Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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48 NOV. 16, 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED WOMEN'S BASKETBALL BY LOU SOMOGYI T wo years ago during its run to the 2018 national title, the unique stat about Notre Dame's women's basket- ball was it had more ACL tears that season (four) than losses (three). Head coach Muffet McGraw is not eager to promote such unusual data again, but her Fighting Irish added another distinction even before the sec- ond game of this season played Nov. 8. Notre Dame had almost as many walk-ons and former walk-ons on the roster (five) as available scholarship players (six) for the first two months of the season. Having already lost all five starters from last season to the WNBA Draft, plus two top re- serves to transfer, the No. 16 Fighting Irish incurred two more immense setbacks the first week of November when their two top returning plays from last season were sidelined. First, sophomore guard Abby Pro- haska announced via social media that she was recently diagnosed with pulmonary embolism (blood clots in both of her lungs). Posted Prohaska on Nov. 4: "The amount of time I will be out is indefi- nite, but I will be right alongside this team for every game I cannot play. I am thankful for the endless support and love from my family, my team- mates, my coaches, and my friends. This is just a bump in the road." A best-case situation could lead her to start practicing some again in January, but the far greater priority is returning to full health even minus basketball. "It's a huge loss not having Abby for so many reasons," McGraw said. "She is somebody that gives energy because she comes in and she takes charges and hustles for loose balls. "She's somebody you could point to for the freshmen to look up to and say, 'This is how you're supposed to practice. This is how you're sup- posed to play.'" The staff and teammates sensed something was awry during pre- season practices when Prohaska was not her typical energetic self. Initial blood tests revealed nothing wrong, but after the Oct. 17 practice and right before fall break, Prohaska checked into an emergency room when the pain began to become over- whelming. "She continued to practice, but she knew she wasn't 100 percent," McGraw said. "She was not feeling well for a while. Finally, she actually started to have some pain. "… She's somebody that likes to push through and just keep working harder and harder. I'm just so thank- ful that she finally said, 'I can't take it anymore.'" One day after Prohaska's announcement, Notre Dame opened the 2019-20 campaign at reigning Atlantic 10 cham- pion Fordham with five play- ers making their starting de- buts: graduate transfers Marta Sniezek (Stanford) and Destinee Walker (North Carolina) in the backcourt, freshmen Samantha Brunelle and Anaya Peoples at forward and wing, plus junior forward Mikayla Vaughn, the top voice on the team. Va u g h n h e l p e d p ro p e l a strong start against the Rams with eight points, nine rebounds and four assists on some good finds on backdoor cuts, but mid- way through the third quarter she went down with a right knee sprain that is projected to sideline her the next four to six weeks. "She was our leader," McGraw lamented. "And now we're with- out not just her presence but her leadership, which is huge for a young team like this. We are really in need of having people out there right now. "I thought we finished the game really strong with Sam at the five. We have a lot of ideas of how we can play with five guards. Certainly against teams with big posts it's go- ing to be a huge problem. "We haven't encountered that yet, but it's coming up soon . … We're go- ing to be incredibly short-handed in the post with a guard having to play in there." The other "post" options include 6-4 sophomore Danielle Patter- son, whose wheelhouse is more as a stretch-four three-point shooter, and 5-10 senior and former walk-on guard Kaitlin Cole, who played five minutes in the first half at Fordham. At 6-2, Brunelle will have to guard the post, but as the team's best shooter, she will still play mostly along the perimeter on offense. Prohaska (above) was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism (blood clots in both of her lungs) and will be out indefinitely, while Vaughn suffered a right knee sprain in the season opener at Fordham that will sideline her for four to six weeks. PHOTO COURTESY FIGHTING IRISH MEDIA The Attrition War Health setbacks for Abby Prohaska and Mikayla Vaughn add to rebuilding challenges