Notre Dame Women Hope to Prep for Another Final Four This is not the time for Notre Dame women's basketball staff to worry about looking well-rested. The N.C.A.A. tournament brings around a special sleeplessness, caused by long hours of preparation for each opponent. 1-seeded Irish face No. 5 St. Bonaventure in Sunday's round of 16 in Raleigh, N.C., and Coach Muffet McGraw has trained all her waking hours on the Bonnies. The winner of the Notre Dame-St. Bonaventure game will face the winner of the Texas A&M-Maryland game on Tuesday. "I was watching game film of St. Bonaventure at 2:30 in the morning after we beat Cal," McGraw told the South Bend Tribune. The extra work is meant pay off in more tournament wins for the Irish (32-3), who hope to make their second straight trip to the Final Four, and maybe a retry at the national championship game. Reaching the final eight would set up a big match-up, pitting the Irish against the Aggies, the team that beat them to win the 2011 national title in Indianapolis. St. Bonaventure (31-3) is happily living with different expectations, as the Bonnies are basking in the glow of their first trip to the N.C.A.A. tournament. "We're the new kids to the party," St. Bonaventure coach Jim Crowley told the Associated Press after his team won, 66-63, over Marist in the second round. That's pretty cool. According to The Buffalo News, Bonnies basketball fever is running strong, with signs of support on display and T-shirts flying off the shelves at the university's bookstore. Notre Dame, by contrast, is used to this, reaching its fourth round of 16 in five seasons. Still, this will be new ground, as St. Bonaventure and Notre Dame have never played each other in women's hoops. McGraw, who was named on Thursday as one of eight finalists for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's coach of the year award, said her staff tries to be smart in its planning during the N.C.A.A. tournament. "I never look ahead, so we don't really practice ahead," McGraw said. When we start the tournament, when we came into the first round, Carol [Owens] had Liberty, Tsip (Jonathan Tpsis) had Cal, and Niele (Ivey) had Iowa. We sat down a week before we started, right after Selection Monday, and compared notes. How does everybody defend? Man or zone? What do they like on offense, tendencies, strengths and weaknesses, things that we're going to have to be ready for, no matter which team we play. As we go on in the tournament, we focus more on that one single team. The assistants are always working ahead, but as far as the team, we always keep it to the game at hand. Part of Notre Dame's planning will probably revolve around the 3-point shot, which has been a big force during the regular season for the Irish. But, according to The South Bend Tribune, Notre Dame has successfully resorted to lay-ups, smart defense, cleaning up offensive rebounds, and free throws to win in the N.C.A.A. tournament. The Irish shot 0 for 6 from 3-point range in their 73-62 win over Cal in the second round. But they had 40 rebounds, 19 offensive, and 24 points off turnovers against the Bears. Senior forward Devereaux Peters said the Irish have learned a sense to play the way the game dictates. Notre Dame will look to shoot the 3-pointer, but if it's not there, they will adjust. ..."We're an older team, we've been here before, and I think we play a lot better when we keep our composure," Peters, who had 11 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks against Cal, told UND.com. We know what we have to do to execute and play our own game, and in the first half we weren't really playing that well. We knew what we needed to fix, and we just came out and did it.