Skylar Diggins-Smith

Skylar Diggins
College	Notre Dame
Sport	Basketball
Position	Guard
Jersey #	4
Class	Sophomore
Career	2009–present
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Nationality	American
Born	(1990-08-02) August 2, 1990 South Bend, IN
Awards
McDonald's All-American (2009) 2009 Indiana Miss Basketball award Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year (2009)

Skylar Diggins (born August 2, 1990 in South Bend, Indiana) is currently a women's basketball player for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. She was a McDonald's All-American coming out of high school.

Playing career

Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Scotts

As a freshman, Diggins became the fourth Indiana native to join the Irish roster in 2009-10, along with fellow South Bend-area guard (and co-captain) Melissa Lechlitner, Indianapolis guard Ashley Barlow (and co-captain) and Valparaiso forward Becca Bruszewski. In addition, she was one of three Miss Basketball honorees on the '09-10 Notre Dame roster, along with Lindsay Schrader (Illinois 2005) and Kellie Watson (Michigan 2008).

Diggins rose to national prominence in her sophomore year, finishing the regular season first on the team in assists per game (4.8 average), while placing second in scoring (14.4) and third in steals (1.9). Since the season began, she has scored in double figures 30 times, including eight 20-point outings, and has notched at least five assists in 21 games.

Diggins continued her stellar play in the NCAA tournament, leading the Irish to the second championship game appearance in school history, ten years after Notre Dame captured the national title in 2001. However, the Fighting Irish lost to the Texas A&M Aggies in the final game of the 2011 women's basketball tournament, by a score of 76-70. In the losing effort, Diggins finished with 23 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals. She made 8 of 9 free-throws in the game, including two with 40.7 seconds remaining. But the sophomore struggled from beyond the arc, sinking only 1 of 5 three-point attempts. Diggins also committed 6 turnovers, the last one ending Notre Dame's chances for good as the game clock wound down. As the Associated Press reported, "Diggins, fighting back tears, said the Irish couldn't handle A&M's pressure. 'We turned it over too much. I don't know if it was nerves or what,' she said. 'We just didn't handle the pressure.'"

In the semifinal game, the Notre Dame point guard led her team to victory over heavily-favored UConn (the number-one team in the country) with 28 points (her highest single-game total on the season), 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. Diggins also made all six of her free-throw attempts in the familiar confines of Conseco Fieldhouse, where she had previously led her high school team to three straight championships. Notre Dame was victorious in its third Final Four appearance ever, defeating the two-time defending champion Huskies by a score of 72-63.

This came after beating the University of Tennessee (fourth-ranked team in the country) in the regional final by a score of 73-59. Diggins scored a then-season-high 24 points in the game, and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2011 NCAA Dayton Regional. What's more, with her performance against the Lady Vols, Diggins went over the 1,000-point mark for her career, becoming just the second Notre Dame women’s basketball player to reach that milestone before the end of her sophomore season. She has also showed her prowess as a floor-leader throughout the tournament, even dishing out a career-high 12 assists (most by a Notre Dame player in more than 11 years) in the Irish's 78-53 Sweet 16 victory over Oklahoma.

For her excellence on the court, Diggins has been selected by the Associated Press as a 2011 Third Team All-American, and she has also been honored as one of ten members of the 2011 State Farm Coaches All-America Team. She joined Baylor's Brittney Griner as one of only two sophomores honored, and was just the third Irish women's basketball player to earn the award, joining Ruth Riley (2001) and Jacqueline Batteast (2005).

Diggins was chosen as one of four finalists for the 2011 Nancy Lieberman Award, given to the nation's top point guard. During the 2011 season, she was also selected as one of twenty midseason candidates for the John R. Wooden Award, and was among thirty midseason candidates for the James A. Naismith Trophy. Connecticut's Maya Moore won both of these awards. In addition, Diggins was one of twenty-five players selected for the State Farm Wade Trophy's preseason "watch list". The Wade Trophy was also awarded to Moore.

USA Basketball

• Diggins was a member of the USA Women's Under-18 National Team, starting all five games at the 2008 FIBA Under-18 Americas Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was part of the United States team that went undefeated and won the gold medal. Statiscally, she averaged 10.8 points on 50-percent shooting from the field, 3.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2 steals in 23.2 minutes per game. In the tournament, she ranked among the top 10 in the entire tournament in scoring (10th), field goal percentage (7th), assists (2nd), steals (8th), and assist-to-turnover ratio (2nd).
• July 29, 2009: Notre Dame incoming freshman guard and United States co-captain Skylar Diggins (South Bend, Ind./Washington) scored 11 points, including three three-pointers in a 42-second span early in the first quarter, as the USA trounced Japan, 109-68, on Wednesday in its final Group F second-round contest at the FIBA U19 World Championships inside the Bangkok Thai-Japan Youth Center in Bangkok, Thailand.

High school *preview to downfall*

• In the March 30, 2009, issue of Sports Illustrated, she was part of its Faces in the Crowd segment.
• She was a four-year starter at Washington High School, where the Panthers had a combined record of 102-7. In her senior year, she led the Washington High School Panthers to a 26-1 record and a runner-up finish in the Class 4A state tournament, where they fell to the nation's number-one-ranked team, Ben Davis of Indianapolis, 71-69. She averaged a state-best 29 points per game, along with 6.3 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 5.4 steals and 2.2 blocked shots.
• She was a two-time Gatorade Indiana Girls Basketball Player of the Year. In four consecutive years, Diggins led the Panthers to state championship games, including Washington's title-winning season of 2007.
• A McDonald's All-American Game selection, she finished her career with 2,790 points, the third-highest girls' scoring total in Indiana history for an average of 25.9 points per game.
• Skylar Diggins chose Notre Dame over Stanford
• Diggins was named a WBCA All-American. She participated in the 2009 WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored 24 points.

Awards and honors

• 2011 Associated Press All-American (third team)
• 2009 consensus Naismith Prep Player of the Year, earning top honors from Gatorade, Atlanta Tipoff Club (Naismith Trophy), ESPN Hoopgurlz and MaxPreps
• Three-time high school All-American by Parade magazine (first team 2008 and 2009; third team 2007)
• Three-time high school All-American by EA Sports (first team 2008 and 2009; second team 2007)
• USA Today All-USA Team (first team 2009; third team 2008)
• USA Today All-Underclass Team (2006)
• Two-time Gatorade Indiana Player of the Year (2008 and 2009)
• Two-time MaxPreps Indiana Player of the Year/first-team All-American (2008 and 2009)
• 2009 Indiana Miss Basketball
• 2009 South Bend Tribune Girls' Athlete of the Year (covers all female high school athletes in all sports throughout newspaper's coverage area)