[81alum]

I share VG’s question as to why our best on-ball defender, Wilson, wasn’t anywhere to be seen in the second half, where we really needed to be pit bulls and not let go.

Here’s the stat that knocks me down: we matched our first half scoring (33 and 35) —- but we let ND more than double theirs (26 to 58). We let them score 58 in the second half!

Our post defense just evaporated. Shredded like cheese. I feel like I need to check my wallet to see if it’s still there, or if some guy in a leprechaun hat is flashing my bling around Chicago tonight.

What happened in the 2nd half was that Jackie Young discovered that she could easily score on our defense by curling around a screen, over and over and over, and we did not have an answer for it.  She did a McPhee to us--scoring 19 points in the second half, 16 of them in a short stretch at the end of the 3rd and beginning of the the 4th.  No one could stay with her around the screen, and we were not switching effectively on her.  Sometimes she continued on to the basket for a layup, with Shannon playing the matador, and sometimes she stopped and pulled up for a short jumper that always seemed to go in.

Once Young got her screening game going in the paint, then everything else about our defense seemed to collapse.

I think our best defender was usually on Ogunbowale who had just scored 35 points in her last game.  Meanwhile, Young ran rampant.

4 of Notre Dame's starters are graduating.  Young is a junior, so she could stay, but many think she would be drafted if she wants to leave a year early.  They could send 5 players to the WNBA in one year.  We will send 1.  I'd say we did pretty well considering.

[81alum]

I share VG’s question as to why our best on-ball defender, Wilson, wasn’t anywhere to be seen in the second half, where we really needed to be pit bulls and not let go.

Here’s the stat that knocks me down: we matched our first half scoring (33 and 35) —- but we let ND more than double theirs (26 to 58). We let them score 58 in the second half!

Our post defense just evaporated. Shredded like cheese. I feel like I need to check my wallet to see if it’s still there, or if some guy in a leprechaun hat is flashing my bling around Chicago tonight.

What happened in the 2nd half was that Jackie Young discovered that she could easily score on our defense by curling around a screen, over and over and over, and we did not have an answer for it.  She did a McPhee to us--scoring 19 points in the second half, 16 of them in a short stretch at the end of the 3rd and beginning of the the 4th.  No one could stay with her around the screen, and we were not switching effectively on her.  Sometimes she continued on to the basket for a layup, with Shannon playing the matador, and sometimes she stopped and pulled up for a short jumper that always seemed to go in.

Once Young got her screening game going in the paint, then everything else about our defense seemed to collapse.

I think our best defender was usually on Ogunbowale who had just scored 35 points in her last game.  Meanwhile, Young ran rampant.

4 of Notre Dame's starters are graduating.  Young is a junior, so she could stay, but many think she would be drafted if she wants to leave a year early.  They could send 5 players to the WNBA in one year.  We will send 1.  I'd say we did pretty well considering.