Tag: Niele Ivey

Top 10 3-point shooters in Notre Dame women’s basketball history

Who has most hit from downtown in Irish history?

Several months back, former Notre Dame guard [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag] advanced to the finals of the annual WNBA 3-Point Contest. But nobody was going to beat Sabrina Ionescu, whose final-round score of 37 was higher than even the highest score ever recorded in the NBA version of the contest. Almost immediately, many wondered how Ionescu would favor in a shootout with NBA 3-point king Stephen Curry.

This past NBA All-Star Weekend, fans got their wish. It was the highlight of the weekend with Curry needing the final rack to beat Ionescu, 29-26. There are hopes that something like this can continue next year and beyond, especially with women’s basketball increasing in popularity.

While we contemplate the future of women’s basketball and only can guess what it holds, we know who’s helped lay the groundwork for that future. Among them are the top 3-point shooters in Notre Dame history. Since 3-pointers are the latest thing to bring male and female basketball players together, let’s see who rounds out the top 10 for the Irish:

Notre Dame is No. 5 seed in every latest Bracketology projection

The Irish have some work to do if they want to be an NCAA Tournament host.

Nobody knows just how dominant Notre Dame would be if it was fully healthy. All we can judge the Irish on is how good they currently are. And in the eyes of various college hoops experts, they’re not good enough to host the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

In the latest Bracketology updates for ESPN, CBS Sports, College Sports Madness and Her Hoop Stats, the Irish are in a fifth seed for each and every one. Only the top four seeds in each quadrant are selected as first- and second-round hosts. So in this particular case, the Irish currently are on the outside looking in.

Don’t despair yet though. ESPN chooses to highlight the Irish in its latest update as a team that can move up the seedings. As it currently stands, they don’t have a lot of big wins on their resume except for UConn. Whether that resume can improve depends on how the Irish fare against the ACC gauntlet over the next two weeks, beginning Thursday at Louisville.

[autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] admitted after the Irish’s win over Pittsburgh that February is going to be a tough month for her team, and she wasn’t lying. While the Irish are a lock for the tournament barring a complete collapse over the next month, they’ll need to dig even deeper if they want March Madness to come to South Bend. We soon will find out if them doing so leads to optimal results.

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Niele Ivey, Maddy Westbeld speak after Notre Dame beats Pittsburgh

There was more than basketball to talk about during this game.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Notre Dame’s 78-53 win over Pittsburgh took on a slightly different tone than usual. While there was the usual happiness over beating an ACC opponent handily, that wasn’t the only thing the Irish were celebrating. This game was the annual Think Pink Game that pays tribute to cancer survivors, and many of them were on hand.

Keeping with the spirit of the day, Niele Ivey and Maddy Westbeld talked about the subject that the game was played in awareness of in addition to answering the usual questions about the game and the team. In fact, some of the questions also were about cancer affecting their personal lives and the community in general. It was the least they could do for a game like this.

Also keeping in the spirit of the dominant win, Ivey and Westbeld were very relaxed and joking during their postgame news conference. Here’s some of what they had to say:

Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles officially ruled out for the season

What we hoped wasn’t true has been realized.

Saturday began with the hope that injured Notre Dame All-American guard [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] would play this season. Before the Irish’s 82-67 upset of UConn, Miles was spotted taking shots on the court. There even was speculation that she would play in this game, but she soon changed back into the bench garb she’s worn all season.

While the game still was going on, the Fox announcing team of Gus Johnson and Stephanie White casually let it slip on the air that Miles had told them she wouldn’t play at all this season. This fueled speculation about how true that was. Although [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] didn’t confirm it in her postgame news conference, a Notre Dame official soon confirmed to several Irish beat reporters that the worst fears were in fact true:

This obviously puts a damper on a great night and is a tough blow for the player who was the face of the program until [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] started turning heads this year. The good news is Miles will have two years of eligibility remaining, so she and Hidalgo still will have time to be teammates on the court. Still, Irish fans can’t help but wonder how differently this season would have gone had she been able to play.

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Notre Dame tunes up for tough week with win over Wake Forest

The Irish really will need to step up their game soon.

Notre Dame is preparing for some heavy duty this coming week. A rematch with Syracuse, which it already lost to, and a road game at UConn means good efforts will be absolutely necessary. First though, visiting Wake Forest, the worst team in the ACC was on the schedule. While the Irish won, 75-56, they didn’t always play like the better team.

The Irish (14-3, 5-2) never trailed in the game, and the final score indicated their biggest lead. However, it also never felt like the Demon Deacons (4-15, 0-7) ever really went away despite trailing by double digits the entire second half. With the difference between these teams, the Irish should have been able to leave the Deacons in the dust. That barely felt like the case.

Maybe this sounds like an overly critical analysis, but that’s only because the Irish are held to such a high standard being ranked in a tough conference. Scoring fewer than 20 points in the third and fourth quarters as they did hear won’t cut it against the Orange and Huskies. [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] needs to emphasize that to her players, or they could be in for a rude awakening over these next couple of games.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] had another nice game of 21 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals. [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] continued to make up for lost time from earlier the season with 18 points and joining Hidalgo with four rebounds and four assists. [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] scored 10 points and was a rebound short of a double-double. [autotag]KK Bransford[/autotag] also scored 10 coming off the bench.

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Niele Ivey, Hannah Hidalgo, KK Bransford speak after Notre Dame win

Hear from the victors.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – It was all smiles for Notre Dame after it defeated Miami, 70-59. Niele Ivey had nothing but praise for both her team at the folks who came out to Purcell Pavilion over the course of the Irish’s three-game homestand, especially those who braved freezing temperatures and bitter wind chills to come to this game.

Praise especially was reserved for [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag], who had another amazing game of 25 points and seven steals and even rewrote the program’s record books with this performance, and [autotag]KK Bransford[/autotag], who made a difference with 10 points in the first half.

The Irish now will hit the road for four of their next five games, which includes a break from ACC play, though it’s a game at UConn that promises to be no less challenging. That’s why it was important for them to play well in these past three games, of which they won two.

Here’s what they had to say after this latest victory:

Notre Dame’s Risch out for season; still no updates on Miles, Citron

Tough break for the freshman.

There’s a lot of excitement surrounding [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag], who just won her sixth ACC Rookie of the Week award. That means it’s easy to forget that Notre Dame has another freshman guard. However, [autotag]Emma Risch[/autotag]’s season already is over.

Risch, who hasn’t played since Nov. 29 at Tennessee, has been sidelined for the season because of upcoming hip surgery according to [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag]. However, she is expected to retain her entire college eligibility:

Between Risch’s news and no updates on [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] or [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] either, it really raises the question on how much longer the Irish can survive having a shorthanded roster. The New Year’s Eve loss at Syracuse that began ACC play had to be a sobering experience for everybody, and one has to wonder if that game would have played out differently with a healthier group.

Risch’s season ends having averaged 4.6 points and 3.1 rebounds over seven games. Her best game was a 16-point, five-rebound outing Nov. 21 against Chicago State. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery for her.

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Watch: ESPN interview with Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey

The Irish are lucky to have her.

[autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] is in her fourth season as Notre Dame’s women’s basketball coach, and she’s done pretty well. After going 10-10 in her first season, she led the Irish to back-to-back Sweet 16s. This year, she has the Irish off to a 9-2 start. All of this and more is covered in this new interview with the ESPN-owned Andscape:

This is about as complete an interview with Ivey as you’ll see anywhere. Touching on her playing days, coaching career, her key players and her son Jaden, she comes across as someone who means everything she says and doesn’t need to show off for the cameras. The fact that the interview ends with her at the Grotto speaks volumes about her.

While the interview doesn’t go overboard on the details, it leaves you feeling like you really know Ivey. You could have this conversation with her off the record and come away just as satisfied. One only can imagine what she’ll do as her coaching career goes on.

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Niele Ivey, Hannah Hidalgo, Kylee Watson speak after Notre Dame win

Here how the Irish felt after their latest win.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Sometimes, the calendar dictates that you play a solid game. Notre Dame has final exams next week, and the women’s basketball team won’t play again until those exams are finished. That meant it was time to show Lafayette what it could do, even with injuries shortening the number of healthy bodies to eight. A 96-42 victory meant mission accomplished.

[autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] understandably was in an upbeat mood after the win, and she brought in two of her stars to share in her postgame news conference, although there were a few more players who would have been just as worthy of meeting the media afterwards. [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] had what’s become a typical night for her of 26 points and six steals. [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag] scored 14 points (eight in the third quarter) and had five rebounds.

Numerous topics were discussed in the news conference. In fact, Fighting Irish Wire got to ask the first question after Ivey’s opening statement. Here the answers to that and many of the rest of the questions that were asked:

Notre Dame’s Sonia Citron out ‘a few weeks’ with injury

We now know the extent of Notre Dame guard Sonia Citron’s injury, and it appears that we will see her again soon.

We now know the extent of Notre Dame guard [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag]’s injury, and it appears that we will see her again soon.

Late in the first quarter during the NBC broadcast of the Irish’s Shamrock Classic against Illinois in Washington, Citron was shown with her leg in a brace and elevated across multiple seats on the Irish’s bench. Fortunately, the situation doesn’t seem particularly dire as a rough prognosis for her return was given:

After the Irish finished a win, [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] gave a more specific update:

Given this timetable, we’ll see if Citron will be out for the remainder of nonconference play except for the Jan. 27 game at UConn. The Irish begin ACC play New Year’s Eve at Syracuse, so that seems to be far out enough that it could be a target date for Citron’s return. Hopefully, she’s back sooner, but this is not something you want to rush, especially with [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] dealing with her own similar injury.

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