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Notre Dame Women’s Basketball

April 1, 2012 by · Comments Off on Notre Dame Women’s Basketball 

Notre Dame Women’s Basketball, Superman has Lex Luthor. Batman has the Joker. The Cubs have the White Sox. And the Notre Dame women’s basketball team has Geno Auriemma. Every rivalry needs an arch-nemesis. From an Irish perspective, the Connecticut coach is the guy who wears the black hat. Philly guy, all the way down to his abrasive personality and proud of it.

He’s the fella Irish fans love to hate. Auriemma will be Public Enemy No. 1 Sunday when Notre Dame faces Connecticut for the fourth time this season, in the Final Four’s first semifinal.

When it comes to Notre Dame, the 27th year UConn coach lives to torment. This season, in which the Irish have beaten his Huskies in two of their three meetings, has been especially difficult.

The season started, at Big East women’s basketball media day, with Auriemma blaming the Notre Dame football team’s reluctance to join the Big East for the implosion of the league.

He publicly took exception with Notre Dame rolling up 120 points against hapless Pittsburgh this season. He didn’t talk about the Huskies pinning 112 on Pacific and winning 17 games by more than 40 points.

Auriemma’s philosophy is that rivalries only happen when both teams are competitive. He said UConn’s on-court entanglements with Notre Dame didn’t start to be a real rivalry until the past year which might not be far from the truth, even if the Irish aren’t thrilled to admit it.

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