Women's Watch: What exactly is happening with Notre Dame?

It will be interesting to see what the national voters do with the DePaul women's basketball team on Monday.

Ranked No. 16 in the country, the Blue Demons got one of their biggest wins in years on Wednesday when they took out Notre Dame, the 2018 NCAA national champion, on Notre Dame's own floor in South Bend.

DePaul's exhilarating 105-94 win over Notre Dame was its first over the Irish since 2011, and its first over Notre Dame in South Bend since 2008.

“Hyped,” was the way DePaul sophomore guard Sonya Morris described the DePaul locker room after the game. Morris scored a team-high 29 points on 5-of-8 shooting from 3-point range.

“I'm a senior, so we've played them four times now and it means a lot to finally beat them,” said DePaul forward Chante Stonewall, who scored 20 points and had 6 rebounds and was one of five Blue Demons in double-figures, and one of three with 20 or more points. “And it means even more to beat them on their home court.”

What could mean the ultimate for DePaul is how this win will be regarded later as opposed to now.

The Blue Demons (8-1) may move up in the national rankings next week, but they may not. Because a win against Notre Dame on the road, while impressive, isn't quite what it used to be. At least right now.

That might change later.

Notre Dame is now 5-7 on the season.

In November, the Irish dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in 12 years. Notre Dame had been in the poll for 234 consecutive weeks dating back to the 2007-08 season. That was the third-longest active streak in the country, behind Connecticut and Baylor.

But times are tough right now for head coach Muffet McGraw and the Irish, who had been 110-3 in home games over their previous 113 games heading into the season with the three losses coming only to Connecticut.

Already this season, they have lost on their own floor four times: to Tennessee, Michigan State, Minnesota and now DePaul.

It was after the back-to-back losses to Tennessee and Michigan State that Notre Dame fell out of the national polls.

So what in the name of Lou Holtz is going on in South Bend?

A lot, actually.

No one is going to cry a river, or play a sympathy violin for McGraw. She's had success many times over compared to the majority of her peers.

But she's got a lot of question marks and issues to deal with that would make any coach look as shaken and as solemn as she looked in the postgame news conference after the loss to DePaul.

For starters, all five starters from Notre Dame's national finalist team from 2019 are gone ... and in the WNBA.

Those five players, Arike Ogunbowale, Jackie Young, Jessica Shepard and Briana Turner, scored a combined 10,230 career points. Last year alone, they teamed up to score 3,384 of Notre Dame's 3,454 total points. That's 98 percent of Notre Dame's points ... gone.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame had two players transfer after last season. And two players currently on the roster are hurt, including standout sophomore guard Abby Prohaska, who is out indefinitely after being diagnosed with bilateral pulmonary embolism, or blood clots in each of her lungs.

With a couple of other less serious injuries also coming into play this season, there have been games already in which Notre Dame had only six players available for action.

Even when everyone is healthy, McGraw is relying on a lot of freshmen and sophomores to play key roles. Against DePaul, Notre Dame started two freshmen and a sophomore.

“We've got to find a way,” said Notre Dame freshman forward Sam Brunelle, who had a game- and career-high 31 points against DePaul. “We've got to find a way to get over the hump. But we're young and we're learning. We'll find a way soon enough.”

And that's the point, regarding how this win may not be a head-turner, signature win for the Blue Demons right now with national voters. But if Notre Dame does what it clearly has the potential to do, which is improve significantly over the season as its young players grow and mature, then DePaul's win over Notre Dame could look very, very good to the NCAA tournament selection committee come March.

There's no doubt that this Notre Dame team has talent. Brunelle is legit, as is fellow freshman Anaya Peoples from Danville. She had 22 points and 15 rebounds against DePaul. Kaitlyn Gilbert, a sophomore, is also talented and had 16 points against DePaul.

And don't forget who the Irish have coaching them. This isn't Muffet McGraw's first rodeo. She knows how to get the most out of her players, and there may be no one who respects that more than Doug Bruno.

Besides Geno Auriemma of Connecticut (51 games), no other coach has faced McGraw more in her 33-year career than Bruno (33 games).

“Coach McGraw has elevated this program to one of the top two or three programs in the country,” Bruno said. “So to be able to win a road game in this gym is really a tribute to our players. I'm proud of our players for having resolve in a hostile environment.

“Every player on this Notre Dame team said no to us. They've got very good players. They are still a very good team, a championship-caliber team, and if they are down, they won't be down for long.”

• Follow Patricia on Twitter: @babcockmcgraw