How Louisville gives Notre Dame women's basketball super opportunity

Notre Dame. Louisville. A Super Bowl Sunday tradition as consistent as Tom Brady‘s career.

OK, that’s clearly a stretch.

This is only the second straight year the two women’s basketball programs have met on the final day of the NFL season. Brady made it to consecutive Super Bowls in 2003-04 and from 2016-18. Plus five other appearances. This is a day that has long belonged to Brady, even if the recently retired seven-time Super Bowl champion isn’t playing today.

No further digressions, but allow for one more football-related comparison. Like the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals, the No. 18 Fighting Irish have a rather large opportunity this afternoon. It isn’t Super Bowl big, but it’s big enough. A victory at No. 3 Louisville would be the Irish’s second win over a top-five opponent in as many weeks, and it would further head coach Niele Ivey‘s team’s case as a potential top-four NCAA Tournament seed.

“We’re just going to go in there with a dog mentality, a road warrior mentality,” Ivey said. “That’s the number one thing. Regardless of what they do, they’re a great team, super well coached, play great at home. But we have to come out with that confidence like we came out versus NC State. We have to raise our game to a higher level.”

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The last time Notre Dame played at Louisville — yes, last Super Bowl Sunday — Maddy Westbeld had a chance to give the Irish a lead with just over a minute left. The ACC Freshman of the Year missed a jumper that would have put Notre Dame ahead 67-66. Instead, Louisville scored the final five points of the game and won 71-65.

Westbeld, coming off a 21-point performance in a win over Miami, hasn’t forgotten.

“It’s a game that I look forward to,” Westbeld said. “I think what makes them so good is their grit. They play really hard. We just have to come out with swagger and know that we belong there and we are here because we’re this good. We can contend with anybody we come out and play with.”

Outside of a 19-point loss at UConn in early December, that’s been true.

Notre Dame’s four other defeats have come by a total of 13 points, or an average margin of 3.25 points per game. Nobody has blown the Irish out other than the Huskies, and that’s when they still had reigning consensus Player of the Year Paige Bueckers. She injured her knee late in that game.

Louisville doesn’t have any Player of the Year candidates, but the Cardinals play as well as a collective team as anyone else in the country. They’ve scored nearly 200 points in their last two games, 93-71 and 100-64 wins over Clemson and Syracuse, respectively. Sophomore guard Hailey Van Lith, Louisville’s leading scorer, poured in a career-high 34 points against the Tigers.

It’s depth, something Notre Dame lacks, that makes Louisville so strong. Ten different Cardinals average at least 10 minutes per game. The Irish have played their last couple of games with seven available scholarship players, meanwhile. It’s going to take every one of them playing their best to beat Louisville, winner of six of the last eight matchups with Notre Dame.

“We have to keep our heads down, go to work and do what we know how to do,” Westbeld said.

PREVIEW: No. 18 Notre Dame (19-5, 10-3) at No. 3 Louisville (21-2, 12-1)

When: Sunday, Feb. 13 at 2 p.m. ET

Where: KFC Yum! Center (Louisville, Ky.)

TV: ESPN

NET rankings: Notre Dame 16, Louisville 4

Last meeting: Louisville won 78-61 on Feb. 28, 2021 in South Bend, Ind.

Series history: Notre Dame leads 16-10

Notes on Louisville: The Cardinals rank fifth in the ACC in points per game with 72.8; Notre Dame ranks second in the same statistic at 75.3 … Louisville ranks second in the ACC in opponent points per game with 54.2 … Louisville ranks first in the ACC in team field goal percentage at 46.0% … The Cardinals’ only two losses came to ranked opponents; a 61-59 overtime defeat to then-No. 22 Arizona in the season opener and a 68-59 loss to then-No. 4 NC State on Jan. 20 … Louisville has not lost at home this season (12-0).