Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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and really did what they were sup- posed to. I felt like I was still fouling and still in places I wasn't supposed to be, not playing as much. "I think I've made a bigger step this year to be more of a threat, getting boards, being able to run more stuff for me and being more aggressive on offense, so hopefully I can live up to it a little more this year." McGraw said Peters' past foul problems were a product of being too much of a perfectionist. "She doesn't like people scoring on her, or doesn't like being caught out of position [even on help defense]," Mc- Graw said. "Instead of saying, 'Okay, I didn't box out, I'll do it next time' she would foul. I think she's now going, 'I'm going to give you that one, but I'm going to work harder next time.' " "A lot of it was I wasn't in the right positions — but I still didn't want Nov. 13 Indiana State# Nov. 17 Hartford# Nov. 20 at Baylor# Nov. 25 vs. USC^ Nov. 26 vs. Duke^ Dec. 2 Pennsylvania Dec. 4 at Creighton Dec. 7 Marquette* Dec. 10 at Purdue Dec. 18 Kentucky Date Opponent Result/Time (ET)/TV Nov. 11 Akron# BASKETBALL SCHEDULE 2011-12 WOMEN'S Dec. 20 Central Florida Dec. 28 Longwood Dec. 30 at Mercer Jan. 4 Jan. 7 Jan. 10 at Georgetown* Jan. 14 at Cincinnati* Jan. 17 Pittsburgh* Jan. 21 Villanova* Jan. 23 Tennessee Jan. 28 at St. John's* Jan. 31 at Rutgers* Feb. 5 DePaul* at Seton Hall* Connecticut* Feb. 7 at Syracuse* Feb. 12 West Virginia* Feb. 14 Providence* Feb. 20 at Louisville* Feb. 25 South Florida* Feb. 27 at Connecticut* 3:30 p.m./ESPNU 7 p.m. Mar. 2-6 Big East Championship! W, 74-67 (OT) W, 80-60 W, 76-50 W, 120-44 W, 76-43 W, 72-44 W, 71-56 W, 71-41 W, 90-70 W, 74-55 9 p.m./ESPN2 TBD 2 p.m./ESPN 2 p.m. # Preseason WNIT (Akron, Baylor, Chattanooga, Detroit, Drexel, East Tennessee State, Hartford, Howard, Indiana State, Long Island, Manhattan, McNeese State, Notre Dame, Tennessee Tech, UAB, UCLA); ^ Junkanoo Jam at Freeport, Bahamas; * Big East game; ! at XL Center in Hartford, Conn.; CBSNN — CBS Sports Network, BTN — Big Ten Network, BEN — Big East Network www.BLUEANDGOLD.com W, 81-61 W, 99-34 W, 98-43 L, 94-81 W, 80-58 W, 56-54 W, 69-38 W, 76-48 W, 95-42 W, 66-38 W, 92-83 W, 90-38 W, 92-26 W, 128-42 W, 74-36 them to score so I overcompensate and reach and jump at the ball," Pe- ters admitted. "Now I'm trying to be where I'm supposed to be, and if I'm not, then I just lost that play, let it go and move on to the next one and make the corrections from there." Staying out of foul trouble has al- lowed her to be more dominant on the glass, and her speed and reach also makes her a defensive weapon when 6-3 Natalie Achonwa joins her on the floor. "I like that lineup offensively, but can get in each other's face during the game — as Diggins did early in the Tennessee contest — and use it as fuel. "That's one thing I love about this team is a lot of us are able to handle that," Peters said. "At the beginning of the year, we had a meeting where we talked about that where it's not re- ally how you say it but what you say. "It's not just one person or me and it also allows Dev to roam a little bit more defensively when Natalie can guard the bigger post player," Mc- Graw said of playing the two bigs. "Dev is capable of guarding on the perimeter, and she is able to get up in front of the press a little bit more when we have a big on the back line." As much as exceptional guard play is highlighted in the tournament, last year it was Texas A&M senior pow- erhouse Danielle Adams who stole the show in the championship with 30 points and nine rebounds against Notre Dame. This year, 6-8 Brittney Griner of [Peters] to make the difference," Mc- Graw said. ful Notre Dame athlete to come off not one but two knee surgeries since All-American defensive linemen Scott Zettek (1976-80) and Steve Niehaus (1972-75) more than 30 years ago. It's a testament to her mental tough- ness, as is the way she and Diggins Peters might be the most success- MENTAL TOUGHNESS Sky going at it. Everybody is hard on each other. We get on the court and yell and scream, but we know we all have each other's back and are look- ing out for each other. Sometimes I'm playing like crap and I need to be told that so I can fix it." Diggins is happy to accommodate. "Just being comfortable with each other allows us to take more criti- cism," Diggins said. "We can be yell- ing at each other one play and the next play I'm right there to help her up, and likewise for her. " The mental toughness also eradi- No. 1 Baylor is the "center" piece of women's collegiate basketball. "We have great guards, but we need cates any complacency that might have been present after last year's run to the title game that included upsets of top seeds Tennessee and Connecti- cut. Peters was taken aback this year when there were questions about how hungry the veteran Irish team might be after exceeding all expectations last season. "I really don't understand why ev- erybody thought that because at the end of the day we didn't win," Pe- ters said. "Every time ESPN comes on, we're not the ones celebrating on there when they show all the champi- ons from last year. There's that drive to get back to that place and win it. "We want to get back to that place, For The Record second longest in school history. The 1999-2000 Fighting Irish had a 20-game run, while the 2000-01 club opened on a school-record 23-game winning streak en route to the national title. Notre Dame is 8-1 against ranked opponents this season, and five of those eight Fighting Irish wins over top-25 op- ponents have come by 20 points or more. 2. In the 90-70 victory versus DePaul Feb. 5, Notre Dame reached the 90-point mark for a school- 1. Entering the Feb. 12 game against West Virginia, Notre Dame's 21-game winning streak was the record ninth time this year. The Irish have led the nation in scoring and featured a balanced attack with junior guard Skylar Diggins (16.5 points per game), senior guard Natalie Novosel (14.9), fifth-year senior forward Devereaux Peters (12.3) and sophomore guard Kayla McBride (11.9). Sophomore center Nata- lie Achonwa (8.9) and fifth-year senior starting guard Brittany Mallory (5.9), who played in her record 137th Notre Dame game on Feb. 7 at Syracuse, round out the top-six rotation. 3. Against Syracuse Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw recorded her 580th win at Notre Dame (580-212 in 25 seasons), passing the late longtime Fighting Irish men's tennis/wrestling coach Tom Fallon (579-268-4 combined record in those two sports from 1957-87) for the second-most wins by any coach in the 125-year history of Notre Dame athletics. Former men's/women's fencing head coach Michael DeCicco holds the record with a 774-80 combined record from 1962-95. — Lou Somogyi MARCH 2012 73 and we know what we have to do to get there." ✦