2024-2025 Notre Dame Women's Basketball

irishandy

irishandy

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What a win vs UConn- Hidalgo is a spark and she make this team go. King is a rebound machine. Miles is a great compliment to Hidalgo.

All this without Westbeld. If this team plays every game like they did vs UConn they will be hard to beat.
 
Old Man Mike

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I still believe that there are several keys:
A. Do NOT run Hannah into the ground. Be smarter as to at least small rests;
B. Constantly lean on Olivia to be fully involved. (Liatu and Soni will give full involvement whether you ask or not.) Olivia needs more attention;
C. NO INJURIES!!! Please GOD!
D. Get Maddy back but be patient. Let her settle in smoothly/Peacefully; Fit the play we have; (Lord I wish Watson could play.)
E. Keep encouraging Prosper; she seems like she's begin to feel vibes;
... I believe that all of those are do-able. The sixth thing (Ivey coaching at least as well as opposing coaches ... I'm not sure is possible. I'm still missing the "value added" that a coach is expected to bring to the team, especially in game heat situations and awareness of subbing here early in the season, despite the short roster. I believe that we've already seen one short slump due to exhaustion this season.)
 
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irishrb

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Old Man Mike said:
I still believe that there are several keys:
A. Do NOT run Hannah into the ground. Be smarter as to at least small rests;
B. Constantly lean on Olivia to be fully involved. (Liatu and Soni will give full involvement whether you ask or not.) Olivia needs more attention;
C. NO INJURIES!!! Please GOD!
D. Get Maddy back but be patient. Let her settle in smoothly/Peacefully; Fit the play we have; (Lord I wish Watson could play.)
E. Keep encouraging Prosper; she seems like she's begin to feel vibes;
... I believe that all of those are do-able. The sixth thing (Ivey coaching at least as well as opposing coaches ... I'm not sure is possible. I'm still missing the "value added" that a coach is expected to bring to the team, especially in game heat situations and awareness of subbing here early in the season, despite the short roster. I believe that we've already seen one short slump due to exhaustion this season.)
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Talk about hitting the nail on the head! I couldn't agree with ALL of this anymore! They are hitting a stretch in their schedule where all of this absolutely should happen too!
 
laughingirish90

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27-5 over a 1-5 eastern michigan squad late 1st and Liza got the start with Koval coming off bench wich is good because it means Liza is probably fully healthy now and plus it also gives us more depth to play with
 
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irishrb

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laughingirish90 said:
irish score over 100 in a blowout of eastern michigan
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Emma Risch with 23 points and 7/9 from 3. I'm pretty sure she was a top 15 recruit known to be a sharp-shooter. I know she had hip surgery last January, and might be a liability on D, but if she can truly shoot like that, you have to give her some minutes!
 
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stpeteirish

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And they’ve added a walk on to the program Luci Jensen of Brookfield Wisc.
I almost called her a “much needed “ walk on.
Really shouldn’t be playing Miles and Hildago with a 50 point lead so that’ll help.
 
Old Man Mike

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Yes. Eastern couldn't face the athletes everywhere. Just too overall good. Olivia was fully involved so ... good.

The only thing disturbing to me is (again) the substitution ________ ... well, for my tastes ... "stupidity."

4th quarter: we lead by approximately one million. Hidalgo and the regulars start. OK. If Ivey has some strange theory or superstition about that I'll shrug and leave my thought about "stupid" in my head. But halfway through the quarter Hannah is still in and getting bounced around in the paint awkwardly (she then is immediately subbed out, but ... stupid.) Also, of all the players, Koval is still essentially poorly functional --- yet she is left on the bench the entire time. If this is injury, OK. If this is disciplinary, OK. But this MIGHT be just "stupid." This person needs the MAX number of minutes you can afford to play her. King was left out there almost the entire 4th. What's the theory? That we might only win by 35 instead of 70? I'd really like to know if there is any thought put into this at all. On the surface it seems really dumb.
 
Irish#1

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Old Man Mike said:
Yes. Eastern couldn't face the athletes everywhere. Just too overall good. Olivia was fully involved so ... good.

The only thing disturbing to me is (again) the substitution ________ ... well, for my tastes ... "stupidity."

4th quarter: we lead by approximately one million. Hidalgo and the regulars start. OK. If Ivey has some strange theory or superstition about that I'll shrug and leave my thought about "stupid" in my head. But halfway through the quarter Hannah is still in and getting bounced around in the paint awkwardly (she then is immediately subbed out, but ... stupid.) Also, of all the players, Koval is still essentially poorly functional --- yet she is left on the bench the entire time. If this is injury, OK. If this is disciplinary, OK. But this MIGHT be just "stupid." This person needs the MAX number of minutes you can afford to play her. King was left out there almost the entire 4th. What's the theory? That we might only win by 35 instead of 70? I'd really like to know if there is any thought put into this at all. On the surface it seems really dumb.
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Coach still has a way to go in managing minutes and using the bench.
 
BabyIrish

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Old Man Mike said:
Yes. Eastern couldn't face the athletes everywhere. Just too overall good. Olivia was fully involved so ... good.

The only thing disturbing to me is (again) the substitution ________ ... well, for my tastes ... "stupidity."

4th quarter: we lead by approximately one million. Hidalgo and the regulars start. OK. If Ivey has some strange theory or superstition about that I'll shrug and leave my thought about "stupid" in my head. But halfway through the quarter Hannah is still in and getting bounced around in the paint awkwardly (she then is immediately subbed out, but ... stupid.) Also, of all the players, Koval is still essentially poorly functional --- yet she is left on the bench the entire time. If this is injury, OK. If this is disciplinary, OK. But this MIGHT be just "stupid." This person needs the MAX number of minutes you can afford to play her. King was left out there almost the entire 4th. What's the theory? That we might only win by 35 instead of 70? I'd really like to know if there is any thought put into this at all. On the surface it seems really dumb.
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Koval was out due to an injury, not expected to be long term at all. Problem with trying to sub is that the numbers aren't there, and they haven't been there. Who brings the ball up if one of Sonia, Olivia and Hannah aren't in? I don't really point fingers at Coach Ivey during the games. She has the roster she has.

But I would definitely point the finger at her roster management/recruiting. As of now we have a 6-person roster next year. And she hasn't shown the ability to land transfers the way she needs to. Next year could be tough.
 
Old Man Mike

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OK. I get the roster shortness, but ... Hannah, Olivia, and Soni don't have to ALL be in to floor general the team. In these early non-conference games, we're sometimes getting significant leads. (I know it's heresy, but we don't REALLY need to WIN all these games.) Those three could rotate as triangular pairs of two until the game got more in doubt. OR, like teams like Los Angeles (LeBron James) and Denver (Jokic) know they have to do, find the one minute+ marks before second and fourth quarters to steal 5-6 minute breaks for the star who needs to take a real rest "for the moment." Line-ups like Citron, Miles, King, Prosper, Risch (or now the Marquette girl, or Koval) are pretty good lineups even with Hannah resting. That's all I'm saying. There are plenty of spots, to my eye, when Hannah and Soni, and Liatu for that matter, could be separately stealing a few minutes. ... and for damm sure in the 4th quarter with a 30+ point lead.

As to lack of recruiting numbers, it's driven me nuts for literally years. I really believe that Muffet preferred the (relatively) short bench --- as an amateur coach, I found that much easier to "in-game roster manage" --- seven or eight healthy players made it a piece of cake. ... but with the amount of knee injuries in girls basketball you must have more players (I really think that there is no way around this; it's how their knee cartilages are built [we had an expert give us a tutorial on this at WMU when I helped there --- there were good testings for danger knees, sort of OK training for strengthening, but when she got herself twisted in some dangerous action, that cartilage was going to go --- you could see the "natural" inward bend of the knee on landing in pictures of most of the girls' jumps --- drove me crazy knowing it was damm near inevitable]). GIVEN THAT "gender"issue, recruit a larger roster please!

One thing about roster recruitment numbers: it's pretty obvious to me that relative to guard recruitment (where Notre Dame shines) we kind of stink at "bigs" recruitment. We've had OK bigs most years, but I have to go back to Natalie Achonwa to find a recruited big that I wanted to go to war with vs anybody. We're trying to survive on second tier transfers (who occasionally develop into very good players, but hardly WNBA all-stars like our guards). Whose job is it to recruit the Bigs? I doubt that is Mikayla Mabrey's area, nor Ivey's. Have we an assistant coach recruiting problem buried in our system?
 
BabyIrish

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Old Man Mike said:
OK. I get the roster shortness, but ... Hannah, Olivia, and Soni don't have to ALL be in to floor general the team. In these early non-conference games, we're sometimes getting significant leads. (I know it's heresy, but we don't REALLY need to WIN all these games.) Those three could rotate as triangular pairs of two until the game got more in doubt. OR, like teams like Los Angeles (LeBron James) and Denver (Jokic) know they have to do, find the one minute+ marks before second and fourth quarters to steal 5-6 minute breaks for the star who needs to take a real rest "for the moment." Line-ups like Citron, Miles, King, Prosper, Risch (or now the Marquette girl, or Koval) are pretty good lineups even with Hannah resting. That's all I'm saying. There are plenty of spots, to my eye, when Hannah and Soni, and Liatu for that matter, could be separately stealing a few minutes. ... and for damm sure in the 4th quarter with a 30+ point lead.

As to lack of recruiting numbers, it's driven me nuts for literally years. I really believe that Muffet preferred the (relatively) short bench --- as an amateur coach, I found that much easier to "in-game roster manage" --- seven or eight healthy players made it a piece of cake. ... but with the amount of knee injuries in girls basketball you must have more players (I really think that there is no way around this; it's how their knee cartilages are built [we had an expert give us a tutorial on this at WMU when I helped there --- there were good testings for danger knees, sort of OK training for strengthening, but when she got herself twisted in some dangerous action, that cartilage was going to go --- you could see the "natural" inward bend of the knee on landing in pictures of most of the girls' jumps --- drove me crazy knowing it was damm near inevitable]). GIVEN THAT "gender"issue, recruit a larger roster please!

One thing about roster recruitment numbers: it's pretty obvious to me that relative to guard recruitment (where Notre Dame shines) we kind of stink at "bigs" recruitment. We've had OK bigs most years, but I have to go back to Natalie Achonwa to find a recruited big that I wanted to go to war with vs anybody. We're trying to survive on second tier transfers (who occasionally develop into very good players, but hardly WNBA all-stars like our guards). Whose job is it to recruit the Bigs? I doubt that is Mikayla Mabrey's area, nor Ivey's. Have we an assistant coach recruiting problem buried in our system?
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Looking at the box score, it looks like what you described is what Coach Ivey did:
Hidalgo- 24 minutes (I can't remember a time she played under 30 minutes in her ND career so far)
Olivia- 29 minutes
Sonia- 28 minutes
Cass- 27 minutes
Emma- 25 minutes.

Not sure what else she's supposed to do minus not two starters at all.
 
Old Man Mike

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Agree. That game's times were good. (Hannah in at all in the fourth was not good --- don't know if you noticed the play just before being taken out --- very awkward buffeting in the paint, and too-close-for-comfort down low at the feet.)

What it shows, I hope, is that she's aware.

What we need now is to see a modest version of this in tighter games.
 
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stpeteirish

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Carol Owens coaches the bigs. You’ve seen her on the bench… she is big. Presumably she also recruits them.
And you’re right our bigs have been nowhere near as good as our guards and wings have been. Excepting Jess Shepherd. Not coincidentally the last time we won it all.
The other four starters are so good this year I think we can win it with Koval at center, but she has a hell of a long way to go .
 
Old Man Mike

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Girls buried another opponent. "Good news" tempered by neither Citron nor Koval playing at all, and, of course, Westbeld not either.

I wish that we could just get Miles and Risch and everybody but Hannah and Liatu back on injured reserve so they (Hannah and Liatu) could play the entire game with three walk-ons and no bench. Yep, the gods sure ain't smiling.
 
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