Senior year at ND is best year yet for Bartlett grad Schrader

This may sound awfully cliché but it really does seem like just yesterday that Lindsay Schrader was leading the Bartlett girls basketball team to its best season in program history and a second-place finish in the Class AA state tournament.

Nope, it just doesn't seem like that was 5 years ago. But it was, and now Schrader is in the final season of what has become one darn fine career at Notre Dame.

And she couldn't ask for a better way to go out -so far anyway. A tri-captain of the Fighting Irish, Schrader has helped Notre Dame to a 13-0 season and a No. 3 national ranking heading into Saturday's Big East game against Villanova.

"I really can't complain," Schrader said Tuesday, a day after ND had slipped past Purdue 79-75 to remain undefeated. "This is the best chemistry of any team I've been on. We don't care about rankings, or the media, or what other coaches say about us. We just care about ourselves. We take things one game at a time. We're all on the same page and we all know our roles."

Schrader's role is simple - she's the leader, the person coach Muffet McGraw counts on at crunchtime.

"She's irreplaceable on this team," McGraw said. "She's our go-to player. She's just really hard to guard with her strength inside and her ability to get her shot."

Schrader has started all 13 games for the Irish this season; she has, in fact, started 104 of the 108 games she's played at Notre Dame, including 77 of the last 78. So far this season she's averaging 11.5 points per game, third on a team with five players averaging in double digits. She leads the team in rebounding again (7.3 average) and is shooting 54 percent from the field. She's now scored 1,207 points in her Notre Dame career and owns the school record for most career double-doubles by a guard.

"Lindsay has so much poise," McGraw said. "And she gives her teammates that reassuring look all the time that everything's going to be OK. She wants the ball and I want her to have it.

"What makes Lindsay so coachable is that she just wants to win. She was out practicing her 3-pointers before the season started and I talked to her about the fact we needed her to play in the post this season. She moved into the post and has done a great job. Whatever you need is what she'll do. It's so refreshing to have a player who just wants to get everybody on the same page."

While McGraw sings Schrader's praises, Schrader herself says the Irish's 13-0 start is all about teamwork.

"On any given day any player can step up for us," said Schrader, who will do an internship in the ND athletic department this spring as she prepares to graduate with a degree from the Mendoza College of Business. "We have so many weapons on the offensive end; how are they going to guard us?"

Schrader, a former Ms. Basketball in Illinois, knows full well that at 13-0 and ranked No. 3, every time the Irish take the floor the opponent is looking to be the Irish slayer.

"We know a lot of teams are out to get us," she said. "The bull's eye keeps getting bigger. Beating us right now would make the season for some teams and we don't want that to happen.

"Our goal is the Final Four. I want to go to San Antonio."

That would be another trip, a final college trip, for Schrader, who says one of the things she'll cherish most when thinking about her college days is all the places playing college basketball has afforded her the opportunity to see.

"I've seen so many places," said Schrader, who was honorable mention all-Big East last season. "I've been to Italy, California, Florida, the Virgin Islands ... I've been very fortunate. I'll miss that part. I'll miss the girls, the people, playing on TV, and I'll miss the game."

Also on that list is Storrs, Conn., and one of the biggest regular season games of the year will be Jan. 16 when the Irish travel there to play No. 1 UConn in a game that will be televised by ESPN.

Schrader knows that in a couple of months her basketball playing days might be over and she's prepared for that. Or, she's prepared to continue playing in the WNBA, if that opportunity arises.

"It's never been a goal of mine but if the opportunity comes I won't turn it down," she said.

McGraw, who said she definitely feels Schrader is a draftable player, has appreciated more than just the basketball side of her last five years with Schrader. She's seen the former Bartlett standout mature, go through sitting out a season with an ACL injury, and become someone she also considers a friend.

"I enjoy talking to her off the court as much as I do coaching her," McGraw said. "I enjoy her company and talking about stuff other than basketball. We have a really good relationship."

Schrader acknowledges she's no longer the somewhat timid freshman trying to find her place in the college sports world.

"Coach McGraw and I joke all the time about how much I've changed since freshman year," Schrader said. "She tells me all the time about what a well-developed woman I'm becoming. I've grown so much."

Schrader will always cherish the five years she's spent in South Bend.

"These experiences I've had are once in a lifetime experiences," she said. "You can't take them for granted."

Those, my friends, are definitely words to live by, just as Lindsay Schrader does.

jradtke@dailyherald.com