What Virginia forfeit means for Notre Dame women's basketball
For weeks, Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey has been saying her team had one more game to play than actually showed on the schedule.
When there were five games displayed, Ivey said six. When there were four, Ivey said five. Just Thursday night, after an exhilarating up-and-down overtime win at No. 16 Georgia Tech, Ivey said the Irish had three games remaining until the ACC Tournament. The schedule showed two.
Friday brought some clarity. There are only two.
The ACC announced Notre Dame and Virginia will not make up a game previously postponed twice. Instead, Virginia will forfeit the matchup. The two teams were supposed to open conference play against each other on Dec. 30, but the Cavaliers had too many COVID-19 cases within their program to play. The game was rescheduled for Jan. 25, but that makeup was washed from the schedule just a few days prior to that day.
Ivey said Thursday whether the game would be made up between now and the ACC Tournament, which begins March 2 in Greensboro, N.C., was not up to her. She said the league and Virginia would have to reschedule the game since it was supposed to be played at Virginia. Apparently, the two sides agreed to cancel to contest.
Virginia’s forfeit will go down as an ACC win for Notre Dame. It won’t affect the Fighting Irish’s overall record (20-6), but they now have a 12-4 mark in conference play with two games remaining. Currently sitting in third place in the conference standings via a tiebreaker over Virginia Tech, the Irish’s path to a double-bye in the ACC Tournament is simple: win one of the last two games, and it’s theirs.
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Notre Dame is not back in action again until Feb. 24 at home against Clemson (9-17, 3-12 ACC). If the Irish are going to win one of the last two and clinch a double-bye, it’ll likely be that one. They host No. 3 Louisville (22-3, 13-2 ACC) on Feb. 27. The Cardinals beat the Irish by 26 earlier this week.
As far as the overall record is concerned, not stepping onto the floor against Virginia might actually have been the best-case scenario for Notre Dame. Virginia (4-20, 1-15) is by far the worst team in the ACC. The Cavaliers have a NET Ranking of 174. Simply stepping onto the court with the Cavs could have cost Notre Dame (No. 18) some spots in the NET Rankings. A lapse leading to a loss would have been devastating in that regard.
Now, Notre Dame doesn’t have to worry about any of that. The Irish can rest up, prepare for their last two regular season games and get geared up for postseason play after that.
