Tag: Jackie Young

Muffet McGraw praises former players for winning Olympic gold

Always nice to hear from the legend.

[autotag]Muffet McGraw[/autotag] knows [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag] and [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag] very well. She coached both of them at Notre Dame at separate times and undoubtedly knew the sky was the limit for both of them. That definitely can be said now that both have won their second consecutive Olympic gold medals for the U.S., though Young won her first during the 3-on-3 competition.

McGraw was asked to comment to OSV News about her thoughts on her two former players being Olympic champions for a second time each. While not surprising to read these words, they’re nice to read anyway:

“So proud to see Jackie and Jewell win a gold medal. It’s great to see their hard work pay off. They are excellent representatives of our program and of Notre Dame. I am thrilled to watch them succeed at the highest level of our sport.”

Congratulations again to Jackie and Jewell. Hopefully, at least one of them can return to the Olympics in 2028 to try for a third gold medal.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Photos of former Notre Dame women’s basketball players winning gold

Make that two golds each for the two.

The 2024 Olympics in Paris had only one event left in which to give out medals. That was the women’s basketball competition, and the U.S. was a heavy favorite for its eighth straight gold medal. It turned out winning the gold was easier said than done as the U.S. squeaked by France, 67-66, in a game that nearly went into overtime but for a foot on the 3-point line on the final basket.

Though two former Notre Dame standouts were on the U.S. roster, only one played in the final game. That was [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag], who made a single basket on seven field-goal attempts. [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag] was left on the bench. However, both will leave Paris with their second Olympic gold medals each.

In six Olympic contests, Young averaged 9.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 steals a game. Over five games, Loyd had averages of 3.2 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists.

Here’s how these two Irish legends enjoyed their latest moment of Olympic glory:

Former Notre Dame center Lauren Ebo makes Nigerian Olympic team

Congrats, Lauren!

Make that five women’s basketball players with Notre Dame connections in the 2024 Olympics. [autotag]Lauren Ebo[/autotag], who finished her collegiate career with the Irish during the 2022-23 season, has been named to the final roster for Nigeria for the upcoming competition. Ebo took to social media after the announcement and appears to be a little shocked to even have this honor

Ebo just played for a professional team in Turkey and recently signed with another team in Poland. Now, she’ll try to help the Nigerians capture their first Olympic medal in basketball, men or women. She joins a women’s basketball competition already featuring [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag] and [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag] for the U.S. and [autotag]Natalie Achonwa[/autotag] and [autotag]Cassandre Prosper[/autotag] for Canada.

Ebo and Prosper were teammates with the Irish during the aforementioned season with Ebo transferring in and Prosper enrolling at Notre Dame early. They’ll play against each other when Nigeria and Canada wrap up group play Aug. 4. Rounding out that group are Australia and host country France.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame’s Cassandre Prosper teaches French ahead of Olympics

Time to get educated.

Notre Dame guard [autotag]Cassandre Prosper[/autotag] missed most of this past season, but the next two weeks should help make up for that. She’s off to Paris to represent Canada for the 2024 Olympics. She’s incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity at this stage of her career.

To help get Irish fans in the Parisian spirit for the Olympics, Prosper, who hails from Montreal, shared a few French words and phrases on social media:

Those of you who took French in school might have known some of these already, but for everyone else, it’s a nice little educational moment.

This tweet was made the same Prosper scored six points in Canada’s pre-Olympic 77-74 victory over Australia in Spain. Former Irish standout [autotag]Natalie Achonwa[/autotag] contributed 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting and grabbed six rebounds.

Elsewhere, the U.S. bounced back from [autotag]Arike Ogunbowale[/autotag]’s All-Star MVP performance by topping Germany, 84-57, in its last game before the Olympics in London. [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag] scored 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, and [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag] had eight points.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Arike Ogunbowale sets WNBA All-Star scoring record, wins second MVP

Irish fans know she’s not afraid of the spotlight.

Notre Dame legend [autotag]Arike Ogunbowale[/autotag] didn’t think she had a shot at making Team USA for the 2024 Olympics. She saved herself the frustration by withdrawing from the pool of potential players early. But when she represented Team WNBA against the same U.S. Olympic team in the WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix, she proved she should be going to Paris.

After being held scoreless in the first half, Ogunbowale set a WNBA All-Star record with 34 points, all in the second half, to lead Team WNBA to a 117-109 victory. She scored 24 of those points on eight 3-pointers.

Ogunbowale’s reward was her second WNBA All-Star MVP Award, her first coming in 2021 when the league All-Stars last faced an Olympic team. She’s the fourth player to win the award more than once. It marked the third time in four years a former Notre Dame player won All-Star MVP.

[autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag], the 2023 All-Star MVP, failed to score on three field-goal attempts. Her U.S. teammate, [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag], made a single field goal on five attempts. [autotag]Kayla McBride[/autotag], the fourth former Irish player in the game, made her only shot attempt for Team WNBA, which came from 3-point range.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Marina Mabrey, Kayla McBride compete in WNBA All-Star events

Did you watch?

Notre Dame had some representation to tip off WNBA All-Star festivities over the next couple of days. Two of the three events held Friday in Phoenix featured that representation. Regrettably, it didn’t result in any hardware.

[autotag]Marina Mabrey[/autotag], who was traded from the Chicago Sky at her request earlier this week to the Connecticut Sun, competed in the Skills Challenge, the evening’s first event. You can’t see it that well in the video, but she fumbled a couple of times towards the end, costing her precious time:

The fumbles proved costly as she missed out on the final by two tenths of a second. All she could at that point was look to the 3-Point Contest, but she scored a contest-low 19 points:

Fellow former Irish standout [autotag]Kayla McBride[/autotag] of the Minnesota Lynx came right after her and scored enough points to stay alive:

However, she also didn’t advance to the final, so that was it for Notre Dame fans for the evening. The Atlanta Dream’s Allisha Gray wound up winning both events, becoming the first player to do so on the same night.

McBride and [autotag]Arike Ogunbowale[/autotag] will compete with the rest of the WNBA All-Stars in the All-Star Game on Saturday. They’ll be up against the U.S. Olympic team featuring [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag] and [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag].

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Fans get Jackie Young’s autograph after failing ‘last couple games’

Persistence pays off.

Former Notre Dame guard [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag] is playing the best basketball of her life with the Las Vegas Aces. That means people want a piece of her, particularly her autograph. In fact, that means so many people that not everyone succeeds at it on a given night.

That finally changed for one persistent family during the Aces’ Fourth of July victory over the Washington Mystics. Mike Dixon of Vegas Sports Today captured the moment Young signed the autographs and briefly asked them about it afterwards:

A quick look at the Aces’ schedule indicates that a week-and-a-half passed recently between home games, so this family had to wait quite a bit after their initial failures. But things always have a way of working out, don’t they?

Young is averaging career highs of 18.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.9 assists a game. She will compete for the U.S. in the Paris Olympics alongside fellow former Irish standout [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag].

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Jackie Young revealed the reason why she intentionally untied her shoes for Caitlin Clark

Jackie Young is a gem.

Jackie Young explained why she untied her shoes for Caitlin Clark, and her reasoning proves she’s the consummate professional.

On Tuesday night, during a matchup with the Indiana Fever, the rookie fell on the floor, sliding across the hardwood after possibly tripping over her own feet. Young, a former No. 1 pick and a six-year WNBA veteran, quickly untied her shoes, causing a game delay. Jackie stood next to Caitlin, tying one shoe and the other, giving her time to recover.

Young also seemingly checked in on Clark to make sure she was OK. On Thursday, after a win against the Washington Mystics, the Aces guard was asked about her reaction to that moment. Here’s what she shared with the media:

“Yeah, I think…just doing the right thing — just making sure she’s good…and just checking on her. I gave her a little tap…make sure she’s cool….”

“Because at the end of the day, you know we just want to play this game, have fun, be healthy…just giving her a little bit of time…to reset, regroup and just make sure she’s okay.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 tag=117952]

Jackie Young did the classiest thing for Caitlin Clark by deliberately untying her own shoe

A classy move by the Aces guard to give Caitlin Clark some time to recover.

Here’s a really awesome move made by someone playing against Caitlin Clark.

The Indiana Fever rookie fell to the floor on Tuesday night in the loss to the Las Vegas Aces, tripping over her own feet. Maybe Jackie Young thought Clark hurt herself, so as Clark slowly tied her shoe as she recovered, Young stood next to her and did the same, tying one sneaker and then the other.

That delayed play from continuing, and you could see Young chatting with Clark, and people think it was Young checking in on her to make sure she was OK.

Class act all around:

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=421393215]

 

 

Two former Notre Dame players make WNBA All-Star roster

Congrats, Arike and Kayla!

The final decade or so of [autotag]Muffet McGraw[/autotag]’s tenure at Notre Dame saw her develop many future WNBA stars. Those stars have their mark on today’s league and have earned the right to display their skills as much as possible.

The WNBA All-Star roster for the annual All-Star Game on July 20 in Phoenix has been announced. That roster will include the Dallas Wings’ [autotag]Arike Ogunbowale[/autotag] and the Minnesota Lynx’s [autotag]Kayla McBride[/autotag], two players who came up with the Irish.

Ogunbowale was named to the team by virtue of being one of the top 10 vote-getters among fans, players and media. McBride was one of eight additional players named after coaches completed the final round of voting. Among those on the final ballot but not making the roster were the Seattle Storm’s [autotag]Skylar Diggins-Smith[/autotag] and the Chicago Sky’s [autotag]Marina Mabrey[/autotag].

The WNBA All-Stars will face the U.S. Olympic team, which includes the Las Vegas Aces’ [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag], who also was one of the top 10 WNBA vote-getters, and the Storm’s [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag].

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89