Blue and Gold Illustrated

Oct. 2, 2021

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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48 OCT. 2, 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED WOMEN'S BASKETBALL BY TYLER HORKA A sk and you shall receive. Notre Dame women's basketball coach Niele Ivey wanted a normal sched- ule for the sake of creating chemistry and getting into a groove with her team. She didn't get that last year, her first as Fight- ing Irish head coach, because of the CO- VID-19 pandemic. She's slated to get the full experience this time around. And what an experience it's set to be. Notre Dame's full 2021-22 schedule was released Sept. 15. From an exhibition game against Emporia State Nov. 1 to the regu- lar-season finale against perennial power Louisville Feb. 27, Ivey and her players now know what they're up against. And it isn't going to be particularly easy. The exhibition game and home games against Ohio Nov. 9 and Western Illinois Nov. 11 afford the Irish an opportunity to ease their way into the season, but then an early conference game — on the road, at that — slaps them in the face well be- fore they even have a chance to eat some Thanksgiving fixings. Notre Dame is on the road Nov. 14 at Syracuse, a team that won an NCAA Tournament game last sea- son while the Irish sat at home watching it. Two more-than-winnable home games against Fordham Nov. 18 and Bry- ant Nov. 21 follow, but then Notre Dame is right back on the road for five straight tilts. The three-week stretch away from Pur- cell Pavilion begins at the Daytona Beach Invitational against Georgia Nov. 26 and Oregon State Nov. 27. The Bulldogs and Beavers also won NCAA Tournament games last season. Notre Dame's second true road test of the season comes in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge against Michigan State Dec. 2. The Spartans have qualified for the NCAA Tournament in four of the last five sea- sons with two postseason victories in that span. Then it's on to UConn for the Irish to take on a team whose NCAA Tournament résumé needs no explanation, but here's one anyway: the Huskies have made it to at least the Final Four in 13 straight sea- sons with six national championships in that stretch. That's four games in a row, all away from home, against teams that could eas- ily punch tickets to the NCAA Tourna- ment come March. Two of them, Georgia and UConn, are extremely likely to do so given the current state of those programs. Notre Dame, meanwhile, has been in a state of flux the last two years. The Irish have not had a winning season since fin- ishing as the NCAA runner-up in 2018- 19. Their record is 23-28 since then. The women's basketball world will have a good sense of whether or not the Irish are ready to reverse that trend by early December. The tests against Power Five opponents early in the season will reveal that status naturally. Notre Dame's schedule will remain difficult up until the end, too. Both of its dates against reigning ACC champion Louisville come in the final two weeks of the season. A road game at Georgia Tech, one of three teams in the ACC to win 10- plus regular-season conference games last season (Louisville and NC State being the others), is sandwiched in between. There are three contests against two of the top three ACC teams from last year squeezed into the final four games of the Irish's regular-season slate. Talk about a tough way to close it out. Worth noting again, Syracuse was no slouch in 2020-21. Let's circle back and remind readers that regular-season con- ference play starts in earnest for the Irish against the Orange inside the Carrier Dome Nov. 14. And it only gets more difficult from there. ✦ Road Games Highlight Niele Ivey's First Full Schedule Ivey has a full slate of games to work with in 2021-22, unlike the 2020-21 season that was heavily impacted by COVID-19. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS 2021-22 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE As of Sept. 23 Date Opponent Time (ET) Nov. 1 Emporia State^ 7 p.m. Nov. 9 Ohio 7 p.m. Nov. 11 Western Illinois 7 p.m. Nov. 14 at Syracuse* 12 p.m. Nov. 18 Fordham 7 p.m. Nov. 21 Bryant 5 p.m. Nov. 26 vs. Georgia# 4:30 p.m. Nov. 27 vs. Oregon State# 7 p.m. Dec. 2 at Michigan State% TBA Dec. 5 at UConn TBA Dec. 8 at Valparaiso TBA Dec. 12 Purdue-Fort Wayne 2 p.m. Dec. 19 Pittsburgh* 2 p.m. Dec. 22 at DePaul TBA Dec. 30 at Virginia* TBA Jan. 2 at Duke* 2 p.m. Jan. 9 NC State* 2 p.m. Jan. 13 at Wake Forest* TBA Jan. 16 North Carolina* 1 p.m. Jan. 20 at Boston College* 6 p.m. Jan. 23 at Pittsburgh* TBA Jan. 27 Syracuse* 6 p.m. Jan. 30 Boston College* 2 p.m. Feb. 3 Virginia Tech* 8 p.m. Feb. 6 at Florida State* 2 p.m. Feb. 10 Miami* 6 p.m. Feb. 13 at Louisville* 2 p.m. Feb. 17 at Georgia Tech* 8 p.m. Feb. 24 Clemson* 8 p.m. Feb. 27 Louisville* TBA Mar. 2-6 ACC Tournament$ TBA ^ Exhibition; # Daytona Beach Invitational in Daytona Beach, Fla.; % ACC/Big Ten Challenge; * ACC game; $ Greensboro, N.C.

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