Michelle Clark-Heard is doing what she can to ensure her Lady Topper basketball team faces the best competition in the country.

Western Kentucky will get a crack at one of those teams in E.A. Diddle Arena next season.

Heard told the Daily News that WKU is close to finalizing a home-and-home series with Notre Dame beginning next season. The Lady Toppers will host the Fighting Irish this fall and will travel to South Bend, Ind., for the 2018-19 campaign.

The Fighting Irish have been to seven Final Fours and finished as national runner-up in 2015.

Notre Dame went 33-4 last year, won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title and lost to Stanford in the Elite Eight.

“It’s huge,” Heard said. “It’s like playing (Connecticut). Big-time program and we’re just excited to have the opportunity.”

The only meeting between WKU and Notre Dame came in a 78-59 win for the Irish in 2007 at South Bend, Ind.

The Lady Toppers went 27-7 last season, won the Conference USA Tournament championship and lost to Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame finished as the No. 3 team in the final Associated Press poll under 30th-year coach Muffet McGraw.

McGraw coached Notre Dame to a national title in 2001 and four national runner-up finishes.

Heard stressed the importance of bringing Power 5 teams to Diddle Arena. The highest attended non-conference game crowd WKU has drawn since Heard took over in 2012 was 3,725 against Louisville in 2013.

“My biggest thing is I dream of us getting (6,000) to 7,000 people in here,” Heard said. “If Notre Dame comes to the house, I don’t know how you don’t get that. Every day my job and the staff is to figure out how we can make that happen.”

WKU now has three Power 5 opponents on its 2017-18 schedule. The Lady Toppers will play Indiana in Bloomington, Ind., for the last of a home-and-home series.

Heard also said WKU will travel to Iowa next fall for the Hawkeye Challenge, an annual in-season tournament hosted by the Big 10 team in Iowa City, Iowa. The all-time series between WKU and Iowa is tied 3-3.

“Our schedule is loaded,” Heard said. “Indiana, Iowa and Notre Dame, there’s three big ones.”

WKU will take a year off from playing Louisville next year, which is a series that has provided WKU with a consistent top 25 opponent the last four years. Heard, a former assistant at Louisville and close friend with Cardinals’ coach Jeff Walz, said that series will continue at some point in the near future.

Heard said WKU is looking to add one more in-season tournament to the 2017-18 slate. More schedule information will be released later in the offseason.{&end}