Category: Women’s Basketball

Three Notre Dame players projected as 2025 WNBA first-round picks

You’ll definitely want to watch these players for the Irish next season.

The dust barely has cleared on the 2024 WNBA draft. But that hasn’t stopped people from looking ahead to the 2025 draft. And if you do that as a Notre Dame fan, you’ll realize why next season likely will be the best chance yet for the current group to go far.

Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic has put together a list of who she believes will make up the first round of next year’s WNBA draft. Merchant figures three current Notre Dame players will be taken in that round, beginning with [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] at No. 3:

“It’s hard to design a more prototypically perfect 2-guard than Citron. She is tall and strong, defends well and has a beautiful jumper that goes in 37 percent of the time from long range. Citron is overtaxed as a primary ballhandler, but let her run off screens or handoffs, and she can create her own shot. She is plug-and-play on any team, adding positive value on both ends of the floor.”

[autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag], who announced her return to the Irish for next season earlier this week, also made the list as the sixth overall pick:

“Another player who could have been a first-rounder in this year’s draft, Westbeld does everything well. She can shoot from distance (36 percent on 3s in her college career), and she also can drive to the basket. Westbeld is a load in the paint and dominates on the glass. She can body bigger players on defense; her effort to limit (Elizabeth) Kitley to 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting during the 2024 ACC season was an eye-opener. It’s unclear if she has All-Star upside, but Westbeld is the type of player winning teams find minutes for.”

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] rounds out this list at No. 8, but she has an asterisk next to her name since she still has a medical redshirt year:

“It’s been a long time since we watched Miles play basketball, so in case you forgot, she’s an elite passer who excels at creating offense in transition. She rebounds well for her position and is a defensive playmaker with 2.1 steals per game. The 3-point jumper was a work in progress during her sophomore season, but she started to fill it up from midrange at least. Without the jumper, she’d be a solid backup point guard in the WNBA, but she has a chance to be even more if that developed during her rehab year.”

So yeah, the 2024-25 Irish are going to be special. Get excited for it now because there’s no time like the present, but more importantly, all of these special players will be off to greener pastures before you know it.

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Maddy Westbeld will return to Notre Dame for 2024-25 season

Big news for an Irish team expected to do big things next season.

Michael Jordan famously announced his first return to basketball with the iconic fax simply reading, “I’m back.” Well, times have changed, and sports figures can make announcements about their futures on social media. While [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag]’s two-word tweet Monday won’t become nearly as famous as Jordan’s fax, it nonetheless will thrill Notre Dame fans:

Yes, this means Westbeld will use her remaining college eligibility to return to the Irish for a fifth and final season in 2024-25. There had been questions lately about whether she would do so, but those can be put to rest now. It gives the Irish a veteran presence down low and a mentor for incoming big [autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag].

Still unknown is the future of fellow Irish big [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag], especially given the knee injury she suffered during this year’s ACC Tournament, but at least Westbeld will be on next year’s team. She is coming off her third All-ACC selection and a season in which she averaged 14.4 points, 1.1 blocks and a career-high 8.7 rebounds a game. She has started all 120 games she has played for the Irish over her first four seasons with the program, and there’s no reason to think that will change.

Westbeld clearly wants to be part of an Irish team that is expected to go far. Her presence will make that a lot easier to happen.

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Notre Dame loses two rotational players to transfer portal

Notre Dame widely is expected to compete for a Final Four berth during the 2024-25 season.

Notre Dame widely is expected to compete for a Final Four berth during the 2024-25 season. However, a couple of players have chosen to take their talents elsewhere. Forward Natalija Marshall has announced that she will enter the transfer portal:

https://www.instagram.com/natalijamarshall/p/C5meAvQN9Ro/?hl=en

This news dropped only two days after sophomore guard KK Bransford also announced she was entering the transfer portal:

https://www.instagram.com/kkbransford/p/C5dqbVFunv3/?hl=en

Marshall will leave the Irish despite starting their final four games of this past season for the injured [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag]. In three seasons with the Irish, Marshall averaged 4.1 points and 1.3 rebounds a game.

Bransford is out after only two years with the Irish. In her 66 games, she made 19 starts and averaged 7.5 points and 3.8 rebounds a game.

[autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] already is down two players whom she played regularly. That hurts regardless of the talent coming in via the transfer portal and the 2024 recruiting class. Whatever the reason though, this is a sure sign that the new season already is here.

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Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo wins Dawn Staley Award as top guard

Add yet another honor for the freshman phenom.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] began her collegiate career when Notre Dame faced South Carolina in Paris to open this past season. That meant she got to make her debut with Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley watching from the opposite sideline. She aced her first exam, leading all scorers with 31 points in an Irish loss. Now, Staley gets to honor her.

Hidalgo has been named the winner of this year’s Dawn Staley Award, given to the country’s top guard. She unseats Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who had won it each of the previous three seasons. She is the second Irish player to win the award after [autotag]Skylar Diggins[/autotag], who was the first honoree in 2013.

Staley, whose Gamecocks are in the Final Four trying to complete a perfect season, said the following about Hidalgo:

“The Dawn Staley Award goes to the player who demonstrates exceptional skills, leadership, and performance at the guard position. Hannah Hidalgo’s court vision, passing ability, ball-handling and ability to create scoring opportunities for herself and her teammates combined with her relentless defense is unmatched. She is the embodiment of a two-way force on the basketball court and the essence of what the award represents. In a season where there are several deserving candidates Hannah has separated herself from the group.“

Hidalgo will receive her award during a virtual ceremony April 11, and it’s great to know that she still is collecting hardware even with the Irish’s season over. That trophy case is gonna be awfully crowded by the time she’s done in South Bend.

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Former Notre Dame women’s basketball star named head coach in ACC

All the best to Megan…except when she takes on the Irish

Former Notre Dame women’s basketball standout Megan Duffy has been on the coaching climb since her playing career came to an end. That climb has taken her Virginia Tech where she’ll be the new head coach.

Duffy heads to Blacksburg after spending the last five seasons at Marquette. She guided the Golden Eagles to a 110-46 overall record and appearances in the NCAA Tournament each of the last two seasons.

“I am ecstatic to join Virginia Tech Athletics as the leader of the women’s program,” Duffy said Wednesday morning. “The opportunity to continue the winning tradition with Hokie Nation and to be a part of the passionate, savvy Blacksburg community makes this a dream job for me.” – Megan Duffy

Previous to Marquette, Duffy was the head coach at Miami (Ohio) for two seasons, helping them to a 44-20 overall mark.

Duffy was the leading scorer on the 2005-06 Notre Dame team, putting up 15.6 points per game.  She was on four Fighting Irish teams that made the NCAA Tournament, a pair of which made the Sweet 16.

Duffy played three seasons in the WNBA before getting her coaching start at St. John’s. She also had assistant stops at George Washington and Michigan before landing the Miami (Ohio) job.

Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo named Wooden Award finalist

She had an incredible season, no?

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] racked up one record and honor after another during her freshman season at Notre Dame. Now, she’s going about as far as she can go as far as awards in women’s basketball. She has been announced as one of five finalists for the Wooden Award, which is given to the best player in the country.

Even though the winner will be announced Monday, merely being a finalist means Hidalgo will be invited to the ceremony April 12 in Los Angeles regardless if she wins the award or not. She also is one of 10 Wooden Award All-Americans.

In 35 games this season, Hidalgo became one of the country’s top scorers with 33.9 points a game. She also led the country in steals at 4.6 a game, and she averaged 5.5 assists a game. All that and more made her a First Team All-American and First Team All-ACC selection as well as the top rookie and defensive player in the ACC.

Hidalgo faces some incredibly stiff competition for this award. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark is the clear favorite to win it for the second straight year, but Hidalgo also is up against 2021 winner Paige Bueckers of UConn, fellow freshman phenom JuJu Watkins of USC and Stanford’s Cameron Brink. Still, the fact that she can be in the conversation with these players is a good indicator that she’ll keep the South Bend faithful coming to Purcell Pavilion for the next few years.

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Photos of Notre Dame’s season-ending loss to Oregon State in Sweet 16

See how the 2023-24 Irish wrapped up play, even if they surely didn’t want to.

Three straight years, Notre Dame has made it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament. Three straight years, it has been eliminated from the tournament in that round. [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] will have to wait at least one more season for her first Elite Eight berth as a head coach. But right now, she and the rest of the Irish are left to contemplate their 70-65 loss to Oregon State.

Many hoped this season would go at least one more game. The Irish had the personnel to do it, and they were in this loss until only seconds remained. But the depth and size issues even the biggest Irish fans couldn’t ignore finally caught up to them, and both of those issues were on display in this final contest of the season.

The hope now is that the Irish can get healthy and make a serious run at next year’s national title. Until then, here are some of images from the game that stopped the Irish from pursuing this year’s championship any further:

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Notre Dame’s season ends after falling to Oregon State in Sweet 16

Another year, another elimination in the regional semifinals.

With injuries stripping Notre Dame of its depth, it seemed like only a matter of time before that caught up. It didn’t happen during the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, but Albany Regional 1 posed tougher competition and thus increased the likelihood of the issue being exposed. Oregon State was the team to do it, beating the Irish in the Sweet 16, 70-65.

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A game that featured eight ties and 11 lead changes was destined to come down to the end. The Irish (27-7) were in front, 59-57, with less than three minutes to play when Donovyn Hunter hit a 3 to give the Beavers (28-7) the lead for good. One possession later, Lily Hansford made another 3 off an offensive rebound, putting the Beavers up four.

The teams continued to trade free throws and layups until the Irish called a timeout down, 67-63, with 26.1 seconds left. Their final hopes were snuffed when Talia von Oelhoffen blocked a [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] 3 and promptly made two free throws after being fouled. At that point, the deficit was too big with too little time left for the Irish.

The Irish scored 26 points off 27 Beavers turnovers, but that was canceled out by losing the rebounding battle, 42-24. The Beavers also exploited the Irish’s lack of available size by winning the battle for points in the paint, 40-28. Also, three Beavers scored 14 points off the bench while [autotag]KK Bransford[/autotag], the Irish’s lone reserve in this game, was kept out of the scoring column.

As expected, Raegan Beers was a problem as she scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for the Beavers. Also a problem was Timea Gardiner, who also achieved a double-double with 21 points and 11 boards. Hunter scored 11 points, and van Oelhoffen dished out a game-high nine assists in addition to her clutch block of Citron.

Citron led all scorers with 22 points and also had the most rebounds for the Irish with seven. [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] scored 19 points but picked up three of her four fouls in the first half, possibly affecting what the Irish could do on defense in the middle. [autotag]Anna DeWolfe[/autotag] had 12 points in her final college game.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] tied her season low with 10 points on 4-of-17 shooting. She might have become disconcerted when she was ordered to have her nose ring removed before the start of the second quarter and missed the first four minutes of that quarter while having the issue taken care of.

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Photos of Notre Dame’s second-round victory over Ole Miss

See how the win appeared at Purcell.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – One never wants to say an NCAA Tournament is going to be easy. Sometimes though, the result of a game becomes impossible to ignore. Notre Dame dominated Ole Miss in the second round, 71-56, and will play in the Sweet 16 for the third straight season. Up next is Oregon State in the Albany Regional 1 semifinals.

There could be no more games at Purcell Pavilion this season after this game, and the Irish certainly went out on a high note. Even when the Rebels threatened to make the game close in the second half, it was little more than a passing threat, and the Irish’s lead never fell below double digits once it got there late in the first quarter.

It’s understandable if your job kept you from tuning into this game on a Monday afternoon, but that’s why there are photographs. Here are some that were taken at this game:

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Notre Dame goes back to Sweet 16 with second-round win over Ole Miss

Make your plans for Good Friday.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Never mind that it was a Monday afternoon. Notre Dame fans packed Purcell Pavilion in droves one final time this season to see the Irish play in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Ole Miss. The Irish didn’t want to let their fans down, and they accomplished that with a 71-56 win that placed them in their third straight Sweet 16. They next will play Oregon State in the semifinals of Albany Regional 1 on Good Friday.

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There never really was a moment in which the Irish (28-6) were seriously threatened by the Rebels (24-9). Once [autotag]Anna DeWolfe[/autotag] and [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] hit back-to-back 3s to end the scoring in the first quarter, they never led by less than double digits. They had good looks both inside and out on offense, and their defense not only forced the Rebels to make mistakes but unnerved them into unforced errors. The result was a lead that grew by as much as 23.

In what could have been her final game in South Bend, Westbeld made it count with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting and the game’s only two blocks, both coming in the first quarter. [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] was just behind Westbeld with 19 points, and she also collected four steals.[autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] advanced her reputation as perhaps the Irish’s best all-around player, achieving a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds to go with a game-high six assists.

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