2024-2025 Notre Dame Women's Basketball

[ozzman]

 

[Old Man Mike]

Yay, Soni! We were more on the ball (and earlier) here on IE, as to what a superb underrated player she was, than ALL the "experts."

(Hannah and Ivey would comment on how important she was, but it took a lot of time before the general commentators realized that she was not just a "good" second choice ball player.) Congrats BabyIrish and others for really seeing "ball" as it is supposed to be played and to Soni for doing it.

 

[ab2cmiller]

Yay, Soni! We were more on the ball (and earlier) here on IE, as to what a superb underrated player she was, than ALL the "experts."

Frankly, the props goes to you. IE may have been more on the ball overall, but that was probably due to you pointing out all the little things that Soni did game in and game out that would go unnoticed by the general public.

 

[sfk324]

Seems to be some doubt about this actually happening. No one reliable has confirmed and UND hasn't announced. Not sure what's the deal, can't be a lack of scholarships

Ratigan is official.

 

[stpeteirish]

WBB roster for 2025/2026 is up on the UND.com website. The two walk ons from last season, Tehrani and Jensen, are listed with bios as are the five transfers and Macy.
Probably a tea leaf telling us they are done with adds for the upcoming season. Tehrani was a good enough players to make the Canadian U15 and U16 national teams (she's from Hamilton, Ontario) before focusing in Volleyball and getting a scholarship from ND. She might be a factor with our frontcourt a shambles. WVB currently in Croatia on a summer tour but Terhrani is apparently not with them.

 

[SDIrishFan]

Buy or sell, ND Women's team makes the NCAA tourney next season?

 

[Old Man Mike]

I won't bet on that. I'll only say the obvious: there is only one player that we can count on to score in double figures in a given game. Our next two "proven" players (Cass Prosper and KK Bransford) ARE actually good players because they are so tough and willing to work hard. But they are not great shooters (unless the off-season shooting practice develops phenomenally.) None of the newcomers do I consider particularly "proven", and the rookie, of course yet-to-be-seen. Note by the way that Cass might have to play the power forward. Or maybe even KK. (and KK MUST be in good shape, which she was not much last year.)

If any of us were opposing coaches, how many of us would simply go Mano-a-mano on Hannah and see how she would go? Don't we visualize lots of double-teaming and maybe even junk defenses like box-and-ones? Pressure every play. In time, even Hannah wears down (as we saw last year at points in the schedule.) And what if she scores 30? Where are the rest of the "70" coming from?

I want to watch good entertaining WNDBB and good entertaining Hannah .... but I fear the pain.

 

[sfk324]

ND has hired Jas Smith as Director of Operations for WBB. She was previously Director of FB operations at LSU.

 

[Irish#1]

Mawbrey had a cheap shot on Clark last night.

 

[UPMich_NDfan]

Mawbrey had a cheap shot on Clark last night.

smart. this stuff sells tickets.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Marina Mabrey has always been an enforcer type. Clark and Shelton have been going at it for a while --- Shelton is a GREAT hustler-defender and I've admired her every-second effort play. She naturally gets in Clark's "hair" as a constant irritant. But Shelton is not a dirty player. She and Clark came together at least once earlier in that same game, and when Clark shoved at Shelton, Marina was immediately there with a push-off. When the more physical action occurred, Marina made the bump more intense. The late game hard foul by Sophie Cunningham should have been reserved for Mabrey rather than Shelton, but if Cunningham would have gone after Mabrey we would have had a helluva fight.

 

[sfk324]

Marina Mabrey has always been an enforcer type. Clark and Shelton have been going at it for a while --- Shelton is a GREAT hustler-defender and I've admired her every-second effort play. She naturally gets in Clark's "hair" as a constant irritant. But Shelton is not a dirty player. She and Clark came together at least once earlier in that same game, and when Clark shoved at Shelton, Marina was immediately there with a push-off. When the more physical action occurred, Marina made the bump more intense. The late game hard foul by Sophie Cunningham should have been reserved for Mabrey rather than Shelton, but if Cunningham would have gone after Mabrey we would have had a helluva fight.

Sheldon was pushing the envelope the whole game daring the refs to do anything about it and they didn't: she could have been called for a foul on any one of multiple occasions before the eye poke on the same possession, and the whole thing would have been avoided. For a league trying to increase viewers and popularity by promoting their stars (not just Clark, but she is certainly at the top of that hill whether the rest of the league wants to accept it or not), they sure seem to be more interested in letting teams do whatever they have to do to stop those stars. It was part of the old Jordan Rules -- we can't stop them, so let's beat them up and bet that the refs won't call them all, and they will be tired and ineffective down the stretch. It's the same crap NY pulled against Kelsey Plum, who also doesn't have anything good to say about the officiating. That the refs are garbage is only underscored by the league's actions yesterday: Mabrey was upgraded to a flagrant 2, which the refs didn't even think it was a flagrant 1 despite review and despite tossing Lindsay Allen later for escalating alone, and the league didn't even fine the Fever coach for calling the officiating garbage, which is pretty crazy from any league at this point.

 

[Irish#1]

The officiating is terrible. Mawbrey's "bump" was escalated to a flagrant 2.

From si.com

Much of the attention focused on a sequence around Clark midway through the third quarter: Jacy Sheldon swiping at her face while guarding her on the perimeter, followed by Marina Mabrey knocking her to the ground after the play was dead. (Sheldon was assessed a flagrant one; Mabrey and Clark both received technicals along with Sun veteran Tina Charles.) That was eventually followed in the closing seconds of the game by Fever guard Sophie Cunningham taking matters into her own hands with a hard foul on Sheldon. It sparked a scuffle that resulted in three ejections.

It’s not hard to find mistakes in that initial sequence. (Namely, with Mabrey’s technical: It was later upgraded to a flagrant two, but it should have been clear in the moment that it was a flagrant, and it may have stopped tensions from rising had it been called accordingly.) But it’s not just about how those specific calls were handled. It’s about everything that led up to them. This is a game that should have been called more tightly from the beginning. (Which should have been obvious even before tip-off: Indiana and Connecticut’s last meeting was a similarly tense game that ended with a chipped tooth for Cunningham.) There were several hard plays that went uncalled in the first half. And it was that lenience that laid the way for the mess in the second.

 

[BabyIrish]

Sonia is an All-Star. Incredible feat with the amount of talent in the league. First of many more to come!!

 

[irishandy]

Sonia is an All-Star. Incredible feat with the amount of talent in the league. First of many more to come!!

Great accomplishment for Sonia, I know Bueckers is the talk amongst the rookies this season, nice to see Sonia get awarded for her play.