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Notre Dame Vs. Mississippi State: 10 To 1

Notre Dame's Iron Five, from left to right: Marina Mabrey, Arike Ogunbowale, Jackie Young, Kathryn Westbeld and Jessica Shepard.
Notre Dame's Iron Five, from left to right: Marina Mabrey, Arike Ogunbowale, Jackie Young, Kathryn Westbeld and Jessica Shepard. (Notre Dame Media Relations)

The head coaches for tonight’s national title clash (6 p.m. ET on ESPN) between 34-3 Notre Dame and 37-1 Mississippi State have a different way of looking at what they face against each other.

For Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw, it’s about overcoming the “L” word — letdown — after the epic 91-89 overtime win versus No. 1 UConn on Friday night.

The “Miracle On Ice” by the 1980 United States hockey team was not just about defeating the invincible Soviet Union Red Army team — but then still having enough left to rally from a 2-1 deficit in the third and final period to defeat Finland for the gold medal.

Mississippi State is now Notre Dame’s “Finland.”

Each of the last four teams to defeat Connecticut in the national semifinal — Stanford in 2008, Notre Dame in 2011 and 2012, and Mississippi State last year — did not have enough remaining in the emotional fuel tank to win the championship game as well.

“Any time you beat Connecticut ... it’s just such an emotional win, it makes it hard to get back to work,” McGraw admitted. “You feel like that should have been the championship game. You’re thinking, ‘We should be going home right now.’ ”

Naturally Bulldogs had coach Vic Schaefer offers a different perspective — even though he experienced the letdown himself last year.

“The only thing worse than playing Connecticut is playing the team that beat them,” he said.

Last year it was Mississippi State that won the semifinal outing against UConn in overtime with a buzzer-beating shot by current 5-5 senior guard Morgan William, snapping the Huskies’ record 111-game winning streak. Alas, little was left for the Bulldogs in the 67-55 loss to South Carolina in the championship showdown less than 48 hours later.

Notre Dame defeated 36-0 UConn in virtually identical fashion this Friday on junior guard Arike Ogunbowale’s jumper with one second left in overtime for a two-point triumph.

Here are some other storylines for the national title showdown, from 10 to 1.


10 Notre Dame sophomore guard Jackie Young emerged from the shadows this Friday by converting 10 field goals (in 15 attempts) and 10 free throws (in 11 attempts) in the overtime victory versus No. 1 UConn for a career high 32 points.

Also, Mississippi State missed its first 10 shots in the semifinal win versus Louisville — against whom the Irish were 0-2 this season — before winning by 10 in overtime.


9 Straight years Notre Dame has reached at least the Sweet 16, joining the "Final Four" that also includes UConn, Baylor and Stanford. McGraw is trying to join the company of those coaches who are multiple national title award winners.


8 Over the past eight seasons, this is Notre Dame’s fifth appearance in the national title game. It lost each of the previous four: Texas A&M in 2011 (76-70), Baylor in 2012 (80-61), and UConn in 2014 (79-58) and 2015 (63-53). The assistant on the bench for Texas A&M in 2011 was Schaefer — now the head coach for Mississippi State.


7 Mississippi State joins Notre Dame as one of only seven teams in history to play in back-to-back NCAA Tournament championship games. As noted, the Bulldogs lost 67-55 last year to SEC rival South Carolina, but returned virtually everyone on the roster.


6 In what will be its sixth and final NCAA Tournament game this year, Notre Dame needs 86 points to break the all-time record for scoring in the tourney, set by UConn in 2000. In the five contests played so far Notre Dame has averaged 92.4 points, and the 91 versus Connecticut in the semifinal was the most yielded by the Huskies in 17 years.

The starting five has averaged 85.2 points, led by junior All-American guard Ogunbowale’s 25.4 figure, the best in the tourney. Her 20.9 scoring average is a single season Notre Dame record so far, eclipsing the 20.4 standard set by Katryna Gaither during the program’s first Final Four campaign in 1996-97.


5 While Notre Dame has its own “Iron 5,” Mississippi’s State top quintet has started all 38 games together this season. The veteran lineup includes three seniors in 6-1 All-American Victoria Vivians (19.8 points per game, including 25 versus Louisville in the semifinal), 5-7 Blair Schaefer (9.1), the head coach’s daughter, and the aforementioned 5-5 William to complement fifth-year 5-7 senior Roshunda Johnson (11.6), whose clutch three-pointer in regulation versus Louisville sent the game into overtime.

The greatest challenge, however, might be towering 6-7 junior Teaira McCowan, who is averaging 18.2 points and 13.9 rebounds — second in the country — per game. McCowan’s 25 rebounds in Friday’s win versus Louisville (seven in overtime) were the second-most in tourney history, and 13 came on offense. She accounted for 17 second-chance points herself (21 total) while the rest of the team totaled six.

Her 92 rebounds in five 2018 NCAA games are already a tournament record, and her 28 double-doubles are tied for second nationally.


4 Four Notre Dame starters played 43 (or more) minutes of a possible 45 versus Connecticut — with junior Marina Mabrey having played every minute of each of the last three contests. She is four-three-pointers away from matching the tourney record of 22 set by UConn's Kia Nurse last year. Fifth-year senior Kristina Nelson’s 11 minutes were all the Irish had off the bench versus UConn — and her two taken charges in the fourth quarter were huge in Notre Dame’s victory. Her 6-4 frame might be needed to help 6-4 Jessica Shepard or even 6-2 Kathryn Westbeld against McCowan.

Meanwhile, Shepard has posted four double-doubles in five tourney games (just missing a fifth with nine rebounds) and averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds.


3 Consecutive games Notre Dame appeared to be on the precipice of falling too far behind in the first half before rallying to victory, thanks especially to outstanding play after halftime. The Irish trailed Texas A&M (37-24), Oregon (46-37) and UConn (41-30) before gathering their bearings together to win by six, 10 and two points, respectively.


2 McGraw and her Irish are vying for the program’s second national title and the first since 2001. That 68-66 win versus Purdue came exactly 17 years to the day (April 1, 2001) of this year’s meeting with Mississippi State — and on the heels of defeating No. 1 UConn in the semifinal on March 30, just as it did this season on the same date.

Notre Dame is also seeking its second national in as many weekends after the fencing team won it last Sunday. If the Irish succeed, then the Notre Dame hockey team will go for the “hat trick” this Thursday and Saturday in the Frozen Four.


1 Win away from McGraw reaching the milestone of 800 in her career at Notre Dame, where she is 779-229 (.777) entering tonight’s game versus Mississippi State.

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