Notre Dame women’s basketball to face UMass in NCAA Tournament first round
It wasn’t a matter of if Notre Dame would make the NCAA Tournament but rather where the Irish would be headed for a first round matchup. Now head coach Niele Ivey and company know.
Notre Dame (22-8) earned an at-large bid to the Big Dance as a No. 5 seed. The Irish will play No. 12 seed UMass (26-6) on Saturday in Norman, Okla. It’s Notre Dame’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since making a run to the national championship game in 2019.
The Irish came close to earning a No. 4 seed, which would have given them the opportunity to play two more games at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend. Notre Dame went 13-1 at home this season. Now the Irish have to play on the campus of Oklahoma, who would likely be their second round opponent should both teams take care of business in the opening round. The Sooners (24-8) host IUPUI (24-4) on Saturday.
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Inconsistency down the stretch prohibited Notre Dame from staying at home to start the tournament. The Irish are 4-4 in their last eight games, including two 20-plus point losses to Louisville. Closer competition in those defeats could have possibly kept Notre Dame on the No. 4 seed line.
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A lot has changed since Notre Dame knocked off then-No. 3 NC State, the ACC regular season and tournament champion, on Feb. 1. The surging Irish seemed like a lock to be one of the top 16 overall seeds at that time. Three February losses and getting taken down by Miami in the ACC Tournament semifinals did them in.
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Still, Notre Dame has a very viable path to the Sweet 16 in the Bridgeport Region. UMass finished third in the Atlantic 10 regular season standings. The Minutewomen got hot in the conference tournament and won it all by beating Dayton, the regular season champion, 62-56 in the title game. UMass only played one ranked team all season, though, and lost 76-71 to Iowa State.
Like Notre Dame, Oklahoma had an up and down final month of the season. The Sooners lost three games in a row in mid-February. The enter the tournament having lost two of their last three games, including a 15-point loss to Baylor in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals. Oklahoma finished fourth in the Big 12 regular season standings behind Baylor, Texas and Iowa State — a trio of teams who combined to hand the Sooners four of their eight losses.
