So proud of Notre Dame WBB. Seeing the gym light up like that, from the outside looking in, is an amazing feeling! My special ND moment!
— Skylar Diggins (@SkyDigg4) February 23, 2014
Kayla McBride's career-high 31 points in 37 minutes to lead Notre Dame to an 81-70 win over Duke - that secured the 2014 ACC regular season title - has drawn effusive praise from those who know her personally and media alike.
After the game, Rachel Brown of ABC57 reported that Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw not only told media that she would take McBride first overall in the draft but also agrees with Skylar Diggins that she's the best in the nation and certainly the best in the ACC given their newly-acquired title.
Kmac might get 30 today....best player in the country! Maybe I'm a little bias, but whatevs! #GoIrish
— Skylar Diggins (@SkyDigg4) February 23, 2014
Those sources might be a bit biased, but Graham Hays of espnW.com certainly laid the foundation for the case for McBride as ACC Player of the Year in the course of examining her standing in the National Player of the Year race.
...good luck finding someone who makes 17.5 points per game matter more than Kayla McBride.
McBride has led Notre Dame in field goal attempts in each of the past two seasons to help the Fighting Irish clinch back-to-back conference championships in the Big East and ACC, respectively, without losing a regular-season game in the process. That Sunday's performance to clinch the second of those titles in an 81-70 win against No. 7 Duke might have been the best of the bunch -- a career-high 31 points on 13-of-25 shooting with seven rebounds, four assists and four steals -- only underlined how good she generally is when we're all watching...It somehow perfectly encapsulates McBride's place in the basketball universe these past four years that it can simultaneously be debated whether she's the best player in the country and whether she's the best player on her own team.
That McBride has taken on such a large scoring responsibility so efficiently for such a dominant team this season is certainly worthy consideration for the nation's highest honors, but - to Hays' point about whether she's even the best player on her own team - the competition for getting even the ACC's award will be stiff.
Nevertheless, McBride was certainly the catalyst for Notre Dame winning the ACC title yesterday.