No. 3 Huskies give Irish a chance to turn their
BY JOE HETTLER
Sports Editor
A Big East opponent at home. A 15-point lead with fewer than 13 minutes to play. A game a struggling Notre Dame womens basketball team needed to win.
A game they somehow lost.
Letting an almost sure win slip away against Rutgers, 64-61 Saturday, was the lowest point thus far in this up-and-down season for the Irish.
"I was very disappointed in the outcome of that game," Irish coach Muffet McGraw said. "I thought that was a game that we really needed to win, a game that we certainly could have won."
Notre Dame's woes started over Christmas break. The Irish were ranked in the top 10 at the beginning of the season and won seven of their first eight games, before losing four of seven, including Saturday's loss to the Scarlet Knights. Since its hot start, Notre Dame has struggled to play to its potential for 40 minutes.
And waiting to kick them when they're down is No. 3 Connecticut, a team that has won a Division I womens record 55 straight games and will visit the Joyce Center today for a 2 p.m. game.
Things couldn't get any worse for Notre Dame.
Or maybe, just maybe, Monday's matchup against 16-0 Connecticut could be just what Notre Dame needs.
It could be the rallying point that the Irish must have to gain some much-needed confidence. Or the beginning of a second-half surge for Notre Dame that helps the squad learn how to win again. It might be the game this team looks back on and says, `That was the turning point of our season.'
Don't get me wrong, beating Connecticut will be far from easy. It'll take an awesome effort and some definite luck. But the Irish do have history on their side. The last time the Huskies lost a basketball game was against Notre Dame by the score of 90-75 in the 2001 NCAA Final Four.
But Notre Dame doesn't even have to win this game for it to be the turning point in its season. Keeping up with the talented Huskies should still make the Irish feel better about their play of late and give them some momentum heading into the rest of their Big East schedule. They have a long road ahead of them, but this game can give them a good start.
Something positive just needs to happen for McGraw's squad. You can see her mounting frustration at practice. You could see it during the games the team has lost. And you could surely see it in her teary eyes after the Rutgers game.
The Irish have their backs against the wall and something must be done for them to salvage this season. Rutgers was in much the same position a year ago. The Scarlet Knights had a talented squad that couldn't reach its potential for the entire season.
"Notre Dame is a very good team," Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said. "They've got great size. They're just young, and as soon as they get out of that slump they'll be fine. "They have great talent and they play hard and they're very good. Last year we were in the same position as they are this year, and it plagued us all season long."
The Irish don't want to let this plague affect them the rest of the season. They have to find a way to win again.
An easy foe won't help the Irish at this point. They don't need a pushover. They need to play a team that will push them to their limits and challenge their toughness. A team that no one thinks they can beat.
A team like Connecticut.
Contact Joe Hettler at jhettler@nd.edu. The views expressed in this column are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Monday, January 20, 2003
