Huskies face tough matchup vs. Irish
Uconn and Notre Dame were conference foes in the Big East for almost 20 years, and though the legendary women’s basketball rivalry doesn’t carry the same conference ramifications anymore, it will always be meaningful in Storrs.
Gampel Pavilion is sold out for Saturday’s matchup between the No. 8 Huskies (17-3) and No. 15 Fighting Irish (14-4), where it has been a decade since Uconn lost to the Irish on its home court. The Huskies are 23-3 all-time against Notre Dame in Connecticut but are just 10-6 on the road including a 74-60 loss in South Bend, Indiana, last season.
Uconn’s last loss to Notre Dame at Gampel was in January 2013, but the Huskies got the last laugh by knocking the Irish out in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament. That team, led by then-freshman Breanna Stewart went on to win its first of four consecutive national championships. Coach Muffet Mcgraw’s Fighting Irish returned the favor in 2018 though, eliminating the Huskies from the Final Four after losing to them at the XL Center during the regular season.
Mcgraw stepped down after the 2019-20 season and has since been replaced by former ND star Niele Ivey. Not much has changed.
“I do think that stability has a lot to do with rivalries. You stay really good, you stay relevant,” Uconn coach Geno Auriemma said. “I don’t know how many games we’ve played with Notre Dame where one of us was either No. 1 or No. 2 — No. 3 at worst. They’ve got terrific players, and they’re good every year, and they’re really well coached. Whether it’s at their place or whether it’s here, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just exciting to play them.”
This year's game holds an extra layer of pressure for Uconn. The Huskies will honor four national championship teams — 2002, 2003, 2013, 2014 — at halftime, and the star-studded roster of alumni attending includes Stewart and 10-time WNBA All-star Diana Taurasi.
“It's totally extra motivation, because you want to prove to them that they did all this great work and we just want to carry on that legacy,” freshman Ashlynn Shade said. “I'll probably fangirl a lot seeing all of the players. Every time an alumni comes back, all of us freshmen are like, ‘Oh my God, can I get your picture?'”
Notre Dame, now playing in the ACC, may not be a conference rival anymore, but the top-15 matchup is Uconn's first since it lost to No. 10 Texas on Dec. 3. The Huskies are on a hot streak after struggling through a brutal nonconference slate early in the season, and their performance against the Irish will give Auriemma a clearer picture of how far his team has come.
“Once we weren't in the same league, it kind of became a measuring stick for both teams, like okay, let's see where we are right now at this point in the season,” Auriemma said. “I enjoy scheduling nonconference games during the season because it does take you to another place mentally. A lot of times, when you're playing within your league, you get tunnel vision and that's all you see, and this is a good opportunity to find out like, let's see what we're dealing with here in (March).”
It's easy to compare the teams, from play style to bad luck with injuries. The Irish haven't been plagued to the same extent as Uconn, but guard Olivia Miles remains out after a season-ending knee injury last February, and preseason ALL-ACC selection Sonia Citron missed seven weeks with a sprained MCL.
Meanwhile, the Huskies confirmed this week that Caroline Ducharme will not return amid ongoing head-andneck pain, marking the fifth season-ending injury on the roster in 2023-24.
Both programs have also seen freshmen emerge as rising stars amid adversity. Shade and KK Arnold have made 14 starts for the Huskies, and both are shooting above 53% from the field with nine Big East freshman of the week honors between them. Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo was forced into a starting role much earlier and quickly emerged as a frontrunner for national freshman of the year. The former No. 5 prospect is averaging 23.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 5.4 steals per game.
“I think the matchup is pretty good. They've got a dynamite young point guard and so do we. They've got some experienced players, and so do we. They're a high-scoring team that loves to play fast and so are we,” Auriemma said. “I just think there's a lot of similarities between between our two teams, so it should be quite entertaining.”