{"id":40242,"date":"2024-02-09T18:44:48","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T23:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=40242"},"modified":"2024-02-09T20:13:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T01:13:47","slug":"opinion-bu-womens-basketball-is-juggling-two-eras-at-once-and-its-becoming-hard-to-know-what-to-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2024\/02\/09\/opinion-bu-womens-basketball-is-juggling-two-eras-at-once-and-its-becoming-hard-to-know-what-to-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: BU Women\u2019s Basketball is juggling two eras at once, and it\u2019s becoming hard to know what to think"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured image by Jacob Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

By Sam Robb O\u2019Hagan<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It is becoming clear that Caitlin Weimar represents even more than meets the eye. That\u2019s a remarkable feat for the BU senior, who\u2019s been named the conference\u2019s Preseason Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, been added to the <\/span>Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year watchlist<\/span><\/a>, averaged a double-double through 20 games (while leading the Patriot League in both scoring and rebounding) and poured in at least 20 points eight times. But here we are.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until Saturday at Lehigh, Weimar had yet to miss a game this season and hadn\u2019t missed a start since November. BU arrived at Stabler Arena enduring a disappointing start to league play after entering it with the tied-best overall record and the vibes were, you know, not tremendous after a loss the previous Monday at first-placed and dreaded rival Holy Cross.<\/span><\/p>\n

How quickly the conversation changed, though, without Weimar on the trip to Bethlehem.<\/span><\/p>\n

BU lost, 64-62, and head coach Melissa Graves didn\u2019t have a bad word to say.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I told the team after, really proud of their effort,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

An understandable takeaway, but not the tone you\u2019d expect out of the defending Patriot League runner-up after it had just dropped to .500 in conference and fifth-place in the standings. Rather, the rhetoric of a coach thinking long-term.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Weimar isn\u2019t just a ludicrously good player, but an inflection point of time \u2014 too good to allow one era to end but, simultaneously, too good to let another start. As<\/span> eight <\/span><\/i>new players, including six freshmen, appear to swing BU toward a rebuild, Weimar remains \u2014 so dominant alongside junior guard Alex Giannaros that BU is, almost by qualification, a contender. In the end, neither side of the seesaw hits the floor.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is an awkward place for BU to be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Against the Mountain Hawks, the Terriers climbed out of an early 11-0 hole, eventually took the lead in the second half and were within one possession until the very end, when Giannaros missed a contested layup with four seconds left that would\u2019ve sent the game to overtime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Giannaros scored 17 points and made half her shots. Freshman guard Aoibhe Gormley (13 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) put together the best offensive performance of her college career.<\/span><\/p>\n

BU can take a lot from that. The Terriers are not far away from the \u2018rebuild\u2019 side of the seesaw very much hitting the floor \u2014 Weimar is a senior \u2014 so, if still a loss, Saturday was a comforting sign.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was as if she wasn\u2019t there,\u201d Graves said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lovely. But Weimar will be back (Graves said she expects her to return this Saturday against Bucknell), and the immediate priority when you\u2019ve got arguably the conference\u2019s best player on the roster isn\u2019t exactly to plan for life without her.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as far as life with her goes, the Terriers were losers on Saturday, now for the fifth time in conference play as they limp into February. BU is in fifth place. It is three games behind defending champion Holy Cross and it\u2019s now officially in the second half of the conference slate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Graves deflected talk of the Terriers\u2019 position in the standings\u00a0 \u2014 \u201cI think it\u2019s just so early to look at that,\u201d she said \u2014 and her team is still just a game behind second and third place. But the clock is ticking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BU is coming off a devastating conclusion to its best season since it joined the Patriot League and, if you squint, is just about recognizable enough to warrant similar expectations. Weimar is still around. The Terriers still finished second in the preseason poll. They started 8-3 and finished the non-conference slate receiving votes for the <\/span>Mid-Major Top 25<\/span><\/a>. Add in Giannaros, a key part of last year\u2019s run but playing on an entirely different level this year, and it would be no stretch to conclude that BU is making another run at the whole thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

So if it’s running it back, BU has to start winning, and it needs to start winning away from Case Gym. It is 1-5 on the road so far in league play.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s just a comfortability piece,\u201d Graves said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BU was never going to finish conference play 17-1 like it did last year. But to be just 5-5 halfway through the conference slate after entering it with the best overall record is tough. To lose on the road three weeks ago at Bucknell, at the time a last-placed team on a five-game skid, was even tougher. To lose on the road a week later at Army, a team Graves had never lost to in six prior matchups, was alarming.<\/span><\/p>\n

But at the same time:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with a team with six freshmen, two transfers, and only five returners, I just feel we\u2019re very young,\u201d Graves said of her team\u2019s struggles on the road.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right \u2014 whatever it is about playing on the road has a certain \u201cno s**t\u201d feeling about it; a team full of freshmen struggling on the road isn\u2019t exactly a headline. And it\u2019s not like the Terriers are free-falling when they leave Comm. Ave \u2014 BU lost in double overtime at American, by four at Army and now by two on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re right there,\u201d Graves said.<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019s got an argument, but it\u2019s all pretty unsatisfying. BU is a living contradiction of itself, rebuilding and contending at the same time, winners but also losers on Saturday and under the burden of balancing both simultaneously. The Terriers were, inarguably, impressive against Lehigh and given Weimar\u2019s absence, their head coach was justified in her lack of criticism.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Weimar isn\u2019t gone yet. She will be back against Bucknell, and she\u2019ll be returning to a middle-of-the-pack team that, before the season, wasn\u2019t at all shy about its goals of winning a title.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The question, now? With its superstar back for the final stretch of what might be her final season, can BU prove that it remains a contender in the Patriot League?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured image by Jacob Ireland By Sam Robb O\u2019Hagan It is becoming clear that Caitlin Weimar represents even more than meets the eye. That\u2019s a remarkable feat for the BU senior, who\u2019s been named the conference\u2019s Preseason Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, been added to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21477,"featured_media":39429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1023,1024,19,1039,1040],"tags":[1128,1129,1136,69,1145,1789,1901,1908],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21477"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40242"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40250,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40242\/revisions\/40250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}