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Notre Dame women’s basketball reset: Irish enter ACC Tournament as No. 3 seed

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•02/28/22•

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notre dame women's basketball
Notre Dame Fighting Irish forward Sam Brunelle (33) and guard Abby Prohaska (middle) have been as resilient as any player head coach Niele Ivey has on the roster. (Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

With great success comes great expectations. Notre Dame learned that the hard way Sunday.

At the very least, the Fighting Irish had a chance to prove their first attempt to beat Louisville was an outlier result. An anomaly. Not going to happen again. Best-case scenario would have been a second win over a top-five opponent in the same regular season for the first time in program history. None of those outcomes occurred.

Instead, the exact opposite.

In a 22-point defeat, Notre Dame showed its 26-point loss to Louisville two weeks prior was actually par for the course. The outlier — the anomaly — was a three-point win over then-No. 3 North Carolina State on Feb. 1. In a perfect world for head coach Niele Ivey’s team, Notre Dame has a chance to take on both of those teams again this week.

The Irish (21-7, 13-5 ACC) go into the ACC Tournament as the No. 3 seed. The Wolfpack are No. 1, and the Cardinals are No. 2. Should the Irish win Thursday’s quarterfinal matchup against No. 6 Georgia Tech, No. 11 Wake Forest or No. 14 Virginia, their prize is a third date in less than three weeks with the Cards.

There will be nowhere to hide at the Greensboro Coliseum.

“When you play against a team like NC State, Louisville — pretty much every team in the ACC, you have to raise your level,” Ivey said. “And you have to learn how to compete. You have to compete on the defensive end. That’s what we’re going to work towards this week.”

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It might not have been a complete surprise Notre Dame took down the No. 1 team in the conference but lost to Louisville in blowout fashion twice. The Irish match up better against the Wolfpack. Louisville’s small-ball devastated the Irish in the first half Sunday. The Irish couldn’t guard the three-point line, and the Cardinals couldn’t miss a shot. It was a lethal combination.

Notre Dame was also out-hustled by Louisville’s smaller lineup for loose balls. The Cardinals out-rebounded the Irish 40-22, including a 10-5 edge in offensive rebounds. Against NC State, Notre Dame held advantages of 45-38 and 13-7 in those respective categories. Even though the Wolfpack were a bit bigger, the Irish were able to hang with them step for step. Louisville was much quicker in comparison.

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As it stands, analysis of those matchups doesn’t matter. Notre Dame still has to take care of Friday’s quarterfinal. If chalk prevails, the Irish are up against a Georgia Tech team they needed overtime to take care of on Feb. 17. Notre Dame led by as many as 16. The Yellow Jackets came storming back and nearly won. They won’t forget how close they came to completing the comeback.

Especially not during tournament time.

“We’re in a critical stage where you have to perform or you go home,” Ivey said. “Everything is on the line.”

Week 17 AP Poll

Notre Dame slid from No. 14 to No. 20 in the latest Associated Press poll. Of note, the Irish also slipped to No. 20 in the most recent NET Rankings. Here is the complete set of rankings heading into ACC Tournament week:

  1. South Carolina (27-1)
  2. Stanford (25-3)
  3. NC State (26-3)
  4. Louisville (25-3)
  5. Baylor (23-5)
  6. LSU (25-4)
  7. UConn (22-5)
  8. Iowa State (24-4)
  9. Texas (21-6)
  10. Michigan (22-5)
  11. Maryland (21-7)
  12. Iowa (20-7)
  13. Ohio State (22-5)
  14. Indiana (19-7)
  15. Arizona (20-6)
  16. North Carolina (23-5)
  17. BYU (25-2)
  18. Tennessee (22-7)
  19. Oklahoma (22-6)
  20. Notre Dame (21-7)
  21. Virginia Tech (21-8)
  22. Florida Gulf Coast (26-2)
  23. Florida (20-9)
  24. Georgia (20-8)
  25. Georgia Tech (20-9)

ACC Tournament bracket

ESPN Women’s Basketball Bracketology update

Despite Sunday’s loss heavily affecting Notre Dame’s standing in the polls and rankings, the Irish are still holding onto the No. 4 seed line in ESPN analyst Charlie Creme’s latest bracketology update. He has the Irish playing Toledo in the first round at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend.

Here is a full look at Creme’s latest reveal.

Notre Dame national team statistic rankings

  • Scoring offense: 73.8 (32nd)
  • Scoring defense: 63.2 (168th)
  • Rebound margin: 5.4 (53rd)
  • Assists per game: 17.4 (13th)
  • Turnovers per game: 15.3 (152nd)
  • Assist to turnover ratio: 1.13 (29th)
  • Turnovers forced per game: 17.21 (110th)

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