Notre Dame out to reclaim ACC hardware

SOUTH BEND — Because Notre Dame captured the ultimate prize in women’s college basketball last season, perhaps it’s easy to forget that the Irish did not capture a couple prizes available along the way.

The team itself, though, has not forgotten.

“Our goal every year is to go undefeated in conference play and to win the (conference) tournament, so we kind of have those same goals again this year,” fifth-year forward Brianna Turner said Wednesday. “We definitely want to get those back.”

The No. 2-ranked Irish (12-1) open the Atlantic Coast Conference portion of their season Thursday night by hosting Pittsburgh (9-5).

Last season — ironically, given that national title — ND saw a couple strings of all-time ACC perfection snipped at the hands of Louisville.

The Cardinals edged the Irish, 74-72, in the league’s tournament title game, that after already crushing visiting ND with astonishing ease, 100-67, in mid-January.

The Irish eventually earned a tie with Louisville for the ACC regular-season title, each team finishing 15-1 after the Cards were dealt a one-point loss against Florida State, but it still marked the first time that ND did not take the conference outright.

This time, Notre Dame gets No. 3 Louisville at home, and soon — a week from Thursday.

Though the Irish proved last spring that they don’t need to hoist ACC Tourney or outright regular-season hardware to catapult themselves to NCAA Tourney hardware, coach Muffet McGraw agreed Wednesday with Turner on the importance of trying to reclaim those jewels in 2019.

“Because, we’ve set the standard, set the bar high, and we need to fulfill our own potential and expectations,” McGraw explained of why it’s important.

The Irish joined the ACC from the Big East in 2013-14 and basically owned the league until last season.

They swept to outright regular-season and ACC Tourney titles each of their first four years aboard, joining Duke in 2001-04 as the only programs ever to achieve four consecutive such doubles in a conference that is now in its 42nd year on the women’s side.

Notre Dame did lose one regular-season ACC contest in both 2015 and 2017, but still won those titles outright to go with perfect marks in 2014 and 2016.

If the Irish can win or share the regular-season crown this season, they’ll join Virginia in 1991-96 as the only programs with six straight regular-season titles.

It won’t come easily in a league that again appears loaded.

Besides Notre Dame at No. 2 and Louisville (12-0) at No. 3, the ACC boasts North Carolina State (13-0) at No. 9 and Syracuse (11-2) at No. 14 in both of this week’s major polls.

Plus, there’s Florida State (12-1) at No. 23 and Virginia Tech (13-0) at No. 25 in the coaches’ poll, and Miami (12-3) slightly outside the top 25 in both polls.

ND’s lone meetings against N.C. State, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and Miami this season will all come on the road.

“I’ll have to wait until I wade into it a little bit more, because we’ve had some really strong years,” McGraw said of whether the league is as potent as it’s been during her time in it, “but absolutely, I do feel good about where the conference is at.”

The Irish enter league play having surged a bit lately.

ND has won its last four games by an average of 35.5 points, the closest being an 87-63 victory at No. 19 Marquette.

Over those four outings, the Irish have shot a scalding 61.2 percent from the field — improving to 52.4 on the season to rank third in the nation. Defensively, ND is limiting opponents to 33.1 percent.

“I like where we are right now,” McGraw said. “Marquette was a great win against a very good team on their floor. Lehigh (ND’s 95-68 win Sunday), I thought we were not as sharp, so I still worry about the consistency of our practices for this time of the year, how we’re challenging each other and how much better we’re getting.

“So, I like where we’re at, but we still have a lot of work to do,” the coach continued. “I can still see more potential. I’d like to see the bench come along a bit more.”

As it is, the Irish own the nation’s most wins against AP-ranked teams, standing 4-1.

Connecticut, which beat host ND 89-71 a month ago, is the only other team in the country with at least three such wins, standing 3-0, while Michigan is the lone team besides ND with at least five such opponents, standing 2-3.