Fearless Freshmen Making A Difference For Notre Dame
When Notre Dame freshman guards Arike Ogunbowale and Marina Mabrey were growing up, “Family Feud” to them was not merely a popular game show on television.
It was a way of life at home while trying to gain one-upmanship.
Ogunbowale insisted on competing with a couple of older brothers — Dare Ogunbowale rushed for 819 yards and caught 36 passes for 299 at the University of Wisconsin this past season — and numerous other gifted cousins such as Diamond Stone (freshman star for the No. 6 Maryland men’s basketball team) or Ryan Evans (All-Big Ten honorable mention for Wisconsin basketball in 2013).
Her mother Yolanda was the 1985 North Star Conference Offensive MVP at DePaul in softball while also being a top pitcher, and father Gregory, a former member of the Nigerian Army, played soccer and rugby.
No slack was cut to Ogunbowale when she insisted on playing tackle football, soccer or basketball with the boys while growing up.
“I had a lot of cuts and a lot of bruises. They treated me like one of them,” recalled the Milwaukee, Wis., native. “Anything we did was super competitive, whether it was cards or anything else. It really toughened me up. I wasn’t going to let them beat me just because I was a girl. I tried to get just as physical as they were with me.
“I cried a couple of times when I was younger when they got rough, and my parents were like, ‘You’re playing with your brothers, that’s your choice.’ I then wanted to beat them, and that’s what I looked forward to.
“My father is from an African culture that just expects excellence. My brothers and parents gave me high standards to go after.”
Belmar, N.J., native Mabrey likewise grew up competing against talented and older siblings. Brother Roy Mabrey started all 114 games at Division II St. Anselm College, where he tallied 1,864 career points from 2011-15, while sister Michaela Mabrey is a senior captain and two-year starter for the Fighting Irish.
“It made me really mad when I lost to her in one-on-one,” recalled the younger Mabrey. “I would kick the ball against the wall, run inside throwing tantrums. My mom would tell me, ‘You need to calm down; she’s older than you’ — and that would only make me madder.
“We would all work out together, and after Michaela left I would try to take 100 more shots. I would tell her I only took 50. So she would do 50 then too — when I really did about 150.”
By junior high, Marina began besting her McDonald’s All-America sister, who was three years older, in one-on-one games — and then in two-on-two she would team with her father Roy against her older sister and brother.
“He wasn’t that good, so I had to do everything,” said Mabrey with a laugh about her father. “I also had to take a lot of criticism from them. They would tell me, ‘You’re not doing this, you’re not doing that.’
“They were trying to help me, but of course I’d be mad and tell them angrily, ‘I did it just like you!’ They really pushed me to another level.”
During Notre Dame’s 24-1 start, Ogunbowale was third in scoring at 11.8 points per game, while Mabrey was right behind at 11.4 — with Ogunbowale averaging only 19.9 minutes per game off the bench and Mabrey 20.4.
Their “Instant Offense” impact has enabled Notre Dame to weather the surprising losses of two 2015 starters, All-America guard Jewell Loyd (turned pro early) and forward Taya Reimer (personal reasons, and will transfer after the spring semester).
Mabrey came blazing out of the gates —posting a triple-double at Valpo, scoring 18 points and making six steals in an overtime win over current No. 12 UCLA on Thanksgiving weekend, and awing No. 1 UConn’s head coach Geno Auriemma with a 10-of-13 shooting performance from the floor for 23 points in a 91-81 defeat.
The ambidextrous and 5-11 Mabrey, the co-MVP in last spring’s McDonald’s All-America game in which Ogunbowale also played, can take people off the drive to either side, converts 44.1 percent of her threes, and is first in steals (47) and third in assists (54).
Despite her 5-8 frame, Ogunbowale is comfortable in the low post, where she sometimes played power forward or center on her AAU teams. Her game is reminiscent of 1974-76 All-American Adrian Dantley in that despite a shorter frame she is resourceful in her ability to score inside, take people off the dribble with her aggressive drives or get to the foul line (her 107 free throw attempts are 23 more than anyone else on the squad).
When Ogunbowale enters the contest, the mandate from head coach Muffet McGraw is clear: drive, slash, score and open up the defense. It usually takes Ogunbowale less than 30 seconds to put up her first shot, and her 245 attempts are the most on the team.
Although many attempts have been forced, she has gradually improved her shot selection, and the green light from McGraw remains. In her last eight contests, Ogunbowale shot 50-percent or better from the field in six of them. The lone off night (0-for-7) in that stretch occurred during a 54-42 win at Georgia Tech on Jan. 28.
In thrilling fourth-quarter comeback victories at Duke (Feb. 1) and Louisville (Feb. 7), Ogunbowale prevented the games from getting out of hand by converting her first four field goals each time, and finishing with 16 and 15 points (team high), respectively, on 11-of-22 shooting from the field and 7-of-8 from the line. In the two most recent victories versus the No. 12 Cardinals and No. 19 Miami, Ogunbowale was 5-of-8 from the floor each time while being wiser and more discriminating in her shot selection
With teams sagging off, she’s developed a full repertoire of pull-up jumpers and running floaters, and is shooting 40.6 percent from three (13-of-32) — plus is looking to pass more when defenses swarm on her.
“She wants me to get to the basket,” said Ogunbowale of McGraw. “The scouting report on me was, ‘Stay in the lane and take the charge on her,’ so it forced me to work on the other parts of my game. … If I see them sagging off and they don’t think I can shoot it — I’m shooting.”
Fear is not an option with either freshman. Their families saw to it.