Georgia Tech women relying on leadership in hunt for NCAA Tournament berth

Leadership, the kind provided by Dunn, junior guard Tonie Morgan and senior forward Kayla Blackshear, has been vital in one of Tech’s better seasons in years. A win Thursday would give Tech its most victories in a season (22) since the 2016-17 campaign.

The Jackets’ trio of elder leaders have provided crucial guidance along the way for a unit poised to finish the season strong before trying to make some noise in the NCAA Tournament.

“My leadership role with this team definitely came within a process, from the time I stepped on campus and just being able to watch the people that came before me like (former Tech forward) Lorela Cubaj. I just took things every year,” Blackshear said. “This year I took on more of a vocal role because I’m one of the older players on this team now — making sure the morale stays high because one game, one loss doesn’t define us. Two losses doesn’t define us. We’ve been the team that we’ve been all year, so just maintaining that confidence knowing that every game that we play it’s the next game, next play, next possession. Just having that next-man-up mentality.”

Blackshear, Dunn and Morgan have been through some relatively tough times with the program. As freshmen, the Jackets went 13-17. The 2023-24 season was an improvement with a 17-16 record, but a 7-11 mark in ACC play kept Tech in 10th place in the standings.

This season Tech burst into the schedule with 15 consecutive wins. A lot of that early success was because of the performances of a talented freshmen class that includes guards Dani Carnegie and Chazadi Wright, both of whom have been instrumental in Tech’s rapid rise.

Those freshmen, though, have needed help during their rookie seasons.

“I think that with the freshmen coming in, I knew that I wanted to give them something that I didn’t have, and I really took initiative with them,” Dunn said. “I have a special relationship with every single freshman on this team, and I feel like any time they say something, I know I’ve been there before, and I immediately go to them, and I feel like they’re comfortable talking to me.”

Leadership will continue to be crucial for Tech (21-5, 6-5 ACC) as it closes the regular season. After Thursday’s game, Tech hosts Florida State (20-6, 10-4 ACC) on Sunday — both teams are ahead of the Jackets in the ACC standings.

Coach Nell Fortner’s team then has to trek to the West Coast to face California (21-6, 9-5 ACC) and Stanford (13-12, 5-9 ACC), respectively. Those results will be crucial as Tech continues to try to position itself for the ACC tournament and pad its NCAA Tournament resume.

Tech has an NCAA NET ranking of 26, but has only one victory over a team considered to be a Quadrant 1 opponent. The latest bracket projections from ESPN tab Tech as a No. 7 seed.

“Do I think it’s an NCAA Tournament team? Absolutely,” Fortner said of her squad. “But our goal is to always just keep getting better and better.”

North Carolina State comes to Atlanta having won nine of its past 10 games. The Wolfpack (20-5, 12-2 ACC) had won nine consecutive before losing 66-65 on a pair of free throws with five seconds left at rival North Carolina on Sunday. State is still holding on to faint hopes of a regular-season ACC title and trails Notre Dame by two games in the standings.

Thursday’s matchup will be the penultimate home game for Tech which is 14-2 at McCamish Pavilion. That’s the most home victories for the program since the 2017-18 squad won 15.

And every win is imperative at this juncture for a team poised not to let its story end any time soon.

“This team is very connected in that they get along really, really well, off the floor. So when they get on the floor you want that to pay off for them,” Fortner said. “But you gotta go through some tough times, and people have to find their voices and you have to kind of feel your way through it. I think that this team has done a good job of that.”