Tag: Niele Ivey

ESPN’s Charlie Creme highlights Notre Dame in big early-season games

Be sure to watch these games.

Notre Dame is expected to do well this season. Its No. 6 ranking in the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll is evidence of that. Naturally, some of its early games will receive a lot of attention.

In light of the poll’s release, ESPN women’s basketball bracketologist Charlie Creme has published a story that answers the question of what the biggest early-season game is for each team ranked in that poll.

Creme has the Irish’s ACC/SEC Women’s Basketball Challenge matchup against Texas as the Irish’s biggest game and gives the following reason:

“Both the Irish and Longhorns saw freshmen become stars a season ago with their team leaders out with injury. Rori Harmon is back for Texas to team up with Madison Booker, and [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] can now pair [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], returning from a knee injury. This is a dream backcourt matchup that could define which duo is meshing the best. This looks to be the best Irish team under Ivey. This game and one a week later against UConn, also in South Bend, should tell us just how good.”

The Irish also will face USC early in the season, and Creme has that game as the biggest for the Trojans, who rank third in the poll. Here’s the reason for that:

“A week before the two schools square off in football in Los Angeles, they do the same in basketball. Both the Trojans and the Irish should be in the mix for a No. 1 seed come March, and the winner of this game takes a massive advantage in that quest. One month before (JuJu) Watkins gets to go head-to-head with (Paige) Bueckers, she faces Hannah Hidalgo, the second-best freshman to Watkins a year ago.”

So yeah, there are a few game on the schedule you won’t want to miss. Simply put, don’t.

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Notre Dame women’s basketball impersonates Niele Ivey for birthday

Happy Birthday, Coach!

If you don’t feel old yet, try this on for size: Notre Dame legendary player-turned-coach [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] is 47 today. Yes, the player who was instrumental in the Irish winning their first national championship in 2001 and the assistant coach on the 2018 national championship staff who now heads the program is 47. Naturally, it’s a time to celebrate.

For the players, assistant coaches and managers in the women’s basketball program, there’s really only one way to mark Ivey’s birthday. That way is to give their best impressions of her and record them for a video.

With [autotag]KK Bransford[/autotag] acting as the video’s emcee, several of her teammates and some of the other aforementioned members of the program impersonated Ivey or gave her their best birthday wishes.

The best part about this video is that you can see how sincere everyone is. They truly love her, and it’s the kind of a video that only a group that considers itself family can make:

https://twitter.com/ndwbb/status/1838604541958176889

We join in wishing the head of the program the happiest of birthdays and many blessings over the coming year. Hopefully, that includes more success on the court.

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Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey enshrined in St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame

Congrats, Niele!

Perhaps the only thing [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] is prouder of than being a member of the Notre Dame family is being a St. Louis native. The legendary Irish player-turned-coach made her mark in St. Louis before she accomplished bigger things, and she got to demonstrate how far she’d come when she led the Irish to victory over California at the Enterprise Center in November 2022.

Now, Ivey’s accomplishments will be remembered in her hometown forever. On Thursday, she became one of 11 new members of the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame. Here’s the announcement of her induction that was made in July:

Ahead of her honor, the Irish expressed congratulations for their coach:

Ivey will be joining such fellow basketball inductees as legendary St. Louis Hawks Bob Pettit and Lenny Wilkens, two of the greatest NBA players ever. That alone makes this a noteworthy honor.

Congratulations to Ivey and all the other honorees for 2024.

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Notre Dame Coach Niele Ivey Reacts to Showdown with USC

Notre Dame head women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey is among those stoked that the Irish are taking on powerhouse USC this November.

Notre Dame and USC showdowns are generally reserved for the football field but this November the two will meet in a women’s basketball showdown that could very easily be between a pair of top-five teams.

Notre Dame brings back a slew of talent from a team that won last year’s ACC Tournament before making it to the Sweet 16 while USC brings back superstar sophomore to-be Juju Watkins and a team that was just one win away from the Final Four.

Fans are stoked for the game that takes place a week before the Notre Dame-USC football game this November.

Count Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey among those as she shared his excitement on social media Friday evening.

Props to Ivey and the Notre Dame athletic department who have not been afraid to schedule games against the nation’s very best teams year after year.

Notre Dame women’s hoops sells 1,000 new season tickets for 2024-25

Time to jump on the bandwagon!

Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team in 2024-25 will have its highest expectations since [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] took over the program. Fans have taken notice of that, and they want to watch the Irish play at Purcell Pavilion. If you need proof of this, look no further than this announcement the Irish made on social media:

If you haven’t gotten on board with Notre Dame women’s basketball, now is the time. [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] is coming off being named First Team All-American as a freshman. All-American [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] will be back after missing all of last season. [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] and [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] also are returning, and the Irish added two quality transfers in [autotag]Liatu King[/autotag] and [autotag]Liza Karlen[/autotag].

Anything less than the Final Four for the Irish in 2024-25 will be a disappointment. Ivey has been blessed with the most talent she’s had while leading the program, and it’s up to her to get that talent to mesh.

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Notre Dame one of six finalists for five-star 2025 Kentucky guard

This would be a huge get.

Notre Dame is projected to have a big 2024-25 season, but the question is whether 2025-26 and beyond will be special. If the Irish have their way, one addition to their roster will make things a lot easier.

Zakiyah Johnson, a five-star guard from Kentucky, is projected by multiple sites as the best 2025 recruit in her state. She’s been named the Gatorade Kentucky Girls Basketball Player of the Year three years in a row. And she’s listed Notre Dame as one of the six programs to make her final cut:

When asked by On3 what she liked about each program, Johnson said this about the Irish:

“It’s all girl coaches – I like the way they run their program. I’m also really big on fashion, and I think they do a really good job with it. Coach [Niele] Ivey is very sweet, and Coach [Michaela] Mabrey is very sweet. I can kind of connect with them because they’re younger. It’s really just a vibe you have to be there to feel.”

Let’s hope the vibe is strong enough to lead her to South Bend.

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Five former Notre Dame players among top 20 WNBA scorers

These ladies are making Irish fans proud.

Before too long, Notre Dame coach [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] will be sending players she’s had as head coach to the WNBA. For now though, a few of [autotag]Muffet McGraw[/autotag]’s former players are tearing the league up through their scoring. But a lot of people might not seem to realize just how much they’re lighting up the scoreboard.

While most fans are focused on the budding rivalry between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, just as much focus should be going to the professionals the Irish have developed. If you need more convincing of that, check out this tweet from @trendyhoopstars:

That’s unbelievable. It’s a testament to how great the program has been for a while now but especially during McGraw’s final decade coaching the Irish. It should come as no surprise that these players have blossomed professionally and are giving the development at some other prominent women’s basketball schools a run for their money. UConn and South Carolina aren’t the only two programs worthy of attention.

So who are the former Irish players turning heads through the first month-and-a-half of the WNBA season, and where do they rank among the league’s scoring leaders? It’s these five:

Detroit Pistons fire Notre Dame alumnus Monty Williams as coach

New team leadership has declared Williams an expensive sunk cost.

A year ago, Notre Dame alumnus [autotag]Monty Williams[/autotag] received the biggest coaching contract in NBA history. It turned out to be a very bad investment for the Detroit Pistons, who lost a single-season record 28 straight games en route to finishing a franchise-worst 14-68. That will be the only season Williams sees from the bench.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the Pistons have fired Williams. This comes less than a month after the hiring of Trajan Langdon as president of basketball operations. The Pistons still owe Williams over $65 million.

One thing Williams and Pistons ownership didn’t agree on as highlighted in the USA TODAY report was how to use second-year guard Jaden Ivey, son of Notre Dame women’s basketball coach [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag]. Obviously, that only was the tip of the iceberg.

The Pistons hired Williams after he was fired by the Phoenix Suns, whom he took to the 2021 NBA Finals. His wife also had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Here’s hoping he can take some time off now to focus on the truly important things in life.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

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Photos I took while reporting at Notre Dame this past year

Miss being on campus?

Some of you loyal site readers, particularly of the basketball coverage, may know I traveled to Notre Dame several times over the past year. As I was there, the fact that I was doing my reporting on a prestigious campus was not lost on me. I had been to campus once for the football team’s 2012 game against Michigan, so I needed to re-familiarize myself with my surroundings.

There were a couple of instances in which I found myself with more downtime than I needed, so I took those opportunities to explore the campus. A few photos came from sitting inside Purcell Pavilion while the women’s team held a practice that was open to the public (after which I introduced myself to [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag]). The rest came from other places around campus that I thought were interesting, some of them better known than others. So while you continue to count down the days to football season, I hope these photos tide you over:

Former five-star recruit Emma Risch arrives at Notre Dame

The Irish are excited about this one.

Even with [autotag]Emma Risch[/autotag] having put pen to paper, [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] and her staff surely still couldn’t believe it had happened. One of the country’s top recruits, Risch officially signed with Notre Dame in November. However, they can put all their disbelief away now. Risch is all moved into her home for the next few years, and the Irish’s Twitter account took full advantage in making a fuss about it:

Risch averaged 23.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.9 assists over 24 games in her final season at the high school level. When her signing was announced, Ivey said the following:

“Emma is one of the best shooters I’ve seen in a very long time. She has an incredible IQ, deep shooting range and elite vision. Her size and ability to score in all three levels separates her and will translate to college basketball immediately. I’m looking forward to the positive impact she will make on our team on and off the court. We can’t wait to welcome her to South Bend!”

Well, the welcome has happened, and it will be exciting to watch what she can do.