Notre Dame All-American Brianna Turner (11)
photo by ND Sports Information
Notre Dame senior Lindsay Allen (15)
photo by ND Sports Information
It's Christmas Eve and "… Santa Claus is Comin to Town …”
And the No.2 ranked Notre Dame women’s basketball team will also arrive in the Scenic City to face UTC. But not by sleigh and not tonight, but soon.
It’s Christmas Eve and the guy in the red suit is center stage delivering a multitude of goodies from games and trains to every new high tech toy, phone and lap top known to mankind.
One More Present – This Tuesday: After the presents from the North Pole have been opened and the tree and decorations put away for another year, UTC women’s basketball coach Jim Foster has a gift for the basketball fans in this area as the No.2 Lady Irish face the Mocs at McKenzie Arena at 6:30 p.m.
Known to bring in the top competition in the land to face the Blue and Gold, coach Foster has already posted wins against top 10 foes Stanford and Tennessee on the McKenzie Arena hardwood, and also faced No.1 UConn and top 25 teams in Florida and Indiana.
A Battle Tested Mocs Team: Coach Foster has said many times, he wants to have his players face some of the best teams and players in the land in November and December to prepare for the Southern Conference and hopefully a place in the NCAA in March.
Notre Dame: While Santa worked on his gifts in his workshop up North year round, Notre Dame hall of fame coach Muffet McGraw has traveled the country to give the Irish fans a gift of one of the best women’s teams in the nation.
Eight High School All-Americans: If one reads through the Irish roster and checks it twice, there are eight – yes count ‘em – eight McDonald All-Americans comin’ to town wearing the green and white and carrying an 11-1 record.
The only loss was to defending national champion and current No.1 UConn, 72-61 Dec. 7 in South Bend.
McDonald All-Americans (8) –
* Lindsay Allen – Sr. Guard … 2013 McDonald’s and USA Today All-American … graduated from St. John’s College HS with a 4.0 grade point average
* Erin Boley – Fr. Forward (Elizabethtown HS. Ky.) …. 2016 McDonald’s All-American … 2016 Gatorade Player of the Year
* Marina Mabrey – Soph. Guard … (Manasquan High School, N.J.) … 2015 McDonald’s and Parade All-American … co-MVP of the McDonald’s All-America game
* Arike Ogunbowale Soph. Guard (Devine Savior Holy Angels, Wisc.) … 2015 McDonald’s All-American and Parade All-American
* Ali Patberg – Soph. Guard (Columbus North HS, Indiana) … 2015 McDonald’s All-American … Parade All-American … MaxPreps National High School Player of the Year
* Brianna Turner – Jr. Forward (Manvel HS, Texas) … 2014 McDonald’s All-American … 2014 Gatorade National High School Female Athlete of the Year … 2014 USA Today National HS Player of the Year …
* Kathryn Westbeld – Jr. Forward (Kettering Fairmont, Ohio) … 2014 McDonald’s All-American
* Jackie Young – Fr. Guard (Princeton Community HS, Ind.) … 2016 McDonald’s All-American … 2016 Naismith National Player of the Year
International Gold Medals: Allen - member of the 2012 USA gold medal winning FIBA U17 world champions … Mabrey –member of 2014 USA U18 FIBA Americas champions … Ogunbowale – member of 2014 USA U17 FIBA world championship squad …Patberg – member of 2015 USA U19 FIBA world championship team … Turner- member of 2013 USA U19 FIBA world championship team
Tickets: So Tuesday night give a late Christmas present to a neighbor and hoops fan and buy a couple (or more) of tickets and cheer on the Mocs in McKenzie Arena.
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net