Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/561665
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WNBA NOTES • Four-time All-American guard Skylar Diggins suffered a season- ending ACL injury in her left knee June 28, but that didn't stop her from being the No. 2 vote getter for the July 25 All-Star game. While leading the Tulsa Shock to first place in the Western Confer- ence, Diggins was named the WNBA Player of the Month in June, rank- ing second among Western Confer- ence players in scoring (17.8 points per game) and three-point field goal percentage (.448), and fourth in as- sists (5.0 assists per game). She also tied for fifth in the conference in steals (1.56 per game) and was sixth in free throw percentage (.918, 45 of 49). Diggins is the first Notre Dame alum to be chosen a two-time WNBA All-Star. • Two former Notre Dame players earned WNBA Rookie of the Month honors in the first two months, with 2014 graduate Natalie Achonwa re- ceiving it for the Indiana Fever in June and Jewell Loyd, who turned pro this spring after her junior year, doing so in July. Achonwa is averaging 8.5 points and 3.5 rebounds in the 18 games she played through Aug. 21. Loyd, the No. 1 overall selection in the draft this year, was averaging 9.8 points and 3.5 rebounds per contest. • Despite missing five games with a foot injury, second-year guard Kayla McBride was a replacement player in this year 's All-Star Game. McBride was San Antonio's top scorer with an average of 15.0 points per game through Aug. 21. Notre Dame was one of three NCAA programs to field multiple WNBA All-Stars this year, joining Connecticut and Louisville. This also marks the first time in program history the Fighting Irish have had two alumnae earn WNBA All-Star nods in the same season. ✦ Lauren Cox Sets Visit For Texas Weekend The nation's No. 1 high school player for 2016, 6-4 Flower Mound, Texas, forward Lauren Cox, has scheduled Notre Dame as the first of her five official visits. Cox will be in town for the Notre Dame- Texas football clash the weekend of Sept. 4-6. Her other four planned stops are Sept. 11 at Tennessee (which plays Oklahoma in football that weekend), reigning three-time national champion Connecticut for its Oct. 16 First Night Weekend for men's and women's basketball, and then Baylor Oct. 23. Cox would be the icing on the cake for an al- ready stellar 2016 class that has verbal commit- ments from 6-2 Kentucky forward Erin Boley and 5-11 Indiana scoring machine and guard Jackie Young. Boley is the nation's No. 5-ranked player by ESPN HoopGurlz, while Young, who will take an unofficial visit to the Texas game, is No. 9. Meanwhile, the nation's No. 2 prospect, Joyner Holmes, a 6-3 forward also from Texas, has scheduled an official visit to Notre Dame for the Oct. 17 showdown versus USC. Landing either Cox or Holmes to join Boley and Young for the early signing period in November would likely give the Fighting Irish the nation's top-ranked class. — Lou Somogyi