Women’s Basketball: Inside the Terriers’ ascent to record-breaking heights

By Sam Robb O’Hagan

For Boston University Women’s Basketball, there’s one word that keeps coming up.

Legacy is something BU Head Coach Melissa Graves and her team are open about. Legacy has been talked about constantly within the program, from the day they returned together for the 2022-23 season.

“Legacy is very important to our program,” Graves said. “It’s something we preach a lot, it’s like, ‘What are you going to do with your four years here?’”

So far, the answer to that guiding question is just about everything. After the Terriers’ second of two regular season victories over the American Eagles on Wednesday, Graves — midway through her second season at the helm — has led an unprecedented wave of success.

The Terriers’ 12-game win streak in the Patriot League is the longest in program history, and just the fifth of 10 or more victories in conference or non-conference play. On Saturday against Loyola Maryland, in what was their largest win of the season (100-57), the Terriers scored 100 points in a game for the first time since 1987.

If the Terriers hold serve in the conference and preserve their two-game lead over the Holy Cross Crusaders, they will be Patriot League regular season champions for only the fourth time in 49 seasons.

“To add these little pieces along the way of their legacy and what we’re leaving behind for the next group is just really exciting,” Graves said.

For these Terriers, who now possess a chance to be the greatest Terriers, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

“I think once we had all the pieces together this year, it’s a pretty phenomenal puzzle,” Graves said. “I don’t have to just play five or six kids the whole game.”

It all starts on offense, where the Terriers are second in the Patriot League in points per game (68.3) and first — as well as third in the entire nation — in 3-point shooting percentage (40.1%). And make no mistake, it’s a team effort.

“We have scorers at every single position,” Graves said. “If you want to double the posts, good luck, cause we’re gonna shoot the crap out of the ball. If you’re not going to focus on the posts and you’re going to guard straight up, we’re going to score in the post.”

“That’s been really exciting just to have so many options,” Graves said. “Because what are you going to take away?”

The Terriers certainly have options: Junior forward Caitlin Weimar leads the team in scoring at 14.6 points per game, followed closely by senior guard Sydney Johnson and sophomore guard Alex Giannaros, who’s made the third most 3-pointers per game (1.88) in the conference.

But the Terriers’ offense doesn’t just have a myriad of options; they have the desire to match.

“The biggest piece in why our offense is so successful is because every day, we hone in and we work and we watch film,” Graves said.

Monday’s practice started at around 12:30 p.m., but only after a 40-minute film session, and that desire off the court translates to intent on it.

“I think that’s the biggest difference [compared to last year] within our offense is, ‘What is our intent on what we’re doing each possession?’” Graves said. 

For the Terriers, playing with intent means playing fast, and it’s here where Graves’ fingerprints are found in abundance less than two years after she arrived at BU.

“When I first came in last year, we didn’t play very fast. We really worked last year on playing fast and getting out [in transition],” Graves said. “You know, that’s something we’ve had to grow in over last year and this year, with a new offense and a new head coach and a new system.”

The Terriers’ Monday practice included several open court transition drills, one of which was designed to simulate transition scenarios directly off a defensive rebound or even an inbound after a defensive possession. Graves’ offense is always looking to move, to play as fast as they can no matter what happens at the other end.

That’s where the value of Johnson, the Patriot League’s Preseason Player of the Year, is truly realized. Johnson was at the center of all of the Terriers’ transition drills, and there was a clear emphasis on ensuring the ball was always in her hands. 

When the Terriers are moving fast, they’re moving through Johnson, and not just schematically, but mentally, too.

“I just kind of had these conversations with her [Johnson] like, ‘How you go is how the team is gonna go, and people are gonna follow you,’” Graves said. “She has really grown tremendously in that aspect, in embracing, ‘Hey, I have to be a leader because this is what I’m born into.’”

Both in practice and on game day, Johnson’s energy is apparent for all to see. Whenever she’s off the floor, she can be found dancing with herself and vehemently celebrating the success of her teammates.

“She’s just really great, and bringing that kind of goofy energy too, and making things lighter when there’s like a pressure around us,” Graves said. “And obviously, a lot of pressure comes with a season like this.”

For as much dancing as Johnson performs in practice, senior forward Maren Durant, another team captain, unloads even more yelling, bellowing instructions and other critical calls to her teammates whenever she steps foot on the floor.

“Maren is a gem. Maren is a unicorn. She is something that you never find, and that’s a post player who talks constantly and is loud,” Graves said. “She does not care if she’s scoring or not, she just wants to compete. She wants to play with her teammates and lead the best way she can.”

Durant is the Terriers’ heartbeat, her voice the first and loudest to be heard whenever and wherever they are.

“She does everything on and off the floor, you know, community service within the department and academically she’s just great,” Graves said. “She’s just so unselfish, the kid is just the epitome of a great leader.”

Durant and Weimar, her partner in the post, anchor the Terriers in their own unique ways. During practice, as Durant projects critical information for all to hear, there Weimar is, quietly and ruthlessly going about her business as the Patriot League’s third-leading scorer.

“Caitlin is very rare in the sense that she will come to practice and games every day, and you will not know if something’s going on in her life,” Graves said. “She always has a smile on her face, she never has a bad attitude, she never wavers, ever.”

The trio of Weimar, Durant and Johnson all assume their responsibilities as leaders differently. In a way, the trio sums up what makes these Terriers so special in that they have everything — Weimar is quiet, Durant is loud and Johnson is goofy. As Graves will never hesitate to say, they have all the pieces, both in their leadership and in their play on the court.

“They have an acronym for the year: C.H.I.P., and it goes for all the things that go into winning a championship,” Graves said. “I think that’s been their mindset from Day 1. They do have the talent, they do have the capability, they do have the opportunity to win.”

The first championship to be won is the Patriot League’s regular season, but the Terriers’ road won’t end there. After that, it’s the Patriot League Championship, which, if all goes to plan, will go through Case Gymnasium. After that, it’s dancing at the NCAA tournament, a height the program has only reached once before. 

Win a game at the dance, and the 2023 Terriers will become the most accomplished team in program history.

“I want it for them so bad,” Graves said. “I want them to experience hanging a banner that’s never been hung. I want that for them so badly, to know what it feels like to be the first.”

For the first time in a long time, Boston University Women’s Basketball is talking about championships. 

But ask them, and this unprecedented path they are now walking, and this legacy they are now creating, was all part of the plan.