Minnesota will play Notre Dame in the ACC/BIG Challenge

Minnesota will travel to South Bend to play Notre Dame in the 2019 ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The game will be on Wednesday, December 4th.

Minnesota finished 21-11 and 9-9 in Big Ten play in their first season under Lindsay Whalen. Notre Dame was 35-4 and the national runner up after winning the NCAA Tournament in 2018. On paper, there is a wide chasm of talent between these two programs, so why meet? One possible reason is that Notre Dame lost their entire starting lineup to the WNBA draft, which means that the Irish are projected to take at least a small step backwards next year.

Minnesota returns Destiny Pitts and Taiye Bello, and importantly Gadiva Hubbard who missed all of last season because of injuries. The Gophers add five new players, led by four start Jasmine Powell. Importantly for roster balance, two of those players are post players, a position Marlene Stollings decided was unimportant to the game of basketball.