As a freshman, Aoibhe Gormley was lightning in a bottle for BU women’s basketball. In year two, can she take the next step?
She's the fastest player on the court. The most competitive, too. And she sees passes no one else sees.
BOSTON — It’s towards the end of a preseason practice that Aoibhe Gormley has dominated, and she’s got a parting word for her team as the group breaks into pairs for free throw shooting.
“NO CHEATING! I’M WATCHING FILM ON THIS!” she yells while standing at the charity stripe in the far corner of Case Gym.
Per usual, the Boston University women’s basketball team is counting their makes. But no one is more invested in the competition than Gormley.
Headed into 2024-25, the sophomore point guard who averaged under five points per game last season will be one of BU’s most important weapons.
The Terriers will be a vastly different team following the departure of 6-foot-4 forward Caitlin Weimar, last season’s Patriot League Player and Defensive Player of the Year. BU will trot out smaller lineups. It will look to play in transition as much as possible.
Gormley’s blazing speed and impressive court vision will be at the forefront of this new-look offense. And her competitiveness will be a constant spark for a team looking to avenge consecutive losses in the Patriot League Championship game.
“Out of all the games I’ve played with Aoibhe, she has never taken a play off,” says sophomore co-captain Audrey Ericksen, Gormley’s roommate this year and one of her best friends. “The moment she steps on the court, every time, there’s just different energy.”
For Gormley, it all started growing up alongside two siblings: Eoin and Orlagh.
“Even playing games in the backyard, like, I don’t want to lose those either,” Gormley says.
Eoin is the oldest. He played varsity basketball at Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury.
Aoibhe is the middle child. She was a 1,000-point scorer at Thayer Academy in Braintree.
Orlagh is the youngest. She is entering her freshman season at Providence College and was named the 2023-24 Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year in her senior year of high school at Dexter Southfield in Brookline.
“When we were little it was me and Orlagh versus [Eoin] two-on-one, but we kind of outgrew that pretty quickly. And then it was just like continuous one-on-one, all three of us against each other,” says Gormley.
“It definitely helped me going against my brother, because he was always better than me growing up,” she continues. “And then for Orlagh, going against two older siblings, I like to say she has the advantage there because she always played against better players.”
As Gormley races up and down the floor, it is easy to see. Her competitiveness is unmatched. Even in seemingly low-stakes mini-games during practice, Gormley hates to lose.
“I mean, sometimes it can come to haunt me because I take losses very personally,” she says.
Earlier in this October 11 practice, she’s the lone winner in a 3-on-2 continuous transition drill, racking up points for all of her assists.
She continues to dominate in a 2-on-2 transition drill. She worries more about her score than anyone else.
On one play, she speeds down the court, draws the attention of both defenders and dishes a flashy pass to freshman forward Allison Schwertner. Schwertner misses the layup but gets fouled in the process.
Gormley’s eyes immediately dart toward the scorer’s table. She points down while flicking her wrist, as to signal “count it.” She then makes her way to the scorer’s table to ensure director of basketball operations Erica Balman and video coordinator Adia Maund are aware of the foul and credit Gormley and Schwertner for the necessary points.
“I couldn't ask for a better person to play alongside in the backcourt,” Alex Giannaros, a senior co-captain, says.
On the following sequence, with Gormley and Schwertner on defense, the two are beaten in transition. Gormley’s blazing speed allows her to catch up to the play, but she is left alone in a 2-on-1. A male practice player glides through the lane and finishes the layup over her.
Gormley grabs the ball out of the net and slams it into the hardwood. Through 15 minutes of transition drills, it’s the first time she’s been scored on.
“I’m sure you’ve seen it in the practices,” she says. “I do not want my team to lose.”
After winning a five-on-five scrimmage, she leans on the scorer’s table, dancing and waving her white towel in the air. She’s hyped because she doesn’t have to run up and down the court.
The fastest player on the team hates to run. Not because she can’t. Because running is a sign of losing.
“She’s so fast though. And she was training for a half marathon postseason,” says head coach Melissa Graves. “Do you love it? Do you hate it? I don’t know which one.”
Gormley’s competitive nature showed up all of last season. She assumed the scrappy defender role, flying around at the top of BU's full-court press. It earned her numerous “Dawg of the Game” awards, for which she posed with a large Terrier chain around her neck.
“I mean, honestly, I was never really considered a defender before I got to college, just because I was used to dominating the ball a lot more in high school,” says Gormley. “And then getting to college, you gotta realize, ‘Okay, what’s my role here?’ And I knew my role was gonna be [to] just play as hard as I can for the time that I’m out there. So that was obviously picking up [and] playing full-court defense.”
“I just started to absolutely love that,” she adds.
It took Gormley some time to adjust to the collegiate level. Overambitious passes led to turnovers. The pace of play in college is different than in high school, where Gormley could always run faster than her opposition. She lacked confidence in her three-point shot for much of the year, allowing defenders to sag off.
But as her freshman season progressed, Gormley began to feel more and more comfortable. Her 2.1 assist-to-turnover ratio during conference play ranked second in the Patriot League.
“As you get more comfortable, the game kind of slows down,” says Gormley. “When the game is slower, it’s easier to control it and not force things.”
“She’s been doing a much better job cutting the floor in transition, pushing pace and understanding tempo,” says Graves. “She knows who we need to get the ball to.”
Whether it’s a pass to the post or finding her All-Patriot League shooting guard, Alex Giannaros, Gormley will get the ball where it needs to go.
“I couldn't ask for a better person to play alongside in the backcourt,” Giannaros, a senior co-captain, says. “Her passing is amazing. Like, she’ll get passes through that I didn’t even — you know what I’m saying, like — I don’t even see it. She's three steps ahead seeing passes.”
The next step is adding scoring consistency. She was not a key scoring option last season, opting to shoot infrequently for much of the year. But by the start of February, as BU began its most important stretch of the season, Gormley found her groove. And when she did, she looked virtually unstoppable.
On Feb. 3, she reached double-figures for the first time in her collegiate career, notching 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting in a 64-62 loss at Lehigh — a game Weimar did not play.
Three weeks later, she scored 15 against Loyola Maryland. The following game, she dropped a career-high 21 at home against Lehigh, erupting for 14 straight points in the third quarter.
In the Patriot League Championship game against Holy Cross, she scored 17, connecting on 7 of 13 field goals.
She gave everything and more to keep BU in the contest. A buzzer-beating three to end the first quarter. Hustle plays all over the court, hunting for steals. A mini 5-0 run to cut a Holy Cross lead to single digits, one that had ballooned to 17 points minutes earlier.
“She’s a gamer,” Graves said in the postgame press conference. “She wants to win and compete. And so I think that took over a little bit.”
The addition of a 3-point shot is what can help unlock the rest of Gormley’s offensive game and the rest of the Terrier offense. It is what can take her from BU’s spark plug to a potential All-Patriot League selection.
“She’s so fast already. I mean, people already short-closeout and still can’t keep her in front. So if you now have to close out closer to her, because she can shoot, she’s gonna go by anybody,” associate head coach Brianna Finch says.
Gormley knows this. She does not hesitate to say it is the number one area she is looking to improve on.
“A lot of teams sagged off our point guards last year, partly because of Cait [Weimar], and then partly because we weren’t shooting the ball well,” Gormley says. “I kind of took it upon myself this summer to make sure defenses can’t play me like that.”
Whether the 3-point shot will fall or not this season can be questioned.
But her desire to win is one thing that can’t.
And Gormley will be as crucial as anyone in BU’s hopes of finally grasping the elusive Patriot League trophy.
“I’d do anything to win the championship,” she says.