BIRMINGHAM, Ala. − Morning didn’t matter.
An excruciatingly early morning didn’t matter.
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It didn’t matter that the Notre Dame women’s basketball team was up before the sun Friday, one day before its March Madness Sweet 16 game against TCU in the Birmingham 3 Regional of the NCAA Tournament at Legacy Arena.
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It didn’t matter that the schedule said they had to do basketball stuff far earlier than they did basketball stuff the previous weekend when they played in the friendly confines of Purcell Pavilion.
What mattered was that they were doing it at all. Doing it in the Sweet 16 with a chance to get to the Elite Eight. This is the best time of the year for college basketball, so sleep – or a few more hours of it – can wait.
“They’re locked and focused,” Irish coach Niele Ivey said. “No matter the time, we’ll be ready. I am a morning person, especially when you are still dancing.”
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The second weekend of March Madness is when it really gets going in the women’s tournament. The good teams, the elite teams, play the first two games at home. Often, they win easily at home. It feels like an extension of the regular season.
This weekend is different. Regional sites for the women’s tournament differ from the men. Instead of four regionals with four teams at each, the women’s tournament has two regional sites – Birmingham, Alabama, and Spokane, Washington – with eight teams at each.
That’s a lot of teams, and a lot happening on the daily arena itinerary. It leads to some creative scheduling.
Friday also was a Sweet 16 gameday for half the teams in Birmingham, which means the media/practice sessions for the other half were held in the morning. The early morning. The should-still-be-in-bed time of the morning. Especially for college students.
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Ivey addressed the media at 7:30 a.m. The locker room was open to media at 7:45. The hour-long practice at Legacy started at 8:40. Last weekend, Notre Dame’s media/practice sessions for the first two rounds started at 12:25 p.m. on Thursday and 1:25 on Saturday.
For most of the Irish, the Sweet 16 schedule change was seamless. The earlier the better. There were more smiles than scowls in the locker room. The traditional card game was in full swing on the locker room floor.
Graduate student forward Maddy Westbeld had her alarm set for 6:30. She was already up by 6.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said.
Liza Karlen was also up by 6. She needed an alarm before also needing her coffee and something for breakfast. Once she had that, she had everything.
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“I’m good to go for the rest of the day,” she said. “It could be worse.”
Of the five players polled during media access, only guard Olivia Miles had an issue with the early hour.
“This was difficult for me,” Miles said of answering the 6:30 a.m. alarm. “I got to be early (10 p.m.), so that helped.”
What worked in the Irish favor was the regional site. Birmingham is in the Central Time Zone, so having to set an alarm for 6 a.m. was kind of/sort of like setting it for 7 a.m. if they were still on campus.
For most Irish, it was just like another day. Another early day, for sure, but another day.
“It’s not too bad,” Karlen said. “It’s not a big deal. It’s a lot of adrenaline.”
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Following media and practice and meetings and lunch, the Irish itinerary included four hours of downtime. Sophomore wing Cass Prosper knew what she’d do in that afternoon window.
“Nap time,” she said.
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 preps to face TCU in March Madness Sweet 16
