Women's Selection Committee Chair explains Notre Dame's drop to a No. 3 seed

Notre Dame was 24-2 as one of the top teams in the nation coming towards the end of February. The Fighting Irish are now 26-5 overall after losing three of their final five, though, which partly caused them to drop to a No. 3 seed in the Women’s NCAA Tournament.

Derita Dawkins, the selection committee’s chair this season, explained the fall to the three-line for Notre Dame last night while on ‘Women’s Bracketology’. She said the five-game stretch to close had an impact on it while the play of the other teams around them did as well.

“Well, being a little bit of a research nerd, I’m going to use a term. It was an interaction effect,” Dawkins said. “It wasn’t just what happened with Notre Dame in terms of them losing three of five down the stretch but it was also what the teams that came out ahead of them did in their conference tournaments and winning their tournaments. So, again, an interaction effect between those two things.”

Again, it was a two-part issue for the Irish. Holly Rowe made sure to clarify that in her response with Dawkins.

“It wasn’t just what they did in losing three of five. It’s what other teams did to elevate their resumé as well, right?” Rowe said

“Correct,” said Dawkins.

Notre Dame played a difficult stretch with four ranked games over their five to close in the ACC and the ACC Tournament. All three losses were close ones in double overtime at NC State, by five to Florida State, and by five to Duke in Greensboro.

With that, multiple teams on the one, two, and three lines had better finishes than the Fighting Irish coming into the NCAA Tournament. That’s specifically so for the two seeds with UConn (31-3) winning ten straight in winning the Big East, TCU (31-3) winning ten straight in winning the Big 12, and then NC State (26-6) and Duke (26-7) both having beaten them head-to-head over the last three weeks. Oklahoma had also won several in a row before losing to South Carolina in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament while similar losses for LSU could be credited to their current injury issues.

Notre Dame didn’t finish the season how they needed to in order to be a two-seed or better in the bracket. Still, that could now make them under-seeded if they play back at that level down in the Birmingham Regional.