How Sweet It Is for the Fighting Irish
Mitch Alcala/Associated Press
As a Notre Dame player and assistant coach, Niele Ivey had participated in 17 NCAA tournaments. She had won national championships in both capacities, knowing full well what it felt like to thrive on the sport’s biggest stage.
And yet, prior to her team’s first-round matchup vs. UMass over the weekend, Ivey experienced a newfound wave of excitement.
“It feels like I’m a rookie,” she said. “Even that I've been there as a player and a coach, assistant coach, being here for the first time as a head coach, it feels really special.”
Ivey is in the midst of her second year leading the program. In her debut campaign in 2021–21, the Fighting Irish struggled with major roster turnover and saw their 24-season NCAA tournament streak end. What happened during that team’s 10–10 season thereby helps to explain why a year later, she so often discussed wanting to return to this very stage.
But on Monday night, following No. 5 Notre Dame’s 108–64 shellacking of No. 4 Oklahoma, Ivey was rendered speechless.
“Honestly, I don’t have any words,” she told reporters. “This is something I prayed about, something I knew could come to life. And I’m so over the moon.”
The Irish are heading back to the Sweet 16 after hanging 60 in the first half vs. the Sooners, shooting 53.9% from the field and recording both a season-high and school NCAA tournament-record 108 points.
Senior guard Dara Mabrey dropped 17 in the first quarter and finished with 29 points. Her seven three-pointers tied her older sister Marina’s school record. And, while Dara didn’t attempt a three from outer space, it’s not absurd to think she would have made the record-breaker had she had the chance to. “I felt like I was unconscious,” Mabrey said. “I just knew when I caught it I was going to let it go and it was going in.”
That Notre Dame even reached this stage in the tournament was far from guaranteed. Entering March Madness it had split its final eight games, at times looking little like the team that jumped out to a 13–3 start. It’s why Ivey said Monday that “it’s just incredible for me to see them blossom, to blossom in front of my eyes.”
Ivey and the Irish lost five ACC games this season, matching the combined total of conference games that her predecessor Muffet McGraw dropped during her final seven seasons. But throughout the ebbs and flows, the 44-year-old coach remained upbeat.
“I'm warm and fuzzy. I'm a relationship-driven person,” Ivey told Sports Illustrated prior to her first year calling the shots. “I'm like the emotional one—I know how to be strong and how to keep our emotions in check when I need to.”
Said McGraw, reflecting on her own style: “Warm and fuzzy versus … I don't want to say cold. Definitely just the facts.”
The reality of this Notre Dame team is that it is not spectacular on either end of the floor. Per HerHoopsStats.com, the Irish are No. 30 in defensive rating and No. 24 in offensive rating, both good, but at this stage, also often a step down from their competition. Lucky for them, their next opponent is a familiar foe, one they already defeated this season.
On Feb. 1, Notre Dame led NC State 52–43 entering the fourth quarter, stretching its lead to 12 with 7:35 remaining in the game. Despite the Irish showing their youth down the stretch—the Wolfpack cut the lead to only two with 1:41 to play—Notre Dame didn’t fold. “Oh my gosh, [it’s] euphoria for me,” Ivey said after the victory. “I’m just so proud of this group. It was a huge challenge.”
In that game, graduate forward Maya Dodson led the way with 20 points and 10 rebounds, out-matching Wolfpack center Elissa Cunane, who finished with 13 points and seven boards. Who wins the paint battle will again go a long way in determining which ACC team advances to the Elite Eight.
After Monday’s win, when the Irish became the first team in men’s or women’s NCAA tournament history to beat a better-seeded team by 40 or more points, Ivey said it was the first time she felt that this year’s group dominated all four quarters. She’s seen such efforts in the past, but now has a different perspective.
She knows what it takes to succeed at this stage in the tournament, and she’s seeing her team respond accordingly. “I’m super proud,” she said. “That’s a lot [of] growth for this group.”
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ICYMI
• We’re down to the Sweet 16, but some teams are closer to the title than others. Here’s Kevin Sweeney’s ranking of every team left in the men’s bracket.
• The Big Ten was loaded with star power this season, which makes it all the more disappointing that so many of its teams made early exits, writes Jeremy Woo.
• Four double-digit seeds, a downed No. 1 and several blue bloods out of the field. Is a new level of March unpredictability upon us? Pat Forde explores this year’s wild Sweet 16 field.
From the Vault: March 22, 2013
Howard Smith/USA TODAY Sports
Before Saint Peter’s (and Oral Roberts), there was Dunk City. Nine years ago today, Florida Gulf Coast made history by beating No. 2 Georgetown to become the first-ever No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16. The Eagles’ high-flying act took the country by storm before coming to an end against Florida in the regional semifinals, when SI’s Tim Layden wrote about the success story. Can this year’s Peacocks do one better and break through to the Elite Eight?