What to know about Notre Dame women’s basketball at UConn

Notre Dame puts an impressive streak on the line Saturday night at Gampel Pavilion. In head coach Niele Ivey‘s four-season tenure, the Fighting Irish have never lost back-to-back games. They’re going to have to beat No. 8 UConn (17-3, 9-0 Big East) Saturday at 8 p.m. ET for that to remain true going into next week. Not exactly a get-right opponent for the Irish like the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh or Boston College.

Ivey’s team is coming off a 79-65 home loss to No. 22 Syracuse on Thursday.

“We got to learn from this, but we don’t have that much time,” Ivey said after the defeat. “We only have 24 hours to prepare to be able to fix tonight or dwell on tonight and learn from tonight and then we got to move on to another scout.”

Scouting UConn has not been a fun task for over three decades. The Huskies had at least been to the Final Four in every season since 2008 until last year’s run uncharacteristically ended in the Sweet 16. This version is not head coach Geno Auriemma’s best either, but they seem to be hitting their stride with February and March right around the corner.

It’s not going to be easy for Notre Dame to go into Storrs and leave with a win. It never is. But winning when it matters isn’t easy either. If it was, everybody would do it.

“It’s kind of unfortunate not having too much turnaround time, but it is what it is,” Ivey said. “This is basically an NCAA [Tournament] matchup playing Syracuse, one day off, playing UConn. Hopefully we’re in that situation [in March].”

Notre Dame women’s basketball at UConn game info

• Teams: No. 15 Notre Dame (14-4, 5-3 ACC) at No. 8 UConn (17-3, 9-0 Big East)
• Head coaches: Niele Ivey (75-29, fourth year at Notre Dame); Geno Auriemma (1,197 overall, 39th year at UConn)
• Date: Jan. 27, 2024
• Location: Gampel Pavilion (Storss, Conn.)
• Time: 8 p.m. ET
• Television: FOX
• TV broadcasters: Gus Johnson and Stephanie White
• Radio: 99.9 WQLQ-FM in South Bend
• Radio broadcaster: Sean Stires

Matchup notables

• There aren’t many teams on Notre Dame’s schedule that score more points per game than the Irish and beat their opponents by a wider margin than them too, but UConn is one of them. The Huskies average 84.4 points per game to the Irish’s 83.3. UConn has a scoring margin of 25.6 points per game. Notre Dame’s is 22.3.

• The Huskies are led by junior guard Paige Bueckers averaging 20.1 points per game. She makes 52.4 percent of her shots and shoots 46.4 percent from behind the three-point line. Bueckers is on a tear of late averaging 25.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.3 steals in her last four games. She’s likely going to get a heavy dose of the Sonia Citron treatment from Notre Dame defensively.

• UConn’s gotta have a game plan for Notre Dame freshman Hannah Hidalgo, meanwhile. She’s scored at least 20 points in 16 of the Irish’s 18 games this season while leading the entire country in steals per game with 5.4. The game could very well come down to a battle between Hidalgo and Bueckers. Thursday, though, showed that when the Irish are up against a superstar — then it was Syracuse’s Dyaisha Fair — they need more than just Hidalgo to deliver to come away with a victory.

• Like Notre Dame, the Huskies are a guard-driven team. The post player to worry about is senior forward Aaliyah Edwards, who’s averaging 16.4 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. She has reached double digits in scoring in 14 straight games, and she hit at least 10 rebounds in eight of those appearances.

• Notre Dame is 4-22 all-time playing on the road at UConn. The Irish last lost there, 73-54, on Dec. 5, 2021. Notre Dame won the last meeting of the series, though, 74-60 in South Bend on Dec. 4, 2022.