Tag: acc women’s basketball

Notre Dame women’s basketball gets third easy win vs. James Madison

The Irish continue to prove how deep they are.

The early part of Notre Dame’s schedule was set up in such a way that it seemingly wouldn’t be challenged early on. So far, that has proved to be the case. After cruising to easy wins over Mercyhurst and Purdue, the Irish continued that trend with a 92-46 victory over James Madison.

For the third time in as many games this season, the Irish (3-0) proved to have far more talent than their opponent, even with injuries tightening their rotation at the moment. That rotation might be tightened further after a hard knock to the floor caused [autotag]Liatu King[/autotag] to leave the game early in the fourth quarter with a head injury. Hopefully, she won’t be lost for very long if at all.

The Dukes (3-1) took their lone lead on a 3-pointer early in the first quarter. Most of the time though, the Irish had double the points of the Dukes or close to it. While the Irish were their usual strong selves on both ends, the Dukes did themselves no favors by making only 15 field goals and shooting a putrid 21.7% from the floor:

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] had a typical game of 24 points, six rebounds and four steals. [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] also played typically with 16 points, six rebounds and eight assists.

[autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag] quickly is becoming an early contender for ACC Rookie of the Year. A night in which she had a line of 14 points, 16 rebounds and six blocks will do that.

King scored 11 points before she went out, and [autotag]Cassandre Prosper[/autotag] also had 11 points to go with seven boards off the bench.

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Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles one of five national players of the week

Another honor for her.

Notre Dame guard [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] already was named the ACC Player of the Week for the first week of the season. That only proved to be the beginning though.

Miles has been named one of five national players of the week by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. Joining her are Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers, Rutgers’ Destiny Adams, UCLA’s Lauren Betts and Norfolk State’s Diamond Johnson.

To say Miles has wasted no time announcing her return after missing all of last season with a knee injury is an understatement. She achieved a triple-double in the season opener against Mercyhurst and scored 17 points against Purdue, three of them coming on a shot from beyond half-court at the third-quarter buzzer.

In this young season, Miles is averaging 18.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists a game. She will have a chance to improve on those numbers in the Irish’s next game Wednesday against James Madison. That will be followed by a contest Sunday against Lafayette.

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Notre Dame women’s basketball clobbers Purdue on road for second win

Make that two blowout wins to start the season.

If an opponent isn’t contending for an ACC or national championship, Notre Dame is likely to run it out of the gym. That’s exactly what happened during the Irish’s first road game of the season against Purdue. Much like with the football team less than two months earlier, this game was never close as the Irish won, 102-58.

The Irish (2-0) scored the game’s first nine points before jumping out to an 18-3 lead and never looking back. Every time the Boilermakers (1-1) got any sort of momentum going, the Irish answered and often expanded their lead. They gave themselves more scoring chances with plays on both ends of the floor and took full advantage.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] had a trademark night with 28 points and six steals. [autotag]Liatu King[/autotag] did a tall player’s impression of Hidalgo, scoring 18 points and recording four steals. She also achieved a double-double with 15 rebounds.

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] scored 17 points, which included this ridiculous shot from beyond half-court as time expired on the third quarter:

[autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] added 14 points in her season debut after missing the opener with an injury, and [autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag] grabbed 10 rebounds while coming within two-points of a double-double.

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Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles introduced before exhibition game

Welcome back, Liv!

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] scored a game-high 13 points in a 76-53 Notre Dame win over Georgia Tech on Feb. 23, 2023. At the time, it was a typical game for her other than the fact that it was the Irish’s final home game of the regular-season.

What we didn’t know was that 615 days would pass before Miles graced the Purcell Pavilion floor during a game again. She injured her knee at Louisville a few days later and wound up missing both the postseason and all of the following season.

Finally, after a lengthy period of setbacks, false hope and transfer rumors, Miles is playing for the Irish again. The moment of truth came when she started her team’s lone exhibition game this season against Davenport.

Irish fans packed Purcell Pavilion, and they were given an opportunity to show how much they loved and missed Miles. Needless to say, those fans did not disappoint when she was announced.

Here’s to a healthy and productive season for the former All-American.

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Notre Dame guard Sonia Citron named to shooting guard award watch list

Good luck, Soni!

For all the talk about [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], there’s a third Notre Dame guard who often gets lost in the shuffle. [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] has made both All-ACC and All-ACC Tournament in two consecutive seasons. She was ACC Rookie of the Year two seasons before Hidalgo arrived.

Now, there’s a possibility she could be honored in a different way this season. The Ann Meyers Drysdale Award is presented annually to the best female shooting guard in the country. Citron is one of 20 to make this year’s watch list.

Also on the list is defending winner JuJu Watkins of USC, which will face the Irish in nonconference play. If Watkins impresses as she did as a freshman, Citron will have to somehow surpass that level to have a shot at the award. Of course, the Irish will take that version of Citron if only to improve their national championship chances:

Best of luck to Citron in her attempt to dethrone Watkins.

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Duke women’s basketball picked to finish third in the ACC in preseason poll

Fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance, the Duke Blue Devils were picked to finish third in the ACC women’s basketball preseason poll.

The ACC released its preseason women’s basketball poll on Tuesday, and voters think the Blue Devils will finish third in the conference this season.

Duke finished the 2023-24 season with a 22-12 record and an 11-7 mark against ACC opponents, good enough for a tie for seventh in the conference. The best results came toward the end of the season, however, with a top-10 victory over NC State in late February before an upset of the Ohio State Buckeyes in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

In an era of college sports defined by roster turnover and the transfer portal, Blue Devils head coach [autotag]Kara Lawson[/autotag] kept a remarkable amount of 2023-24 production. Six of the team’s seven leading scorers from last season return to Durham, most notably Reigan Richardson (team-high 12.4 points per game) and ACC Sixth Person of the Year Oluchi Okananwa (9.7 points and 6.1 rebounds in 21.4 minutes).

Lawson also pulled in three five-star recruits on the trail with freshman forwards Toby Fournier and Arianna Roberson (the latter of whom will unfortunately miss the season with a knee injury) and Maryland transfer Riley Nelson.

It all adds up to a team that starts the year 11th in the Associated Press rankings.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, led by last year’s freshman sensation Hannah Hidalgo, ran away with the voting after receiving 70 of the 79 first-place votes. The Wolfpack finished second with eight of the other votes, and the North Carolina Tar Heels were picked to finish sixth.

Virginia Tech coach Megan Duffy talks Notre Dame at ACC Tipoff

We wish her reasonably well in her first ACC season.

[autotag]Megan Duffy[/autotag] knows all about Notre Dame. She played there for four years during its Big East days, making the all-conference first team twice and being named the conference’s most improved player once. She led the conference in free-throw percentage twice and steals and minutes once apiece.

After playing professionally for a few years, she turned to coaching. For the past five years, she coached Marquette and made three NCAA Tournament appearances, including last year when the Eagles got to play their lone tournament game at Purcell Pavilion.

Duffy now is beginning her first year at Virginia Tech. So when it was her turn to field questions at the annual ACC Tipoff in Charlotte, North Carolina, it was inevitable that she would be asked about the Irish. She was, and here was her answer to that question:

“This has been a dream to play and coach at the best and with the best every single day. My Notre Dame background back in the old Big East it was the depth of the conference, how competitive it was, and this is the same in the ACC.

We obviously understand this is the best conference in the country for all different reasons: the talent of the league, guard play, post play, and then some of the best coaches. I’ve always wanted that challenge.

Just to have it unfold as player and then you obviously build your resume as a coach. It’s special to be here at Virginia Tech and to hopefully be just a small piece of a bigger picture of women’s college basketball and continue to put a great product out there.”

Duffy won’t get to return to South Bend this season as the Hokies will be hosting the Irish on Jan. 30 in Blacksburg. Hopefully, when the time does come for her to come back to her roots, she’ll get a nice ovation from the Irish faithful. She’s earned it.

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Notre Dame will face TCU, Utah during Cayman Islands Classic

The Irish have some business to do Thanksgiving weekend.

The only part of Notre Dame’s schedule that wasn’t know before Tuesday was its opponents for the Cayman Island Classic. We knew this tournament meant the Irish would spend Thanksgiving weekend together, but we didn’t know which other teams lined up would face them. Wonder no longer.

The Irish will face TCU on Nov. 29, then have a meeting with Utah on Nov. 30. Both teams previously have played the Irish three times in the history and lost every single time. The Horned Frogs last lost to the Irish in 2016, while the Utes were knocked out of the 2011 NCAA Tournament.

Among the notable storylines here is that the Irish will face Frogs transfer Hailey Van Lith, a two-time First Team All-ACC selection during her days at Louisville, where she went 5-2 against the Irish. She played last season with defending champion LSU, which fell to Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the Elite Eight.

Let’s hope the Irish will be ready for some fun in the sun over the holiday. More importantly, let’s hope that fun includes a couple of wins.

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Notre Dame makes offer to 2026 guard, daughter of former NBA player

Hope she picks the Irish.

Kate Harpring hasn’t even begun her junior year at Marist in Atlanta. That’s the same high school her father, former NBA player Matt Harpring, attended. But that hasn’t stopped many prominent programs from making her offers already. She confirmed that Notre Dame is one of those programs on social media:

On the same day, Harpring also announced an offer from Iowa, which only added onto the list of schools that already have offers to her. Among the other schools hoping to add her as part of their 2026 recruiting class are Florida State, Clemson, Louisville, Maryland, Kentucky, Arizona, Utah and Vanderbilt. Needless to say, the Irish will have plenty of competition here.

We don’t know how the Irish would look as far as competitiveness by the time she arrives on campus. However, if many prominent schools already have made her offers, she obviously is something special. Hopefully, she chooses to prove that in South Bend.

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ACC Tournament will feature top 15 teams beginning in 2025

The Irish men will have to get better fast.

The ACC will include California, Stanford and SMU beginning with the 2024-25 season. That will bring the total number of conference members to 18. With that clearly being too high of a number for its conference basketball tournaments, the conference decided a change was needed.

Starting in 2025, only the teams that finish in the top 15 in the conference standings will be invited to the ACC Tournament. This follows a cue from a recent decision by the Big Ten, which also will be expanding next season to the point where it also only will invite the top 15 teams in the conference standings to its tournament.

While Notre Dame’s 16th-ranked women’s team is not expected to slide to the bottom of the ACC anytime soon, the men already are there in a rebuilding season. If the new rules went into effect for this season, the Irish wouldn’t be invited to the tournament.

Hopefully, with a year of experience under their belt, the young men’s Irish team will improve enough that they still will play in the 2025 ACC Tournament. There’s a long road ahead though, and there’s no guarantee of things being any better next year. Best of luck to [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] and his team in reaching this new goal.

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