#9/7 Irish Face Temple In NCAA Second Round Game Monday Night

March 20, 2011

Full Notes Package in PDF Format | 2011 NCAA Championship Central

2010-11 ND Women’s Basketball: Game 35

NCAA Championship — Dayton Region/Second Round
#9/7 [#2 seed] Notre Dame Fighting Irish (27-7 / 13-3 BIG EAST) vs. [#10 seed] Temple Owls (24-8 / 13-1 Atlantic 10)

DATE: March 21, 2011
TIME: 9:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. MT
AT: Salt Lake City, Utah – Huntsman Center (15,000)
SERIES: Series tied 2-2
1ST MTG: TU 70-61 (12/29/89)
LAST MTG: ND 84-61 (12/14/02)
TV: ESPN2/ESPN3.com (live) (Holly Rowe, p-b-p / Sean Farnham, color)
RADIO: Pulse FM (96.9/92.1) (live) (Bob Nagle, p-b-p)
LIVE STATS: UND.com
TWITTER: @ndwbbsid/@UND_com

Storylines

• Notre Dame is 8-5 (.615) all-time in the second round of the NCAA Championship.
• The Fighting Irish have won 13 consecutive games against current Atlantic 10 Conference teams, including victories in six of the past seven seasons.

No. 9/7 Irish Face Temple In NCAA Second Round Game Monday Night
While the surroundings are still a bit new, the situation is entirely familiar for Notre Dame, as the second-seeded Fighting Irish prepare to face No. 10 seed Temple in the second round of the NCAA Championship at 9:30 p.m. ET Monday in Salt Lake City. It’s the 14th time in 16 seasons that Notre Dame has advanced to the second round of the tournament, a stretch that coincides exactly with the school’s BIG EAST membership.

The Fighting Irish (27-7) booked passage into Monday’s game with a 67-54 win over a gritty Utah squad in the opening round on Saturday. Notre Dame needed a bit more than a half to shake off the rust from a season-long 11-day layoff, but the Fighting Irish came through behind a sharp defense that forced 18 turnovers and held Utah to a .327 field goal percentage.

Junior guard Natalie Novosel and sophomore guard Skylar Diggins each scored 20 points to pace Notre Dame to the win.

Rankings

• Notre Dame was No. 9 in the final Associated Press poll and is No. 7 in the current ESPN/USA Today poll.
• Temple received votes in the final AP poll.

Quick Hitters

• With its No. 9 ranking in the final 2010-11 Associated Press poll, Notre Dame now has appeared in the AP poll for a school-record 77 consecutive weeks, extending the program standard that began with the 2007-08 preseason poll.
• The Fighting Irish have posted a school-record nine wins this season by at least 35 points, topping the old program standard of four 35-point victories set in 2008-09.
• Notre Dame has scored at least 90 points in eight games this season, surpassing the school record of seven set in three separate seasons (1996-97, 1998-99 and 2007-08).
• Notre Dame has won 12 games by 30 points or more, eclipsing the school record of 10 30-point victories established in 2000-01.
• The Fighting Irish are 5-7 against ranked opponents this season, with those seven losses (the only defeats for Notre Dame to date) coming by an average of just 7.6 points per game, and only one by more than 11 points. Four of those setbacks came to the nation’s top two squads (76-65 at No. 2/3 Baylor on Dec. 1; 79-76 vs. No. 2 Connecticut on Jan. 8; 78-57 at No. 2 Connecticut on Feb. 19; 73-64 at No. 1 Connecticut on March 8), with the first UConn contest being one of four in which Notre Dame led or had a chance to tie in the final 30 seconds of regulation (also 86-83 double-OT loss to No. 15 UCLA, a 81-76 loss at No. 9/10 Kentucky and a 70-69 loss at No. 12/11 DePaul).
• The Fighting Irish rank among the top 15 in the country in eight statistical categories, according to the March 14 NCAA statistics report. Notre Dame ranks third in the nation in steals (now 13.1), fourth in field goal percentage (.479), seventh in scoring margin (+22.3), ninth in assists (17.3), rebound margin (+8.6) and three-point defense (.264), 11th in scoring offense (77.5) and 13th in turnover margin (+5.23). These rankings are ironic for a Fighting Irish team that has no player ranking higher than 60th in any category.
• Notre Dame became the 32nd NCAA Division I program to record 700 wins, earning the landmark victory (91-47) vs. Loyola Marymount on Dec. 30 at the State Farm Holiday Hoops Classic in Seattle. The Fighting Irish are 716-309 (.699) over 34 seasons.
• Notre Dame celebrated another program milestone on Dec. 5 with its 1,000th all-time game (a 72-51 win over Purdue at Purcell Pavilion).
• Part of Notre Dame’s success thus far can be traced to the improvement in two of its veterans, both of whom have exceeded their scoring outputs from last season by at least 50 percent. Junior guard Natalie Novosel (5.0 to 14.8) and senior forward Devereaux Peters (6.7 to 11.6) also are currently logging career-high scoring averages this year.

Other Notre Dame Notables

• Notre Dame is among the nation’s winningest programs during the past 15 seasons (1996-97 to present), tying for fifth with 370 victories.
• Notre Dame has ranked among the top 20 in the nation in attendance each of the past 10 seasons. This year, the program is fifth in the NCAA attendance rankings with a school-record 8,553 fans per game, topping last year’s mark of 8,377. The Fighting Irish also have drawn 5,000-or-more fans to 158 of their last 160 home games, logging 17 Purcell Pavilion sellouts (most recently on Feb. 26 vs. Cincinnati).
• The Fighting Irish have become a regular fixture in the WNBA Draft in recent years, as seven Notre Dame players have been selected in the past decade. Charel Allen was the most recent Fighting Irish player to be chosen, going to the Sacramento Monarchs in the third round (43rd overall pick) of the 2008 WNBA Draft. Ruth Riley (San Antonio) was active in the league during the ’10 season, helping the Silver Stars return to the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. Three of Notre Dame’s eight WNBA alums have won a total of four league championships — Riley won a pair of crowns with the Detroit Shock (2003 Finals MVP, 2006), Coquese Washington toiled for the 2000 Houston Comets, while Jacqueline Batteast was Riley’s teammate on the 2006 title-winning squad in Detroit.
• For the fifth year in a row, the Fighting Irish posted a perfect 100-percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR), according to figures released by the NCAA in October. What’s more, since Muffet McGraw became head coach in 1987, every Notre Dame women’s basketball player who has completed her athletic and academic eligibility at the University has earned her bachelor’s degree (a 62-for-62 success rate), with all four members of this year’s senior class on target to earn their diplomas.

A Quick Look At Temple
One of the nation’s hottest teams entering this year’s NCAA Championship, Temple (24-8) picked up its 17th win in 19 games with a convincing 63-45 victory over Arizona State in Saturday’s other Dayton Region first-round game in Salt Lake City. It secured the Owls’ second consecutive trip to the second round of the NCAA tournament, and third in five years.

Sophomore center Victoria Macaulay led three Temple players in double figures with 12 points against ASU, while junior forward Kristen McCarthy and junior guard Shay Peddy chipped in with 10 points each (Peddy also had seven rebounds and six steals).

Peddy leads a balanced Owls’ scoring attack (13.9 ppg.), while adding team bests of 5.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 3.2 steals per game. Senior guard Qwedia Wallace (13.6 ppg.) and McCarthy (13.1 ppg.) also are scoring in double figures for Temple.

Tonya Cardoza, the 2010-11 Atlantic 10 Conference Coach of the Year, is in her third season at Temple with a 70-27 (.722) record with the Owls, heading into her first-ever matchup with Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame-Temple Series
Monday will mark the fifth time Notre Dame and Temple have squared off on the hardwood, with the two sides splitting their previous four meetings with two successful defenses on their respective home courts.

The Fighting Irish and Owls played three times early in Muffet McGraw’s tenure at Notre Dame from 1989-93, but have matched up just once since then (an 84-61 Fighting Irish victory on Dec. 14, 2002, at Purcell Pavilion).

The Last Time Notre Dame And Temple Met
Notre Dame attacked inside and Temple simply had no answer.

The eighth-ranked Fighting Irish scored 28 points in the paint in the second half and beat Temple 84-61, on Dec. 14, 2002, at Purcell Pavilion behind 17 points from Alicia Ratay and 16 points and nine rebounds from Courtney LaVere. LaVere had only two points at halftime.

After scoring just 10 inside points in the first half, the Fighting Irish scored 10 inside during a 14-0 spurt early in the second half that broke the game open. Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said her message at halftime was the Fighting Irish needed to get back to being aggressive.

“I felt we had a big advantage inside, our posts have been playing so well. We really needed to score around the basket, so I felt we should look inside,” she said.

Le’Tania Severe took it to the basket at the start of the second half for a layup, racing past two Temple defenders. Kelsey Wicks followed with a layup, Katy Flecky scored inside and then Ratay scored on a layup.

“I think it set the tone of, `We’re going to attack you, we’re going right at you, you’d better be ready,”‘ McGraw said.

The Owls weren’t. After matching Notre Dame’s first two baskets, the Owls went scoreless for 5:10.

“We didn’t respond,” Temple coach Dawn Staley said. “We couldn’t keep up. We’re not a team that scores a whole lot of points. But we are a team that plays better defense than we did tonight — a lot better.”

The Fighting Irish shot 47.1 percent in the second half and 44.4 percent for the game as five Irish players were in double figures, including Jacqueline Batteast with 14, Wicks with 12 and Flecky 11. Flecky added seven rebounds as Notre Dame outrebounded Temple 44-34.

Khadija Bowens led Temple with 17 points. Stacey Smalls added 14 points and five rebounds. The Owls scored only 16 points from inside the paint.

McGraw said she was pleased so many players seemed willing to step up after the Irish played poorly in losing 75-59 to DePaul on three days earlier.

“I think in the DePaul game we got back on our heels a lot. We just couldn’t seem to execute,” she said. “Tonight we tried to take over the game. At DePaul we were kind of waiting around for someone to take over. Today everyone stepped up and tried to add a little bit more.”

Notre Dame was in control throughout the first half, leading by as many as 10 points, before Temple closed to 35-28 at halftime. The Fighting Irish then pulled early in the second half.

“I thought we came out in the second half and really took it to them,” McGraw said.

Other Notre Dame-Temple Series Tidbits

• Two members of the Temple coaching staff are familiar to keen BIG EAST Conference observers — head coach Tonya Cardoza and assistant coach Willnett Crockett came from Connecticut, where Cardoza was an assistant for 14 seasons, while Crockett played for the Huskies from 2001-06.
• Monday’s game will mark a renewal of an old high school rivalry for two of the participants. Notre Dame senior guard Brittany Mallory is a 2007 graduate of the McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Md., while Temple junior guard BJ Williams attended Seton Keough High School on Baltimore’s southwest side (she actually hails from Gwynn Oak).
• Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw is a native of West Chester, Pa., and is one of the more notable figures in the storied history of Philadelphia’s women’s basketball community. A 1977 graduate of Saint Joseph’s (Pa.), McGraw also served as head girls’ basketball coach at Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor, Pa., for two seasons, posting a 50-3 record, and then moving on to spend two years as an assistant at her alma mater under current Ohio State head coach Jim Foster (succeeding current Connecticut skipper Geno Auriemma on Foster’s staff) before beginning her head coaching career at Lehigh in 1982. McGraw also is a member of four halls of fame in the Philadelphia metro area — SJU Basketball (1986), Big Five (1990), SJU Athletics (2002) and Chester County (2010).
• The last time the Fighting Irish played Temple (an 84-61 win on Dec. 14, 2002, in South Bend), one of the five Notre Dame players to score in double figures was then-sophomore guard Kelsey Wicks (a native of Gillette, Wyo.). Today, Wicks goes by the name Sister Joan of Arc and is a member of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, a convent based in Nashville, Tenn., where she still satisfies her basketball cravings by competing regularly with her fellow Sisters at the convent.

Notre Dame vs. The Atlantic 10
Notre Dame is 68-18 (.791) all-time against the current members of the Atlantic 10 Conference, including a 36-10 (.783) record away from home (road and neutral site games combined).

The Fighting Irish also have an active 13-game winning streak against that league’s present alignment, including victories in six of the past seven seasons (Dayton in 2003-04 and 2004-05; Richmond in 2006-07 and 2007-08; Charlotte in 2008-09 and 2009-10). The last time Notre Dame lost to a current A-10 school was on Feb. 18, 1995, when La Salle defeated Notre Dame, 84-68, in Philadelphia, when both schools were then part of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now known as the Horizon League).

Temple will be the second Atlantic 10 school the Fighting Irish have played in the NCAA Championship. Notre Dame defeated George Washington twice in NCAA play, toppling the Colonials in the 1997 East Regional final (62-52 in Columbia, S.C.) and again in a 2000 Mideast Region second round game (95-60 at Purcell Pavilion).

Podcenter: Other Tidbits On Salt Lake City

• Six years ago, Notre Dame, Utah and Arizona State all were sent to the same sub-regional site (the Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif.) for the NCAA Championship, although they were playing in different regions. All three teams advanced to the second round in 2005, with No. 5 seed ASU defeating fourth-seeded Notre Dame (70-61) in the Tempe Region, and No. 10 seed Utah falling to second-seeded Stanford (88-62) in the Kansas City Region.
• While the Notre Dame women have never played in the state of Utah, let alone the Huntsman Center, the Fighting Irish men have visited the fabled arena before. In Notre Dame’s lone matchup with Utah in Salt Lake City, Digger Phelps piloted Notre Dame to a narrow 57-56 victory on Feb. 21, 1987.
• The Fighting Irish men also defeated Utah, 69-56 in the NCAA Midwest Regional semifinals on St. Patrick’s Day 1978 (at historic Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan.), the second win in Notre Dame’s run to its first Final Four appearance.

Irish In The NCAA Championship
Notre Dame is making its 18th appearance in the NCAA Championship, and 16th in a row, as it takes the Huntsman Center court Saturday for its Dayton Regional second-round game against Temple. The Fighting Irish have a .636 winning percentage (28-16) in NCAA tournament play, ranking 12th all-time in that category (minimum of 20 games played).

In addition, Notre Dame’s current streak of 16 consecutive NCAA Championship appearances ranks sixth in the record books.

Here are some other facts about the Fighting Irish in the “Big Dance” (see pp. 172-188 in this year’s media guide for box scores, results and records):

• Each of Notre Dame’s 18 NCAA tournament appearances have come during the tenure of 24th-year head coach Muffet McGraw.
• Following Saturday’s win at Utah, the Fighting Irish now have won their NCAA tournament opener in 14 of the past 16 seasons, dating back to the start of their membership in the BIG EAST Conference (1995-96 to present).
• Notre Dame is one of 10 schools in the country to have advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 eight times in the past 14 years (1997-2010).
• Notre Dame is one of 12 schools to make multiple trips to the NCAA Women’s Final Four and come away with at least one national championship, going to the semifinals in 1997 and winning it all in 2001.

Sowing The Seeds
For the second consecutive season, Notre Dame has earned a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Championship. It’s also the third time in 18 NCAA tournament appearances that the Fighting Irish have been seeded second, with Notre Dame holding a 5-2 (.714) record on that line of the bracket.

This year’s seed is the highest for the Fighting Irish when they have not opened the tournament at home. Prior to 2011, Notre Dame’s highest seed when opening away from Purcell Pavilion was a No. 4 seed in 2005, when they also came west, playing in Fresno, Calif.

In 2000, the No. 2-seeded Fighting Irish opened the tournament with victories at Purcell Pavilion over 15th-seeded San Diego (87-61) and No. 7 seed George Washington (95-60), before bowing to third-seeded Texas Tech (69-65) in the Mideast Regional semifinals at The Pyramid in Memphis, Tenn.

Last year, Notre Dame used its No. 2 seed to post home victories over 15th-seeded Cleveland State (86-58) and No. 10 seed Vermont (84-66) before falling to third-seeded Oklahoma (77-72 in OT) in the Kansas City Regional semifinals at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.

Notre Dame has been awarded a top-eight seed for the 12th time in its 18 NCAA Championship visits (and a top-four seed for the fifth time). The Fighting Irish are 17-5 (.773) all-time as the higher seed in NCAA tournament play.

It Hinges On Defense
Notre Dame’s success in the NCAA Championship can be directly traced to its performance at the defensive end of the floor. In its 18 NCAA tournament trips (44 games), the Fighting Irish are 16-2 (.889) when holding their opponent to 60 points or fewer. The two losses both came at the hands of top-seeded clubs — Penn State (55-49) in the 2004 East Regional semifinals, and North Carolina (60-51) in the second round of the 2007 Dallas Region.

Re-Stoking The Offensive Fires
Prior to the 2008 NCAA Championship, Notre Dame had gone 13 consecutive games without scoring more than 61 points in a regulation NCAA tournament contest, dating back to its 2001 national championship game win over Purdue (68-66 in St. Louis).

However, that 2008 tournament saw the Fighting Irish offense roar to life, as Notre Dame topped the 70-point mark in its first two games (75-62 over SMU and 79-75 in overtime over Oklahoma) before a hard-fought 74-64 loss to Tennessee at the regional semifinals at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City.

The back-to-back 70-point outings were the first for the Fighting Irish in the NCAA Championship since their Midwest Regional final and Final Four games in 2001, as they downed Vanderbilt (72-64) and Connecticut (90-75), respectively.

Notre Dame now has topped the 70-point mark in six of its last eight NCAA tournament games, with last year’s 86-58 first-round win at home over Cleveland State representing the highest point production by the Fighting Irish in the NCAA Championship since that 2001 NCAA national semifinal win over Connecticut in St. Louis.

Bonus Basketball
Notre Dame is 2-1 all-time when going to overtime in the NCAA tournament, following its 2010 regional semifinal loss to Oklahoma (77-72 in Kansas City). The Fighting Irish had previously beaten the Sooners in OT in the NCAA tournament (79-75 in a 2008 second-round game at West Lafayete, Ind.), and also defeated Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State), 69-65, in extra time in their 2004 NCAA opener.

Notre Dame is 16-17 (.485) all-time when going to overtime, having split its last eight OT contests. This season, the Fighting Irish dropped their lone overtime game, an 86-83 double-OT thriller to No. 15 UCLA on Nov. 18 at Purcell Pavilion.

Double Deuce
No, the title of this note doesn’t haven’t anything to do with the notorious tavern from Patrick Swayze’s 1989 movie “Road House”, but rather it’s all about Notre Dame basketball.

For the first time in school history, both Fighting Irish hoops teams have garnered No. 2 seeds for their respective NCAA Championships. Mike Brey’s crew (27-6) is the second seed in the Southwest Region, with a second-round contest in Chicago against No. 10 seed Florida State on the docket for Sunday night.

Notre Dame is one of only two schools in the country to have both of its basketball teams seeded No. 2 or better in both the men’s and women’s tournaments (Duke’s men earned a No. 1 seed, while the Blue Devil women are seeded second in the Philadelphia Region).

The NCAA tournament seeds are just the latest highlight in a historic season for Fighting Irish basketball. The 2010-11 campaign marks the first time ever that both Notre Dame teams have recorded at least 27 wins in the same season (each squad had 25 victories in 2007-08). This year’s clubs also have tied the school record for combined men’s/women’s basketball victories in a single season with 54, a mark first set in 2000-01 (women 34-2; men 20-10).

A BIG EAST Bonanza
Notre Dame is one of a record-setting nine BIG EAST Conference schools that earned invitations to the 2011 NCAA Championship, joining a club that also includes seven-time national champion Connecticut, DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Rutgers, St. John’s and West Virginia.

This year’s nine selections are one better than the previous conference (and NCAA Championship) record for the highest number of teams from one league invited to a single NCAA tournament. The BIG EAST (2004, 2008) and SEC (1999, 2002) hit that mark twice, while the Big 12 reached that total for the first time in 2008.

Don’t Mess With Tradition
The Notre Dame women’s basketball program has developed some traditions that should be quite evident during this week’s NCAA tournament games in Salt Lake City.

• Green nails — each of the Fighting Irish players and female coaches wear green nail polish throughout the NCAA Championship. This tradition started during the 1997 tourney, when the Fighting Irish added the green polish to their fingers prior to their second-round St. Patrick’s Day game at Texas, which Notre Dame won 86-83. The Fighting Irish ended up going to their first NCAA Final Four that season and the green nail polish was here to stay. As a show of solidarity, the male members of the travel party usually paint their left pinky green, and some (including associate head coach Jonathan Tsipis) have even gone so far as to shave their heads for the tournament.
• Green uniforms — though not limited exclusively to NCAA tournament play, Notre Dame’s distinctive kelly green road uniforms have become a staple of the postseason in keeping with the St. Patrick’s Day holiday, which often falls during the early rounds of the tournament (or in this year’s case, during the week leading up to the preliminary rounds). The Fighting Irish last wore the alternate green road threads in the NCAA Championship for their 2008 second-round and regional semifinal games, splitting games with Oklahoma (W, 79-75 OT) and Tennessee (L, 64-74) — Notre Dame is 6-7 (.462) all-time in the NCAA tournament when featuring the “wearing o’ the green.” The Fighting Irish also have broken out their alternate home whites with green trim for early-round games the past four seasons (2008 – a 75-62 win over SMU in West Lafayette, Ind.; 2009 – a 79-71 home loss to Minnesota; 2010 – an 86-58 home win over Cleveland State and 84-66 home win over Vermont; 2011 – a 67-54 win at Utah), the first time those uniforms have been worn in NCAA tournament play.
• Irish jig — this unique pre-game ritual has become one of the widely-recognized traditions of Notre Dame women’s basketball. Just prior to the introduction of the starting lineups, the Fighting Irish players will circle up in the lane with a basketball at their feet. As the Notre Dame pep band plays, the team will perform the Irish Jig (a popular step with Notre Dame fans, especially the student body) with the ball bouncing around in the midst of their dance. This tradition is believed to have started during the 1999-2000 season, but picked up steam during Notre Dame’s 2000-01 national championship run and has been part of the Fighting Irish pre-game ritual ever since.

Pieces of Silver
with its 63-53 win over Louisville in the BIG EAST Championship quarterfinals on March 6 in Hartford, Conn., Notre Dame registered its 25th victory of the season, marking the second consecutive year (and third time in four years) the Fighting Irish have reached that level.

Notre Dame has recorded eight 25-win seasons in its 34 varsity campaigns, but only once before had the Fighting Irish done so in back-to-back years. From 1998-99 through 2000-01, Notre Dame topped that mark each season (26-5, 27-5 and 34-2), including a school-record 34 wins in the final year of that run, which culminated with the program’s first national championship.

What’s more, this year’s seniors have become the fourth group in program history to contribute to three 25-win seasons during their careers, joining the senior classes of 1999-00 (Danielle Green and Julie Henderson), 2000-01 (Imani Dunbar, Meaghan Leahy, Niele Ivey, Ruth Riley and Kelley Siemon) and 2001-02 (Ericka Haney).

Twenty Questions
Notre Dame reached the 20-win mark for the 17th time in the past 18 seasons with its 76-68 victory at South Florida on Feb. 5. The Fighting Irish now have registered 20-or-more wins 21 times in the 24-year Muffet McGraw era and 25 times in the program’s 34-year history.

McGraw herself has coached 23 20-win seasons (adding in two during her five-year tenure at Lehigh from 1982-87), tying her for ninth all-time among NCAA Division I coaches.

Conference Call
For the 15th time in its 16-year membership in the BIG EAST Conference, Notre Dame posted double-digit league wins. With the exception of 2005-06 (when they went 8-8), the Fighting Irish have never posted fewer than 10 BIG EAST wins in a season, finishing among the top four in the conference 13 times in their 16 seasons in the league, including this year.

In addition, Notre Dame collected 13 conference wins this season, the most for the Fighting Irish in a BIG EAST campaign since 2004-05, when they also went 13-3.

Taking it a step further, Notre Dame has registered double-digit conference wins in 21 of head coach Muffet McGraw’s 24 seasons under the Golden Dome, with the only other exceptions coming in 1987-88 (her first season when the Fighting Irish went 7-3 in the now-defunct North Star Conference) and 1991-92 (when Notre Dame went 8-4 in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference/Horizon League, then won three in a row at the conference tournament to earn the program’s first-ever NCAA Championship berth, despite a losing overall record of 14-16, becoming the first school ever to pull off that feat).

Celebrating The Bicentennial
With its 72-60 win at No. 19/18 West Virginia on Feb. 22, Notre Dame became just the third BIG EAST Conference school to record 200 regular season league wins, joining Connecticut (379) and Villanova (251) in that elite company. The Fighting Irish now have a 201-63 (.761) all-time record in BIG EAST Conference regular season play

What makes Notre Dame’s feat even more impressive is the fact the Fighting Irish have reached their bicentennial in only 16 seasons (1995-96 to present), while both Connecticut and Villanova were charter members of the BIG EAST when it debuted women’s basketball competition in 1982-83 — 13 seasons before Notre Dame came aboard. Another charter member (Providence) is fourth all-time with 197 BIG EAST victories.

The Fighting Irish also rank second in conference history with a .761 winning percentage, trailing only Connecticut (.819) and joining the Huskies and Rutgers as the only programs in BIG EAST history (current or former) to have won at least 70 percent of their conference games (Rutgers is third at .701).

Century City
The current Notre Dame senior class (Becca Bruszewski, Mary Forr, Brittany Mallory, Devereaux Peters) reached a collective career milestone with a 66-48 Senior Day win over Cincinnati on Feb. 26 at Purcell Pavilion. With that victory, the group has led the Fighting Irish to a 103-31 (.769) record since they arrived on campus in 2007-08.

Only five other senior classes in program history have registered 100 wins in their four-year tenures, led by the 2000-01 national championship seniors (Imani Dunbar, Meaghan Leahy, Niele Ivey, Ruth Riley and Kelley Siemon), who amassed 109 victories from 1997-2001 (Ivey was a fifth-year senior in ’00-01, following a knee injury five games into her rookie season of ’96-97).

It should be noted that Forr joined the Fighting Irish roster as a walk-on prior to this season, while both Mallory and Peters have the option to return for a fifth year of eligibility next season after both suffered knee injuries early in the 2008-09 campaign.

The Rare Air Up There
Beginning on Jan. 31 (and the first time since Dec. 9, 2002), both Notre Dame basketball teams have been ranked in the top 10 of their respective Associated Press polls. In the final 2010-11 polls released on March 14, the Fighting Irish women were ranked ninth, while Mike Brey’s men checked in at No. 5.

Notre Dame is one of only three schools in the country with two top-10 basketball programs, along with Connecticut (No. 1 women/No. 9 men) and Duke (No. 6 women/No. 3 men).

If you want to go one further, this marks the first time in Notre Dame athletics history that both Fighting Irish basketball teams AND the Notre Dame hockey team are ranked in the top 10 at the same time (the Fighting Irish icers currently stand eighth in the nation).

The Five-Finger Discount
Notre Dame comes into Monday’s game ranked third in the nation in steals with 13.1 thefts per game. The Fighting Irish also have recorded double-digit steals in 24 games this season, including four contests with 20-plus steals.

Highlighting this year’s takeaway brigade for Notre Dame was a school-record 36-steal performance in the season-opening victory against New Hampshire on Nov. 12 at Purcell Pavilion. The Fighting Irish followed that up three days later with 26 thefts in a win over Morehead State, and also logged 24 steals at Valparaiso (Dec. 2) and 23 steals against IUPUI (Nov. 26).

Prior to this season, Notre Dame had posted 23 steals in a game just seven times in the first 33 years of the Fighting Irish women’s basketball program (and only three games with 25-plus steals in that time, none since a then-record tying 29 steals at Saint Louis on Jan. 31, 1991).

Individually, Notre Dame has 11 different players with double-digit steals this season, including a school-record four with at least 60 thefts. The Fighting Irish are led by senior guard Brittany Mallory, who has collected a career-high 2.1 steals per game (eighth in the BIG EAST).

Helping Hands
Notre Dame also enters Monday’s game ranked ninth in the country in assists (17.3 apg.), having dished out at least 20 assists in 13 games this season.

Further illustrating the Fighting Irish giving spirit, Notre Dame has assisted on 60.7 percent of its baskets this season, with 587 assists on 967 field goals.

At the head of the Fighting Irish assist company is sophomore Skylar Diggins, who has adapted well to her role as Notre Dame’s primary point guard, ranking fifth in the BIG EAST Conference at 4.5 assists per game, and just outside the top 15 in the league with a 1.22 assist/turnover ratio. She also has handed out at least five assists in 19 games this season, after tallying seven five-assist games during her entire freshman campaign.

Sharp Shooters
Notre Dame also ranks fourth in the nation with a .479 field goal percentage, shooting 50 percent or better from the floor in 16 games this season, and at least 45 percent in 25 outings.

Notre Dame also has seen a rise in its three-point shooting numbers following a slow start this season. During the past 25 games, the Fighting Irish are connecting at a 38.8 percent clip (85-of-219) from beyond the arc. Compare that with the first nine contests of the season, when Notre Dame had a .269 (29-of-108) three-point percentage.

National Leaders
Notre Dame ranks among the top 15 in the nation in eight categories according to the last week’s pre-NCAA Championship statistics report — third in steals (now 13.1 spg.); fourth in field goal percentage (.479); seventh in scoring margin (+22.3 ppg.); ninth in assists (17.3 apg.), rebounding margin (+8.6 rpg.) and three-point percentage defense (.264); 11th in scoring offense (77.5 ppg.); and 13th in turnover margin (+5.23).

Yet for all of these high team statistical marks, no Fighting Irish individual ranked higher than No. 60 in any single category — senior forward Devereaux Peters is 60th in the nation in blocked shots (1.8 per game).

High Octane Offense
Behind one of the nation’s top 15 scoring offenses (77.5 ppg., 11th as of March 14), Notre Dame is moving into uncharted territory in the school’s record books.

The Fighting Irish have scored 90 points in a game in eight contests this season, setting a new school record for 90-point games in a season (the previous mark was seven on three occasions – 1996-97, 1998-99 and 2007-08).

Notre Dame also has set a new school record with nine wins by at least 35 points, more than doubling the previous program record of four 35-point wins set in 2008-09.

What’s more, the Fighting Irish have won 12 games by at least 30 points, topping the school record of 10 30-point victories, which was set during the program’s 2000-01 national championship season.

Last year, Notre Dame averaged 77.2 points per game, the fifth-highest single-season scoring average in school history, and best since the Fighting Irish logged a school-record 81.0 ppg. mark in 1998-99.

Glass Houses
One of Notre Dame’s greatest areas of improvement this season has been in the rebounding column, where the Fighting Irish are averaging 40.9 caroms per game, up more than two rebounds from last year’s total at this time (38.8 rpg.) and good enough for third in the BIG EAST.

Notre Dame also is giving up just 32.3 rebounds per game, more than three caroms better than last year at this time (35.6 rpg.), also placing third in the conference.

With a +8.6 rpg. margin this season, the Fighting Irish rank third in the BIG EAST and ninth in the country as of March 14. Notre Dame has won or tied the battle on the boards in 29 of 34 games this year (including 22 of its last 24), and has not has a negative rebounding margin of more than seven all season (at Utah on Saturday).

What’s more, Notre Dame has outrebounded its opponent by double digits in 15 games this season, including eight games in which the Fighting Irish posted rebound margins of +15 or better, topped by a season-high +42 mark (66-24) on Jan. 2 against Southeast Missouri State at Purcell Pavilion.

Everyone Gets Into The Act
The Fighting Irish have spread the wealth so far this season, with six different players leading the team in scoring in at least one game thus far, with four different 20-point scorers along the way.

Notre Dame also has seen no fewer than eight different players claim team-high rebounding and assist honors at some point this year.

Missed It By That Much
Notre Dame may hold a 27-7 record coming into Monday’s game, but the Fighting Irish are oh-so-close to owning a much better mark, with all seven losses coming to top-15 opponents by an average margin of just 7.6 points per game — five by single digits (four by five points or fewer), and a sixth by 11 points.

What’s more, Notre Dame led inside the final 30 seconds of regulation in three of those losses (No. 15 UCLA, also at the end of the first overtime; No. 2 Connecticut; No. 12/11 DePaul), and the Fighting Irish also had a possession to tie the game in the final 30 seconds at No. 9/10 Kentucky.

The 76-65 loss at No. 2/3 Baylor on Dec. 1 saw Notre Dame battle to within six points (65-59) with five minutes remaining and have a look at a three-pointer to halve the margin further on their next possession, but the shot rattled out and the Lady Bears managed to put the game away with nine free throws (despite making only one field goal during the final 8:23).

Sky-Light Reel
Despite making the tricky move to point guard this season, sophomore Skylar Diggins hasn’t missed a beat, averaging career highs in scoring (14.4 ppg.), rebounding (4.1 rpg.) and assists (4.5 apg.).

The South Bend native also is tied with junior teammate Natalie Novosel for the team lead with 28 double-figure scoring games this season, including seven 20-point outings, and she has stuffed the stat sheet to the tune of a team-best eight “5-5-5” outings (at least “5” in three of the five major statistical categories, or a mini triple-double).

Diggins has been tapped as a prime candidate for all of the major national player-of-the-year awards, including a spot on the final ballot for this year’s John R. Wooden Award, as well as a semifinalist berth for the Nancy Lieberman Award, given to the nation’s top point guard.

In addition, Diggins was a unanimous first-team all-BIG EAST selection, one of three Fighting Irish players (along with Novosel and senior forward Devereaux Peters) to make the WBCA All-Region I Team, and she made her second consecutive appearance on the BIG EAST Championship All-Tournament Team, just the fourth Notre Dame player to make that squad twice (along with multi-time All-Americans Beth Morgan, Katryna Gaither and Ruth Riley).

Diggins also is closing in on an extremely rare accomplishment, as she has 973 career points through 69 games. That leaves within striking distance of becoming just the second Fighting Irish player ever to reach the 1,000-point mark in her first two seasons at Notre Dame — Morgan (the program’s all-time leading scorer) had exactly 1,000 points from 1993-95.

Novosel Is Just Plain Nasty
Nicknamed “Nasty” for her playmaking abilities, junior guard Natalie Novosel emerged as easily the most improved player in the BIG EAST Conference, if not the entire country.

The Lexington, Ky., native currently leads the Fighting Irish (and ranks seventh in the league) in scoring at a team-high 14.8 points per game, nearly tripling her offensive output from a season ago. She also has scored at least 20 points in a game six times this year (after coming into the campaign with a career single-game high of 19 points) and has scored in double figures a team-high 28 times after doing so a total of 14 times in her first two seasons combined at Notre Dame.

In addition to collecting the BIG EAST Most Improved Player award (the third by a Notre Dame player and first since Megan Duffy in 2005), Novosel added other hardware to her personal trophy case as well, taking home first-team all-BIG EAST and WBCA All-Region I Team honors, as well as Most Valuable Player plaudits at the WBCA Classic. She also earned a spot on the BIG EAST Championship and State Farm Holiday Hoops Classic all-tournament teams and also garnered three mentions on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll (Nov. 29, Feb. 7, March 1).

Thus, it’s no surprise that ESPN.com’s Graham Hays tweeted the following comment after Novosel’s career-high 27 points (8-11 FG, 2-2 3FG, 9-9 FT) vs. Gonzaga in a 70-61 Fighting Irish win on Dec. 29 in Seattle:

“Is Natalie Novosel the most improved player in the nation? Gotta be on the short list.”

Peters Showing Her Own Dev-elopment
If Novosel is among the nation’s most improved players, senior forward Devereaux Peters can’t be far behind. The veteran frontliner is playing some of the best basketball of her career this season, putting a pair of knee injuries and three surgeries well in the rearview mirror.

Peters currently is averaging career highs of 11.6 points per game (24th in the BIG EAST) and 7.2 rebounds per game (sixth), along with a .586 field goal percentage (second), 1.8 blocks per game (fourth), 1.8 steals per game and a career-high .782 free throw percentage.

Peters’ numbers in BIG EAST play were even more eye-popping, as she ranked among the top five in the league in field goal percentage (first – .621), rebounding (second – 7.9 rpg.) and blocks (third – 1.9 bpg.), while ranking 15th in scoring (12.9 ppg.). She also placed second in the BIG EAST with five double-doubles during conference action.

Like Novosel, Peters regularly has been pulling in accolades this season, most notably being named the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year (the first Fighting Irish cager to earn that award since Ruth Riley’s three-year run from 1999-2001). Peters also was a first-team all-BIG EAST and WBCA All-Region I selection, while earning a spot on the WBCA Classic All-Tournament Team and garnering MVP honors at the State Farm Holiday Hoops Classic in Seattle. During the latter tournament on Dec. 29-30, she averaged 13.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2.5 blocks per game with a .684 field goal percentage (13-of-19) in wins over Gonzaga and Loyola Marymount.

That tournament effort has been the cornerstone of Peters’ post-Christmas surge. In the past 22 games, the Chicago native is averaging 13.5 points and 8.3 rebounds with seven double-doubles and a .607 field goal percentage (122-of-201).

Peters Adds Griner To SWAT Team
Senior forward Devereaux Peters has made a living as a shot blocking presence in the paint for Notre Dame throughout her career, with her 6-foot-2 frame and 77-inch wingspan. However, on Dec. 1 at No. 2/3 Baylor, she added another notch to her belt in historic fashion.

At the 10:22 mark of the second half, the Lady Bears threw an entry pass in to their 6-foot-8 sophomore All-America center Brittney Griner, but as she turned to shoot, Peters rotated perfectly from the weak side and rejected Griner’s shot out of bounds. It was one of the highlights in a 17-2 Fighting Irish run that pulled Notre Dame within six points of Baylor with five minutes left.

It’s believed to be the first time in Griner’s two-year college career that she has had a shot blocked. A video clip of Peters’ block has been posted on the Notre Dame Women’s Basketball YouTube channel (search for “notredameirishhoops” or click the link through the sidebar on the women’s basketball page at www.UND.com).

Bruszewski Joins 1,000-Point Club
With 12 points vs. Syracuse on Feb. 1, senior forward/co-captain Becca Bruszewski became the 27th Notre Dame women’s basketball player to score 1,000 points in her career. She currently ranked 22nd on the program’s all-time scoring list with 1,111 points.

Bruszewski also became the fifth player from Notre Dame’s 2007-08 NCAA Sweet 16 team to hit the 1,000-point mark, joining Charel Allen (1,566 from 2004-08), Ashley Barlow (1,492 from 2006-10), Lindsay Schrader (1,429 from 2005-10) and Melissa Lechlitner (1,005 from 2006-10) in that group.

Five other teams in Fighting Irish women’s basketball history have featured at least five current or future 1,000-point scorers on the same roster — from 1995-96 through 1999-2000, every Notre Dame squad had five or more players who had reached or would reach the 1,000-point plateau during their careers (including a school-record six on the 1996-97 and 1997-98 squads).

Aside from head coach Muffet McGraw and current associate coach Carol Owens, the one common link between those teams was guard Danielle Green, who scored 1,106 points from 1995-2000, missing the 1996-97 Final Four season with a preseason Achilles injury and coming back for a fifth year of eligibility in 1999-2000.

Polling Station
Notre Dame were ranked No. 9 in the final 2010-11 Associated Press poll, its eighth consecutive week in the top 10. That marked the 77th consecutive AP poll appearance for the Fighting Irish, extending the program record that started with the AP preseason poll in 2007-08 (the old record was 59 consecutive weeks from 1998-2001).

With its current poll position, Notre Dame now has appeared in the top 10 of the AP poll in each of the past four seasons and 11 of the past 15 seasons (1996-97 to present), as well as 103 weeks overall since the Fighting Irish earned their initial AP top-10 ranking (No. 9 on Nov. 24, 1996).

This year’s No. 9 year-end ranking also represents the fifth time (and the second consecutive year) that Notre Dame has appeared in the top 10 of the final AP poll. The Fighting Irish were second in 2000-01, fifth in 1999-2000, seventh in 2009-10 and eighth in 1998-99).

Notre Dame has been ranked in the AP poll for 216 weeks during the program’s 34-year history, with every one of those appearances coming in the Muffet McGraw era (since 1987-88). McGraw ranks 13th among all active NCAA Division I head coaches for weeks in the AP poll, and also is 22nd all-time in that category.

In addition, the Fighting Irish are ranked No. 7 in the March 14 ESPN/USA Today/WBCA coaches’ poll, matching their season-best position for the third time in four weeks. Notre Dame has been ranked in the coaches’ poll for 77 of the past 78 weeks, falling just outside the Top 25 in the final poll of the 2008-09 season. Nevertheless, the Fighting Irish have appeared in the coaches’ poll for a total of 208 weeks during their history (all coming during McGraw’s tenure).

This marks the third consecutive season Notre Dame has been ranked in the top 10 of the ESPN/USA Today/WBCA poll, as well as nine of the past 13 campaigns (1998-99 to present).

More Polling Data
Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw is one of 30 people in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history who have both played for and coached a team that has appeared in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Besides her 216 AP poll appearances while coaching at Notre Dame, McGraw was the starting point guard at Saint Joseph’s (Pa.) as a senior in 1977, helping the Hawks rise to No. 3 in the nation.

Of the 30 people on this list, 16 currently are NCAA Division I head coaches (see accompanying chart on this page), including former Fighting Irish point guard and assistant coach Coquese Washington (’92), who helped Notre Dame to its first AP poll ranking in 1990-91, and is in her fourth season as head coach at Penn State, guiding the Lady Lions into the AP poll for two weeks in mid-February.

Nine of the 16 active coaches in this group led their teams to this year’s NCAA Championship (including McGraw, Washington and Arizona State’s Charli Turner Thorne, also in the Salt Lake City subregional), while McGraw and Baylor’s Kim Mulkey are the only active skippers to play for and coach a team in the AP poll, and coach that team to a national title (McGraw in 2001, Mulkey in 2005).

Half And Half
During the past decade, Notre Dame has been nearly unbeatable when it has the lead at halftime. The Fighting Irish are 213-17 (.926) since the start of the 2000-01 campaign when they go into the dressing room with the lead, including wins in 141 of their last 152 such contests, and 50 in a row since a 58-47 loss to Villanova on March 8, 2009, in the BIG EAST Championship quarterfinals at Hartford’s XL Center (Notre Dame led 25-21 at intermission).

The Fighting Irish have been up at the break in 25 games this year, including their March 19 win at Utah in their NCAA Championship opener, when they led 36-33 through the first 20 minutes.

The Best Offense Is A Good Defense…
During the past 16 seasons, Notre Dame has discovered that a solid defensive effort can almost certainly guarantee a victory. In fact, since the beginning of the 1995-96 season (Notre Dame’s first in the BIG EAST Conference), the Fighting Irish have an amazing 229-15 (.939) record when they hold their opponents below 60 points in a game, including victories in 21 contests this season (New Hampshire, Morehead State, IUPUI, Butler, Purdue, Providence, Creighton, Valparaiso, Loyola Marymount, Southeast Missouri State, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Georgetown, St. John’s, Villanova, Syracuse, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Louisville, Utah).

…But Sometimes You Have To Score If You Want To Win
Not resting solely on its defensive laurels, Notre Dame also seemingly has found the magic mark when it comes to outscoring its opponents. During the past 16 seasons (since 1995-96), the Fighting Irish are 153-5 (.968) when they score at least 80 points in a game. The only blemishes on that record are three overtime losses to Texas A&M (88-84) and Michigan State (87-83) in 1995 and UCLA (86-83 in double OT) in 2010, as well as a 106-81 loss to Connecticut in 1998, and an 81-80 loss to DePaul in 2008.

Notre Dame has topped the 80-point mark in 14 games this year (13-1 record) after going 17-0 last season when it scored at least 80 points.

Irish Are The Hottest Ticket In Town
The 2009-10 season saw an unprecedented surge in fan support for Notre Dame women’s basketball, as the Fighting Irish set new program records for the highest year-end NCAA attendance ranking (fourth), highest average attendance (8,377 fans per game) and most sellouts (six) in a single season. And, as the old saying goes — “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

For the second consecutive preseason, Notre Dame fans all but exhausted the program’s season ticket packages (close to 7,500) and snapped up single-game ducats at a rate that helped the Fighting Irish make short work of their freshly-minted single-season average attendance record in 2010-11.

For the second consecutive year, Notre Dame set a new single-season attendance record, averaging 8,553 fans for its 17 home games this season (fifth in the country according to this week’s NCAA attendance report), including sellout crowds of 9,149 for its games against Purdue (Dec. 5), Connecticut (Jan. 8), St. John’s (Jan. 23), Rutgers (Feb. 12) and Cincinnati (Feb. 26).

Part of the appeal of Notre Dame women’s basketball can be traced to the renovated Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center, which has yet another new feature this season with the addition of a four-sided LED video scoreboard high above center court, as well as LED auxiliary scoreboards above all four court-level entrance ramps and at the scorer’s table.

McGraw Is Simply Legendary
The announcement on July 10, 2010, may have made it official, but it really only confirmed what Notre Dame fans have known for a very long time — head coach Muffet McGraw is a Hall of Famer.

McGraw, the 2001 consensus national coach of the year and winner of more than 600 games in her illustrious career, was one of six people — and the lone coach — named to the 2011 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Class, as announced in Uncasville, Conn., during the “WNBA vs. USA Basketball: The Stars at the Sun Game” that was televised live nationally on ESPN from Mohegan Sun Arena.

The others in McGraw’s Hall of Fame class include former Olympic gold medalists Ruthie Bolton (Auburn) and Vicky Bullett (Maryland), as well as Val Ackerman, the first WNBA president (1996-2005) and first female president of USA Basketball (2005-08), and a pair of three-time All-America players from the pre-NCAA era, Pearl Moore (Frances Marion) and Lometa Odom (Wayland Baptist).

The ’11 class offically was introduced at the 2010 State Farm Tip-Off Classic on Nov. 16 at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn., before the Connecticut-Baylor game. The group will be enshrined June 10-12, 2011, during the 13th annual Induction Weekend at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn.

McGraw becomes the first Notre Dame selection for the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. The Fighting Irish skipper also is the third BIG EAST Conference coach chosen for the honor, joining Rutgers’ C. Vivian Stringer (2001) and Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma (2006) in that elite company. First-year Seton Hall head coach Anne Donovan also was a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inaugural class in 1999, going in primarily for her accomplishments as a player at Old Dominion.

McGraw also will be the ninth active college head coach to enter the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on the basis of her success on the sidelines. Besides Stringer and Auriemma, the others on this list are: Pat Summitt (1999 – Tennessee), Van Chancellor (2001 – LSU), Tara VanDerveer (2002 – Stanford), Sylvia Hatchell (2004 – North Carolina), Andy Landers (2007 – Georgia) and Debbie Ryan (2008 – Virginia).

Oh Captain, My Captain
Senior forward Becca Bruszewski and senior guard Brittany Mallory are serving as Notre Dame’s team captains for the 2010-11 season. Both players received the captain’s honor for the first time in their respective careers following a preseason vote by their teammates.

Notre Dame Sets Pace For Pink Zone
Following last year’s wildly-successful fundraising efforts for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Pink Zone breast cancer initiative, Notre Dame reached even higher this season, as the Fighting Irish have raised a program-record $116,405 for the initiative, among the most by any Division I school in the country this year. That also lifts Notre Dame’s combined Pink Zone fundraising total in the last three years to more than a quarter of a million dollars (approximately $260,000).

In 2009-10, the Fighting Irish collected nearly $104,000 for the global unified effort by the WBCA’s membership to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.

Notre Dame’s local Pink Zone drive is led by primary sponsor Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center, with donations divided between the Foundation for Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center’s Women’s Task Force and the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.

This year, Notre Dame brought back some of its more popular fundraising activities, including the Fighting Irish Three-Point Pledge (fans donate a certain amount for every three-pointer made by Notre Dame this season) and the Notre Dame Pink Zone Store (sales of various Pink Zone items, including t-shirts, buttons, tote bags, etc., in the Joyce Center’s Heritage Hall at all Fighting Irish home games). The Notre Dame Gameday Silent Auction also was a huge hit again in 2010-11, with more than 100 items generating $13,000 in bids for this year’s effort.

Some new events added for this year included the Pink Zone Treadmill Campaign (celebrities walked on a courtside treadmill during the Jan. 23, Feb. 1, 8 and 12 games) and the Notre Dame Women’s Basketball SPIN-A-THON (a 24-hour event to ride stationary bikes on Jan. 22-23 at South Bend’s Knollwood Country Club, which raised $30,000 for the cause).

In addition, NBC correspondent Anne Thompson (a Notre Dame alumna and breast cancer survivor) was the keynote speaker at the inaugural “Docs in Pink” luncheon at Club Naimoli in Purcell Pavilion, an event that generated more than $20,000.

For more information, or to make a donation, please visit the Notre Dame Pink Zone web page at www.UND.com/pinkzone.

Nice Threads, Coach
While Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw and assistant coach Niele Ivey are well-known for their fashion sense on the sidelines, another Fighting Irish assistant stole the spotlight at Notre Dame’s Pink Zone game on Feb. 12 against Rutgers.

Associate head coach Jonathan Tsipis took the floor wearing a snappy pink blazer, courtesy of none other than former Villanova men’s basketball coach and 1985 NCAA national champion Rollie Massimino.

For the past few years, Tsipis has visited Massimino’s current home at NAIA Division II member Northwood University (West Palm Beach, Fla.) to observe the legendary coach’s practices. Last summer, the Notre Dame coach noticed Massimino wearing a pink sportcoat in one of his school’s media guides and asked where he could obtain one of his own. Massimino quickly offered to loan his jacket to Tsipis, and the rest is “Pink Zone” history.

Next Game: NCAA Regional Semifinal
Should Notre Dame defeat Temple in Monday’s NCAA second-round game, the Fighting Irish would advance to a semifinal contest in the Dayton Regional on March 26 at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio (time and TV coverage to be announced).

In that regional semifinal, Notre Dame would face the team emerging from the Charlottesville, Va., subregional, which features No. 3 seed Miami (Fla.), No. 6 seed Oklahoma, No. 11 seed James Madison and No. 14 seed Gardner-Webb.

— ND —