Irish earn respect, Blue Devils add to tradition
By TED FOX
Sports Writer
It's 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. The Notre Dame women's basketball team plays tonight at 7:30 in the first-ever national championship game for an Irish basketball squad.
Conventional wisdom would therefore have me writing this sometime after the game ends, hopefully something about people dancing on tables to celebrate a Notre Dame win.
However, no one has ever said what I write makes any sense, displays any sort of wisdom, or makes any claims to be conventional.
Fortunately for me, this team, which now sports a record of 33-2 after a 90-75 win over UConn on Friday night, has already given me plenty to write about.
Friday nights can be a rocky time for those of us whose most wild weekend consists of the time we watched the NCAA tournament for 31 straight hours, but this past Friday stood out.
Together with 11 of my best friends, some more sober than others, I crammed into a room in Morrissey to watch the final act of the Irish/Husky Trilogy for 2001.
We cheered for Notre Dame baskets and steals, yelled at officials for their calls (apparently it's now illegal for a center to back someone down in the post) and cursed at the bad bounces.
And if we're all honest, we did that last thing at the refs, too (So when Ericka Haney bumps into a UConn player at the foul line, don't blow the whistle — but once the player scores, go ahead and blow it and give her a shot at a three-point play).
We saw the first half wind down, with Notre Dame's March to the Arch looking like it would end with the drum major dropping the baton. Down by as many as 16 in the first half, the Irish looked up from the bottom of a hole that no team in the Final Four had ever successfully climbed out of.
And at the top of that hole? The defending national champions, trying to bury the Irish and still get home in time for Sportscenter.
But then came the greatest 20 minutes in Notre Dame basketball history, a stretch where the Irish, after giving up the first three points of the half, went on a 53-23 romp that didn't end until the final horn.
The attack came from all directions, from all five positions and players on the floor. Haney and Kelley Siemon slashed to the basket, Ruth Riley abused people in the post, and Alicia Ratay showed why she's the country's leading markswoman from 3-point range.
As for point guard Niele Ivey, even though she played the entire second half with three fouls and then later, a sprained ankle, the player who always seems two steps faster than everyone else was, and she did whatever needed to be done whenever it needed doing.
No longer did we see a Notre Dame team that appeared overmatched in the face of a national power.
The Irish are that national power now, not to be bullied or intimidated by the likes of a UConn.
And just when we thought we had seen it all for one weekend with big time comebacks, along came Duke and Maryland in the men's tournament.
In a game that bore somewhat of an eerie resemblance to that played on Friday night at the Savvis Center, these two teams from the ACC met for the fourth time this year at the Metrodome.
Maryland got out to a 22 point lead in the first half, only to see it cut to 49-38 at halftime. The Terps eventually lost by 11, 95-84, the Dukies completing a 33 point swing.
UConn's lead in the first half got as big as 47-31, and the Irish trailed 49-37 at the half. Notre Dame went on to flip that margin upside down, completing their own 31 point swing and winning by 15.
The biggest difference between these two games separated by about 24 hours and 550 miles? Going in, a lot of people felt Duke was the country's class act.
Notre Dame still had to fight for that respect.
After destroying the Huskies by 27 in the second half on a national stage, Sue Bird saying her team felt the antithesis of UConn basketball and panic, Notre Dame can now move to the head of the class.
So thank you, ladies, for that moment on Friday night — the proudest I have ever been to be a sports-loving Notre Dame student.
I know anything less than a national title won't satisfy you.
But regardless of what happened against Purdue, I'll still only have one thing to say:
Long live the new queens of college basketball.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Monday, April 2, 2001
