"Do The Math" Here Comes Notre Dame?

[JavaMan]

"In reality, Notre Dame is a team built for next year. The Irish, who have six McDonald’s All-Americans on the roster now, will have everyone back and will add three McDonald’s All-Americans next season. But, why not start the run to overtake UConn now?"

Here's a look at the local sentiment from northern Indiana:

Do the math: Can Notre Dame women's basketball overtake UConn? [LINK] to article.

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I see the potential of a Notre Dame/UConn championship game as a very real possibility (if not probability). If that happens, it may turn out to be a real nail-biter. Hopefully our math will add up better than theirs.

 

[meyers7]

In reality, Notre Dame is a team built for next year. The Irish, who have six McDonald’s All-Americans on the roster now, will have everyone back and will add three McDonald’s All-Americans next season.

Agree, ND will have a really good team next year. However, UCONN brings back 4 starters and not only adds in a better recruiting class (also 3 McD AAs) but also a big post presence in Butler. And beating Stewart and Jefferson as Seniors is gonna be really, really difficult. This is the year to get UCONN, think it will be harder next year.

 

[DobbsRover2]

ND has definitely got it all together to be an unstoppable machine. Those recent 7-point and 6-point wins over NC State and Duke have proved it, because there's probably no two tougher opponents in the country.

Ah, St. Paddy's day. Where did I hide my luck charms, again?

 

[HoopsFan21]

In reality, Notre Dame is a team built for next year. The Irish, who have six McDonald’s All-Americans on the roster now, will have everyone back and will add three McDonald’s All-Americans next season.

Agree, ND will have a really good team next year. However, UCONN brings back 4 starters and not only adds in a better recruiting class (also 3 McD AAs) but also a big post presence in Butler. And beating Stewart and Jefferson as Seniors is gonna be really, really difficult. This is the year to get UCONN, think it will be harder next year.

You forgot Tuck! She's gonna be even better next year, especially if her outside shot continues to improve.

 

[stwainfan]

I agree Notre Dame Will have a impessive and more experienced team. Tennessee adds a natioal FOY.

 

[AnotherVolFan]

Like Myers mentioned UCONN has a wonderfulllll recruiting class coming in. I try to remind people of that on VolNation. Of course we're excited with what we have coming in and who we have returning next year but I don't know if they all follow recruiting as closely as some do and UCONN is only losing KML but bring in what some services consider the #1 player in the class, Nappesha whom I think is the true #1 player, and DJB....plus throw in an already proven Butler, its going to be pretty tough next year to beat you all. BUT I do have to say, everyone else has some prettyyyy good pieces to play with next year.

ND being #1
Tenn with a close close 2nd...a lot hinges upon Mercedes and also Jannah Tucker for me personally.
Baylor is the 3rd team
Louisville being next
And then South Carolina

I was going to throw Duke in there with the addition of Salvadores but you never know with Coach P.

 

[VolFan]

I think next year is definitely all about UConn, Notre Dame, and Tennessee in that order.
UConn will be UConn, especially with Butler. That post presence should allow Stewart to face up and show off her versatility more.
Notre Dame will be tremendous as well. Turner and Loyd in their second year together may be the best duo in the country.
And then Tennessee, I think we'll be the deepest team in the country. Coming off of injury/unavailability will be Jasmine Jones, Diamond DeShields, Mercedes Russell, and Jannah Tucker. Add in the best incoming PG in the country in Te'a Cooper and we'll finally have the balanced team with a superstar that we've needed since '08. If we play D the way we have this year with a way improved roster, we have a shot at the Championship in my mind.

 

[01Neaggrad02]

Data can be skewed to represent whatever you want it to represent. Just because you have the All-Americans, or McDonald all stars or whatnot does not mean you will win the title. I would be concerned with 9 All Americans on one team. How would they each have playing time? Is there going to be an issue there?

 

[Zorro]

Hmmm... Deepest team? Stewart, Tuck, Jefferson, Nurse, Chong, Butler, Williams, LouConn, Collier, Boykin. It don't get no deeper than that, amigos! And one slight quibble with Meyers; Stewart and Jefferson as seniors are not going to be really, really tough to beat; they are going to be really, really, really, really tough!!

 

[triaddukefan]

ND being #1
Tenn with a close close 2nd...a lot hinges upon Mercedes and also Jannah Tucker for me personally.
Baylor is the 3rd team
Louisville being next
And then South Carolina

I was going to throw Duke in there with the addition of Salvadores but you never know with Coach P.

The ACC will be fun next year....you mentioned ND and Louisville. UNC gets back X-34 from injury... and gets some good recruits coming in...... Duke gets back Chidom and Belton from injuries.... and adds some good guards.... FSU only loses one starter from their team..... Syracuse returns virtually everyone... and hopefully gets Skyes back from injury.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Data can be skewed to represent whatever you want it to represent. Just because you have the All-Americans, or McDonald all stars or whatnot does not mean you will win the title. I would be concerned with 9 All Americans on one team. How would they each have playing time? Is there going to be an issue there?

Wrong, wrong , wrong! Duke has had the highest rated recruits overall in recent years and . . . . .

 

[VolFan]

Hmmm... Deepest team? Stewart, Tuck, Jefferson, Nurse, Chong, Butler, Williams, LouConn, Collier, Boykin. It don't get no deeper than that, amigos! And one slight quibble with Meyers; Stewart and Jefferson as seniors are not going to be really, really tough to beat; they are going to be really, really, really, really tough!!

I don't know, Middleton, Carter, Reynolds, Cooper, Jackson, Tucker, DeShields, Dunbar, Jones, Graves, Nared, Moore, Russell is pretty deep.
That's 8 McDonald's AA's, not including Carter and Tucker who would have been if not for injury, and 6 Top 10 HS players.

 

[CocoHusky]

Add in the best incoming PG in the country in Te'a Cooper.....

Hate to be a wet blanket VolFan but only 1 ranking service Prospests Nation has Te'a listed as best "PG" in the country. Prospects Nation had Durr ranked ahead of her but listed as a "G". If you look at another ranking services, ESPN for example, Te'a is listed as 7th best PG. Durr, Salvadores, Higgs, Lambert, Ogunbowale, & Mazyck are all ranked ahead of her at the PG position. Time will tell but to pronounce Cooper the best PG in the class is premature and reminiscent of Burdick's proclamation of UT having the best front court in the nation "hands down???".

 

[CocoHusky]

Turner and Loyd in their second year together may be the best duo in the country.

VolFan seriously? Turner & Loyd better than Stewie and MoJett. Did you slip into an alternate universe? Turner & Loyd IMO is not even better than Nurse and Tuck.

 

[Sonny44]

ND has definitely got it all together to be an unstoppable machine. Those recent 7-point and 6-point wins over NC State and Duke have proved it, because there's probably no two tougher opponents in the country.

Ah, St. Paddy's day. Where did I hide my luck charms, again?

Really? So NC State and Duke are #1 seeds?

 

[VolFan]

Hate to be a wet blanket VolFan but only 1 ranking service Prospests Nation has Te'a listed as best "PG" in the country. Prospects Nation had Durr ranked ahead of her but listed as a "G". If you look at another ranking services, ESPN for example, Te'a is listed as 7th best PG. Durr, Salvadores, Higgs, Lambert, Ogunbowale, & Mazyck are all ranked ahead of her at the PG position. Time will tell but to pronounce Cooper the best PG in the class is premature and reminiscent of Burdick's proclamation of UT having the best front court in the nation "hands down???".

Somehow Cooper managed to make it ahead of all of them except Durr onto the Naismith All-America team. I would hope an edcuated UConn fan such as yourself, would know better than to take ESPN's rankings at face value.

 

[meyers7]

You forgot Tuck! She's gonna be even better next year, especially if her outside shot continues to improve.

I agree, she's one of the 4 starters I mentioned. She's not a senior though. (basketball wise)

 

[meyers7]

Hmmm... Deepest team? Stewart, Tuck, Jefferson, Nurse, Chong, Butler, Williams, LouConn, Collier, Boykin. It don't get no deeper than that, amigos! And one slight quibble with Meyers; Stewart and Jefferson as seniors are not going to be really, really tough to beat; they are going to be really, really, really, really tough!!

If that's your only quibble, I'll take it.

 

[meyers7]

Somehow Cooper managed to make it ahead of all of them except Durr onto the Naismith All-America team. I would hope an edcuated UConn fan such as yourself, would know better than to take ESPN's rankings at face value.

When you combine all 5 services, Cooper comes in #2 at PG behind Higgs (Texas) and #4 at G behind Durr (Louisville), Ogunbowale (ND), and Higgs. None-the-less, she should be really good for you guys. Hopefully though (for you guys), you won't have to "depend" on a FR PG. If you can ease her in behind Carter/Middleton that would probably be to your advantage.

 

[VolFan]

When you combine all 5 services, Cooper comes in #2 at PG behind Higgs (Texas) and #4 at G behind Durr (Louisville), Ogunbowale (ND), and Higgs. None-the-less, she should be really good for you guys. Hopefully though (for you guys), you won't have to "depend" on a FR PG. If you can ease her in behind Carter/Middleton that would probably be to your advantage.

I don't expect we'll depend on her, but she should be a great punch off the bunch, especially with her established chemistry with DeShields. Carter and Middleton, while both have played and can play the PG will play a lot of two, as Jordan Reynolds is establishing herself as the PG of the team.

 

[stwainfan]

If you look at the rosters. Both Notre Dame and Tennessee are two of the few teams. That can match up talent wise with UConn. Notre Dame has Turned who I think will be a superstar. Tennessee has DeShields we saw how good she was as a freshman.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Really? So NC State and Duke are #1 seeds?

Obviously the committee just hated them for some reason in not giving them #1 seeds. They're in the ACC, so they must be the best.

As to UConn's depth even this year, there were allusions to "the lack of it" in the selection show last night, which is a bit puzzling since 8-9-deep is usually as much as the Huskies go, and last year most of the minutes and almost all of the scoring was done by 5 players in the last 5 games of the tourney. But at least if UConn gets up to 10 players next year, maybe the talking heads will stop talking about the team's depth problems.

 

[VAUConnFan]

A very intriguing discussion here as it appears that history is trying to repeat itself. While UConn is surely the prohibitive favorites to threepeat as national champions this year and will be as strong as ever next year, most of us can easily recall a similar scenario back in 2001 when UConn returned a very strong team after its second national championship only to have it thwarted by a very good Notre Dame squad. The only difference for me then and now is that prior to the 2000-2001 season, I never saw Notre Dame coming. Forewarned is forearmed.

 

[CocoHusky]

Somehow Cooper managed to make it ahead of all of them except Durr onto the Naismith All-America team. I would hope an edcuated UConn fan such as yourself, would know better than to take ESPN's rankings at face value.

Always up for more education life long learner here. 1) So if Durr is ahead of Cooper on Naismith All-America doesn't that make Durr #1 PG? Or are you saying Durr is not a PG? 2) How is my use of ESPN rankings any different than your use of Naismith All America team as a source of relative rankings?

 

[iamcbs]

So they only play WCBB in the ACC and at UConn, right? They don't play WCBB in the B1G where #1 seed MD and the NFOY reside? What team was hit any harder by injuries than tOSU? They return the highest scoring backcourt in the country along with 3 starters that were injured. MD also only loses one SR starter in Loren Mincy. MN will have Rachael Banham back from injury to pair with Amanda Zahui B. making them formidable as well. I get the the whole UConn, ND, TN superiority complex, although only one of the 3 really deserve to have it, but they do play WCBB in other areas of the country where there are other good teams that are ready to challenge. As for you delusional ND Fans, I say simply South Carolina thought that they were PTP'ers too until February 9th when they found out what every pretender always does, the having to play UConn isn't nearly as pleasurable as the wanting to play UConn!!