I think that the girls, this year, lose concentration/aggression when they're clearly superior to their opponents [which is the vast majority of the time.] They need a Natalie Achonwa to get on them when they begin slacking; then Muffet wouldn't have to take timeouts to jump start their heads.
This is the one thing that Maddy and Michaela seem not geared for, but which they need to do. Mabrey's temperament seems more suited to this than Cable's, but with the coming of the two outstanding rookies, one being a younger sister, Michaela's lessened centrality to the team might be working against her on-floor senior insistence in not taking plays off [particularly offensively, where the girls get pass-sloppy].
I don't mind [in the sense of being upset about concentration or effort] when opponents go on a rebounding tear against us --- we are not anywhere near the thug-team that most of these outfits are. We're finesse; we're high skill; we're total-team. A super-thug group will give us he!l and a really large dominant player beat us [as we have seen for years.]
I just watched Muffet's post-game presser --- quite interesting. She had Maddy, Michaela, and Brianna with her. Everyone was all-smiles happy, but it was still clear that Coach didn't like the effort in the third quarter, and that Maddy and Michaela were a little sheepish about that.
The most interesting thing to me, however, was the difference in temperament between Maddy and Michaela. Michaela is definitely a vocal leader type and Maddy is not [I understand that Maddy is more an impish joker off the court.] The "signs" indicated to me that when the flubbadubbing begins to happen with the team, it is Lindsay's floor generalship and Michaela's "presence" that is going to have to lift them out of it. Maddy's EFFORT will support those two other things, of course, as she is a game warrior.
Also, Muffet laid a lot of the goof-ups in the third period at the feet of the two freshmen, who, she said still have a lot to learn.
The Last Time Notre Dame and Georgia Tech Met
Brianna Turner scored 20 points and No. 3 Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech 85-76 on Dec. 30, 2015, at Purcell Pavilion for Fighting Irish coach Muffet McGraw’s 799th victory.
Madison Cable scored 13 of her 19 points in the second half and the Fighting Irish held off a late comeback by the Yellow Jackets in the ACC opener for both teams.
Ciani Cryor led Georgia Tech with 19 points, and Aaliyah Whiteside and Roddreka Rogers added 17.
With Notre Dame up by 10, Michaela Mabrey hit a pair of 3-pointers to open the second half, and Cable made a trey a minute later. Cable’s shot was part of a 12-2 Fighting Irish burst that pushed their lead to 22 just over five minutes into the second half.
The Yellow Jackets got consecutive 3-pointers from Cryor and Whiteside, part of a 10-2 spurt to start the fourth quarter that cut the Notre Dame’s lead to 11.
Cable responded with a corner 3-pointer in front of the Fighting Irish bench, but Cryor followed with three straight layups to trimmed the margin to eight points with 3:44 to play.
Again, Cable knocked down a triple in front of the Irish bench, Lindsay Allen’s leaner at the shot clock buzzer with 2:22 left got the lead back to double digits and Georgia Tech would not get any closer than the final spread.