ACC notebook dump: Quotes from the tournament, and the latest at UVA
Wake played with injuries, Notre Dame still hopeful for Top 16
Welcome back to All in the Game, y’all.
Here’s an ACC women’s basketball notebook before the Selection Show airs and the NCAA Tournament tips off…
Wake played with injuries
In the second round of the ACC tournament, Wake Forest lost to Georgia Tech 45-40. It was the second-lowest scoring game in the tournament’s history, and Wake shot just 21.9% from the field in the loss.
Part of Wake’s shooting woes can be chalked up to them playing with various injuries. Deacs’ head coach Jen Hoover said that Jewel Spear — the ACC’s leading scorer this season — played the game with a foot injury, and Olivia Summiel competed with a broken wrist.
Immediately after the loss, Hoover said of Spear’s injury: “We don't know the status. There was no X-rays taken yet… She's got a problem with something in her foot. It's been aggravating her for a few days. Really, did not feel well with it at all today.”
In this photo here, you can see Spear wearing a boot on her right foot. Spear later told All in the Game, “I’ll be alright. Just trying to get healthy.”
Summiel, despite her injury, led all ACC tournament players in rebounds with 10 per-game.
Notre Dame, expert on Top 16 hopes
After losing to Miami in the semifinals of the ACC tournament, Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey was still confident about her team earning a top 16 seed.
“I'm hoping our resume speaks to that. That's definitely not in our control. But again, I talk to the group about how far we've come this season – our growth, maturation has been incredible, and I feel like we put ourselves in an incredible position to host. We have an incredible fan base, so I'm hoping we get that opportunity,” Ivey said. “I know we put ourselves in the position to do that, and I'm super grateful for that.”
ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme disagrees. In responding to a tweet from this writer, Creme said, “(Notre Dame) needed that win (against Miami)… I’m not sure 1-1 (in the ACC Tournament) since elevates them. The only good news is everybody else lost. But today was the opportunity with Oklahoma losing and ND didn’t get the win it needed.”
As of Saturday night, Creme had Notre Dame projected as a No. 5 seed, headed to Bloomington, Indiana.
What I’m hearing about Virginia…
Here’s one more person that could be considered for Virginia’s head coach opening, per a source familiar with the situation: Katie Abrahamson-Henderson.
She was teammates with UVA athletic director Carla Williams at Georgia in the late 1980s. Lately, she’s led UCF to some of its best seasons in decades. The Knights have won more than 20 games in five of the six seasons she’s been there, and this season will make their third NCAA Tournament under her watch. Abrahamson-Henderson previously coached at Albany, where she led the Knights to five straight NCAA Tournaments. The Knights won the American’s regular season and tournament championships this season.
It is also fair to speculate that Gail Goestenkors could be considered at Virginia. Most know Goestenkors – a Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer – as the head coach at Duke from 1992-2007, when she guided the Blue Devils through their most successful era of women’s basketball, which included a run of five straight ACC Tournament titles and four Final Four appearances. She also took Texas to the NCAA Tournament five times and spent two seasons as a WNBA assistant.
Goestenkors has publicly expressed her desire to be a head coach again in women’s college basketball. She has spent this past season on the staff at Kentucky. Despite her wealth of experience, she’s only 59. There are three current ACC coaches older than her.
Still, multiple sources familiar with the situation consider Tammi Reiss – a Virginia alum and currently the head coach at Rhode Island – as the favorite for the job.
One source says they don’t expect another Virginia alum – Tonya Cardoza, currently the head coach at Temple – to be “seriously considered.” Reiss’ Rhode Island team finished the regular season with a 22-6 record, while Cardoza’s Temple team went 13-15. Both Cardoza and Reiss were members of the 1991 Virginia squad – led by Dawn Staley and coached by Debbie Ryan – that lost in the national championship game in overtime to Tennessee.
Notes:
N.C. State’s semifinal win over No. 21 Virginia Tech was its eighth victory this season over an AP-ranked Top 25 team, which tied a program record.
Here’s Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner on Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles: “Miles is a competitive, gritty kid and really — she's just tough. She's a tough kid.”
Louisville’s 21 turnovers vs. Miami tied its season-high. All-ACC players Emily Engstler and Hailey Van Lith had 10 of those cough-ups. Still, coach Jeff Walz took the blame for the upset loss, saying: “It's my fault. I sucked. I had some bad combinations out there, and it kind of just threw everything off kilter. We didn't communicate… I'm not going to put the blame on these kids. It's my fault… And if this doesn't sit in your gut and piss you off, I don't know what to do for them.”
Here’s Clemson coach Amanda Butler on NIL: “Creating a brand or some of those things, I think are good exercises for really discovering your authenticity, which we think in our program is your biggest competitive advantage… Listen, I want them to make as much money as they can and potentially take me out to eat, buy me better Christmas gifts, buy my children bigger and better toys. I'm for it.”
Lance White has already turned his eyes toward the transfer portal to bolster Pitt’s roster next season. He told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Getting (Aislin Malcolm, an ESPN top 100 recruit), one of the best players in PA, I think she adds such value to what we’re doing. We need a couple more of those type of pieces where she’s skilled, she can do a lot of multiple things and she can come in and help us. Now we need a couple more. We need a grad transfer to come and take that same chance to be able to come and elevate us to that next level.”
It should be noted that, while Pitt finished 11-19, they more than doubled their win total than last season. This was White’ fourth year on the job. He agreed to a six-year contract with Pitt when he was hired prior to the 2018-19 season.
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