ND Women’s Basketball 2021-2022

[texbender]

Nice win for the ladies. Admit that I haven't followed team in depth this season, but when I've watched them they seem very sloppy/careless and don't play good defense. UMass was scrappy and hung around, so credit to the team for persevering. Hope they play well on Monday night to advance.

 

[stpeteirish]

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Nice win for the ladies. Admit that I haven't followed team in depth this season, but when I've watched them they seem very sloppy/careless and don't play good defense. UMass was scrappy and hung around, so credit to the team for persevering. Hope they play well on Monday night to advance.

I've watched quite a few games and you are correct, they are careless and do not play good defense. They have six or seven McDonald's all americans who have very, shall we say, "incomplete" games. Not developing the talent and not good team play.

 

[Old Man Mike]

they have two 6'3"s one 6'2" and a 6'1" on their roster.... don't know who starts.

 

[BabyIrish]

they have two 6'3"s one 6'2" and a 6'1" on their roster.... don't know who starts.

According to the box score against IUPUI:
Scott who’s 6”2 starts and Lampkin who’s 6”3 comes off the bench. But yeah it looks like for the most part they play four guard lineups. Hopefully Westbeld and Brunelle can find some success in the post.

 

[BabyIrish]

Lady Irish have exploded out of the gate. 22-7 after 5 minutes in the first quarter. They’re playing with an energy and urgency I haven’t seen yet this year. We’ll see how long it lasts.

 

[BabyIrish]

35-12 at the end of 1. Mabrey has 17. Both Westbeld and Dodson have 7. This is by far the best I’ve seen Westbeld look this year.

 

[laughingirish90]

35-12 now as they just can't miss shooting wise and playing great defense also

 

[laughingirish90]

35-12 at the end of 1. Mabrey has 17. Both Westbeld and Dodson have 7. This is by far the best I’ve seen Westbeld look this year.

they are on pace to score 100 plus pts if they keep this up

 

[dad4aa]

Amazing first half!!

 

[BabyIrish]

60-25 at half. We were completely out of rhythm offensively in the second quarter but still managed to score 25. But like 90 said, the Irish are playing great defense, the best I’ve seen all year. Great energy and effort. Love the fact that we only have 3 turnovers as well.

 

[laughingirish90]

don't know how OU got a 4th seed because they don't look that impressive to me

 

[IrishLax]

Swear to god this is a better pass than I’ve seen anyone on the men’s team make all year.

 

[BabyIrish]

I’m all for being the showtime Lakers as long as it brings us a championship in the next two years.

 

[clashmore_mike]

Miles flirted with another triple double, Mabry was unreal and Citron is gonna be a problem for the next 3 years. Highest team total in NCAA tourney history and did it in someone else's gym. Pretty impressive performance all the way around.

 

[Redbar]

Hang a Hondo on the 4 seed! Number 1 next.

 

[BabyIrish]

I couldn’t have predicted a performance like this if I wanted to. Most pleased with the defensive performance. So happy to see them play a matchup zone. I think it better fits our personnel.

But now bring on the big boys. NC St will be a monumental effort to beat and if we do that UCONN will be even harder. We’ll see what we’re made of real soon.

 

[Irish#1]

Awesome ladies.

In terms of the lower seed defeating the upper seed, it the largest points differential in the MCAAM & NCAAW tournaments history.

 

[NorthDakota]

Good for them! Shootout to South Dakota for ending Baylor's Sweet 16 streak too.

 

[SouthSideChiDomer]

I couldn’t have predicted a performance like this if I wanted to. Most pleased with the defensive performance. So happy to see them play a matchup zone. I think it better fits our personnel.

But now bring on the big boys. NC St will be a monumental effort to beat and if we do that UCONN will be even harder. We’ll see what we’re made of real soon.

I still don't love our half court offense, but we looked amazing in transition. If our defense can keep it up so we're not playing against set defenses, this team might just be able to get Coach Ivey her first Final Four as the HC.

And about UConn being even harder......
They really haven't looked great tonight. They still have talent, but they aren't playing like your old school UConn.

 

[BabyIrish]

I still don't love our half court offense, but we looked amazing in transition. If our defense can keep it up so we're not playing against set defenses, this team might just be able to get Coach Ivey her first Final Four as the HC.

And about UConn being even harder......
They really haven't looked great tonight. They still have talent, but they aren't playing like your old school UConn.

Agreed on our half court offense. What were running doesn’t seem to fit our personnel. We like to run and be active in transition, similarly our half court offense should have a lot of activity and movement, but it doesn’t in my opinion.

UCONN beat us by 20 earlier in the season and they didn’t even have Fudd in the game. Certainly we aren’t the same team as when we first played them but I still have my doubts if we get a chance to play them.

 

[IRISHMAN]

And about UConn being even harder......
They really haven't looked great tonight. They still have talent, but they aren't playing like your old school UConn.

WCBB has caught up to uconn, they are no longer king of the mountain (they haven't won a title since 2016).

ND should beat NCState not sure about uconn though, they kicked around ND pretty good early in the year but hopefully ND has improved a lot since then and their confidence should be sky high.

 

[Old Man Mike]

A few poorly educated thoughts (wish that i could watch practices and then I'd really know something about this team.}:

1. We're a LOT better than earlier because of several things ---
1a. Citron no longer has any "rookie" in her --- she had a little first game shakes vs Massachusetts, but she's fully on board now. (Great Player to come ... kind of a silent assassin.)
1b. We've figured out that if Dodson is anywhere near single-teamed, we should feed her at least until her fouling tendencies get her out of the game. For this reason, I disagree about negative comment about our set-up offense at this stage. Dodson condenses the defense for us so that Citron, Mabrey, and Westbeld can work.
1c. Miles is shedding almost all of the fancy cruising stuff and is intensely into almost every play. She IS Magic Johnson as far as whole court awareness is concerned.
1d. Most won't agree, but it is very useful to have Prohaska back. She is the no nonsense toughness that this team needs in the face of rough play by opponents. Most also will disagree with me that it is nice that Ivey is more comfortable in playing Peoples again. She is just like Abby in her attitude to banging around. So what if neither of them can shoot? We hardly lack for shooters.

2. This team thrives or struggles depending upon if Dodson can hold us together as far as defensive rebounding is concerned, Dodson is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated players in women's basketball. If she can stay out of foul trouble, and the opponents don't have more than one thug-like/dangerous big on the floor at a time, we will win the game. When she's out, Maddy Westbeld still hasn't remembered her freshman year as far as banging in the paint and rebounding is concerned, and Brunelle never knew how. When Dodson is out, we're dependent on Citron's cleverness, hustle, and athleticism, and Peoples' angry aggression. We have no others who will consistently rebound.

3. Neil Ivey thrashed Oklahoma by (partly at least) cutting the head off the snake. After Robertson (a mind-bogglingly great shooter) went off early, she assigned essentially a face-guarder defense with willing aggressive shifting on every screen if necessary. The level of aggression with which we did this almost amounted to Box-and-one principles. (With Dodson to hold down the middle.) That plus the Mabrey Explosion blew Oklahoma out early. I credit Ivey with that "game" she set up --- it was Muffet-like. I don't believe you can do that vs NCState. And if you tried that on UConn's Supergirl, I don't think that works there either.

I think that you could genuinely think that this team is one year away --- now that Dodson says she's coming back. To do that, one reasonably hopes that she, Miles, and Citron are essentially All-Americans, that Westbeld decides she wants to be as good as her sister, get in shape, and get after it, and that Brunelle figures something out about physicality. We need "Big" help from somewhere if the team is truly a contender. Dodson can't do everything in the Meathouse all game long. ... but three All-American level players ain't bad as a core.

 

[BabyIrish]

A few poorly educated thoughts (wish that i could watch practices and then I'd really know something about this team.}:

1. We're a LOT better than earlier because of several things ---
1a. Citron no longer has any "rookie" in her --- she had a little first game shakes vs Massachusetts, but she's fully on board now. (Great Player to come ... kind of a silent assassin.)
1b. We've figured out that if Dodson is anywhere near single-teamed, we should feed her at least until her fouling tendencies get her out of the game. For this reason, I disagree about negative comment about our set-up offense at this stage. Dodson condenses the defense for us so that Citron, Mabrey, and Westbeld can work.
1c. Miles is shedding almost all of the fancy cruising stuff and is intensely into almost every play. She IS Magic Johnson as far as whole court awareness is concerned.
1d. Most won't agree, but it is very useful to have Prohaska back. She is the no nonsense toughness that this team needs in the face of rough play by opponents. Most also will disagree with me that it is nice that Ivey is more comfortable in playing Peoples again. She is just like Abby in her attitude to banging around. So what if neither of them can shoot? We hardly lack for shooters.

2. This team thrives or struggles depending upon if Dodson can hold us together as far as defensive rebounding is concerned, Dodson is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated players in women's basketball. If she can stay out of foul trouble, and the opponents don't have more than one thug-like/dangerous big on the floor at a time, we will win the game. When she's out, Maddy Westbeld still hasn't remembered her freshman year as far as banging in the paint and rebounding is concerned, and Brunelle never knew how. When Dodson is out, we're dependent on Citron's cleverness, hustle, and athleticism, and Peoples' angry aggression. We have no others who will consistently rebound.

3. Neil Ivey thrashed Oklahoma by (partly at least) cutting the head off the snake. After Robertson (a mind-bogglingly great shooter) went off early, she assigned essentially a face-guarder defense with willing aggressive shifting on every screen if necessary. The level of aggression with which we did this almost amounted to Box-and-one principles. (With Dodson to hold down the middle.) That plus the Mabrey Explosion blew Oklahoma out early. I credit Ivey with that "game" she set up --- it was Muffet-like. I don't believe you can do that vs NCState. And if you tried that on UConn's Supergirl, I don't think that works there either.

I think that you could genuinely think that this team is one year away --- now that Dodson says she's coming back. To do that, one reasonably hopes that she, Miles, and Citron are essentially All-Americans, that Westbeld decides she wants to be as good as her sister, get in shape, and get after it, and that Brunelle figures something out about physicality. We need "Big" help from somewhere if the team is truly a contender. Dodson can't do everything in the Meathouse all game long. ... but three All-American level players ain't bad as a core.

Agreed on pretty much everything:

Peoples and Prohaska bring a lot of value to the defensive end of the court and rebounding. I think Prohaska still looks like she’s getting comfortable on the court again but we need her and Peoples contributions.

Citron is my favorite player on the team. While she may not be A+ elite at one thing yet, she’s at an A- at everything. Incredibly high floor with so much potential for growth.

On offense, I definitely don’t disagree that we shouldn’t work out of the post. Dodson is that caliber of a player that you should work through her as often as possible. My problem is, if she goes out or we can’t get her the ball, then all we’re left with is screens or dribble penetration. I feel like we could add more movement to the offense to help off set those issues.

Question: What do you think about defense? I may be letting the Louisville game cloud my judgment but to me I just don’t see us running the 2-3 effectively. We gave up open shot after open shot when we ran it against Louisville. So I think an active defense like we saw against Oklahoma more suits our personnel. Or maybe something more along the lines of a 3-2. I feel like Westbeld and Dodson are more than capable of handling themselves down low on defense. But I’m also an amateur who could be dead wrong.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Defensively Muffet was able to man-to-man the game as a base defense and mix in varieties of normal and junk zones to mess with the opponents. She could do this because she had players who were wired to play both ends of the floor and rose to fevered height when the going got tough --- think Maddy Cable, Jackie Young, Kat Westbeld, Skylar etc etc etc. Arike was a CONSTANT PROBLEM with this, but we got by with all other four working their butts off. These people could move their feet, played in good athletic position, and wanted to. only half on this team could play with those folks defensively (Peoples, Prohaska, Dodson, Citron.) Miles gets away with too much uprightness by having freaky passing lane awareness, but is not a great defender yet. Who knows whether we'll ever see Brunelle and MWestbeld in good athletic defensive position. Dara may be willing to try, but she's just too weak.

Because of the above, Ivey cannot count on man-to-man against good athletic teams. We sometimes get away with it, if Dodson can stay in the paint and back up the breakdowns, and if the outside rim has Citron, and at least one of Peoples and Prohaska in it. All those players are in good athletic stances and aware on-the-job toughness to minimize matador penetration. Muffet by the way also had turn-the-screws down units which did not match exactly the first teams. But in every tough game she'd enter the Stopper team, and I would love seeing them tear the heart out of the opposing offenses. I'm sure that Muffet loved that too.

What can Coach Ivey do? Get on Miles and Westbeld to defend every play. (Infuse that into every practice and meeting next year.) Insist on Brunelle hitting the weight room. Heavy squats and insist on bent knee playing stances --- straight-up only counts in the post at the moment of opponent shooting. Experiment with some full court presses. That defensive attacking "rush" sometimes gets players foaming at the mouth and into it. If we can get two more players to join Dodson and Citron, then Ivey can play man-to-man as base. If we can get another rebounder to be on the floor with Dodson, then we can play zone. (When Dodson has to challenge the shots, she needs someone to clean up the misses behind --- I played on a softball team with a BBaller named Don Smith. When he went to the pros he changed his name to Abdul Aziz, and was a great unsung power forward behind Abdul-Jabbar --- without him, Kareem would have been ineffective defensively as Don got all the rebounds.)

Ivey's current roster is not a great defensive roster. Some of the girls can grow into it, but we might need some helpful new blood. If Maddy Cable and Jackie Young can disguise themselves as frosh, that would be nice. I'll accept either of the bigs off the national championship team too. Arike can stay in the WNBA --- we have enough shooters (I'm sure she drove Muffet absolutely nuts. For that management job alone Coach McGraw deserved the Hall of Fame.)

 

[laughingirish90]

11:30 am start for the irish vs wolfpack game. just hope our irish play loose as all of the pressure is on the wolfpack as they are the #1 seed

 

[notredomer23]

11:30 am start for the irish vs wolfpack game. just hope our irish play loose as all of the pressure is on the wolfpack as they are the #1 seed

Niele was at the Purdue game last night. I hope they win but she puts an easy target on her back if they lose today as expected.

 

[ab2cmiller]

Niele was at the Purdue game last night. I hope they win but she puts an easy target on her back if they lose today as expected.

If it's expected that they lose regardless if she went to the Purdue game, not sure how that puts an easy target on her back.

 

[mango4]

Niele was at the Purdue game last night. I hope they win but she puts an easy target on her back if they lose today as expected.

It’s 3 hours by car and she more than likely flew to it. So maybe an hour flight to watch her kid play in a Sweet 16 game. I’d do the exact same thing.

 

[notredomer23]

If it's expected that they lose regardless if she went to the Purdue game, not sure how that puts an easy target on her back.

If BK was at his son’s basketball game the before a playoff game against Alabama, the board would have wanted him fired on the spot. The game ended at 930ish. She couldn’t have gotten back to CT before midnight. I think it’s great she’s an awesome mom to Jaden, but I find it hard to believe there aren’t a ton of pregame activities she must have missed from traveling to Philly.

 

[laughingirish90]

Niele was at the Purdue game last night. I hope they win but she puts an easy target on her back if they lose today as expected.

this is why i hope that they just come out and play loose with no worries because they are expected to lose like you said where as the wolfpack have all the pressure to make the final four