What's ailing ND lately?

[EricSD]

Pitt is giving them all they can handle - up only 2 at half time, and Pitt is 8-5. This should be a game ND wins easily.

5 point win over Depaul, 1 point win over Oregon State, and 9 point win over Georgia Tech. Have people over estimated ND as a lock for the final 4?

 

[PalPa]

Pitt is giving them all they can handle - up only 2 at half time, and Pitt is 8-5. This should be a game ND wins easily.

5 point win over Depaul, 1 point win over Oregon State, and 9 point win over Georgia Tech. Have people over estimated ND as a lock for the final 4?

Well, they only lost one game this year. I don't remember who defeated them.

 

[Orangutan]

Pitt is giving them all they can handle - up only 2 at half time, and Pitt is 8-5. This should be a game ND wins easily.

5 point win over Depaul, 1 point win over Oregon State, and 9 point win over Georgia Tech. Have people over estimated ND as a lock for the final 4?

I certainly never thought ND was a lock for the Final Four. The common bond in those other three games is that ND held big leads at one point before letting them slip so that the games got close. I think the main problem is inconsistency.

This is the kind of season I expected without Jewell (and certainly no Reimer, who was the most experienced post, doesn't help). Sometimes they will play well and it will look great. Sometimes they will struggle, which is a natural part of having freshmen and sophomores in key roles (Turner, Westbeld, Mabrey2, Ogunbowale). Mabrey1 and Cable are good veteran leaders but neither is capable of taking over a game at will.

So in a situation like this, ND doesn't have someone who can just take initiative and say "I got this". It looks like Allen is trying to today but she is most effective as a facilitator.

Just hoping they will wake up at some point and put together a run. I thought it would probably happen after halftime but it is still looking ugly out there.

 

[Sonny44]

ND could be 5 - 6 and still give us fits.

 

[JavaMan]

Notre Dame pulls it out with a 65 - 55 win over Pitt; the 800th win for Muffet. Congrats to her. She becomes only the 5th coach in the men's or women's game to reach 800 wins joining Geno and Pat in the women's game.

 

[mhshuskies]

800 wins but still not in the same conversation with Geno and Pat, 10 and 8 NC respectively versus only 1.

 

[mhshuskies]

Pitt is giving them all they can handle - up only 2 at half time, and Pitt is 8-5. This should be a game ND wins easily.

5 point win over Depaul, 1 point win over Oregon State, and 9 point win over Georgia Tech. Have people over estimated ND as a lock for the final 4?

Wasn't it only a three point win against an Ohio State team that doesn't play defense. Also all those games at home.

 

[FairView]

Notre Dame pulls it out with a 65 - 55 win over Pitt; the 800th win for Muffet. Congrats to her. She becomes only the 5th coach in the men's or women's game to reach 800 wins joining Geno and Pat in the women's game.

Don't Tara V and Jody C both have more than 900 wis?

 

[Orangutan]

Notre Dame pulls it out with a 65 - 55 win over Pitt; the 800th win for Muffet. Congrats to her. She becomes only the 5th coach in the men's or women's game to reach 800 wins joining Geno and Pat in the women's game.

The thing I heard was that the only coaches with 800+ wins, 7 final fours, and 5 championship game appearances are now Pat, Geno, Coach K, Dean Smith, and Muffet.

 

[JavaMan]

Don't Tara V and Jody C both have more than 900 wis?

Well ...I was quoting the announcers of the game. BIG MISTAKE! My bad. Yes, Tara, Jody... and a dozen or so more have actually won 800. I'm going to go and fix myself a crow sandwich. Later.

 

[JavaMan]

The thing I heard was that the only coaches with 800+ wins, 7 final fours, and 5 championship game appearances are now Pat, Geno, Coach K, Dean Smith, and Muffet.

Yea, I've learned I'm not quite as good at multi-tasking as I thought.

 

[Orangutan]

Wasn't it only a three point win against an Ohio State team that doesn't play defense. Also all those games at home.

Ohio State is ranked #7 in Sagarin and #9 in the polls and their other two losses are to #1 UConn and SC (#8 Sag, #2 AP). They have wins over Maryland (4/6), Texas A&M (15/16), and Michigan State (12/24).

Bad defense or no, Ohio State is pretty good and beating them by any amount, anywhere without Turner is a nice result for ND (in my humble opinion, of course).

 

[bbsamjj]

Oregon St is also a top 10 team, and DePaul, while a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde team, has given tons of people fits, and racked up impressive results of their own.

In general, I think the parody in WCBB has been much better this year. Yes UConn has destroyed some teams, but the MD game was close all the way through, and the team needed some time and effort to dispatch of both ND and Depaul.

Meanwhile, both SC and ND have had some very close encounters, and just today there have been upsets in the top 10.

Looking forward to more good games.

 

[mudcat]

Pitt is giving them all they can handle - up only 2 at half time, and Pitt is 8-5. This should be a game ND wins easily.

5 point win over Depaul, 1 point win over Oregon State, and 9 point win over Georgia Tech. Have people over estimated ND as a lock for the final 4?

Hey! Did you forget I picked Pitt 5th in the ACC?

 

[MilfordHusky]

ND is still very good and dangerous. What's the difference? They don't currently have a star guard. Skylar, Kayla, and Jewell were all clear 1st team AA players. They have lots of weapons and a potential AA in Turner, but she's not a guard.

 

[Millenial23]

Has Turner returned from her injury and played in some games recently? Could some of their 'struggles' have to do with figuring out how to integrate her after playing an almost-all-guards lineup for a while, the lineup they played against us?

 

[tomcat]

Oregon St is also a top 10 team, and DePaul, while a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde team, has given tons of people fits, and racked up impressive results of their own.

In general, I think the parody in WCBB has been much better this year. Yes UConn has destroyed some teams, but the MD game was close all the way through, and the team needed some time and effort to dispatch of both ND and Depaul.

Meanwhile, both SC and ND have had some very close encounters, and just today there have been upsets in the top 10.

Looking forward to more good games.

Actually, I thought the real parody in WCBB this year was at TN, which has pretended to be a top-level team this year.

 

[Tonyc]

Turner is still not 100%. Last thing I read she might need surgery and whether is should be done during or after the season. ND has a lot of shooters. Not a lot of rebounders and not a guard like Lloyd. So they struggle at times and look great when theyre hitting their outside shots. Remember against UConn. Mabrey 2 went off. Say she scores half those points what happens to ND????? There are a lot of good teams that can give each other a good game and were beginning to see that now. Everybody but this years UConn. Now with Butler and Chong coming on if UConn stays healthy well the writing is on the wall.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

The thing I heard was that the only coaches with 800+ wins, 7 final fours, and 5 championship game appearances are now Pat, Geno, Coach K, Dean Smith, and Muffet.

where are muffett's 5 championships? (not sure dean has 5 either)

 

[Gus Mahler]

where are muffett's 5 championships? (not sure dean has 5 either)

I respectfully suggest re-reading his post.

 

[Checkmate]

ND has only one good post player, I am not counting Westbeld. They lack a star too.

 

[Kaizen]

where are muffett's 5 championships? (not sure dean has 5 either)

Championship game appearances, not championships.
I agree it is a funny misleading statement, but is true.

 

[mhshuskies]

Championship game appearances, not championships.
I agree it is a funny misleading statement, but is true.

big difference between 1-4 vs. 10-0 in the big game!

 

[ndmb]

The thing I heard was that the only coaches with 800+ wins, 7 final fours, and 5 championship game appearances are now Pat, Geno, Coach K, Dean Smith, and Muffet.

Yeah, and if you look at who did it while eating a bagel for breakfast each of those mornings, Muffet's in a club of her own .

It's almost as frustrating as when the announcers spend a lot of time talking about UConn's win record in November.

 

[hjoerring]

For those writing ND off as ailing- answer this, where would Uconn be with Stewart and Jefferson out of the line-up? As I remember, the Depaul and MD (and ND) games were not sleepers. Personally, I think if ND can get by SC they will be in the Championship game. SC is to them what Stanford were to Uconn in years back. And think about their recruits (and recruitment) for next year.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

For those writing ND off as ailing- answer this, where would Uconn be with Stewart and Jefferson out of the line-up? As I remember, the Depaul and MD (and ND) games were not sleepers. Personally, I think if ND can get by SC they will be in the Championship game. SC is to them what Stanford were to Uconn in years back. And think about their recruits (and recruitment) for next year.

However ailing ND might be, it's not possible for them to be down two first team All Americans with three National Championships each. Your analogy thus suffers.

 

[UcMiami]

I think what you see with ND is the issue of an unbalanced team - they have to rely to a large degree on either foul shots or three point shooting, because with Turner ailing, and Reimer gone, they are too easy to defend on the interior. And distance shooting is something that can come and go, even when you have a lot of good shooters on the team - they can get on a role and look great, and then someone starts missing and everyone else starts missing as well, and suddenly it looks terrible. DePaul is another team that always seems to have that issue as they almost never have good interior offense. And Stanford has the same issues with the O-sisters departures. KY as well has struggled to have any sort of post presence.
On the opposite side you have teams like SC, TN, and Baylor who are consistently post weighted and can run into issues when teams pack in the defense and force guards and wings to hit shots.

 

[Orangutan]

Re Muffet - here is the graphic from the broadcast:

 

[Orangutan]

I think what you see with ND is the issue of an unbalanced team - they have to rely to a large degree on either foul shots or three point shooting, because with Turner ailing, and Reimer gone, they are too easy to defend on the interior.

I think you have the right idea. Specifically regarding Pitt, they stayed tight to the shooters and didn't give up any 3s. However, they are not big inside and certainly don't have anyone to match Turner. ND should have pounded Turner relentlessly until Pitt started to collapse in, thus freeing up the shooters and completing the circle of life.

The issue was that the entry passing was horrible and so was the decision making on the pick and roll. Turner did her thing when she actually got the ball in good position but that happened too infrequently. ND finally got going and made the run that put the game away when Huffman came in to play the high post. She made a couple decent entry passes plus got a block and 3 steals and that sparked the run. But it shouldn't take putting a 5'9 guard in at the high post forward spot to get some decent entry passes. Normally, that would be Reimer's spot but she's gone and Westbeld had an off game.

On a macro level, there's nothing "ailing" ND. They are having some growing pains as good coaches like Scott Rueck, Machelle Joseph, and Susie McConnell-Serio figure out ways to attack this specific ND lineup. I expected this before Reimer left and Turner hurt her shoulder.

 

[easttexastrash]

Only one team should be judged by UCONN standards, and that is UCONN. There are a lot of teams that are fairly equal in talent after UCONN and they are going to play some close games, but that doesn't mean that anything is "ailing" them.