BU’s Giannaros expanding game
The Boston University women’s basketball team ended practice Monday with an exercise that asked players, called by coach Melissa Graves at random, to shoot two free throws, with the team running full-court sprints if a shot was missed.
Graves allowed one phone-a-friend selection, and when freshman Inés Monteagudo Pardo stepped to the foul line, her choice was instantaneous.
“AG,” she said, and the Terriers watched as junior guard Alexandra Giannaros, the country’s reigning 3-point percentage champion, trotted to the stripe and knocked down her free throws.
According to Her Hoop Stats, 1,033 Division 1 players attempted at least 80 3-pointers last season. Giannaros’s 51.5 percent clip led them all.
Now, on a 3-0 squad hungry for redemption after last year’s Patriot League title-game loss, Giannaros wants to show she’s more than a 3point threat. She’s averaging 14.0 points after scoring 12 on Tuesday against Yale, shooting 42.6 percent from the field.
“She’s not just a shooter anymore,” Graves said. “She can really play well off of the catch and downhill. She’s finishing much better at the rim. She’s really worked on her left hand. So I think she’s added that piece to her game where she’s become a lot harder to guard.”
Giannaros has had a natural shooting touch dating back to her upbringing in Brockton, where she would practice at home with her father. She splashed shots at Brockton High and Tabor Academy, then started 19 of 25 games as a BU freshman and canned 39.6 percent of her threes before her otherworldly sophomore season.
Associate head coach Brianna Finch works primarily with BU’s guards and has watched over Giannaros’s rise. She never messed with the guard’s form, but has worked with her on footwork and shot preparation to help mimic the way she would move in an actual game.
“We do a lot of short, quick, change-of-direction movements into her shot,” Finch said. “Is she going left to right or right to left, forward and backward, and acceleration versus deceleration? Simulating different screening actions or movement patterns that she would potentially use.”
But a large part of Giannaros’s offseason training moved beyond shooting: attacking closeouts, finishing with her left hand, and learning new responsibilities that move her away from a traditional point guard. The Terriers no longer have dynamic scoring guard Sydney Johnson (graduate transfer to Georgia Tech), which puts Giannaros under a larger microscope as a scorer beside star forward Caitlin Weimar.
“My role changed in that sense, where I’m playing off the ball more now,” Giannaros said. “Instead of going through Syd, it’s kind of me and Caitlin. Just trying to make sure that I’m developing all facets of my game so that in those moments, like Syd had to take over, if I need to step up, I can step up.”
Instead of setting the table as a point guard — a role now handled by freshman Aoibhe Gormley and senior Sophie Beneventine — Giannaros is more frequently cutting and flying around screens. She’s learning that her threatening jumper can bend defenses even when she doesn’t have the basketball.
“I think the next piece is, with her, looking for opportunities to set up the next play when she’s off the ball,” Finch said. “She can set up the next play when she has the ball in her hands and be that playmaker, but how can she also be a playmaker when she’s off the ball?”
Of course, Giannaros is still letting it fly with confidence. She showers three times prior to tip-off on game days — before and after shootaround, and right before the game — to put herself in the right head space, but doesn’t have any shooting superstitions. She simply knows that whenever she does miss, she has prepared herself to bounce back.
“Statistically, you’re going to miss half of the shots you take, no matter what it is,” she said. “You miss one shot — in my stat, I’m at 51 percent, so knowing that the next one is most likely going to go in, and if not, the two after that.
“So just shoot and have trust that the numbers will play itself out, the work that I put in will play itself out.”
On bigger stages
Several local stars are already making an impact with new teams at the Division 1 level. Harvard freshman Abigail Wright, a two-time Globe All-Scholastic forward at Newton North, was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week after averaging 10.7 points and 6 rebounds across her first two games. Quinnipiac freshman center Anna Foley, a two-time Globe Super Team member from Andover, is averaging 12.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 3.0 blocks. Taina Mair, a sophomore from Dorchester who transferred to Duke after her freshman year at Boston College, has started both games for the Blue Devils. She also scored 16 points in an exhibition loss to the US national team and played against the likes of Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, and Sabrina Ionescu. Teammate and Peabody native Oluchi Okananwa had 9 points and 7 rebounds in the game.