Notre Dame’s women’s basketball squad wrapped up their 2022-23 season with a 59-76 loss to #2 seeded Maryland in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 round.

More Success for Niele Ivey

This season was another great showing for the program and head coach Niele Ivey in her third season at the helm. Ivey, who took over in the 2020-21 season, has carried on the high level of success that we’ve gotten used to seeing from the women’s squad during long time head coach Muffet McGraw’s long tenure. The 2021 season was a bit of a mulligan for all programs and in 22 and 23, Ivey has led the teams to 24 (73%) and 27 (81%) win records.

Season Overview

Overall, the Irish went 27-6 in their deep 2023 run and wracked up 24 regular season victories.

In total, they had four losses to ACC opponents and dropped only two games to non-ACC opponents (both coming by way of the Big Ten Maryland Terrapins).

The team played the best at home, claiming an 88% win record in South Bend. They kicked off the season with an undefeated November and had a lot of success in February (88%) and December (83%). January proved to be their least successful month of the regular season and in the postseason they posted 3 (60%) wins.

Scoring Summary

In terms of overall scoring, the Notre Dame women averaged 74 points per game. They had their most prolific scoring showings in November, had a mixed bag of results sandwiched in the middle but generally found their rhythm again towards the end.

Points - For

Points - Against

Points - Differences

When it came down to final point differences, the Irish were pretty dominant throughout the 2023 season. They averaged a difference of +15 per game, with a season high of +64 against Merrimack. Their closest victory was +2 in a 78-76 OT victory against Louisville in mid-February.

The Cardinals would go on to knock the Irish out in the semifinal of the ACC Tournament in the biggest loss of the season. That game ended with a final score of 64-38 and the largest point difference, -26, in a Notre Dame women’s loss for the season. The second largest difference in a loss came by way of the -17, 59-76 loss to the Terrapins in the Sweet 16.

Outside of the postseason, though, the largest loss difference for Notre Dame was -10 against North Carolina and except for that matchup they never dropped a game by more than 5 points.

Player Details

Injuries took a heavy toll on the Irish towards the late part of the 2023 season. The roster, made up primarily of Juniors and Graduate Students, still put up some incredible individual stats. Check out the vizs below for some more detailed breakdowns of minutes played, scoring, rebounds and assists.

Players - Minutes Played

Players - Field Goals

Players - 3PT

Players - Free Throws

Players - Assists

Players - Total Rebounds

Final Thoughts

At the beginning of each team’s season, I think we generally have the tendency to think it’s championship or bust. It helps to set tempo high but for the vast majority of fans our measure of success when the last whistle is blown turns out to be much more nuanced.

Although they didn’t win the NCAA tournament, the Irish women’s 2023 basketball campaign was a major success by most metrics. We got to see some really great play, consistently throughout the season and really only struggled against marquee programs (with Maryland and Louisville both advancing to the Elite 8). So hats off to Coach Ivey and her program for another year of WBB dominance.

Cheers and Go Irish!!