ACC: News and notes on every women’s basketball team for 2019-20 season

Fresh start for Notre Dame

The Fighting Irish came within one made basket of winning the national championship last year in Tampa. A year later, that entire starting five – more than 10,000 career points – is gone. But don’t count longtime head coach Muffett McGraw among those who are worried. She knows this season will be difficult, but she’s excited to instruct and share her knowledge of the game with newcomers.

“All five starters, I’ve never been in this position before. In a way, it’s been kind of rejuvenating to me,” McGraw said. “I feel like I’m going to do a lot of coaching this year. I’m going to do a lot of teaching this year. This is a group that’s eager to learn, they’re willing to learn.”

Two of the key returners for Notre Dame will be Mikayla Vaughn and Abby Prohaska, the only two returners who saw the floor in the Final Four last season. Another key player for McGraw’s side will be Marta Sniezek, a graduate transfer from Stanford and the only player for the Irish who has started in a Final Four game. Another graduate transfer, Destinee Walker of North Carolina, will feature for the Irish too.

McGraw will also lean on a strong recruiting class, anchored by Anaya Peoples and Sam Brunelle, a pair of recruits ranked in the top 20 of ESPN’s 2019 class. McGraw says she expects Brunelle to play “a lot” and also called her a “three-point weapon.”

“We still have some high school All-Americans on our team. We still have some good players,” McGraw said. “It’s just a question of how quickly we’ll gel together.”

Clemson looks ahead with Thornton leading the way

After overachieving in her first season, head coach Amanda Butler had her contract extended through 2024. The reigning ACC Coach of the Year lost a pair of All-ACC defenders in Danielle Edwards and Simone Westbrook though, but returns Kobi Thornton, who averaged 14.1 points and 7.1 rebounds a year ago.

“Going into Year Two, it feels better, to me,” Thornton said. “We have that expectation that we’ve already set for ourselves. I know we can only get better.”

Edwards and Westbrook were both exceptional defenders, ranking first and third in the ACC in steals per-game last season. Thornton knows that replacing their efforts will be difficult.

“This year, defense will be a collective effort. We’re doing a great job of that so far. We’re still going to be a defensive minded team,” Thornton said. “We can’t get too caught up in small mistakes. We just take things play by play, moment by moment.”

Rough in recent years, Wake Forest optimistic

Entering her eighth season in Winston-Salem, Jen Hoover has yet to lead Wake Forest to an NCAA tournament or better than a ninth-place finish in the ACC. Still, the Demon Deacons are entering the 2019-20 campaign with confidence.

“This team is going to be better because this summer school, we were all here together. I think everybody has something different, from different backgrounds, we all bring something,” junior guard Gina Conti said. “We have a good, full squad. In practices, we’ve been able to play off each other and learn how each other plays and I think that we have a good team dynamic, on and off the court.”

Conti, a 5-foot-10 product of Grove City, Ohio, averaged 9.1 points and 4.9 assists per-game last season. Conti was fourth in the ACC in assists last season. In camp and early practices, she’s been impressed with the Wake freshmen too.

“They can all do a little bit. They all bring something to the table, something different,” Conti said. “I think that’s what our team needs. Everybody has their own thing and when we bring it together it’s one big good impact.”

Banghart brings change to North Carolina

The Tar Heels brought in seven-time Ivy League champion Courtney Banghart to replace Sylvia Hatchell. UNC lost Paris Kea and Destinee Walker, but bring back All-ACC preseason selection Janelle Bailey and starting guard Taylor Koenen. The Tar Heels beat Notre Dame in the regular season last year, went .500 in ACC play and made the NCAA tournament.

In her first year at the helm of the Tar Heels, Banghart’s lineup should get a boost from Madinah Muhammad, who sat out last season due to NCAA transfer rules. In three seasons at Ole Miss, Muhammad scored more than 1,000 points.

Although the Tar Heels made the NCAA tournament last season, two areas where they’ll have to improve is rebounding and defense. Nationally, UNC ranked 310th in scoring defense and 268th in rebounding margin. Banghart’s Princeton squad – albeit with lesser talent – ranked 153rd in scoring defense and 119th in rebounding margin last year.

New looks for Georgia Tech

It’ll be the first year on the sidelines for Nell Fortner since she was the head coach at Auburn in 2012. Fortner, who won an SEC title in 2009 and coached the Olympic team in 2000, succeeds MaChelle Joseph at Georgia Tech. Joseph left the Yellow Jackets after 16 seasons under murky circumstances.

While a pair of starters left the Yellow Jackets for greener pastures in Louisville, Georgia Tech did land a transfer of their own in Sarah Bates, who spent last season at Kansas State. Before then, Bates was at UC Santa Barbara, where she averaged 10.9 points per-game and shot 41.2 percent from behind the arc.

Georgia Tech also added freshman Ronni Nwora, a 6-foot-2 forward who is the sister of Louisville’s Jordan Nwora, tabbed as the preseason ACC men’s Player of the Year. Another freshman addition was Nerea Hermosa, a Spanish national team prospect.

Among the returners for Georgia Tech are starters Lorela Cubaj, Fransesca Pan and Kierra Fletcher. Cubaj led the team in rebounding, Fletcher was the leader in assists and Pan was the second-leading scorer with 12 points per-game.