I asked AI information bot ChatGPT to list what it believes are Notre Dame’s top 10 men’s basketball players. It only makes sense for me to give the women equal treatment. Plus the women have both a better recent past and future than the men. You know people want to know who’s made the program so special.
Please note that ChatGPT’s knowledge cuts off at September 2021, so you won’t find [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] on this list. Heck, she probably wouldn’t have made it anyway since she just completed her sophomore season. She still has a legacy to complete.
Here is ChatGPT’s disclaimer regarding the list:
“As a language model, I do not have personal opinions or beliefs, and my responses are generated based on data and information available to me. However, I can provide you with a list of some of the most notable Notre Dame women’s basketball players, based on their achievements, accolades, and impact on the program.”
It also says this:
“Please note that this list is not exhaustive and is subject to personal opinions and interpretations. There have been many talented and accomplished players in Notre Dame women’s basketball history, and different people may have different criteria for their top 10 selections.”
With that out of the way, let’s see who the information bot has deemed worthy of making this list and what it had to say about each player:
“As a former player in the WNBA, Kristin brings a wealth of expertise and a reputation that precedes her,” Lynx coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said in a released statement. “Kristin’s devotion to the game and its players will no doubt be a great asset to our coaching staff and franchise.”
Haynie spent the last four seasons with the Spartans, and is a legend of the program for her efforts in bringing MSU to a national runner-up finish in 2005. After that, Haynie was drafted No. 9 in the WNBA draft and spent four seasons in the WNBA.
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Andrew Brewster on Twitter @IAmBrewster.
On Wednesday morning, the league announced that the Minnesota Lynx and the Chicago Sky will play a preseason game at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on May 13, though no specific tip-off time is evident at the moment.
May’s preseason game will mark the first-ever WNBA game played in Canada.
The league currently employs three Canadian players (Natalie Achonwa, Kia Nurse, and Bridget Carleton), and with an expansion presumably going to happen at some point in the future, one might wonder if this spring trip to Canada is some foundation being laid in that event.
PER RELEASE: The WNBA will host its first pre-season Canada game on May 13 in Toronto featuring the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx.
But what these two teams look like when they take the court in Toronto will be clearer in the coming weeks. The Sky have several key free agents on the market, and the Lynx will need to round out their roster in the first year of the post-Sylvia Fowles era.
Stay tuned as the 2023 WNBA Free Agency gets underway soon.
Sylvia Fowles will forever be remembered as a basketball icon. If you ever decide to recite Fowles’ career achievements, you might want to take a few extra breaths.
A WNBA MVP. Two WNBA titles. Two WNBA Finals MVPs. (Takes a breath) Eight All-Star selections. Four Defensive Player of the Year awards. (Takes another breath) The only player in WNBA history to record at least 4,000 rebounds (!).
Suffice to say, Fowles created a lot of memories over her legendary 15-year career. Her final game, with the Lynx taking on the Sun (-6) Sunday, was bound to be emotional. And when the all-time great center stepped off the court for the final time in the closing moments, the hometown Connecticut crowd honored Fowles with a touching standing ovation:
.@SylviaFowles checks out for the final time in her WNBA career for the @minnesotalynx at Mohegan Sun Arena where she gets a standing ovation 💐
— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) August 14, 2022
Oh wow. Look at that emotional outpouring from Fowles’ teammates. Just listen to the roar of that crowd that does not wain whatsoever. A fitting tribute to one of the best ever as she hangs her sneakers up. Someone, please stop cutting onions!
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What’s good, family. It’s Sykes, once again, here to bring you another edition of Layup Lines. Today, we’re celebrating Sylvia Fowles.
The Minnesota Lynx superstar told us she is retiring from the WNBA at the end of this season after dominant 15 years in the league. That was back in July and, man, look at how the time flies. We’re already here.
She might be playing in her last home game on Friday with the Lynx. All of the profiles about her brilliance and all the tweets about her kindness and genuineness are all rightfully bubbling to the surface. Fowles deserves the flowers she’s finally getting and so much more.
It’s hard for anyone to ever say a league MVP has somehow flown under the radar throughout her career, but it absolutely feels like Fowles has. She’s always been one of the WNBA’s best players, from her time early on in Chicago as a 2nd year All-Star to all her trips to the WNBA Finals alongside Maya Moore in Minnesota.
Fowles always comes to work, dominates, and goes on about her business. That’s why she’s the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder. It’s why she’s an 8-time All-Star, a 2-time Finals MVP, and a 4-time Gold Medal winning Olympian. You get it — she’s great.
But you won’t hear a peep about it from her — especially not about basketball.
Basketball isn’t really her main thing. Fowles recently told ESPN’s Kevin Van Valkenburg “My life is not about basketball. It’s just something I do.” She loves the game and all it’s given her, but it doesn’t define her. She means that.
She’s already got her post-retirement life lined up. She’s a mortician. She knits things like baskets and beanie hats for fun — she even made some as gifts to her teammates and coaches for when she finally leaves. She’s a plant mom who loves drinking tea. She’s a genuinely kind human being that nobody would dare utter a bad word about. That’s Sylvia Fowles and this is her new beginning.
Regardless, it’s been an absolute pleasure to watch her through her career. We’ll miss her. But she’s about to have the time of her life.
Cheers to that.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
The Miami Heat are going to have a pretty weird setup in their arena once LeBron James retires. Obviously, Bill Russell’s number 6 has been retired across the league.
But…there was a pretty great 6 playing in that arena last decade. LeBron James might be the best Miami Heat player literally ever. And they’re going to retire his jersey someday. Which also means that there will be two different number 6’s in the building. My buddy Bryan Kalbrosky wrote about it today.
“So before they have a ceremony to honor LeBron, they must first retire No. 6 for Russell and hang his jersey in the rafters. Then, they will do the same for James.
This means that more likely than not, there will eventually be two different No. 6 jerseys featured at FTX Arena.”
Seattle Storm (-1.5, +102) vs. Minnesota Lynx (+1.5), O/U 163.5, 9 PM ET
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Not only is this a battle between two legends in Fowles and Sue Bird, but it’s also a battle for playoff positioning. The Lynx have a lot to lose with them in a 4-way tie for the 7th seed. And it’s also Big Syl’s last home game — at least for the regular season, anyway. So I’m taking Minny +1.5.
That’s a wrap, family! Have a great weekend. Let us know what you think about this new flow, too. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sound off.
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The WNBA’s playoff race is absolutely insane right now and you need to watch it
Welcome to Layup Lines, our daily NBA newsletter where we’ll prep you for a tip-off of tonight’s action, from what to watch to bets to make. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every afternoon.
What’s good, family. It’s Sykes here again with another edition of layup lines.
Before we get started, a quick word on our schedule. Starting next week we’ll be switching to a 3-day rotation on Monday, Wednesday and Friday instead of the regular 5 days. We’re trying something different while we’re in the swing of the NBA offseason. Let us know if you like the pacing!
Now, a quick word on the WNBA’s 6-team race for the last 3 seeds in the playoffs.
Take a look at the standings. The first five seeds are pretty much on lock. The Chicago Sky and the Las Vegas Aces have locked up the first 2 playoff seeds — it’s only a matter of what order they’ll come in.
Behind those two, you’ve got the Sun, Mystics and Storm comfortably ahead of the pack in the 3, 4 and 5 slots. Those teams are playoff locks. But underneath them? There’s absolute chaos ensuing.
There’s a 3.5 game gap between the Dallas Wings as the 6th seed and the Minnesota Lynx as the 11th seed. In between them, you’ve got the Mercury at 7 with a 13-18 record. The Liberty, Sparks and Dream are behind them all with a 12-18 record and the Lynx are sitting at 12-19.
Only 8 teams can make the postseason and there’s only between 4 to 6 games left in everybody’s season. Three of these teams will be heartbroken.
It might be the Phoenix, who was in the Finals last year and have the best point guard in the W in Skylar Diggins-Smith. It might be the Sparks with Nneka Ogwumike, who is an MVP candidate. It might be the Dream, who have one of the best rookies we’ve seen in years in Rhyne Howard. It could be the Liberty with Sabrina Ionescu and it could even be the Wings with the best young core in the W if they slip far enough.
This league, man. It’s as cutthroat as it gets. There’s so much talent to go around. Even teams with legends and All-Stars and future Hall of Famers on them aren’t safe.
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
(Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images)
LeBron James is extension eligible starting on Thursday. The Lakers will almost certainly offer him one and he almost certainly isn’t signing it. It’s going to be a contract year for the King, which is always fun.
“He wants two things: To play with his son and to play for a championship. To make the latter happen, James is keeping his finger pressed on the scale to push the Lakers into making moves. He wants a Russell Westbrook trade. And if it means sacrificing the Lakers’ last two future draft picks to get it done? He wants to do it. He can force them into that corner by threatening to leave if they don’t. An extension destroys that leverage, which is why he won’t sign it.
But the Lakers still seem steadfast in their unwillingness to completely mortgage their future to grant LeBron’s wishes. So now, this is a pretty expensive game of chicken.”
They’re almost definitely not trading LeBron. But if they were going to? Those are the places they probably should call. Check it out.
This game is interesting for all the reasons mentioned above here. The playoff implications in this one are huge. These two teams just played each other and the Liberty cleaned the Sparks out, 102-73. I don’t expect the result to be as drastic, but I do expect a win from the Liberty — especially with them being at home. I’ll take them -6.5.
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Welcome to Bet For the Win’s W Bets, where we break down, explain and bet on the WNBA. Today, we’re running down the first Friday slate of the 2022 season.
Season picks (record): 8-14
Friday is a great day for WNBA basketball. The NBA Summer League is starting to wind down with the WNBA trade deadline passing, so it’s time to focus on the home stretch of the season. With that, the W’s two-game slate will be center stage. Minnesota and Indiana will lead things off before Connecticut and Atlanta close things out for the day.
Here’s a look at the matchups, odds, and storylines.
Aerial Powers explodes for 35-point career high in win for Minnesota Lynx over the Phoenix Mercury
One of the greatest pure scorers in the history of Michigan State Women’s Basketball is finally starting to make a name for herself at the WNBA level. Aerial Powers has made a nice career in the W, but this season with the Minnesota Lynx, she has started to become a star and has helped them start to turn a disappointing season around.
On Tuesday night, Powers set a new career-high in scoring with 35-points to go along with 12 rebounds in a double overtime win over Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury.
Powers is now averaging 14.7 points per game as she continues to breakout as a start in the women’s game.
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Andrew Brewster on Twitter @IAmBrewster.
Last-second game-winners aren’t supposed to look this easy!
The more time passes, the more it feels like the Chicago Sky is a walking inevitability. In the approximate past week alone, the defending champs won a game without Candace Parker. Then, after playing historically poor defense early on, they beat the Las Vegas Aces to complete the largest comeback in WNBA history.
With the upstart Minnesota Lynx (+6) visiting on Sunday night, the Sky was taken a little off balance. Minnesota made a fourth-quarter run that eventually had the game tied in the final moments. For a second, it seemed like Chicago would soon suffer a heartbreaker.
The thing is: Someone forgot that Courtney Vandersloot (18 points, six assists, five rebounds) has ice in her veins when the game’s on the line:
Incredible. Is it any more clinical than the shooter squaring their shoulders, setting their feet, and calmly releasing a laser of an 88-85 game-winner? The Sky seem so unbeatable precisely because they stay composed in such clutch moments.
WNBA fans on Twitter were similarly impressed by Vandersloot’s shot and Chicago’s overall composure.
Get basketball advice from MJ and you’ll find immediate success.
What’s the best way for a basketball player to get out of a shooting slump?
Watching film is a good idea. Getting in some extra reps is an obvious one. And the good ole “keep shooting, they’ll go in eventually” mindset is a personal favorite of mine.
But how about pulling out your phone and texting Michael Jordan for advice?
That’s exactly what Minnesota Lynx forward Aerial Powers did on Wednesday following Minnesota’s win against the Los Angeles Sparks, a game in which Powers shot just 1-for-9 from the floor for five total points, bringing her season’s total to 14-for-57 (24.6 percent).
His advice? Trust your work.
Aerial Powers texted Michael Jordan (!!!) on Wednesday about her shooting slump.
MJ told the Lynx guard to just relax — stop trying to put in even extra work and just trust the work she's put in.
Of course, Powers is a Jordan Brand athlete, so having the GOAT’s number on speed dial makes sense. Still, being able to have that open line of communication is a big flex.
Nevertheless, 25 points later, Powers’ early-season shooting woes could be behind her.
