Quinnipiac enters MAAC tourney with new chemistry
At the end of practice on Wednesday, Tricia Fabbri noticed something different among her players.
She felt something that hadn’t been there all year. A renewed sense of energy.
For the first time all season, the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team was finally allowing itself to feel excited about the postseason, with Wednesday marking a week until the MAAC Tournament. All the struggles of not being able to play the 2020 tournament and all the bumps along the way in the 2021 season had finally come together to reach this point.
“It was a different energy because you almost didn’t let yourself think that you would get there because of the uncertainty of each day,” Fabbri said. “It’s all building to a great crescendo, as it should, entering its 12th month of the pandemic.”
The Bobcats (13-7 overall, 11-5 MAAC) have come out of a season unlike any other with a deeper sense of closeness than ever as they feel ready to jump into the MAAC Tournament with the overall No. 2 seed. In Wednesday’s tournament quarterfinals, Quinnipiac will play the winner of Tuesday’s first-round game of No.7 seed Rider vs. No. 10 seed Monmouth.
Following the shutdown of the sports world last March, the Bobcats went their separate ways to quar
antine with family. Players got creative in finding ways to practice and stay in shape without campus resources and while most cities had closed local basketball courts.
“When you don’t have all the accessibility clearly right at your fingertips, you take certain things for granted,” Fabbri said. “I think we all realize that during this time. So when we were able to get back together there was a real different desire and an appreciation for the everyday things and what we do have at our fingertips and to take full advantage of that. I think that desire was dripping from day one.”
Quinnipiac returned to campus in September with a new plan for the players’ living situations. In efforts to limit COVID-19 exposure, the team divided into pods and lived together on York Hill Campus.
For the first time under Fabbri, the underclassmen of the team were paired to live with the upperclassmen. Usually, the freshmen live with other first-year student-athletes from various sports. However, with campus shut down and in-person activities limited, she felt the upperclassmen could help the freshmen adapt to college life and the Quinnipiac program.
“That worked splendidly in terms of integrating and really fostering our strong culture together,” she said. “It expedited what didn’t occur usually during the summer … That was incredibly beneficial for us and something I would have never have even thought of before.”
Junior guard Mackenzie DeWees and sophomore forward Mikala Morris are roommates this year. Both said because of the mixing of classes the team has a newfound sense of closeness which has made the biggest difference this season in helping not only to be successful on the court — Morris and DeWees lead the team in points per game with 13.6 and 13.0 respectively — but also off it with being able to collectively process all that has been this season.
“Our chemistry really shows on the court,” Morris said. “Last year’s team, we were close, but I feel like this year we’ve actually gotten to bond with other people rather than who you mainly play with on the court. It’s given me a chance to bond and form relationships with girls I didn’t have strong relationships with last year.”
The new living situations have also helped the upperclassmen teach the underclassman how to prepare and play in a postseason environment, since neither the freshmen nor sophomores have played in the MAAC Tournament before due to last year’s cancellation.
In Quinnipiac’s last appearance in the MAAC Tournament in 2019, the Bobcats defeated Marist 81-51 in the championship game, marking their third consecutive year winning the tournament title. In 2020, Quinnipiac entered the tournament before it was canceled as the No. 5 seed with an overall record of 15-14.
With just days away from the chance to earn their first postseason win in two years, the Bobcats know no matter what their result is next week, the tournament holds a little more meaning this year after all they’ve been through.
“Having our season cut short last year was really hard and a tough pill to swallow,” DeWees said. “After holding up the championship trophy and getting a ring my freshman year, it just burns, you know? You really want to go back and you want to hold the title and the name and continue to be champions because we still are the champions until someone else beats us in the tournament.”