It was a busy week for the Notre Dame women’s basketball team. Victories over Iowa and Valparaiso moved them to 8-0, a new member was added to the Purcell Pavilion Ring of Honor, multiple Irish players appeared on the watchlists for two national awards, and the Irish received a new verbal commitment for the class of 2018.
Game Summaries
On Wednesday, Notre Dame played in their first true road game of the season. They traveled to Iowa to play the 5-2 Hawkeyes in their ACC/Big 10 Challenge matchup. The Irish outlasted the Hawkeyes for a 73-58 win in a game head coach Muffet McGraw described as a “learning experience.” I can’t provide any commentary on this game as I don’t get the channel it aired on, so I’ll just move on.
Notre Dame’s second game of the week took place at home on Sunday against Valparaiso. In last year’s game, Notre Dame dominated with a 110-54 win. This year they outdid themselves (just slightly), with a final score of 114-54. This game was all Notre Dame from the beginning. The Irish leapt out to a 26-0 lead before Valparaiso finally scored at the 3:16 mark of the first quarter. The difference in this game was pretty clear, as the Irish finished with 19 steals. Valparaiso committed 31 turnovers, 20 of which came in the first half. Notre Dame capitalized on these opportunities, scoring 50 points off of turnovers. Ali Patberg and Diamond Thompson both missed the game due to illness, but every Irish player in uniform scored including six in double-figures. It was a dominant, well-balanced performance, as you would hope to see against this opponent.
Observations
Sophomore Ali Patberg’s string of bad luck continues. As she returns this season after missing her freshman year with an ACL tear, reports are that she has now been diagnosed with walking pneumonia and will miss another week or two as she recovers.
The Irish are about to enter a very challenging stretch on their schedule. Not only will they meet up with rival and powerhouse #2 UConn on Wednesday; they will follow that game up with a stretch of six road games. This will be an interesting test for the team, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they handle these challenges. While it is hard to argue with an 8-0 start to the season, they Irish have hardly been tested at this point. Their only ranked opponent was Washington in the preseason WNIT final. While they won that game fairly comfortably, they have also struggled at times against unranked teams. We’ve seen stretches of very good play, and some flashes of the impressive passing that has characterized the successful Irish teams of the last few years. However, I suspect the Irish will need to be at their best for 40 minutes if they want to keep their #1 spot after playing UConn on Wednesday.
Once that game is over, the six game road stretch begins with a game against DePaul, who always seem to play their best game against the Irish. Notre Dame barely escaped with a 95-90 win last year. During the road stretch they will also face former teammate Taya Reimer and her new teammates at Michigan State on December 20th, as well as opening ACC play at North Carolina State on December 29th.
This stretch of games should give us a good sense of where the team stands heading into conference play and ultimately looking towards March. There are a lot of talented players in the starting lineup and coming off the bench, and when all the pieces start clicking they should be a tough team to beat.
In other WBB news…
Where to even begin? As I said, it was quite a week.
Less than two minutes into Wednesday’s win over Iowa, junior Brianna Turner scored her 1000th career point, becoming the second Irish player to do so this season (joining Lindsay Allen). Hitting this mark early in her junior season, Turner is likely to keep rising through the ranks of the Irish all-time scorers list.
Before Sunday’s game against Valparaiso, associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Niele Ivey was inducted into the Ring of Honor at Purcell Pavilion, joining Ruth Riley and Skylar Diggins as the only women’s players to receive this honor. Associate coach Beth Cunningham will also be added to the Ring of Honor in January. Ivey has been part of all seven Irish Final Four appearances, twice as a player and five times as a coach. Ivey was the point guard on Notre Dame’s lone national championship team in 2001, and has since contributed greatly to the team by mentoring point guards including Skylar Diggins and Lindsay Allen.
Irish players are being considered for multiple awards this season. In October, senior point guard Lindsay Allen was named to the watchlist for the Nancy Lieberman Award for the nation’s top point guard. She was a finalist for this award each of the last two years, and is expected to be a serious contender again this year. In addition to this, both the Wade and Naismith awards released their watchlists this week. Of the 50 players in consideration for the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year, three are from Notre Dame. Allen, Turner, and sophomore Arike Ogunbowale all appeared on the list. Furthermore, Allen and Turner were named to the Wade Trophy watchlist released on Thursday.
Finally, the Irish picked up a new verbal commitment for the class of 2018 this week. Lakota, OH guard Abby Prohaska, who competed for Team USA at the U-17 world championships this summer, announced her intention to play for the Irish. She joins point guard Katlyn Gilbert out of Indianapolis in Notre Dame’s 2018 class. The class of 2017 includes two forwards: Danielle Patterson of Brooklyn, NY, and Mikayla Vaughn from Fairfax, VA.
Burger Basket Leaderboard
At Notre Dame home games where the Irish score 88 points or more, the fans in attendance receive coupons for a free burger. We’re tracking which player is responsible for feeding the fans the most often over the course of the season.
Freshman Jackie Young pulls ahead this week with a three-pointer to give the Irish 89 points with 2:52 remaining in the third quarter against Valparaiso (yes, they were already at 89 in the third quarter).
Jackie Young – 2
Erin Boley – 1
Arike Ogunbowale – 1
Coming Up
Notre Dame will play at home vs. #2 UConn in a marquee game at 7pm ET on Wednesday, then begin their road trip against DePaul on Saturday.
At least for the time being, ND is the only school in the country with undefeated men’s and women’s teams which is pretty great. Both squads also have huge games this week between UConn on the women’s side and Villanova for the men.
Update: New AP rankings came out today, with UConn taking over the #1 spot from the Irish, who fell to #2. Presumably this is because UConn has played a stronger schedule at this point in the season. There will be a clear #1/#2 after Wednesday’s game in any case!
I hate UCONN. The first half gave me hope, and then sadly, no.
Right there with you.