April 6, 2011
– Notre Dame NCAA Tournament Central
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Notre Dame’s Skylar Diggins sat at her locker, shaking her leg in disgust.
She was frustrated, angry and already pondering how to correct her mistakes when she gets back on the court.
All Diggins really wants after Tuesday night’s 76-70 loss to Texas A&M in the championship game is a second chance to get it right.
“We’ll be upset, and you’ll see the disappointment in our faces, but it all starts again tomorrow,” Diggins said in a defiant tone. “It will help me become a better leader for next year.”
Diggins doesn’t have a choice if she’s going to have the coronation she really craves.
She’s determined to work out the kinks in her game and get teammates such as Devereaux Peters more involved to reach Denver for next year’s Final Four. And even though Diggins fell short of her biggest goal this season, she emerged as the next shooting star in women’s basketball.
Diggins scored 24 points in the victory over Tennessee last week, 28 in the win over Connecticut on Sunday and 23 in Tuesday night’s loss against one of the nation’s toughest defenses.
Along the way Notre Dame (31-8) became the first team to beat Tennessee and Connecticut in the same tourney, reached its first title game in a decade and re-established itself as a team to be reckoned with in the rugged BIG EAST.
“She’s extremely hard on herself, and she will spend the summer, I’m sure, thinking about this game,” coach Muffet McGraw said. “That’s probably a good thing for us. That’s probably how we got motivated last year.”
Count Diggins in.
Minutes after McGraw uttered those words on the riser, an angry Diggins walked into the locker room and acknowledged Notre Dame’s quest for a national championship begins Wednesday.
Diggins will dictate what happens.
When she played like her usual self Tuesday night, the Irish were in control. She connected on 7 of 19 from the field, 8 of 9 from the free-throw line and came up with four steals.
But when she played like a sophomore, well, Notre Dame struggled, especially late.
Diggins couldn’t prevent Tyra White from knocking down a shot-clock beating 3-pointer with 1:07 to go – the play McGraw described as a knife through her heart – and in the final minute, A&M forced Diggins into several miscues.
It double-teamed the dynamic guard near the free-throw line, stripping the ball away with 20 seconds left – a turnover that essentially sealed the outcome. On the next Notre Dame possession, Diggins missed a jumper that would have made it a single-possession game and then took too long trying to find an open teammate for a much-needed 3-pointer in the closing seconds.
She finished with more turnovers (six) than assists (three).
That’s not the player home-state fans remember going to four Indiana state championship games and winning the state’s coveted Miss Basketball Award.
Diggins acknowledged she was so distraught with the result that she left the court before her teammates to collect her thoughts after growing up in this tournament.
“I think she really gave herself a big shot of credibility, I guess I would say, coming into next year as one of the top players in the BIG EAST and one of the top players in the country,” McGraw said. “I think she really, really figured out how she could score and how she could lead us, and I’m really looking forward to the next two years with her.”
Coaches at other schools are not looking forward to those next two years.
Just ask A&M coach Gary Blair.
“She might not be Maya Moore, but she might be Maya Moore by the time she gets to be a senior,” he said.
The third-team All-American will have a solid foundation around her next season, as the team figures to lose just one regular contributor: senior Becca Bruszewski.
Peters, the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year who had 21 points and 11 rebounds in Tuesday’s loss, will return for her final college season. Guard Natalie Novosel, Notre Dame’s top scorer at 15.1 points per game, also comes back in the fall, and three two-time all-state selections will join the mix, too.
The key, of course, is eliminating the costly mistakes, and Diggins will be the first to acknowledge it begins with her – even if her teammates say it’s not all her fault.
“She’s the captain of our team, she leads the team, she’s got the ball most of the time, so she’s bound to make a few turnovers,” Novosel said. “We didn’t respond well and we’ve got to do a better job.”
—
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Texas A&M’s Danielle Adams was named the Final Four’s most outstanding player.
The senior forward had 30 points and nine rebounds in the championship game.
Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins also made the team. She scored 23 points in the final after scoring 28 points against Connecticut.
The other members of the team were Connecticut forward Maya Moore, who scored 36 points in the semifinal loss to Notre Dame; Notre Dame’s Devereaux Peters; and Texas A&M’s Tyra White.
—
SKYLAR’S FOLLOWERS: Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins is getting more popular by the hour.
Diggins had about 5,000 Twitter followers before the NCAA tournament, but that total had increased to nearly 63,000 a few hours after the title game. She gained nearly 16,000 followers in the six hours starting at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time.
Diggins was a trending topic on the social media site Sunday as she led the Fighting Irish over Connecticut. It helped that music artists Lil’ Wayne and Chris Brown tweeted about her.
—
CROWD SUPPORT: Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins expected her hometown of South Bend, Ind., to come to a halt during Tuesday night’s championship game.
She said South Bend was a “ghost town” when her high school, South Bend Washington, won the state championship in 2007 at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. She expected the same as her hometown college was set to play three hours from campus.
“Hoosier basketball, you know, you can’t even put into words how important this sport is to the state,” Diggins said.
Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw agreed that the virtual home crowd offered an advantage in Notre Dame’s win over Connecticut on Sunday.
“I know that playing in the state of Indiana has been huge,” she said.
Sue Donohoe, vice president for Division I Women’s Basketball, was pleased by the turnout for the championship game.
“For the first time since I’ve been in this position, fans were lined up all the way around the pavilion,” she said. “The excitement and enthusiasm throughout are through the Richter scale.”