The women’s basketball world was knocked off its axis Sunday night at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Notre Dame and Texas A&M are playing for the national championship game Tuesday night, and that can’t be the ending that very many people saw coming.
The Irish and the Aggies took perennial powers (and No. 1 seeds) Stanford and Connecticut – the two premier programs in the country over the past few years – and unceremoniously showed them the exit.
Connecticut will not win a third straight title. Maya Moore will not finish her remarkable career with a victory celebration. Stanford’s seniors will not make good on a fourth trip to the Final Four by winning a title for their Hall of Fame-bound coach, Tara VanDerveer.
And for the first time since 1994, there will not be a No. 1 seed in the women’s title game.
“I think what happened is what happens in all – not all – what happens in a lot of NCAA tournaments. The team that plays better that night wins,” Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said. “Not the team that everybody puts on the board that is supposed to win.
“I think what people have to understand is nothing’s a given. You play really well, and you get a chance to win. You don’t play well, you lose. I don’t care whether you’re a No. 1 seed, No. 2 seed, the best player, not the best player, it doesn’t matter.”
Auriemma smiled a wry smile and shook his head in the final seconds of his team’s 72-63 loss to Notre Dame. Cheerleaders cried. Husky fans, including former superstar Diana Taurasi, stood and watched the closing minute, stunned.
Connecticut was unable to beat Notre Dame for a fourth time this season, in the same way that another Final Four favorite, Baylor, was unable to pin a fourth loss on its conference foe, Texas A&M.
The fourth time has been quite a charm for the Aggies and the Irish. Texas A&M will be in the championship game for the first time ever; Notre Dame for the second time, having won the title back in 2001. That hardly qualifies as same-old, same-old.
Notre Dame has made Indiana a very happy state. First, on Monday night, Butler University will play for the men’s national title, and then the Irish on Tuesday for the women’s trophy.
Notre Dame, down 32-26 at the half, got a huge performance from sophomore guard Skylar Diggins (28 points) and supported her by shooting nearly 56 percent from the floor in the second half. They out-rebounded Connecticut 39-27. They couldn’t hold down Moore – who finished with 36 points – but held the rest of the Huskies lineup to the tune of 11 field goals.
