
NOTRE DAME - 3:30 p.m.
Notre Dame will miss the inside presence of two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year Brianna Turner as she takes a redshirt year this season due to injury. But the four-time defending ACC champions should be again be an exciting – though maybe a slightly different – team to watch in 2017-18.
“I think we will play four guards more and shoot a lot more threes,” said head coach Muffet McGraw, who was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame early last month. “I think our team will be excited about playing a little different style. It doesn’t change our goals or our focus. We definitely want to accomplish the same things.”
The Fighting Irish return a pair of standout junior guards in Arike Ogunbowale and Marina Mabrey. Ogunbowale was a 2017 Naismith Trophy Top-30 finalist, NCAA Regional Most Outstanding Performer, WBCAAll-Region Team and ACC All-Tournament First Team selection. Mabrey was a NCAA All-Regional Team selection and ACC All-Tournament First Team honoree. She ranks 7th in ACC history in career 3-point field goal percentage (.402).
Also in the mix will be Stanford transfer Lilli Thompson, a former Cardinal point guard and team captain who averaged 14.7 points per game in 2016 in leading her team to the Elite Eight.
Notre Dame will look to become the first ACC school to sweep the league’s regular season and tournament titles in five straight seasons. The Fighting Irish tied Duke’s record of four such seasons (2001-04) last year
“I think the ACC is a tremendous conference, and that is going to be incredibly difficult,” said McGraw, who is 62-2 against the rest of the league since the Irish entered the conference prior to the 2013-14 season. “We aren’t really looking to see what is going to happen at the end. Our focus now is on trying to take care of business along the way.”
NORTH CAROLINA - 3:47 p.m.
The Tar Heels will play their first 10 games at home this season. That might be an optimal fit for a team with a roster that includes a combined 10 freshmen and sophomores.
“We are still pretty young, still trying to get some kids rolling who are rehabbing,” said veteran head coach Sylvia Hatchell, who is 10 wins shy from reaching 1,000 for her career. “This is the first time we haven’t taken a trip over Thanksgiving. Playing this many home games will give this team a lot of confidence and get some good wins under their belts, hopefully, and get them ready to jump into the ACC.”
Despite their collective youth, the Tar Heels return a backcourt quartet of Jamie Cherry, Paris Kea, Destinee Walker and Stephanie Watts that accounted for 1,695 points last season, or 75 percent of the total points scored during the 2016-17 season. In total, UNC returns 95.5 percent of its scoring from last year.
Cherry, the lone senior, gives the Tar Heels an experienced point guard.
“I’ve told Jamie it’s not how many points she scores – and she can score – but the biggest factor will be her leadership and getting this team back to where it is used to being," Hatchell said. "Her role is one of not being only the point guard, but the senior leader of this team. Jamie has embraced that.”
Cherry is also the lone Tar Heel with NCAA Tournament experience, having played on the last UNC team that reached the Big Dance in 2015.
“I think that is very important,” Cherry said. “Obviously, I have the experience and have been to the tournament. I’ve tried to tell our younger girls what it will take to get back to that level this year, and they seem to really embrace what I’ve been telling them.”
Hatchell spoke several times Thursday about returning UNC’s program to the top 10 and national contender status it has enjoyed for most of her tenure, but she said she is not dwelling on the struggles of recent seasons.
“I am not dwelling on the past, I am thinking about the future,” she said. “Because the future is going to be great.”
VIRGINIA - 4:10 p.m.
The Cavaliers return all but one player from last year’s team, a 20-win squad that just missed the NCAA Tournament as one of the last out of the field of 64. The Cavaliers were the ACC’s automatic qualifier for the WNIT.
“Everyone is focused on moving the team forward, to being off the bubble,” said head coach Joanne Boyle. “Last year there were so many games that we lost by four or six points. Take two of those away, and it changes the whole season.”
Boyle and her squad recalled the disappointment of sitting through last season’s NCAA selection show and the deep feeling of disappointment at its conclusion.
“We’ve always been a humble team, but that humbled us even more last year,” said senior forward Lauren Moses, who has started every game of her collegiate career and enters her final season having already accumulated more than 800 career points and 600 rebounds. “Not coming out where we wanted us to be makes us hungrier this year. That is foremost in our minds, that we are not going to let ourselves be in that situation again.”
Certainly, the parts are in place for Cavaliers, which returns a pair of All-ACC Freshmen team members in Jocelyn Willoughby and Dominique Toussaint and have been ranked among the nation’s elite in at least one preseason poll (No. 24 by Athlon). Virginia should once again boast a balanced scoring attack, and is one of the bigger teams in the conference, if not the nation.
“I like what we have,” Boyle said. “It is a matter of showing up every day and proving it.”