Good news and bad news. Some good news: the ND women's hoops team won, beating West Virginia 72-66. Coach Muffet McGraw wanted the team to have played better, but 1] the team was coming off a tough road game just two days before, and had to play an unusual day game. The key was, they won, executed well offensively, were tough defensively when they had to be. The Irish women hoopsters are 21-7 on the year--not bad.
The bad news: the Notre Dame men's hoops team, playing later that evening in the same arena, lost badly to #11 Villanova, 77-60. Bad all the way around--the game was key to Notre Dame's slim remaining NCAA tourney hopes, but most agreed they got out-hustled, out-competed, couldn't get key stops, couldn't make key buckets. It's pretty much NIT for sure now for ND, and that's very disappointing, given the high hopes going into the season. The only thing the Irish can do now is at least save some self-respect by winning a game or two in the Big East tournament. Bad news there is, they have a terrible Big East tourney record--they've rarely played well in New York.
Bad news for the Dallas Mavericks last night, too--they played horribly for most of the game, and lost to the undermanned Oklahoma City Thunder on the road, 96-87. This despite the fact the Thunder were without two of their best players. You've got to be focused and play hard every night--you wonder why players don't get that memo.
