Tag: Skylar Diggins-Smith

Skylar Diggins-Smith will miss the rest of the regular season, making the Mercury’s path to the playoffs even tougher

It’s going to be a tough road for the Mercury.

The Phoenix Mercury’s path to the 2022 playoffs have gone from somewhat likely to incredibly bleak over a matter of days.

Already missing Diana Taurasi for the remainder of the season due to a quad strain officially announced by the team on Monday, Phoenix’s superstar, high-scoring backcourt is now entirely done for the remainder of the regular season.

In a tweet posted on Thursday afternoon, the Mercury said All-Star guard Skylar Diggins-Smith is out for the season as she’ll miss the final two contests due to personal reasons — likely putting the final dagger in the Mercury’s nightmare 2022 season.

It truly was not supposed to go this way for Phoenix in 2022.

Back on February 3, the Mercury announced a sign-and-trade for 2021 WNBA champion Diamond DeShields, which was immediately followed the next day by Phoenix’s huge signing of Tina Charles.

The two would join the Mercury’s already-existing Big 3 of Skylar Diggins-Smith, Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, to create one of the scarier teams in the W in recent memory and a surefire championship contender on paper.

A half a year later, things could not have gone more off script.

Griner, as we all know by now, has been wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly 200 days. Tina Charles and the Mercury had a weird and extremely out-of-nowhere “contract divorce” during the middle of the season. And now the news of Taurasi and Diggins-Smith absences.

The fate of the Mercury’s playoff hopes ride on the athleticism of DeShields, the hot-shooting of Sophie Cunningham and the scoring of Shey Peddy.

Not exactly what Phoenix fans probably had in mind months ago.

The Mercury (+9000 to win the title at Tipico) will have two games left to figure out how to sneak into the postseason.

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WNBA Superstar Skylar Diggins-Smith rocks throwback Kobe jersey before dropping 35 points on the Seattle Storm

Skylar Diggins-Smith did it all on Friday night.

Friday night was supposed to belong to Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi as the spotlight was firmly on the celebration of the two in their final matchup as WNBA players before Bird’s end-of-season retirement.

That’s what it was supposed to be. But Skylar Diggins-Smith stole the show, and honestly, we should have known what was coming when she arrived at the arena.

Diggins-Smith, the six-time WNBA All-Star, pulled up to Footprint Center in Phoenix with a certain mentality fit for the occasion — the Mamba mentality. She strolled through the arena rocking the vintage No. 33 Kobe Bryant jersey that he wore as a high school star at Lower Merion.

What ensued was some very high-level basketball.

Skylar would go on to pour in a career-high-tying 35 points while dishing out six assists and grabbing six rebounds.

As the Mercury put together a 34-13 fourth quarter to pull away from the Storm, Diggins-Smith gave the 14,162 fans in attendance the perfect highlight as a cherry on top.

The pull-back. The follow-through. The celebration. Just a beautiful basketball sequence and poetry in motion.

The 94-78 victory for the Mercury put them back into the eighth and final playoff spot with eight games left on their schedule.

Phoenix has +9000 championship odds (via Tipico Sportsbook).

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Four former Notre Dame players named WNBA All-Stars

Which All-Star is your favorite?

[autotag]Muffet McGraw[/autotag] isn’t long removed from coach, so her legacy in form of WNBA players will continue for some time. Eventually, we hope to see the same effects from [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag]’s coaching. For now, Notre Dame fans should be pleased that four former Irish players have been named to the 2022 WNBA All-Star Game. No other university has more representation in this year’s event.

The number of Irish alumni in this year’s game became official with the announcement of the 12 reserves, On Saturday, they, along with the 10 selected starters, will be split up into teams captained by A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces and Breanna Stewart of the Seattle Storm. The teams then will face off in the game, which is being held in Chicago.

If you’re a Notre Dame women’s basketball enthusiast, you won’t be disappointed with this game. Here are the players for you to watch and reminisce about:

Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith had to be separated after a heated exchange on the Phoenix Mercury bench

What happened?!?!?!?

The WNBA is an extremely competitive league, so it’s never really surprising when tempers are flaring. Especially when there’s so much talent around.

But when they’re flaring between two teammates? On the bench? That’s a bit more interesting. Especially when those two teammates are Skylar Diggins-Smith and Diana Taurasi.

In the midst of an 86-74 loss to the Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday, Diggins-Smith and Taurasi had to be separated by teammates on the bench after they had words for each other that didn’t seem too nice.

Diggins-Smith was visibly bothered by something on the bench. She got up and said something to Taurasi which prompted Taurasi to jump up off the bench in response.

Teammates got in between the two and settled things down before getting back to the action, but it was heated. Clearly.

We don’t really know what was said or what the argument was about. But, clearly, it was a big enough deal for them to argue about it.

All in all, this is probably nothing. Just an argument between two teammates about a frustrating game in the midst of a frustrating season.

The Mercury are clearly playing below their standard at this point. They made the WNBA Finals last season and were projected to be one of the best teams in the league. Now, they sit at 2-2 with their two losses coming from the Las Vegas Aces by double-digits. That’s a team they’ll have to go through to get back to the Finals.

You add that frustration together plus everything going on with Brittney Griner’s detainment in Russia, it’s just been a tumultuous season for the Mercury. To say the least.

They’re talented enough to right the ship and go on a run at some point. And this argument will probably amount to nothing. But for Mercury fans? None of this can be comfortable to see.

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Former Notre Dame players on 2022 WNBA rosters

Which player(s) will you cheer for this season?

The 2022 WNBA season has tipped off, and there is plenty of Notre Dame representation. Not that this should come as any surprise given that they all played under Muffet McGraw. Hopefully one day, Niele Ivey will have just as many of her own former players competing at the pinnacle of professional women’s basketball. For now, McGraw’s legacy is far more apparent.

With nine former Irish players in the WNBA and a few of them even teammates, there’s a very good chance you’ll find one of them on a given night if you decide to flip on a random game this season. Maybe you happen to be a fan of a particular team that has Irish blood on it. In that case, congratulations for hitting the jackpot!

Don’t be so quick to write these athletes off just because it’s women’s basketball. It’s just as thrilling to watch them as it is male athletes, and you’re only hurting yourself if you refuse to watch solely based on gender. Now, with that out of the way, here are the former Irish players to look for:

Twitter reacts to Notre Dame’s embarrassing first half vs. Louisville

The Irish have been fed a jumbo slice of humble pie.

Notre Dame’s quest for perfection at home this season ended with an 86-64 loss to Louisville. However, the final score made the game seem much closer than it was. What if you were told that the Irish trailed, 31-3, after the first quarter and 54-15 at halftime? As crazy as it sounds for a game against two top-15 teams, that’s exactly what happened.

Twitter users soon caught wind of what was happening in South Bend and weighed in:

 

As if this wasn’t enough, it all happened on a day the Irish welcomed back Skylar Diggins-Smith:

Oh, and Notre Dame student Jerome Bettis was in attendance, too:

But through it all, the Irish fans somehow didn’t let Purcell Pavilion get quiet:

This game showed once and for all that while the Irish are back to being one of the better teams in the country, they haven’t returned to the elite status they enjoyed under Muffet McGraw. While that day might come soon enough, it hasn’t happened yet. Of course, a deep run in the NCAA Tournament might cause that thought to be revisited. Is anyone counting on that though?

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

Watch: Skylar Diggins-Smith helps even up WNBA Finals

Skylar called game.

Skylar Diggins-Smith is no stranger to getting to the biggest stages in basketball.

At Notre Dame she helped lead the Irish to three Final Four appearances and played in two NCAA Championship games and she’s played in helped Team USA win gold in the summer Olympics.

Diggins-Smith now stars for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA who are playing in the league finals.  Trailing Chicago 1-0 in the series, the Mercury were in overtime in a game two they desperately needed to win.  Leading by three late in overtime Diggins-Smith put the game on ice.

With the series now even at one the teams head to Chicago for games three and four in the best-of-five.  Game three takes place Friday night.

Related:  The best still images of Skylar Diggins-Smith at Notre Dame

Skylar Diggins-Smith got so emotional when talking about making Olympic debut

Skylar Diggins-Smith is ready to go win a gold medal

Skylar Diggins-Smith has been through so many ups and downs throughout her WNBA career, but through it all, she’s remained one of the best players in the world.

Now, that’s being finally recognized in the way it should. At 31 years old, Diggins-Smith will make her very first Olympic team.

And it’s well deserved! She’s been incredible so far in her second season with the Phoenix Mercury, averaging 18.7 points and 5.2 assists per game. She absolutely deserves a spot on the USA Basketball team.

The wild part is she didn’t expect to make the team. She didn’t even think about it.

She was asked about finally making the team in a press conference and got so emotional.

“It didn’t even sink it. I got it out of my mind so I wouldn’t be disappointed. I knew that either way, I felt great with the product that I put on the floor. I used to overthink when I went to USA I just hated it because I just wanted to know, ‘OK, am I on the team already?’ And then it got stretched a year and I was like ‘Oh, perfect.’ But just training. I remember all the work that I put in with everybody. That was something I would manifest. I would say it out loud…I’m proud of myself. I’m proud of everything I’m representing.” 

She continued on to talk about the difficulties she’ll face being away from her son for so long. But she said she’s ready for the challenge and motivated to do whatever it takes to win.

“I want to be ready. I want to do whatever I’ve got to do for us to win. This s*** means a lot to me. I’m 31. I’m the youngest rookie, probably, ever, but I worked my ass off to get here. And I’m looking forward to getting gold.” 

Yeah, I’m ready to run through a brick wall.

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Notre Dame in WNBA – Ogunbowale, Diggins-Smith, Earn All-WNBA Honors

Notre Dame stars from yesterday continue to tear up the track in the WNBA as a pair earned All-WNBA honors in recent days.

NEW YORK – Two Notre Dame women’s basketball alumnae earned All-WNBA honors over the weekend. 2019 Notre Dame graduate Arike Ogunbowale received a First Team nod, while 2013 graduate Skylar Diggins-Smith landed on the Second Team.

Ogunbowale earned her first All-WNBA award in just her second season. The Milwaukee native averaged a league-leading 22.8 points per game, thus claiming the 2020 WNBA Peak Award for scoring.

A 2019 WNBA All-Rookie Team selection, Ogunbowale scored at least 14 points in every game this season. She also recorded four games with at least 30 points, including a career-high of 39 against the Washington Mystics on Sept. 6.

Next, Diggins-Smith collected her fourth All-WNBA honor, previously being named in 2014, 2017 and 2018. The 5-9 guard, who did not play in 2019 following the birth of her son, averaged 17.7 points (seventh in the WNBA) and 4.2 assists (10th).

In honor of their accomplishments, each member of the All-WNBA First Team will receive $10,300 and each member of the Second Team will receive $5,150.

Below are the voting results for the 2020 All-WNBA Teams.

2020 ALL-WNBA FIRST TEAM

Position         Player, Team                                    1st Team     2nd Team      Total

Forward         A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas                         47                 0              235

Center            Candace Parker, Los Angeles            47                 0              235

Forward         Breanna Stewart, Seattle                     46                 1              233

Guard             Courtney Vandersloot, Chicago         43                 3              224

Guard             Arike Ogunbowale, Dallas                   29                 15           190

2020 ALL-WNBA SECOND TEAM

Position         Player, Team                                    1st Team     2nd Team      Total

Guard             Diana Taurasi, Phoenix                       12                 30           150

Forward         DeWanna Bonner, Connecticut          3                   40           135

Forward         Napheesa Collier, Minnesota             0                   41           123

Guard             Skylar Diggins-Smith, Phoenix           4                   27           101

Center            Myisha Hines-Allen, Washington       0                   20           60

— ND —