Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BY LOU SOMOGYI I f a movie title could be applied to the women's NCAA Tourna- ment — and women's basketball in general — it's the 1978 Academy Award-winning "Same Time Next Year." For the fifth consecutive year, Notre Dame and Connecticut met in the Final Four, with the Huskies riding off with the hardware a third straight time after a 63-53 victory April 7 in Tampa, Fla. It was a more competitive battle than the 79-58 outcome in the title game the year prior between the same two super- powers, but no less painful in the recog- nition that UConn has left the Fighting Irish in the ultimate bridesmaid role. Not since the NFL's Buffalo Bills lost four straight Super Bowls from 1990-93 has athletics seen a more consistent/ frustrated, runner-up. It was the fourth time in the last five seasons that head coach Muffet Mc- Graw's Irish fell in the championship game. There also was a 2013 Final Four semifinal defeat to UConn in a de facto title game — after the Irish had already defeated the Huskies three times earlier in the year. It has been clear the past three years that Notre Dame is one of the two best programs among 349 in women's col- legiate basketball. Unfortunately for the Irish, it's been even clearer that Con- necticut's dynasty is the best. The Huskies finished 38-1 and won head coach Geno Auriemma his 10th national title since 1995. Only former UCLA men's coach John Wooden and the NBA's Phil Jackson have matched that number. Notre Dame ended another stellar campaign with a 36-3 ledger, high- lighted by defeating the teams that fin- ished Nos. 3-8 in the final regular-season Associated Press poll. All this during a "rebuilding year" in which three start- ers, including two top-10 WNBA picks, had to be replaced. "It was a great accomplishment to get here," McGraw said. "[It] was disap- pointing we weren't able to play our game." Since the start of the women's Same Time Next Year Notre Dame's run as the nation's second-best basketball program continues