2015–16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball team

The 2015–16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball team represented University of Notre Dame during the 2015–16 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Fighting Irish, led by twenty-ninth year head coach Muffet McGraw, play their home games at Edmund P. Joyce Center and were third year members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. They finished the season with 33–2, 16–0 in ACC play to win both of the ACC Regular Season and Tournament. They earn an automatic bid to the NCAA women's tournament, where they defeat North Carolina A&T and Indiana in both the first and second rounds before losing to Stanford in the sweet sixteen, which ended 5 straight Final Four appearances.

2015–16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball
ACC tournament champions ACC regular season champions Junkanoo Jam Freeport Division champions
NCAA tournament, Sweet Sixteen
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 6
AP	No. 2
Record	33–2 (16–0 ACC)
Head coach	Muffet McGraw (29th season)
Assistant coaches	Carol Owens Beth Cunningham Niele Ivey
Home arena	Edmund P. Joyce Center

2015–16 ACC women's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 2 Notre Dame †	16	–	0		1.000			33	–	2		.943
No. 8 Louisville	15	–	1		.938			26	–	8		.765
No. 14 Syracuse	13	–	3		.813			30	–	8		.789
No. 17 Florida State	13	–	3		.813			25	–	8		.758
No. 19 Miami (FL)	10	–	6		.625			24	–	9		.727
NC State	10	–	6		.625			20	–	11		.645
Duke	8	–	8		.500			20	–	12		.625
Georgia Tech	8	–	8		.500			20	–	13		.606
Virginia	6	–	10		.375			18	–	16		.529
Wake Forest	6	–	10		.375			17	–	16		.515
Virginia Tech	5	–	11		.313			18	–	14		.563
North Carolina	4	–	12		.250			14	–	18		.438
Pittsburgh	4	–	12		.250			13	–	18		.419
Boston College	2	–	14		.125			15	–	16		.484
Clemson	0	–	16		.000			4	–	26		.133
† 2016 ACC tournament winner As of April 5, 2016 Rankings from AP poll

Roster

2015–16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball team
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Year Previous school Hometown G 2 Arike Ogunbowale 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) Fr Divine Savior Holy Angels Milwaukee, WI G 3 Marina Mabrey 5 ft 11 in (1.8 m) Fr Manasquan Belmar, NJ F 11 Brianna Turner 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) So Manvel Pearland, TX F 12 Taya Reimer  6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) Jr Hamilton Southeastern Fishers, IN G 14 Mychael Johnson 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m) So Huntington St. Joseph Huntington, WV G 15 Lindsay Allen 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) Jr St. John's College Michelleville, MD G 20 Ali Patberg  5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) Fr Columbus North Columbus, IN F 21 Kristina Nelson 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) RS So Buford Buford, GA F 22 Madison Cable 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) RS Sr Mt. Lebanon Mt. Lebanon, PA G 23 Michaela Mabrey 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) Sr Manasquan Belmar, NJ G 24 Hannah Huffman 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) Sr Carondelet Diablo, CA F 33 Kathryn Westbeld 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) So Ketting Fairmount Kettering, OH C 35 Diamond Thompson 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) Jr Wheaton Warrenville South Wheaton, IL	Head coach Muffet McGraw (Saint Joseph's) Assistant coach(es) Carol Owens (Northern Illinois) Beth Cunningham (Notre Dame) Niele Ivey (Notre Dame) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible (W) Walk-on Injured Current redshirt Roster

Media

All Notre Dame games will air on WHPZ Pulse 96.9 FM. Games are streamed online live.

Rankings

Main article: 2015–16 NCAA Division I women's basketball rankings

Regular Season Polls

Poll	Pre- Season	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12	Week 13	Week 14	Week 15	Week 16	Week 17	Week 18	Week 19	Final
AP	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	N/A
Coaches	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	6

Legend

		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
(RV)		Received Votes

Schedule

Date time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Exhibition
11/07/2015* 1:00 pm	No. 3	Wayne State	W 101–52		Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,088) South Bend, IN
Regular season
11/15/2015* 1:00 pm	No. 3	Bucknell	W 85–54	1–0	Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,948) South Bend, IN
11/18/2015* 7:00 pm, ESPN3	No. 3	Toledo	W 74–39	2–0	Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,474) South Bend, IN
11/21/2015* 3:00 pm, ESPN3	No. 3	at South Dakota State	W 75–64	3–0	Frost Arena (5,532) Brookings, SD
11/23/2015* 8:00 pm, ESPN3	No. 3	at Valparaiso	W 110–54	4–0	Athletics–Recreation Center (1,371) Valparaiso, IN
11/27/2015* 3:15 pm	No. 3	vs. Denver Junkanoo Jam Freeport Division semifinals	W 94–52	5–0	St. Georges High School (375) Grand Bahama Island
11/28/2015* 3:15 pm	No. 3	vs. UCLA Junkanoo Jam Freeport Division championship	W 92–84 OT	6–0	St. Georges High School (683) Grand Bahama Island
12/02/2015* 7:00 pm, ESPN3	No. 3	No. 10 Ohio State ACC–Big Ten Women's Challenge	W 75–72	7–0	Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,609) South Bend, IN
12/05/2015* 5:15 pm, ESPN	No. 3	at No. 1 Connecticut Jimmy V Classic/Rivalry	L 81–91	7–1	Gampel Pavilion (10,167) Storrs, CT
12/09/2015* 7:00 pm, ESPN3	No. 3	No. 18 DePaul	W 95–90	8–1	Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,207) South Bend, IN
12/12/2015* 12:00 pm, FSN	No. 3	at TCU	W 88–72	9–1	University Recreation Center (1,628) Fort Worth, TX
12/21/2015* 7:00 pm	No. 3	at Saint Joseph's	W 91–55	10–1	Hagan Arena (3,411) Philadelphia, PA
12/28/2015* 7:00 pm, ESPN3	No. 3	No. 10 Oregon State	W 62–61	11–1	Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,860) South Bend, IN
12/30/2015 7:00 pm	No. 3	Georgia Tech	W 85–76	12–1 (1–0)	Edmund P. Joyce Center (9,149) South Bend, IN
01/03/2016 3:00 pm, RSN	No. 3	at Pittsburgh	W 65–55	13–1 (2–0)	Peterson Events Center (3,610) Pittsburgh, PA
01/07/2016 7:00 pm	No. 3	at Virginia	W 74–46	14–1 (3–0)	John Paul Jones Arena (3,394) Charlottesville, VA
01/10/2016 1:00 pm, ESPN2	No. 3	North Carolina	W 88–54	15–1 (4–0)	Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,942) South Bend, IN
01/14/2016 7:00 pm	No. 3	at Boston College	W 63–50	16–1 (5–0)	Conte Forum (1,179) Chestnut Hill, MA
01/18/2016* 7:00 pm, ESPN2	No. 3	No. 18 Tennessee	W 79–66	17–1	Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,961) South Bend, IN
01/21/2016 7:00 pm, ESPN3	No. 3	Syracuse	W 90–62	18–1 (6–0)	Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,312) South Bend, IN
01/24/2016 1:00 pm	No. 3	Virginia Tech	W 80–41	19–1 (7–0)	Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,958) South Bend, IN
01/28/2016 7:00 pm, RSN	No. 3	at Georgia Tech	W 54–42	20–1 (8–0)	Hank McCamish Pavilion (1,908) Atlanta, GA
02/01/2016 7:00 pm, ESPN2	No. 3	at Duke	W 68–61	21–1 (9–0)	Cameron Indoor Stadium (5,159) Durham, NC
02/04/2016 7:00 pm, ESPN3	No. 3	NC State	W 82–46	22–1 (10–0)	Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,835) South Bend, IN
02/07/2016 2:00 pm, ESPN2	No. 3	at No. 13 Louisville	W 66–61	23–1 (11–0)	KFC Yum! Center (13,837) Louisville, KY
02/14/2016 1:00 pm, RSN	No. 3	No. 19 Miami (FL)	W 90–69	24–1 (12–0)	Edmund P. Joyce Center (9,149) South Bend, IN
02/18/2016 7:00 pm	No. 2	at Wake Forest	W 86–52	25–1 (13–0)	LJVM Coliseum (692) Winston-Salem, NC
02/22/2016 7:00 pm, ESPN2	No. 2	at No. 12 Florida State	W 73–66	26–1 (14–0)	Donald L. Tucker Civic Center (5,319) Tallahassee, FL
02/25/2016 7:00 pm	No. 2	Clemson	W 71–52	27–1 (15–0)	Edmund P. Joyce Center (8,378) South Bend, IN
02/27/2016 1:00 pm	No. 2	Boston College	W 70–48	28–1 (16–0)	Edmund P. Joyce Center (9,149) South Bend, IN
ACC Women's Tournament
03/04/2016 2:00 pm, RSN	No. 2	vs. Duke Quarterfinals	W 83–54	29–1	Greensboro Coliseum (3,148) Greensboro, NC
03/05/2016 12:00 pm, ESPNU	No. 2	vs. No. 21 Miami (FL) Semifinals	W 78–67	30–1	Greensboro Coliseum  Greensboro, NC
03/06/2016 12:30 pm, ESPN	No. 2	vs. No. 17 Syracuse Championship Game	W 68–57	31–1	Greensboro Coliseum (5,017) Greensboro, NC
NCAA Women's Tournament
03/19/2016* 6:30 pm, ESPN2	(1 L) No. 2	(16 L) North Carolina A&T First round	W 95–61	32–1	Edmund P. Joyce Center (6,310) South Bend, IN
03/21/2016* 6:30 pm, ESPN2	(1 L) No. 2	(9 L) Indiana Second round	W 87–70	33–1	Edmund P. Joyce Center (5,750) South Bend, IN
03/25/2016* 9:30 pm, ESPN	(1 L) No. 2	vs. (4 L) No. 13 Stanford Sweet Sixteen	L 84–90	33–2	Rupp Arena (8,509) Lexington, KY
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. L=Lexington Region. All times are in Eastern.

Source

See also

• 2015–16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball team