Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/651219
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL thing that comes to me." She couldn't deflect being named first-team All-ACC with sophomore post player Brianna Turner and junior point guard Lindsay Allen, and ACC Tournament MVP while helping Notre Dame to the title. This from someone who in her first three seasons — after a med- ical redshirt season as a freshman — was primarily a comple- mentary player off the bench. She had nine starts in her career, and her best scoring aver- age was 6.2 points per game last year. I t ' s d i ff i c u l t t o fathom that last March it was actually debat- able — at least outside the basketball office — whether Cable would be needed for a fifth year in 2015-16. Not only was All-American Jewell Loyd supposedly returning for her se- nior year, but also three McDonald's All- America freshmen in Marina Mabrey, Arike Ogunbowale and Ali Patberg were enrolling. Where were the minutes going to come from for Cable? Then Loyd blindsided the program by turning pro, and Patberg suffered a season-ending injury in October. Prior to the ACC Tournament March 2-6, Mc- Graw mused "where would we be with- out Madison Cable?" The 2015-16 Irish did not have a mega- star like a Ruth Riley, Skylar Diggins, Kayla McBride or Loyd — although Turner is getting closer and might be a year away. Cable is understated, not flashy but effective. It's not a dominant unit that overwhelms, but it is a tough minded and blue collar crew that gets the job done methodically and intel- ligently as one — which mirrors who Cable is. "She is the most competitive person — her and Skylar are like 1-A and 1-B on the competitive charts," McGraw reflected. "She is so ultra-com- petitive that she brings it out in everybody. I think [senior] Hannah [Huffman] also had added that toughness and competitive fire, which has made it eas- ier for Lindsay, who's a quiet leader. "Maddie takes charges on our guy practice players, which everyone isn't willing to do. She makes big shot after big shot. Every time we absolutely had to make a basket, she was the one. She had just a phenomenal year. We would not be where we are without her." Where an objection is raised is when Cable is described mainly in terms of her effort and toughness. Her athletic skills get overshadowed, even her Shooter's Holy Grail "180 cumulative percentage." Entering the NCAA Tournament she was at 181.6: 50.2 percent from the field, 47.6 beyond the arc and 83.8 from the foul line. "Maddie is our greatest offensive threat because she can hit threes and "SHE IS SO ULTRA- COMPETITIVE THAT SHE BRINGS IT OUT IN EVERYBODY. … WE WOULD NOT BE WHERE WE ARE WITHOUT HER." HEAD COACH MUFFET MCGRAW ON CABLE