Indiana University Athletics
Indiana and Top-Seeded Notre Dame Clash Tonight
3/21/2016 12:22:00 PM | Women's Basketball
By: Tori Ziege, IUHoosiers.com | Twitter
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – It was less than a 24-hour turnaround for Indiana to digest its historic first-round win over Georgia before beginning preparations for No. 1 seed Notre Dame.
Head coach Teri Moren wouldn't go as far as to call her team's NCAA win the most important this season, but said it stacks right up there with wins against No. 18 Michigan State and on the road at No. 20 Northwestern.
But an upset of the Irish?
That would undeniably be the best in the history of Indiana women's basketball.
"They're an elite team," Moren said. "We know it's going to be an incredible challenge. But it doesn't matter what the uniform says on the front, the Hoosiers are going to show up, and they're going to play. Their competiveness, their energy level, their focus to detail, they'll bring that no question."
A side-by-side comparison of the two schools reveals just how big a behemoth Indiana is up against in the Irish.
The Hoosiers have never made it to the Sweet 16, where they would advance to play in Lexington next weekend in the event of a win tonight.
By contrast, the last time Notre Dame didn't make the Sweet 16 was seven years ago. The Irish have reached the Final Four each of the past five years and advanced to the national championship game in four of them.
Indiana (21-11, 12-6) lost 11 games this season. Notre Dame (32-1, 16-0) has lost the same number of games over the last five seasons. The Hoosiers ground out a 62-58 win against 8-seed Georgia, while the Irish cruised through the first round, beating 16-seed North Carolina A&T by 34 points.
But this is March.
In the men's bracket, No. 2 seed Michigan State lost to No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee. Mid-major Gonzaga is a Cinderella once again. And in the women's bracket, there were eight upsets in the first round, four of them by double-digit seeds.
Moren's message to her team was simple: Why not us?
"We could have that moment," she said. "We just have to play great for one night. Anything can happen."
The Hoosiers aren't disillusioned. Moren knows it will take a near perfect game to beat Notre Dame and their head coach Muffet McGraw, whom Moren said she looks up to as a coach and woman in the industry.
She knows McGraw will have a game plan for sophomore guard Tyra Buss, Indiana's only true point guard and leading scorer, averaging 18.9 points a game. It will be up to other players, such as Alexis Gassion, Jess Walter and Tyshee Towner, Moren said, to step up at the position as needed.
But Indiana is at its best when the ball is in Buss' hands.
"On a big stage like this, toughness is going to be tested," Buss said. "That's a challenge I'm definitely willing and ready to take on."
Apart from being housed in the same state, Indiana and Notre Dame share roots in the McBride family. Junior guard Karlee McBride's older sister Kayla played for the Irish from 2010 to 2014, reaching three title games in that span.
Kayla had some advice for her younger sister and the Hoosiers, whom, despite her torn allegiances, she will be rooting for tonight.
"One thing she did tell me was live in the moment," Karlee said. "This could be our last game. We have to play like it."
McBride has watched the Irish for years because of her sister, but Notre Dame is a team that many Hoosiers have followed simply because of the Irish's national prominence in college basketball over the last two decades.
Hours after the win, the Hoosiers were all eager to begin studying Notre Dame, who boasts four players averaging double digit scoring and a point guard in Lindsay Allen who racked up 10 assists against the Aggies on Saturday.
"I've got a great group of kids that are very hungry to find the information," Moren said. "They want to know personnel, style of play. They want to dig in Xs and Os."
The Xs and Os will, in part, tell the Hoosiers what they already know: The odds are stacked against them.
Then, again they've been stacked against them all season.
A year ago, not many could have predicted Indiana would leap up eight spots in the conference standings and make a run to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Hoosiers have already come so far.
Why not one step further?
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – It was less than a 24-hour turnaround for Indiana to digest its historic first-round win over Georgia before beginning preparations for No. 1 seed Notre Dame.
Head coach Teri Moren wouldn't go as far as to call her team's NCAA win the most important this season, but said it stacks right up there with wins against No. 18 Michigan State and on the road at No. 20 Northwestern.
But an upset of the Irish?
That would undeniably be the best in the history of Indiana women's basketball.
"They're an elite team," Moren said. "We know it's going to be an incredible challenge. But it doesn't matter what the uniform says on the front, the Hoosiers are going to show up, and they're going to play. Their competiveness, their energy level, their focus to detail, they'll bring that no question."
A side-by-side comparison of the two schools reveals just how big a behemoth Indiana is up against in the Irish.
The Hoosiers have never made it to the Sweet 16, where they would advance to play in Lexington next weekend in the event of a win tonight.
By contrast, the last time Notre Dame didn't make the Sweet 16 was seven years ago. The Irish have reached the Final Four each of the past five years and advanced to the national championship game in four of them.
Indiana (21-11, 12-6) lost 11 games this season. Notre Dame (32-1, 16-0) has lost the same number of games over the last five seasons. The Hoosiers ground out a 62-58 win against 8-seed Georgia, while the Irish cruised through the first round, beating 16-seed North Carolina A&T by 34 points.
But this is March.
In the men's bracket, No. 2 seed Michigan State lost to No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee. Mid-major Gonzaga is a Cinderella once again. And in the women's bracket, there were eight upsets in the first round, four of them by double-digit seeds.
Moren's message to her team was simple: Why not us?
"We could have that moment," she said. "We just have to play great for one night. Anything can happen."
The Hoosiers aren't disillusioned. Moren knows it will take a near perfect game to beat Notre Dame and their head coach Muffet McGraw, whom Moren said she looks up to as a coach and woman in the industry.
She knows McGraw will have a game plan for sophomore guard Tyra Buss, Indiana's only true point guard and leading scorer, averaging 18.9 points a game. It will be up to other players, such as Alexis Gassion, Jess Walter and Tyshee Towner, Moren said, to step up at the position as needed.
But Indiana is at its best when the ball is in Buss' hands.
"On a big stage like this, toughness is going to be tested," Buss said. "That's a challenge I'm definitely willing and ready to take on."
Apart from being housed in the same state, Indiana and Notre Dame share roots in the McBride family. Junior guard Karlee McBride's older sister Kayla played for the Irish from 2010 to 2014, reaching three title games in that span.
Kayla had some advice for her younger sister and the Hoosiers, whom, despite her torn allegiances, she will be rooting for tonight.
"One thing she did tell me was live in the moment," Karlee said. "This could be our last game. We have to play like it."
McBride has watched the Irish for years because of her sister, but Notre Dame is a team that many Hoosiers have followed simply because of the Irish's national prominence in college basketball over the last two decades.
Hours after the win, the Hoosiers were all eager to begin studying Notre Dame, who boasts four players averaging double digit scoring and a point guard in Lindsay Allen who racked up 10 assists against the Aggies on Saturday.
"I've got a great group of kids that are very hungry to find the information," Moren said. "They want to know personnel, style of play. They want to dig in Xs and Os."
The Xs and Os will, in part, tell the Hoosiers what they already know: The odds are stacked against them.
Then, again they've been stacked against them all season.
A year ago, not many could have predicted Indiana would leap up eight spots in the conference standings and make a run to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Hoosiers have already come so far.
Why not one step further?
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