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Fractured hand helps push Irish to the top

By playing in pain, Kelley Siemon provides emotional boost in run to No. 1 seed.

By BRUCE LOWITT

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 13, 2001

Notre Dame could use another break.

The Fighting Irish already have used one: Kelley Siemon's. More accurately, the break in her left hand.

Two months ago, the 6-foot-2 senior forward played then-No. 1 Connecticut, two days after fracturing her hand against Virginia Tech. Thirty-three minutes, 15 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and one enormous psychological lift later, Notre Dame had ended two losing streaks: 11 to the Huskies and nine against top-ranked teams.

"She came out and said, "I don't care what's wrong with it; broken or not, I'm playing,' " coach Muffet McGraw said of Siemon. "That set the tone for the rest of the team."

Guard Niele Ivey added: "I was talking to her before the game and I'll never forget, she said, "If this is what I have to do for this team to go to the championship, then I'm going to do it.' ... She played like she didn't have a broken hand. It was amazing to see her do that."

That, Ivey said, was a defining moment for the Fighting Irish, a final emotional piece of the puzzle for a team that already knew it belonged among basketball's elite.

If it needs more proof, it need only look at the seedings in the NCAA women's tournament. The Fighting Irish are seeded No. 1 in the Midwest Region and host Alcorn State in the opening round at South Bend, Ind.

"It's exciting every year," McGraw said. "But to see the No. 1 up there is really exciting. This team has worked so hard to get to this point, it's great to see them rewarded."

Added Siemon, "If we don't get to the Final Four it would overshadow a lot of what we've done this season."

Siemon laughed almost in embarrassment on the subject of just how her teammates felt about her play -- the fact she played at all -- in the 92-76 victory over UConn Jan. 15. It was a spark, they said, that helped Notre Dame gain the confidence to wind up with its best record ever (28-2) and its best chance of winning the NCAA championship since 1997, when the Fighting Irish made it to the Final Four before losing to Tennessee.

"It would be great if that's how it came about ... but me going in there and playing was just another step in that confidence," Siemon said. "I wasn't going to miss this opportunity to play Connecticut on my home floor. It didn't matter if I was hurt.

"It may have spurred some people on, given some people intensity or something. Maybe it was just a good example for younger players to be able to play through adversity."

Ivey and All-America center Ruth Riley have received most of the attention and accolades, but "Kelley has been the difference in our season," McGraw said. "She's done so many of the little things for us. ... When she broke her hand and came out and played against Connecticut, that really inspired the rest of the team."

Siemon, like Riley and Ivey, is a senior starter (the others are sophomore guard Alicia Ratay and junior guard-forward Ericka Haney) and, like them, she has seen the program rise from good to great, joining Connecticut, Tennessee, Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion, the power elite for much of the past decade.

"This team is much improved over last year, and last year we had a great team, too," Siemon said. "But last year we lost the games we were supposed to lose, and a few we shouldn't have. ...

"We have a class of five seniors (reserves Imani Dunbar and Meaghan Leahy the others) and, working together for five years, we've really gotten to know each other well. Team chemistry is the biggest thing about this year, not that it was ever bad. But this year we're so familiar with each other on the court."

Ivey had a simpler theory: "Maybe it was just time, maybe just effort."

With their 78-76 loss to UConn a week ago, the Fighting Irish have lost four Big East championship games, all to the Huskies, since joining the conference six years ago. They have won at least 20 games in 12 of McGraw's 14 seasons as coach.

This is Notre Dame's sixth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament; in its previous 18 seasons the Irish were invited to the dance twice despite winning 20 or more games nine times. "The NCAA Tournament was small then," McGraw said, "and the league we were in (the Midwestern Collegiate Conference) didn't really give us a chance to get to the NCAA Tournament. Joining the Big East (for the 1995-96 season) was the best thing that happened to our program."

Lying in wait as a potential Final Four opponent: UConn. "We're hopeful there will be a trilogy this season in this series," McGraw said.

Said Siemon, "I see that probably happening. I'd love it. It'd be a great game. Right now we're two of the best teams in the country and to play each other in a semifinal is just what women's basketball needs."

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