Notre Dame women’s basketball: Three things to know about UMass for NCAA Tournament
There was a stretch of the season in late January when UMass might have doubted it had what it would take to earn its place in the NCAA Tournament. Those worries after losing three of four games ultimately didn’t matter.
The Minutewomen are here, and they intend to make some noise.
UMass has won a school-record 26 games this season. That’s a high number for a program that recently suffered 12 straight losing seasons, a streak that wasn’t snapped until 2018-19. And even then, the Minutewomen went 16-16. Since, head coach Tory Verdi has led UMass to a record of 62-25.
A lot has changed since UMass went 3-26 in 2012-13. Verdi has engineered a sweeping culture change that has the No. 12 seed Minutewomen believing they can do something special Saturday against No. 5 seed Notre Dame (22-8). Here are three things Notre Dame needs to be aware of before tipoff.
First NCAA Tournament appearance since 1998
The big dance is something new for the Minutewomen.
This is the third NCAA Tournament appearance ever for UMass. The Minutewomen most recently qualified in 1998. Their first foray into March Madness came two years prior in 1996. They lost in the first round both times, the former as a No. 8 seed and the latter as a No. 13 seed.
That makes this matchup a bit of a cliche: David vs. Goliath. A program seeking its first ever NCAA Tournament victory vs. one that has the fourth-most ever (67) and two national championships to show for them. A team making its third ever appearance in the tourney vs. a team making its 27th.
If UMass springs an upset, it’s Cinderella story type of stuff.
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Atlantic 10 Tournament champions
Programs like UMass don’t get at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament very often. Generally, they have to win their respective conference tournaments to make it to March. That’s exactly what the Minutewomen did for the first time ever to punch their ticket.
A third-place finisher in the Atlantic 10 regular season standings, UMass beat Fordham, Saint Joseph’s and Dayton to win the conference tournament championship. Dayton went 14-1 in league play during the regular season. Three of Dayton’s four losses entering the conference tournament came to Power Five foes. The Flyers were heavy favorites to win it all. UMass had other ideas.
The Minutewomen got the job done with dominant defense. They held all three of their conference tournament opponents to fewer than 65 points. They held two of them, including Dayton, to fewer than 60. Notre Dame has been prone to offensive lapses in their losses this season. Verdi’s game plan is undoubtedly going to involve frustrating freshman point guard Olivia Miles and chopping up the Irish’s offensive attack.
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Atlantic 10 Player of the Year
It’s easier to win big games when the best player in the conference resides on your roster.
Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Sam Breen was also named tournament MVP. She’s been a walking double-double for UMass this season, averaging team highs in points (16.9) and rebounds (10.2) per game. She averaged 21.7 and 8.0 in those respective statistics during three conference tournament games.
Notre Dame is likely to match up against UMass with its patented zone defense, so there won’t be too many instances in which an Irish player is tasked with corralling 6-1 Breen one-on-one, possession after possession. Graduate student forward Maya Dodson is going to be well aware of where she’s at on the floor at all times, though. Notre Dame can’t afford to let Breen take the game over.
