'Everything matters': Why Notre Dame women's basketball is determined to keep making the most of NCAA Tournament

Dara Mabrey had her head buried in her pillows. The Notre Dame senior guard cried.

It’s been a year since then. She tried to watch the 2021 NCAA Tournament but couldn’t. Hence, the pillows. And the tears. She wanted to be there playing on the biggest stage with the Fighting Irish, but Notre Dame didn’t qualify for the tournament in head coach Niele Ivey‘s first season back in South Bend.

Mabrey was was heartbroken. She felt terrible.

“I remember that feeling every single game that I’ve played this year because everything matters,” Mabrey said. “It matters if you win, it matters if you lose. It matters how much you win by or how much you lose by as well.”

The Irish are 24-8 and are riding two double-digit victories into Saturday’s Sweet 16 matchup against NC State (31-3) at 11:30 a.m. ET (ESPN) at Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, Conn. Notre Dame beat UMass by 11 and Oklahoma by 44. Too much? Nah. It’s March. And it matters how much you win by. Ultimately, though, it just matters if you win.

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Mabrey has nailed 12 three-pointers in the tournament so far. She’s as locked in as she’s been all season, and that happened at just the right time. Freshman point guard Olivia Miles is playing her best when it matters most, too; she’s recorded a triple-double and has 23 assists and counting in tournament games.

Notre Dame is going to need more than that backcourt duo to be stellar to beat an NC State team that has not lost since the Irish took down the Wolfpack on Feb. 1. The regular season and ACC Tournament champion Wolfpack are howling as loud as ever, looking to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1998.

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“NC State is such a powerhouse defensively and offensively,” Ivey said. “They have a lot of depth. They’re well-coached. They have a lot of experience. They’re used to being in this moment. They’re used to being in the Sweet 16.”

Just not used to winning in the Sweet 16.

Frankly, neither is Notre Dame. Senior guard Abby Prohaska is the only player who was on the 2019 Notre Dame team that reached the national championship game. Her words of wisdom mattered more at this time last week than they do now. The Irish are already not the same team as they were then. They have two NCAA Tournament wins to their name.

There is confidence to be taken from that.

“The past two rounds I think I’ve watched my team grow,” Ivey said. “We are young, but they’re blossoming in front of our eyes. We’re peaking right now. We’re peaking at the right time. I’m a young coach as well, so we’re all growing together.”

Saturday, Notre Dame could run into a buzzsaw. It could meet its match in a team loaded with depth. A team whose cornerstone is a strong inside-outside game fueled by senior forward Elissa Cunane, who finished second in ACC Player of the Year voting, and senior guards Diamond Johnson and Raina Perez. Head coach Wes Moore is ACC Coach of the Year, too.

But Notre Dame could also overcome all of those things and continue to blossom. Continue to grow. Mabrey doesn’t have her head in the pillows anymore. She’s on the court making threes on the biggest stage. Saturday, she’ll look to keep doing that so the opportunity arises again Monday. And so on.

“As of right now, it’s a new season,” Notre Dame freshman Sonia Citron said. “It doesn’t matter what we did before, what the rankings are, if you’re a one seed, two seed, whatever. It’s just whoever is going to play better in that 40 minutes, who’s going to work harder, who has more effort.”

The rankings might not matter. Everything else does. Just ask Mabrey.