Among the many congratulatory messages Diggins received on Twitter after her 28-point performance was one from rapper Lil Wayne that read "Kongrats to @skydigg4, my wife. Now bring it home baby."
"I'm like, 'I didn't know we were married, but this is huge,'" Diggins said. "Him just watching the game and watching us play, I think that says a lot about how big women's basketball is becoming."
If three-time national player of the year Maya Moore has been the face of women's college basketball the past few years, this Final Four may be remembered for Diggins taking the torch from her UConn counterpart. The Notre Dame sophomore's smooth playmaking skills, Madison Avenue smile and effortless charisma give her more crossover appeal than any other women's college basketball player.
In the three weeks leading up to Tuesday's national title game against second-seeded Texas A&M, Diggins has gone from 6,000 followers on Twitter to more than 45,000. Searches for her name on Yahoo spiked 2,700 percent on Sunday and went up another 17 percent on Monday.
Diggins is the subject of a new rap song inspired by her NCAA tournament performance. She has her own blog on ESPN.com. And in addition to her shout-out from Lil Wayne, singer Chris Brown also saluted her on Monday, telling her "congrats beautiful."
"Everyone always says that nobody watches women's college basketball, but apparently all it takes is a relatively fresh face, a winner and a school with a great brand like Notre Dame to draw out this emerging star," said David Carter, executive director of USC's Sports Business Institute.
"I don't think one run in the tournament takes her from being a niche star to a transcendent one and I don't think anyone knows how she's going to handle the spotlight going forward, but there's a lot of upside. This certainly tees her up for a big opportunity."
Nationwide stardom is a new phenomenon for Diggins, but she's been a big name in women's basketball circles for years. Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw recognized the point guard's potential long before she first donned an Irish jersey.
Diggins, the nation's top high school point guard in the class of 2009, grew up in South Bend in the shadow of the Notre Dame campus. McGraw identified her as "a must-have recruit" as a freshman in high school, eventually persuading Diggins that the opportunity to win a championship for her hometown school was more enticing than the the pull of Stanford's academic pedigree and history of producing All-Americans.
"I think she was the most important recruit we've gotten," McGraw said. "You can't let a kid like that get away from home. We worked hard for four years. And [current Notre Dame assistant coach] Niele Ivey was instrumental when I hired her. I hired her and I said, 'You've got one job, that's to get Skylar.' She worked on it for a couple of years. And we couldn't have been happier when she finally said yes."
Diggins has exceeded even McGraw's high expectations in her first two seasons at Notre Dame, blossoming into perhaps the nation's best point guard. She averaged 14.3 points and 4.8 assists this season, leading the Irish to a 31-7 record, a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament and the program's first appearance in the national title game since capturing the championship behind Ivy and center Ruth Riley in 2001.
For Notre Dame to cut down the nets for the second time in program history on Tuesday, Diggins will have to deal with Texas A&M's fierce defensive pressure better than Stanford's star guard Jeanette Pohlen did in Sunday's first national semifinal. The Aggies will likely assign the task of keeping the ball out of Diggins' hands to senior guard Sydney Carter, whom Diggins roomed with as teammates for USA Basketball.
"She's a great defender on the ball, great mid-range jump shot and very good speed," Diggins said. "She's going to be up in [my] face and a pest on defense. We have to make sure we protect the ball."
If the pressure of either Texas A&M's defense or the newfound spotlight rattles the typically unflappable Diggins at all, she can take solace that she's playing in a very familiar venue.
A large Notre Dame contingent will likely make the three-hour drive from South Bend to Indianapolis to Conseco Fieldhouse, where Diggins won three state championships in high school.
"A lot of fans are going to come out and support us," Diggins said. "When we had a state championship here, South Bend [was] a ghost town. And we want that again [Tuesday]. Hopefully with the home crowd giving us momentum and being anything like they were [Sunday night], we'll have a very good chance of being a national champion."
The Dean's Notes: I believe that the overnight fixation with Skylar Diggins was attributed to multiple things. #1 because Notre Dame was a fierce competitor against the women's basketball POWERHOUSE which is the UCONN Lady Huskies; #2 because Skylar can flat out ball with electrifying ball handling ability, smooth scoring ability and on the dime passing skills and last but not least she scored high on the radar of men viewers due to her model like, girl next door looks. I also believe that since the movie "Love & Basketball" men are fascinated with the idea of dating and/or marrying a beautiful baller.
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