When she walked off the Purcell Pavilion court docket for the final time as a senior within the 2019 NCAA event, Arike Ogunbowale knew Notre Dame would all the time be dwelling. She by no means imagined she would play there once more.
However on Friday, Ogunbowale and the Dallas Wings face the Las Vegas Aces and their two former Combating Irish stars, Jewell Loyd and Jackie Younger, in a WNBA exhibition recreation at Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
“I figured, ‘In fact, I will return and watch the workforce.’ However now to really play a recreation once more there? And for Jewell and Jackie to do this as effectively? It is tremendous particular, one thing I will all the time keep in mind,” Ogunbowale informed ESPN. “I am simply excited to see the followers, to really feel that power once more. I’ve so many nice recollections there.”
The sport — considered one of three preseason contests this month that take faculty stars such because the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese again to LSU and the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark to Iowa — is a celebration of Notre Dame’s WNBA success. This system’s alumni have particularly been impactful as perimeter gamers over the previous 12 years, beginning with Skylar Diggins, who was the No. 3 choose within the 2013 draft.
“They name it ‘Guard U’ for a purpose,” Younger stated. “Plenty of nice guards have come out of there. Notre Dame does an ideal job of making ready us for the subsequent degree.”
Eight guards who performed at Notre Dame are anticipated to make 2025 WNBA rosters. That initiatives to be essentially the most this season from any college.
Together with Ogunbowale, Loyd and Younger, Diggins (Seattle Storm), Marina Mabrey and Lindsay Allen (Connecticut Solar) and Kayla McBride (Minnesota Lynx) performed within the WNBA final season. Rookie Sonia Citron (Washington Mystics) was the No. 3 draft choose final month.
“You assume it is simply, like, regular. And you then understand it is not regular,” Loyd stated Tuesday of the excessive profile of Notre Dame guards within the WNBA. “It is superior.”
Closing roster cuts aren’t till Might 15, and UConn — which has had extra gamers seem within the WNBA getting into 2025 than another program (47) — Notre Dame and South Carolina can have essentially the most alums (no matter place) within the league this season. Not surprisingly, these packages have mixed to win 5 of the previous eight NCAA titles.
Coming into the 2025 WNBA season, Notre Dame has 20 alums who’ve performed within the league. Among the many guards, Diggins, Loyd and Younger are Olympic gold medalists. Loyd, who was additionally a No. 1 choose, received two WNBA titles with the Seattle Storm earlier than being traded this season to Las Vegas, the place Younger has received two championships. McBride almost joined the title membership final yr, however the Minnesota Lynx misplaced the decisive Recreation 5 of the WNBA Finals in time beyond regulation to the New York Liberty.
Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey was a guard for 5 seasons within the WNBA after serving to lead the Irish to their first nationwide championship in 2001. She joined longtime Irish chief Muffet McGraw’s teaching employees in 2007, spent the 2019-20 season as an NBA assistant with the Memphis Grizzlies, after which took over the Irish when McGraw retired in April 2020.
Ivey, whose son Jaden Ivey is a guard for the Detroit Pistons, stated Notre Dame’s read-and-react “Princeton-style” offense has been efficient not only for the Irish’s success, however for gamers going to the professional recreation. On a fundamental degree, that entails fixed movement, backdoor cuts, off- and on-ball screens and the power of all 5 gamers to deal with the ball and shoot with proficiency.
“It is a read-based offense that makes you assume,” Ivey stated. “You need to be taught quick within the WNBA; coaching camps simply began Sunday and it is advisable course of data in a short time to make a workforce. In recruiting, these are the varieties of gamers we search for. For many who do very well in these techniques in faculty, the interpretation could be very natural to the WNBA.”
Whereas former Irish gamers resembling guard Coquese Washington (Houston Comets) and heart Ruth Riley (Detroit Shock) received WNBA titles earlier than the present run of WNBA standouts, each Ivey and McGraw credit score Diggins because the pivotal participant in Notre Dame changing into “Guard U.”
“When Skylar got here in, it simply went up one other notch. She modified our program.” McGraw informed ESPN. “You noticed the success along with her, and she or he was so charismatic. She was standard on social media, and she or he turned nationally identified. And it helped us recruit the guards that adopted her.”
“I really feel like all of them got here right here with the ‘it’ issue,” Ivey stated. “They got here with a starvation to get higher and with aspirations of being a professional. It has been a lot enjoyable working with aggressive gamers like that.”
With Ivey’s assist, we have a look at their paths to and impression within the WNBA, together with the phrase or phrase Ivey stated she first thinks of when requested about every participant.
Skylar Diggins: ‘A canine’
Diggins was born and grew up in South Bend. She went to the championship parade when the Irish received the 2001 NCAA title. Ivey stated her first massive task when becoming a member of McGraw’s employees was to maintain the homegrown celebrity at dwelling. That wasn’t straightforward: Packages throughout the nation wished Diggins.
However Ivey stated it helped that Diggins had watched her play at Notre Dame, they usually shortly made a connection. To at the present time, Ivey stated, she and Diggins nonetheless discuss virtually each week.
“Niele was a giant half in getting us all to Notre Dame,” Diggins stated on a Storm media name. “It is nice to see it proceed there, and for us to proceed to have a legacy on this league.”
Diggins led the Irish to the Closing 4 3 times earlier than being chosen by the Tulsa Shock within the “3 to See” draft of 2013, behind Brittney Griner, who’s heading into her twelfth WNBA season, and Elena Delle Donne, who retired in March.
Diggins, 34, is getting into her eleventh WNBA season; she missed 2019 and 2023 on maternity leaves along with her two kids. She is likely one of the high level guards within the league, with profession averages of 16.5 factors, 5.2 assists and 1.3 steals with Tulsa/Dallas, the Phoenix Mercury and Seattle.
“I am hanging on,” stated a smiling Diggins, who performed each recreation final season and averaged 31.6 minutes. “I really feel actually good coming into this season. I’ve lived an extended life on this league … it is an honor to place the jersey on.”
Kayla McBride: ‘So environment friendly’
McBride was a key a part of Notre Dame’s Closing 4 groups in 2012, 2013 and 2014. She averaged 17.6 factors for the Irish’s 2014 squad that was undefeated till its nationwide championship recreation loss to UConn.
The No. 3 choose by San Antonio in 2014, she stayed with that franchise when it moved to Las Vegas in 2018. She joined the Lynx in 2021 and final yr averaged 15.0 factors and three.2 assists whereas taking pictures 40.7% from 3-point vary, the second-best proportion in her 11-season WNBA profession.
McBride has extra WNBA 3-pointers than any Notre Dame alum: 619, with a career-best 105 final season.
Jewell Loyd: ‘Unimaginable athlete’
Loyd, from close by Chicago, was a teammate at Notre Dame of each Diggins and McBride. Loyd performed in three Closing Fours and two championship video games, then left Notre Dame after three seasons. She was draft-eligible by age and the clear No. 1 choose in 2015. She is the one Notre Dame participant to be WNBA Rookie of the Yr.
Nicknamed the “Gold Mamba” in reference to her idol, Kobe Bryant, Loyd was an ideal slot in Seattle. Joined by 2016 No. 1 choose Breanna Stewart of UConn, Loyd helped the Storm win WNBA titles in 2018 and 2020.
Loyd led the WNBA in scoring common (24.7 PPG) in 2023. Her relationship with the Storm deteriorated after her tenth season final yr, however she is worked up to be in Las Vegas now.
“I’ve needed to guard her for six years,” Younger stated. “So to be on her workforce and provides her the ball and watch her work … it is nice.”
Lindsay Allen: ‘Excessive IQ’
McGraw stated Allen is the participant who reminds her most of herself: “She was all the time proper to the purpose, all enterprise, let’s get it executed. And the workforce actually responded effectively to her.”
Allen was the primary WNBA participant from Notre Dame to spend her complete faculty profession within the ACC and is the league’s all-time assists chief (841). That is particularly spectacular contemplating WNBA gamers resembling Daybreak Staley, Kristi Toliver, Chelsea Grey, Lindsey Harding and Ivory Latta additionally performed within the ACC.
Drafted within the second spherical (No. 14) in 2017 by the Liberty, Allen is now with Connecticut — her sixth WNBA workforce — having spent final yr with Chicago. Her specialty stays playmaking; she has averaged 3.3 assists and 4.8 factors in seven seasons.
Jackie Younger: ‘Versatile’
Younger, like Diggins, is an Indiana native and performed alongside Ogunbowale and Mabrey on the 2018 NCAA championship workforce. She was a draft-eligible junior in 2019 with these two seniors.
In what has proved to be top-of-the-line WNBA drafts, Younger was the highest choose of 2019. Then-Las Vegas coach/normal supervisor Invoice Laimbeer stated on the time that it would take a few seasons for Younger — who needed to change her shot mechanics — to become the WNBA All-Star he was certain she could be. However that is what occurred.
Younger is an elite defender in addition to offensively expert; she has averaged 13.5 factors, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in six seasons with the Aces. Her 3-point enchancment stands out: She had 22 mixed treys her first three seasons. Over the previous three, all beneath coach Becky Hammon, Younger has made 209.
Arike Ogunbowale: ‘Clutch’
The 2018 Closing 4 may be finest remembered for Ogunbowale’s signature performances: She hit the game-winning shot for Notre Dame in each its semifinal and championship recreation victories.
She additionally helped lead the Irish again to the title recreation in 2019, once they misplaced by one level to Baylor. Then each Ogunbowale at No. 5 and UConn’s Napheesa Collier (No. 6) have been drastically underestimated within the WNBA draft; if groups had a re-do, each could be lottery picks.
Ogunbowale’s scoring prowess continued within the WNBA: She has averaged 20.6 factors over six seasons. This yr, she shall be joined within the backcourt by No. 1 choose Paige Bueckers, a combo that would convey the very best out of the Wings’ offense.
Marina Mabrey: ‘Tasmanian Satan’
Ivey laughed and stated, “It is what Marina’s mother referred to as her. She informed us, ‘That is what you are getting as a result of she’s so fiery.'”
Mabrey was a second-round choose in 2019 (No. 19) by Los Angeles. She then spent three seasons as Ogunbowale’s teammate in Dallas and has since performed in Chicago and Connecticut. She is understood for her “will not again down” persona on court docket and her constant scoring, particularly behind the arc. She averaged 14.4 PPG final yr between the Sky and the Solar and has made 370 3-pointers, together with a career-high 98 final season.
Sonia Citron: ‘Like Jackie’
Being in comparison with Younger is excessive reward from Ivey, who sees Citron as equally versatile. Citron was the ACC Rookie of the Yr in 2022 and has been on the all-league first workforce the previous two seasons, plus the ACC All-Defensive workforce this yr.
Citron performed alongside two different standout guards at Notre Dame this season: Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles, each of whom are anticipated to be future lottery picks. Miles was a projected lottery choose this yr however opted as an alternative to switch and can play her ultimate season at TCU. Ivey stated that she is thrilled to see Citron following the remainder of the Notre Dame alums within the WNBA.
“And now our group will be capable of witness the WNBA in particular person,” Ivey stated of Friday’s recreation. “It will likely be inspiring for my workforce to be there, and we’ll be so proud that three of them are our personal from Notre Dame.”
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