Dec. 8, 2000

The last week has been productive for the team. We played really well against North Carolina in Orlando. It was a good game for us to go down there and play in a neutral environment. It also gives a preview of what it will be like, come tournament time. North Carolina is a quality team and we had to play a good 40 minutes of basketball to beat them.

On Wednesday we kicked off a three game home stand and our Big East schedule, against Villanova. The game was at a slower pace then we are used to. We had a lot of people contribute and play well. The defense really came through and we held Villanova to 33 points. The emphasis we have been putting on defense has finally paid off.

We have a very important game this Saturday against a top rated Purdue team. Two of their seniors, Katie Douglas and Camille Cooper, are tremendous players. We lost last year at Purdue in a game that we didn't play well. The rematch this Saturday will give us a shot at redemption.

Next week, Notre Dame has finals so that will give us a little break in between games. December 18th we face Western Michigan at home before heading off to Milwaukee and California where we will face Marquette and the University of Southern California respectively.

Recently we lost Jenka Joyce, who has suffered a stress fracture. The good news is she should be back by the end of this month. Some other good news is that Le'tania Severe has recovered from injury and we are excited to have her back.

I would like to take some time to give a little credit to the people that help us in practice. We are lucky to have a group of guys that come in and help us get ready for games. They run the opposing teams offenses and are tremendous shooters. The tremendous job they do helps this team become better and better every week.