When Margaret McKeon took the job as head coach of the Boston University women’s basketball team a little more than five years ago, the athletic department had one simple request for the St. John’s University graduate: Just bring the team back to a respectable record.
“I remember when I took over the job, they just wanted me to be at .500 at this point,” McKeon said Monday, lounging in her executive chair within the women’s basketball offices at 300 Babcock St. In the 10 seasons prior to McKeon’s arrival, the Terriers had put together a grand total of two winning seasons.
After the buzzer sounded on the 2003-04 campaign a little over two weeks ago in the America East Championship game (a 68-43 loss to the top-seeded University of Maine Black Bears), McKeon and her team completed the year with a 19-11 overall record and a 12-6 mark in the America East, good for their third-straight winning season.
In perspective, this past season was another step in the right direction for the Terriers. But ask any one of the 13 players or five coaches who have transformed the program into what it is today, and they will probably tell you that this season should have gone better.
“We need to take it the next level,” McKeon said of her team. “And that’s to be a dynasty.”
Those may be pretty lofty expectations, but for BU women’s basketball, it certainly is warranted. Besides making it to the conference championship for the second-straight year in defense of their America East crown, the Terriers saw their star senior, Katie Terhune, finish her career with 1,971 points to make her the program’s all-time leading scorer. The team also reeled off seven-straight wins at one point, marking the second-longest winning streak in the team’s history.
Add in three all-conference picks (Terhune to the first team and juniors Adrienne Norris and Becky Bonner to the third) and two all-tournament selections (Terhune and Norris again), and BU had itself one of the best (and winningest) seasons under McKeon. But for a team that was looking to win the regular season title and then return to the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row, this past season – dubbed by McKeon to be the “marquee season” back in October – was also disappointing for the women in scarlet and white.
That’s just the catch that comes with success – but it doesn’t mean that this year was a total letdown.
“For what we’ve accomplished, it’s been really great for what we did,” McKeon said. “We’ve really put BU basketball on the map.”
But when this year started way back in the BU Invitational on Nov. 22, things didn’t look too promising for the Terriers. With three straight losses to open the year, BU was just starting to slowly improve and incorporate three freshmen and Bonner, a transfer from Stanford University, into the mix. On top of all that, Terhune was going through some early season struggles. She didn’t score more than 20 points in a game until the fourth contest, when she put up 23 against Central Connecticut State University.
Then, sophomore Katie Meinhardt, the conference Rookie of the Year the season before, went down with a foot injury that would sideline her for the rest of the year. With freshmen Nadia Bibbs and Meredith Onson and sophomore Rachael Vanderwal as the trio to replace the seemingly irreplaceable Meinhardt, things weren’t any easier.
“Obviously with Katie Meinhardt going down, it kind of hurt the plan of things,” McKeon said.
Then, everything started to change. Heading into conference play against the University of Hartford on Jan. 8, BU had fought back to climb one game above .500. Then, a little more than a week later, the team posted its first win over the University of Vermont in 15 regular-season games.
After a slight setback to the conference-leading Black Bears (a 73-65 loss on Jan. 21 in Orono, Maine), the Terriers caught fire, winning seven straight games to flirt with the program’s history books. With one more win, they would tie the team record for longest win streak. All they needed to do was get past Maine for the first time since downing the conference’s top program in the championship game the year before.
Then, everything started to change – again. Senior forward Marisa Moseley – the team’s “emotional leader,” according to several members of the team – went down in the first minute against Maine with a slight tear to her MCL. The Black Bears dominated down low, squeaking out a 67-64 win.
“Once we got the flow of chemistry going, we had that seven-game win streak, and then we had an injury to somebody who has played in my system for four years and who has started for me for four years,” McKeon said, referring to Moseley, “so that’s going to be an X-factor. So you just need people to step in and change their role.”
Fortunately for McKeon, her players did just that. The deep BU bench continually stepped up to close out the regular season with two wins and then, with “Mose” back in the lineup, the squad made another run at the conference championship, breezing through the quarters and semifinals of the America East Tournament. But again, Maine was there to stymie any hope the Terriers had of returning to the NCAA Tournament in the 68-43 championship game romp at Chase Family Arena.
“I don’t think any of us thought or wished or felt that that would ever happen, but it really just wasn’t our day for whatever reason,” McKeon said. “But I think that we’ll learn a lot from that. I think the one thing that you do want from it is that you’re really hungry to get back there and get it done.”
With their stomachs grumbling, the Terriers now must wait until next year. But after all the ups and downs she and her team had to endure to get another chance to make it to the Big Dance, McKeon said the season was very special to her – for the players and their play.
“I think that we’ve built a great foundation, and as much as you would hate [to see Katie and Moseley leave along with fellow senior Lashaunda Mitchell], they have really changed the program in a positive way,” she said. “Even though people want to give us a lot of credit and I enjoy it – I’m happy that they did – we’re still only five years into this.”
After speaking about the year as a whole, McKeon was more than excited to talk about the future. With a promising recruiting class coming in, a solid backcourt returning (even with the departure of Terhune) to complement an already-improving frontcourt and the excitement of the new year looming ahead, 2004-05 may prove to be that season McKeon was hoping for this year.
“People say it takes five to six years to really build a program because you have your whole class come in and they are all your kids in your fifth year and sixth year,” the coach said. “This was the first year that it was all the kids that I had recruited, so I think the future is very bright for us.
“If we stay healthy,” McKeon added, “I think that we’re the team to beat in the league.”
The team to beat, huh? That’s respectable.
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