Notre Dame gears up for National Championship game

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tuesday night the Notre Dame women's basketball team will play their final game of the season - for the National Championship. Both Notre Dame and UConn are undefeated, so one team will leave with the first loss of the season and the other will go home with the national title



Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw has said this team is deeper and more balanced than last year's team-with contributors on and off the bench.

But the Irish aren't the only ones who have changed.

McGraw says this year's UConn team is bigger and stronger than last year's national championship team.

Notre Dame had no problem rolling past Maryland in the Final Four-but the Irish will face the returning national champs who have more size-and a knack for steering a team into foul trouble.



"I think that they have a lot of size and obviously Brianna Stewart is going to be a matchup problem but Jewell Loyd and Kayla McBride are two of the best players in the country and I think that we share the ball so well and that we play so well together so it's definitely going to be a great game," said Irish forward Taya Reimer.

 

Where Notre Dame lacks size, they make up for it with depth and balance. That gives them the element of surprise in their offensive attack.



"A lot of teams are really deep and they bring a lot of people in off the bench but our coaches and our strength coaches have done a great job of keeping us in shape so we can be able to go up and down the court and try to keep going," said UConn guard Moriah Jefferson.

 

In the Final Four game against Maryland, the Irish didn't seem to miss a beat without Natalie Achonwa.



"They are more than any one individual. And if they continue to get contributions from their other three post players like they got yesterday, they won't miss Natalie at all," said UConn Head Coach Geno Auriemma.

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