Tag: Natalie Achonwa

Notre Dame guard talks Olympic experience with former Irish player

Great to hear a present Irish player laud a past one.

[autotag]Cassandre Prosper[/autotag] missed most of her first full season with Notre Dame with an injury. However, making Canada’s Olympic women’s basketball team was a nice consolation prize. Even better, she was teammates with [autotag]Natalie Achonwa[/autotag], another name familiar to anyone who’s followed the Irish over the past 15 years.

Prosper sat down with Crina Mustafa of Her Hoop Stats to talk about a variety of topics, but her Olympic experience with Achonwa was a real highlight of the interview. Prosper specifically talked about how much she was blown away by Achonwa not only as a leader and mentor to the younger players on the team but also as a mother.

After Canada went winless in three Olympic contests, Achonwa retired as a player and was hired at Michigan as its assistant coach for player development. Clearly, Achonwa was preparing for this next chapter in her life while in Paris.

You can view Prosper’s entire interview here starting at 16:39:

With the Olympics finished, all Irish fans will be anxious to see how Prosper contributes to a team with national championship aspirations. Only time will tell.

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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.

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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.

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Notre Dame to face Purdue on Nov. 10 in West Lafayette

Mark your calendars.

The rivalry between Notre Dame and Purdue should be more of a thing. After all, they’re the only two programs in Indiana to have won national championships. The good news is they’ll play each other for a second straight season.

The Boilermakers have announced that they will welcome the Irish to Mackey Arena on Nov. 10. It will be the Irish’s first trip to West Lafayette since a 66-38 victory in December 2011. That team included future WNBA players [autotag]Devereaux Peters[/autotag], [autotag]Natalie Novosel[/autotag], [autotag]Skylar Diggins[/autotag], [autotag]Kayla McBride[/autotag] and [autotag]Natalie Achonwa[/autotag].

The Irish hosted the Boilermakers in South Bend last season on the day [autotag]Muffet McGraw[/autotag]’s statue was unveiled outside Purcell Pavilion. They cruised to a 76-39 victory to tie the all-time series at 14 wins apiece. [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] led the charge with 23 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and seven steals. [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] had a double-double of 15 points and 12 boards, and [autotag]Natalija Marshall[/autotag] scored 14 points off the bench.

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Former and current Notre Dame players make Canadian Olympic team

Best of luck representing the Maple Leaf!

The Olympic roster for Canada’s women’s basketball team has been announced, and Notre Dame will have some fine representation. In fact, two names should be very familiar for Irish fans. One might be more surprising than the other depending on how you look at it.

Not surprising is that [autotag]Natalie Achonwa[/autotag] will play in her fourth straight Olympics, a record for Canada women’s basketball. The other Notre Dame representative will be current Irish guard [autotag]Cassandre Prosper[/autotag], who will make her Olympic debut in Paris. She was injured early this past season and didn’t suit up for the Irish again. Hopefully, this experience will give her confidence for the 2024-25 season.

The Irish also will have two former players representing them for the U.S. in [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag] and [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag]. Few expect that team not to win gold, so the only real drama for Irish fans here is whether Achonwa and Prosper can help bring Canada its first women’s basketball medal.

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Two former Notre Dame players named to U.S. Olympic team

With so many quality former Notre Dame players thriving in the WNBA, at least one of them had to make the 2024 U.S. Olympic team.

With so many quality former Notre Dame players thriving in the WNBA, at least one of them had to make the 2024 U.S. Olympic team. Now, two of them reportedly have done just that. [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag] of the Seattle Storm and [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag] of the Las Vegas Aces will be among the 12 players trying to win gold for the U.S. in Paris:

This will be the second straight Olympics for Loyd after taking the gold along with [autotag]Skylar Diggins-Smith[/autotag] during the pandemic-delayed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Young also won gold at those Olympics but as part of the first-ever 3-on-3 basketball competition.

The U.S. won’t be the only roster to find Notre Dame representation though. [autotag]Natalie Achonwa[/autotag] will be competing in her fourth straight Olympics for Canada. As she currently is not on a WNBA roster, she can focus her energy on preparing for Paris. Here’s hoping she can bring home a medal, too.

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Jewell Loyd had challenging experience at Notre Dame despite dominance

An eye-opening story.

[autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag] is one of the most decorated players in Notre Dame history, and she has continued collecting awards with the Seattle Storm. But it turns out that while she dominated at Notre Dame, her time there was incredibly difficult.

In a new story from Annie Costabile of the Chicago Sun-Times, we learn that Loyd, a native of Lincolnwood, Illinois, wasn’t happy in part because Notre Dame wasn’t nearly as diverse as the Chicago area. It got so bad that she frequently thought about transferring only to be talked out of it by her mom, who didn’t like the idea of her sitting out a year. Keep in mind this was before the transfer portal became what it is now.

While at Notre Dame, depression and anxiety set in for the first time in her life. It wasn’t until she struck up a friendship with teammate [autotag]Natalie Achonwa[/autotag] that she really began to feel at ease. But even that wasn’t enough to stop her from declaring for the WNBA draft after only three seasons with the Irish because of how unhappy she was.

This serves as a reminder that sometimes, people you love and care about need you to reach out. You don’t know what’s going on with them necessarily, but all they might need at that moment is someone willing to listen and offer support. Maybe that’s what you should do on this Mother’s Day weekend if you encounter such a friend or family member. It’s the least anyone can do.

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Notre Dame players in WNBA for 2023 season

Who are the former Irish to watch this season?

The 2023 WNBA season is upon us at an all-time high in popularity for women’s basketball. More opportunities are opening up for female hoopsters at all levels, and everyone is better for it. After the thrilling college season we just had, it’s time for the professionals to show what they can do. Particular attention should be given to these players since they paved the way for the sport to reach these unprecedented levels of attention.

Notre Dame has been one of the best women’s programs for some time now. Their two national championships since the turn of the century are evidence of that, but you can see it in the WNBA, too. Ten former Irish are suiting up in the league this season, which gives Notre Dame the second-most players of any program. If you need a refresher as to who to follow over the next few months, here they are:

Top 10 Notre Dame women’s basketball players according to ChatGPT

Does the bot know women’s basketball?

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:

Watch: Hype video for Notre Dame ahead of Sweet 16

Pump yourself up with this video!

Notre Dame is in the Sweet 16, and the time to get pumped is now. That’s why a video has been put together celebrating everything the Irish have done so far this season ahead of their Greenville Region 1 semifinal against Maryland. To make the video complete, two Irish legends were asked to narrate it. So take a look if you want to hear the voices of [autotag]Devereaux Peters[/autotag] and [autotag]Natalie Achonwa[/autotag]:

It’s fair to say the Irish have a tough journey ahead of them if they want to make the Final Four. If they beat the Terrapins, unbeaten and top-ranked South Carolina likely awaits in the Elite Eight. Considering no No. 1 seeds made the Elite Eight in the men’s NCAA Tournament, anything can happen. Getting out of this regional would be historic for the program, and the only thing to do in that case is to etch that history into the record books.

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