2012–13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball team

2012–13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball
2012–13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball
Big East regular season and tournament champions
NCAA tournament, Final Four
Conference	Big East Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 3
AP	No. 2
Record	35–2 (16–0 Big East)
Head coach	Muffet McGraw (26th season);
Assistant coaches	Carol Owens; Beth Cunningham; Niele Ivey;
Home arena	Edmund P. Joyce Center
	Seasons ← 2011–12 2013–14 →

The 2012–13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball team represented University of Notre Dame during the 2012–13 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Fighting Irish, led by twenty-sixth year head coach Muffet McGraw, played their home games at the Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center and played their final season as members of the Big East Conference. They finished the season with 35–2 overall, 16–0 in Big East play to win the Big East regular season and tournament titles. They earned an automatic bid to the 2013 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament where they defeated Tennessee-Martin in the first round, Iowa in the second round, Kansas in the Sweet Sixteen, and Duke in the Elite Eight to make it to their fifth Final Four, where they were defeated by nemesis UConn in the National semifinals.

2012–13 Big East Conference women's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 2 Notre Dame†	16	–	0	1.000	35	–	2	.946
No. 3 Connecticut	14	–	2	.875	35	–	4	.897
No. 16 Louisville	11	–	5	.688	29	–	9	.763
St. John's	11	–	5	.688	18	–	13	.581
South Florida	9	–	7	.563	22	–	11	.667
Villanova	9	–	7	.563	21	–	11	.656
DePaul	9	–	7	.563	21	–	12	.636
Rutgers	7	–	9	.438	16	–	14	.533
Marquette	7	–	9	.438	16	–	16	.500
Georgetown	5	–	11	.313	15	–	16	.484
Seton Hall	5	–	11	.313	11	–	20	.355
Cincinnati	4	–	12	.250	12	–	18	.400
Providence	2	–	14	.125	7	–	23	.233
Pittsburgh	0	–	16	.000	9	–	21	.300


† 2013 Big East Basketball Tournament winner As of April 9, 2013 Rankings from AP poll^[1]^[2]

Roster

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	4	Skylar Diggins	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	Sr	Washington	South Bend, IN
F	11	Natalie Achonwa	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	Jr	St. Mary's Catholic	Guelph, ON
F	44	Ariel Braker	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Jr	Grosse Pointe North	Grosse Pointe Woods, MI
G	22	Madison Cable	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	So	Mt. Lebanon	Mt. Lebanon, PA
G	3	Whitney Holloway	5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)	So	Montini Catholic	Plainfield, IL
G	21	Kayla McBride	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	Jr	Villa Maria Academy	Erie, PA
F	34	Markisha Wright	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	So	Des Moines East	Des Moines, IA

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Exhibition
Regular season
Big East tournament
Mar 10, 2013*	No. 2	vs. South Florida Quarterfinals	W 75–66	29–1	XL Center Hartford, Connecticut
Mar 11, 2013*	No. 2	vs. No. 16 Louisville Semifinals	W 83–59	30–1	XL Center Hartford, Connecticut
Mar 12, 2013*	No. 2	at No. 3 Connecticut Championship game	W 61–59	31–1	XL Center (9,085) Hartford, Connecticut
NCAA tournament
Mar 24, 2013*	(1 E) No. 2	vs. (16 E) Tennessee-Martin First round	W 97–64	32–1	Carver-Hawkeye Arena Iowa City, Iowa
Mar 26, 2013*	(1 E) No. 2	(9 E) Iowa Second round	W 74–57	33–1	Carver-Hawkeye Arena (4,942) Iowa City, Iowa
Mar 31, 2013*	(1 E) No. 2	vs. Kansas Regional Semifinal – Sweet Sixteen	W 93–63	34–1	Ted Constant Convocation Center Norfolk, Virginia
Apr 2, 2013*	(1 E) No. 2	vs. No. 5 Duke Regional Final – Elite Eight	W 87–76	35–1	Ted Constant Convocation Center Norfolk, Virginia
April 7, 2013* 9:07 pm2, ESPN	(1 E)	vs. No. 3 Connecticut National Semifinal – Final Four/Rivalry	L 65–83	35–2	New Orleans Arena (17,545) New Orleans, Louisiana
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Eastern Time.

Source^[3]