Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WOMEN'S BASKETBALL The poise and confidence within the program is palpable. It has been at the "unconscious competence" level that Notre Dame football boss Brian Kelly speaks of as a Holy Grail in athletics. It was especially evident in the afore- mentioned rallies against Duke and Louisville in which the situations were nearly identical. In front of a fired up Duke crowd and national television audience, the Irish trailed 55-50 in the fourth quar- ter before exploding on a 13-0 run and holding the Blue Devils scoreless for six and a half minutes. "It's great confidence for our team to know that we can come in, not play particularly well … and come out with the win," McGraw said. In front of 13,837 at No. 13 Louisville on Super Bowl Sunday, the Irish faced an almost identical 55-49 deficit before finding their "clutch gene" again to end the Cardinals' 15-game winning streak and blemish their 10-0 confer- ence record. After shooting 18 of 46 (39.1 percent) from the floor through three quarters, Notre Dame was 6 of 9 (66.7 percent) in the fourth. It was 1 of 8 from three- point range — until Madison Cable's triple made it 62-58 when most needed. Meanwhile, the Cardinals were 20 of 47 (42.7 percent) from the field through three quarters, and then 5 of 22 (22.7 percent) in the fourth — and 1 of 13 to close the game. Very few teams possess the poise Notre Dame shows in tight situations, a trait it takes years and years of con- sistent excellence to build. That's how very good programs such as Duke, Louisville and Tennessee have lost a combined 25 straight to the Irish. Unlike in recent years where Notre Dame's prolific offense has over- whelmed the opposition, this year 's younger edition doesn't feature some- one who can score 25 to 30 points on virtually any night a la Skylar Diggins, Kayla McBride or Jewell Loyd — all of whom have been among the 25 invited to the United States National Team try- outs for the 2016 Summer Olympics. This year's squad has to grind out vic- tories more via defense. Although Notre Dame routinely av- erages 80 to 90 points at home in con- ference games, in its six road outings in the league the Irish average margin of victory has been 65.0-52.5. Junior Lindsay Allen has been the consummate point guard for the Irish, leading the ACC with a 2.43 assist-to-turnover ratio through Feb. 8. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND