How can one Notre Dame women's basketball player get her game back in gear during March Madness?
SOUTH BEND – What happened?
Even now, 12 days that included a few spent on a beach in Puerto Rico removed from one of the worst games of a collegiate career that has seen her play 138 games over her five seasons, Notre Dame women’s basketball graduate forward Maddy Westbeld finds it difficult to pinpoint the problem.
Difficult to communicate after she drifted through what she called the “worst performance I’ve ever had” in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinal loss to Duke on March 8.
Westbeld started. She played 27 minutes. She took six shots from the field. She missed them all. She took two shots from 3. She missed both. She grabbed one rebound. She committed three turnovers. She staggered to the bench after being bopped in the nose for the second time in as many games.
This time, it wouldn’t stop bleeding. It bled and bled and bled until she had to be taken back to the locker room, where it bled some more.
“It wouldn’t stop,” Westbeld said Thursday, the first day she was available to dissect what went wrong in a loss that forced Notre Dame (26-5) to accept a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Women’s Tournament. “My mom was like, you need to get some extra steak this week to get your iron levels back up.”
An extra filet or two or three wouldn’t help. A few days on the beach in Puerto Rico didn’t completely close that wound. Back in the lab of Rolfs Hall, Westbeld did what she knows — she went back to work. She worked with her teammates and she worked alone, anything to erase that nightmare afternoon in Greensboro.
“This is it for her,” Irish head coach Niele Ivey said of Westbeld. “This is her last hurrah. She’s ready. Mentally ready.”
Having averaged 12.2 points and 6.8 rebounds in nearly 4,100 career minutes, Westbeld was asked Thursday what needs to happen Friday against No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin (29-5) that will help Westbeld look like her usual scoring, confident self.
There was a long pause. A smile. A sigh.
“It’s definitely not an easy answer,” she said. “That game was probably one of my biggest fears. To go scoreless as a player is crazy.
“For me to hit rock bottom, I’m done talking about it.”
Come 2 p.m. Friday in Purcell Pavilion, Westbeld has a chance to put it behind her.
“I’m not asking for excuses; I’m not asking for permission,” she said. “I’m going to get myself back and that’s what it’s going to be. Plain and simple.”
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame women's basketball gets to start fresh in 2025 NCAA Tournament
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