The Notre Dame women's basketball team is going to the Final Four. And it's no fluke!
The Irish played their best game of the season Monday night to get there. They didn't just beat top seed Tennessee, who the rest of the world had already penciled into the Final Four (to play UConn...another team already penciled into people's brackets, if not written in Sharpie marker). Notre Dame was the better team on the floor last night. And they played the better game. The smarter game. Their game.
Skylar Diggins saved her best collegiate performance for the biggest stage she's stepped onto. Twenty-four points is just the beginning of the story. I was shocked when I read the box score to see she only had four assists, because I vividly remember three of them as key plays in the game. A kick out to Brittany Mallory for a 1st half three pointer that spawned an 11-2 run. The no-look pass to Natalie Novosel to give the Irish a 9-point 2nd half lead, their largest of the game at the time. And the lob to Devereaux Peters, the closest thing you'll see to an alley-oop slam in this game, which turned the regional final from a game into a bit of a rout. There's no way to measure clutch plays in a box score, but every time Notre Dame needed a big play, Diggins was there to make it.
