#4 ND v #3 UCON Sunday April 1 6:30 pm ET

[BGIF]

#4 Irish To Meet #3 Connecticut Sunday At NCAA Women's Final Four - UND.COM - University of Notre Dame Official Athletic Site

2011-12 ND Women's Basketball: Game 38
NCAA Women's Final Four -- National Semifinal
#4/4 [#1 seed] Notre Dame Fighting Irish (34-3 / 15-1 BIG EAST) vs. #3/3 [#1 seed] Connecticut Huskies (33-4 / 13-3 BIG EAST)
DATE: April 1, 2012
TIME: 4:30 p.m. MT
AT: Denver, Colo. - Pepsi Center (19,155)
SERIES: UCONN leads 29-7
1ST MTG: UCONN 87-64 (1/18/96)
LAST MTG: UCONN 63-54 (3/6/12)
TV: ESPN/ESPN3 (live) (Dave O'Brien, p-b-p / Doris Burke, color / Holly Rowe, sideline / Rebecca Lobo, sideline)
RADIO: Pulse FM (96.9/92.1)/UND.com (live) (Bob Nagle, p-b-p)
LIVE STATS: UND.com
TWITTER: @ndwbbsid
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL: UND.com

•Notre Dame and Connecticut will be playing in the national semifinals for the second consecutive season and third time overall.

•The Fighting Irish lead all teams in this year's NCAA Championship in scoring defense (47.2 ppg.) and scoring margin (+29.3 ppg.).


The Notre Dame-Connecticut Series
Notre Dame and Connecticut will be playing for the fourth time this season, and eighth time in the past two years when they square off Sunday night in an NCAA Women's Final Four national semifinal at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

The Huskies lead the all-time series with the Fighting Irish, 29-7, although Notre Dame has won three of the past four meetings. Sunday's matchup also marks the second consecutive year (and third overall) that the Fighting Irish and Huskies have met in the NCAA national semifinals -- in 2001, Notre Dame posted a 90-75 victory in St. Louis, and last season, the Fighting Irish earned a 72-63 win in Indianapolis.

 

[BGIF]

Notre Dame-UConn Preview - UND.COM - University of Notre Dame Official Athletic Site

 

[BGIF]

ND +1½

 

[NDOM]

Of course I want ND to win this but I'm going with Uconn. Seems like they own us when it counts anyway. Vbookie event?

 

[arrowryan]

Of course I want ND to win this but I'm going with Uconn. Seems like they own us when it counts anyway. Vbookie event?

Final Four 2011?

 

[NDOM]

Final Four 2011?

Woops, did they win that year? I'm hungover right now. My apologies.

 

[BGIF]

Woops, did they win that year? I'm hungover right now. My apologies.

ND knocked UCon out in the Semis 72-63, after Ucon had won the regular season games.

Point to the Holy Cross Man!

 

[johnnykillz]

Why the perpetual negative "I'm ND's biggest fan but..." ****in spill?

 

[CurtisCandy]

I love this!!!

Any time Student Athletes from our beloved Notre Dame step up and punch a national powerhouse in the face is a great day!... Particularly when Geno Auriemma is the recipient... Go ahead and badmouth ND some more, Geno, but do it from your living room while you watch the national title game on your TV!

 

[aubeirish]

What a performance down the stretch. This team is tough. Awesome game to watch. Go Irish.

 

[BGIF]

Irish In Championship After Overtime Defeat of UConn, 83-75 - UND.COM - University of Notre Dame Official Athletic Site


Irish In Championship After Overtime Defeat of UConn, 83-75
Notre Dame reaches national championship game for second straight year


...

Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw is the fifth coach ever (fourth active skipper) to guide her team to eight wins over a Geno Auriemma-coached Connecticut squad, joining Villanova's Harry Perretta (11), former Providence coach Bob Foley (10), Tennessee's Pat Summitt (9) and current Rutgers/former Iowa & Cheyney coach C. Vivian Stringer (8)

the Fighting Irish register their school-record 35th win of the season, topping the 34-2 mark set by the 2000-01 club

Notre Dame moves to 15-2 this season against Top 25 opponents, including an 11-2 record away from home

the Fighting Irish are 7-2 against top-10 teams, including four victories over top-five opponents ... other seasonal updates -- 16th 80-point game, 24th time forcing at least 20 opponent turnovers, 29th game with double-digit steals

Notre Dame had four double-digit scorers for the 18th time this year, and is 52-4 (.929) in the past four years when it has at least four players reach double figures

the Fighting Irish are 168-6 (.966) when scoring 80 points in a game during the past 17 seasons (1995-96 to present), including a 45-2 (.957) mark in the past three years

fifth-year senior forward/tri-captain Devereaux Peters chalked up her career-high 12th double-double of the season and 23rd of her career (good for ninth in school history) -- it's also Peters' fifth double-double in her last 10 NCAA Championship games (second in three career Final Four outings)

junior guard Skylar Diggins becomes the first player in school history to register 100 steals in a season, hitting the century mark exactly with three thefts on Sunday

for the fifth time in the past two seasons (and second this year), senior guard/tri-captain Natalie Novosel has factored into a game-tying or winning shot in the final 30 seconds of regulation or overtime (she hit a buzzer-beating bank shot for a 56-54 win over No. 7/6 Duke on Nov. 26 in Freeport, Bahamas).

 

[BGIF]

Team Stats ND UC

Team Stats ND UC

• FG % 40.3% 45.6%
• 3s % 35.7% 23.1%
• FT % 74.1% 76.9%
• Reb 43 42
• TOs 16 21
• Stls 14 10
• Blks 7 8

 

[BGIF]

1 BAYLOR v 1 NOTRE DAME

1 BAYLOR v 1 NOTRE DAME

Championship Game

April 3 in Denver 8:30P.M E.T.


GO IRISH!

 

[EddytoNow]

All due respect to the other coaches and other sports at ND, but Muffet McGraw is the best coach we've got going right now. I'd love to see Brian Kelly and Mike Brey duplicate the success of our women's basketball team.

Good luck ladies in the final against Baylor. Teamwork will help slay the next giant.

 

[RDU Irish]

Awesome game, ladies! Really turned it on in OT. I was wondering why we were forcing crappy shots in the paint and not kicking out for open looks in regulation, Muffet made the adjustment and the shooters stepped up big time!

We will need to take more threes and move the ball well to find open jump shots against Baylor.

BTW - Heard Griner talk for the first time last night, she needs to be checked for balls.

 

[IrishLax]

All due respect to the other coaches and other sports at ND, but Muffet McGraw is the best coach we've got going right now. I'd love to see Brian Kelly and Mike Brey duplicate the success of our women's basketball team.

Good luck ladies in the final against Baylor. Teamwork will help slay the next giant.

Yeah probably. But with all due respect to Muffet, over the past 5 years or so it's not like she's the only one doing her job and no one else is coaching teams to a premier level.

Randy Waldrum (W Soccer) won a championship a year ago year beating a previously unbeaten Stanford in the finals and always has the team competitive. Jeff Jackson (hockey) and Kevin Corrigan (MLAX) have both gotten their teams to numerous NCAA quarterfinals/semifinals/championship games even if they've come up short (like Muffet last year against Texas A&M). Christine Halfpenny (WLAX) just took over this year and got the team to start off 8-0. And whoever the hell coaches fencing has won multiple national championships.

So yeah I LOVE Muffet especially how classy she is. But I just want to give our other coaches some props too that do a great job year in and year out.

 

[DillonHall]

Awesome game, ladies! Really turned it on in OT. I was wondering why we were forcing crappy shots in the paint and not kicking out for open looks in regulation, Muffet made the adjustment and the shooters stepped up big time!

We will need to take more threes and move the ball well to find open jump shots against Baylor.

BTW - Heard Griner talk for the first time last night, she needs to be checked for balls.

Haha exact reaction I had when I first heard her on Sportscenter a couple weeks ago.