TAMPA, Fla. - It's been a somewhat difficult road back to the national championship game for coach Muffet McGraw and her Notre Dame women's basketball team.
The Fighting Irish (35-3), who will take on Baylor (36-1) with the NCAA tournament title on the line Sunday night, entered this season favored to repeat as champions, with nearly everyone back from last season's team. McGraw admitted the Irish did not handle the pressure of lofty expectations well early.
A bigger problem to the coach was that they didn't seem to be having any fun.
"We came into the season with all that on us, No. 1, defending champs," she said. "Sometimes defending champs aren't really because they don't have their team back. But we did. We truly were the defending champs. It was a burden."
That changed after a team meeting just before Christmas.
"We all felt like it was way too businesslike. We weren't enjoying it enough," McGraw said. "I think from then on we started to enjoy it more, they started to enjoy it a lot more. I still couldn't. It's not a celebration when you're supposed to win, and you win by 20. Then you're like, 'We didn't play well enough.' Then you start getting really picky. That was my problem most of the year."
There was a lot less expected of Notre Dame last season - which ended with the Irish winning the program's second national title overall and first since 2001 - because the team lost four players to season-ending injuries over the course of the schedule.
A win against overall No. 1 seed Baylor, which won the Greensboro Regional and beat Oregon 72-67 in Friday's national semifinals, would put McGraw and the Irish in an exclusive club. They would become the fourth team to win consecutive NCAA women's basketball titles, joining Connecticut, Southern California and Tennessee.
Baylor, which has won 28 straight games, is going for its third national championship overall but first since 2012. Coach Kim Mulkey's team beat the Irish for that title, 80-61, capping a record 40-0 season.
Mulkey can appreciate how hard it is to repeat as champions, because each of the Baylor teams she has led to titles - the first came in 2005 - lost in the Sweet 16 the next year. The Lady Bears lost to a higher seed (by one) when they fell to second-seeded Maryland in 2006, but it was by 21 points. In 2013, the loss was by one point, but fifth-seeded Louisville's victory against the top-seeded Lady Bears was considered one of the biggest upsets in NCAA women's basketball tournament history.
"It's hard. It's so hard to win championships - you can be the favorite and not win them," Mulkey said. "I've been the favorite and not won as there are no guarantees in this business. That's why you cherish the moments when you can."
McGraw and the Irish are in the Final Four for the ninth time, and they've been national runners-up four times. The winning coach of this game will move into sole possession of third place on the all-time list for NCAA women's basketball titles behind Geno Auriemma (11) and Pat Summitt (eight).
Baylor's season-long trend of dominance has mostly continued in the tournament. The Lady Bears' title path started with a 95-38 win against No. 16 seed Abilene Christian and was followed by wins over eighth-seeded California, 102-63, fourth-seeded South Carolina, 93-68, and second-seeded Iowa, 85-53, before Friday's scrap with second-seeded Oregon.
Notre Dame, which lost to Connecticut, North Carolina and Miami during the regular season, has won 14 straight games. In the NCAA tournament, the Irish beat No. 16 seed Bethune-Cookman, 92-50, ninth-seeded Michigan State, 91-63, fourth-seeded Texas A&M, 87-80, and second-seeded Stanford, 84-68, before avenging their loss to Connecticut with an 81-76 win in Friday's semifinals.