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FORT WORTH, Texas — In the Notre Dame locker room, names hover above the noise of a card game, played by hands with various shades of green nail polish.
Arike. Maya. Stewie. Sky.
All are singular identifiers. All earned their legend in March. All became icons in this rivalry.
Another name will join when underdog No. 6-seeded Notre Dame plays No. 1 overall seed Connecticut in the Fort Worth 1 regional championship on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, ABC). It is their ninth meeting in the NCAA tournament, but the first to happen before the Final Four.
There is no lore lost in either of these locker rooms. Everyone knows the lineage, even if they aren’t willing to make a thing of it.
Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey played in it, scouted it as an assistant coach and is now one win away from her first Final Four as a head coach.
“She's always told us about the rivalry,” Notre Dame point guard Hannah Hidalgo said. “She'll always have alum come back and tell us how big the rivalry is or how hard it is to play at UConn and to focus.”
Hidalgo, fresh off the second triple-double in NCAA tournament history, is in line for one-name notoriety. She scored 34 in Notre Dame’s 15-point win over UConn as a freshman during the Fighting Irish’s first winning streak of the series since 2012-13.
It’s Notre Dame assistant Charel Allen’s most memorable rivalry moment as a member of the coaching staff. UConn held a white-out attended by alumni, including Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird.
“It was us against them and they support heavy,” Allen told Yahoo Sports. “It was memorable to once again knock them off.”
As a player, Allen faced UConn consistently when they were both Big East powers in the early 2000s, before a bout of conference realignment sent Notre Dame to the ACC and UConn for a brief stay in the AAC. As a freshman, Allen’s 2004-05 team knocked off UConn, 65-59, in the regular season.
“That was the only time I beat them in my playing career,” Allen told Yahoo Sports. “But they had Maya Moore, Tina Charles, Renee Montgomery. They were really good at the time, but to beat them at home, that was very memorable for me as a freshman.”
Notre Dame's Niele Ivey battles UConn's Swin Cash for a loose ball during the Final Four in St. Louis in 2001. (Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Notre Dame is one of the rare programs with double-digit wins against UConn. They won the most of any UConn opponent by far since 2001-02 with 14. Rutgers and South Carolina have five wins each.
UConn is 40-16 all-time in the series, yet Notre Dame leads the NCAA tournament series, 5-3. Notre Dame's five wins are the most by any team against UConn in the tournament. They’ve met twice in the national championship in back-to-back seasons. UConn won in the first battle of undefeated teams to reach the title game in 2014, and again in the title game in 2015.
“We knew at some point we would have to beat them if we wanted to win a national championship,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said.
Michaela Mabrey, the eighth-year Notre Dame assistant coach working on the scout for UConn, played on those teams, overlapping with Arike Ogunbowale during the 2016 season. Ogunbowale hit the Final Four game-winner to end UConn’s undefeated run in 2018. She and Jackie Young went on to win the championship, the last time the Fighting Irish accomplished it.
Young and Skylar Diggins sat across from the Notre Dame bench on Friday for the Sweet 16 upset of No. 2 Vanderbilt. Both played for Ivey as an assistant, with Diggins leading the back-to-back Final Four defeats of UConn in 2011 and 2012.
“We have a lot come back and tell us about the UConn rivalry,” senior Cassandre Prosper told Yahoo Sports. “It’s beautiful to see just because it’s different stages. Both teams are elite teams and have always been elite.”
The teams taking the Dickies Arena floor on Sunday are both in different places than their most recent meeting, an 85-47 UConn home win in January. It was the most lopsided result in series history, and one Ivey knows Hidalgo (16 points) will flush.
Auriemma, who has coached through nearly this entire rivalry with associate Chris Dailey, also isn’t putting much stock into that result, telling the broadcast cameras after UConn’s Sweet 16 win that watching Hidalgo is a “treat” … “Until you have to play her.”
“They weren't at full strength, and they've had time to be together [now],” Auriemma said on Saturday. “I think everybody on their team knows what their role is…. I mean, there's a reason why they're playing tomorrow.”
UConn senior Azzi Fudd and sophomore Sarah Strong can cement their statuses with major performances against their rival in March. It’s the first time they’ve met in the NCAA tournament since the 2019 Final Four game that Notre Dame won.
“It’s weird to think that, like I'm part of it,” Fudd said on Saturday. “I feel like, when I talk about it's like, oh, that was the past. Like, it's different now.”
The first NCAA tournament meeting of the rivals came on March 30, 2001, at the Final Four in St. Louis. Ivey, who grew up 10 minutes away, scored a game-high 21 to lead her No. 6-seeded Fighting Irish into the national championship game for the first time.
Knocking out UConn en route to the national championship as a graduating fifth-year point guard is Ivey’s most memorable game of the rivalry series. The underdogs won it all that year, their nails painted green.
The tradition, initially prompted by St. Patrick’s Day, has carried through icons and the decades.
Continue reading...
Arike. Maya. Stewie. Sky.
All are singular identifiers. All earned their legend in March. All became icons in this rivalry.
Another name will join when underdog No. 6-seeded Notre Dame plays No. 1 overall seed Connecticut in the Fort Worth 1 regional championship on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, ABC). It is their ninth meeting in the NCAA tournament, but the first to happen before the Final Four.
There is no lore lost in either of these locker rooms. Everyone knows the lineage, even if they aren’t willing to make a thing of it.
Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey played in it, scouted it as an assistant coach and is now one win away from her first Final Four as a head coach.
“She's always told us about the rivalry,” Notre Dame point guard Hannah Hidalgo said. “She'll always have alum come back and tell us how big the rivalry is or how hard it is to play at UConn and to focus.”
Hidalgo, fresh off the second triple-double in NCAA tournament history, is in line for one-name notoriety. She scored 34 in Notre Dame’s 15-point win over UConn as a freshman during the Fighting Irish’s first winning streak of the series since 2012-13.
It’s Notre Dame assistant Charel Allen’s most memorable rivalry moment as a member of the coaching staff. UConn held a white-out attended by alumni, including Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird.
“It was us against them and they support heavy,” Allen told Yahoo Sports. “It was memorable to once again knock them off.”
As a player, Allen faced UConn consistently when they were both Big East powers in the early 2000s, before a bout of conference realignment sent Notre Dame to the ACC and UConn for a brief stay in the AAC. As a freshman, Allen’s 2004-05 team knocked off UConn, 65-59, in the regular season.
“That was the only time I beat them in my playing career,” Allen told Yahoo Sports. “But they had Maya Moore, Tina Charles, Renee Montgomery. They were really good at the time, but to beat them at home, that was very memorable for me as a freshman.”
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Notre Dame's Niele Ivey battles UConn's Swin Cash for a loose ball during the Final Four in St. Louis in 2001. (Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Notre Dame is one of the rare programs with double-digit wins against UConn. They won the most of any UConn opponent by far since 2001-02 with 14. Rutgers and South Carolina have five wins each.
UConn is 40-16 all-time in the series, yet Notre Dame leads the NCAA tournament series, 5-3. Notre Dame's five wins are the most by any team against UConn in the tournament. They’ve met twice in the national championship in back-to-back seasons. UConn won in the first battle of undefeated teams to reach the title game in 2014, and again in the title game in 2015.
“We knew at some point we would have to beat them if we wanted to win a national championship,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said.
Michaela Mabrey, the eighth-year Notre Dame assistant coach working on the scout for UConn, played on those teams, overlapping with Arike Ogunbowale during the 2016 season. Ogunbowale hit the Final Four game-winner to end UConn’s undefeated run in 2018. She and Jackie Young went on to win the championship, the last time the Fighting Irish accomplished it.
Young and Skylar Diggins sat across from the Notre Dame bench on Friday for the Sweet 16 upset of No. 2 Vanderbilt. Both played for Ivey as an assistant, with Diggins leading the back-to-back Final Four defeats of UConn in 2011 and 2012.
“We have a lot come back and tell us about the UConn rivalry,” senior Cassandre Prosper told Yahoo Sports. “It’s beautiful to see just because it’s different stages. Both teams are elite teams and have always been elite.”
The teams taking the Dickies Arena floor on Sunday are both in different places than their most recent meeting, an 85-47 UConn home win in January. It was the most lopsided result in series history, and one Ivey knows Hidalgo (16 points) will flush.
Auriemma, who has coached through nearly this entire rivalry with associate Chris Dailey, also isn’t putting much stock into that result, telling the broadcast cameras after UConn’s Sweet 16 win that watching Hidalgo is a “treat” … “Until you have to play her.”
“They weren't at full strength, and they've had time to be together [now],” Auriemma said on Saturday. “I think everybody on their team knows what their role is…. I mean, there's a reason why they're playing tomorrow.”
UConn senior Azzi Fudd and sophomore Sarah Strong can cement their statuses with major performances against their rival in March. It’s the first time they’ve met in the NCAA tournament since the 2019 Final Four game that Notre Dame won.
“It’s weird to think that, like I'm part of it,” Fudd said on Saturday. “I feel like, when I talk about it's like, oh, that was the past. Like, it's different now.”
The first NCAA tournament meeting of the rivals came on March 30, 2001, at the Final Four in St. Louis. Ivey, who grew up 10 minutes away, scored a game-high 21 to lead her No. 6-seeded Fighting Irish into the national championship game for the first time.
Knocking out UConn en route to the national championship as a graduating fifth-year point guard is Ivey’s most memorable game of the rivalry series. The underdogs won it all that year, their nails painted green.
The tradition, initially prompted by St. Patrick’s Day, has carried through icons and the decades.
Continue reading...
