2024-2025 Notre Dame Women's Basketball

[NumbersGuy0520]

Incredibly sloppy job by Ivey. Learn to use your timeouts to control your team.

I think we took 3 of the 4 fourth quarter timeouts into the offseason with us. At least 2 of the 4.

 

[IrishTusker]

Most underachieving ND team in awhile. Really, really bad.

 

[sfk324]

The ladies need to hit those but Niele needs to have the team dialed in. They ran down and got blocked in the paint on 2-3 consecutive possessions & we didn’t call timeout or slow it down. It’s everyone’s fault, dude. But you’re the only one pretending it’s only on one side and arguing for Niele, pretty religiously.

I'm also looking at what is happening on the floor. What do you say in a time out that makes shots start falling? What did you want her to draw up? They were getting open looks and missing. Anyone who paid attention to this team this season should have been realistic and acknowledge that a guard-heavy team with modest at best production from the front court has limited options if shots aren't falling -- you're living and dying with Hannah, Liv, and Sonia making plays and shots, and frankly, they were all bad today. If you take King's numbers out of the equation, that was basically an entire team of Angel Reeses on offense without the ability to get rebounds.

Niele carries blame to the extent that games like today are a function of the roster construction being one-dimensional, and it doesn't look like it's going to get better on that front next season. All you can hope is they get something in the portal and that the strength and conditioning program allows Koval to take a few steps forward. There were a lot of times this year where she was in the right place to make plays and she just doesn't have the athleticism to do it.

 

[stpeteirish]

My worry too. Who knows how many we lose next year.

Yeah I'm afraid to think about next year with Koval playing 30+ minutes as our only post player.
Koval was considered a top 10 HS recruit last year. So its either one of the biggest misses ever for the recruiting ratings or we did a remarkably bad job of coaching her. Her shots didn't just miss they were not even close.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

Crushing loss. If we shoot even 40% we win this game going away. Instead we shot 32% and missed an insane amount of open looks and layups.

Blaming Ivey in game for this loss is idiotic. I think we can get into roster construction questions in the big picture but Ivey can't really do much in game when Hidalgo is missing layups and Soni is missing wide open FT line jumper after FT line jumper.

We'll hit the portal hard I'm sure., next year's team should be good..but this team not getting to the E8 or Final 4 feels like a big let down.

 

[NDFAN2008]

Say what you want but Ivey is not a good coach she’s average at best and her recruiting has been lacking. They’ll have the top play in the nation and 1 recruit coming in they better hit the portal hard and surround her with talent.

 

[phillyirish]

Dark age of WBB incoming. Already had open tryouts this year for a roster spot. Only one recruit last year, only another recruit this year. Hanna Hildago is both the floor and ceiling of this team with her shooting woes. Will likely carry ND to another back to back sweet 16s in her last two years to extend coach Ivey's tenure here.

 

[Redbar]

Saw this coming for a while now. Half court offense is poor. We don’t have great shooters, we have streaky shooters. Feel like Maddie has been checked out for a while, Olivia skylarks way too much, hairstyles became too big a focus. Hannah, absolutely love her compete, but feel like she got a little focused on her numbers and pressed way too hard instead of making the extra pass way too often. Coach lost control of the egos, and the on the court narrative. Substitutions or lack there of allowed some players bad habits to be engrained and did not allow others with talent who could contribute, to get in the rhythm of the game/ team/season.
With Liv coming back and two stars in the backcourt managing egos and touches was always going to be a challenge. Ultimately think we were victims of our own potential. The routing of USC early and UConn later possibly did as much bad as good. When things were going good we could beat the tar out of you, but if you had some starch in you, we started questioning ourselves. We have a few great players but we were not a good team.

 

[BabyIrish]

A couple things in response to what has been said:
1. The TCU coach did not out scheme us or have some magical plan to beat our defense. The entire second half was Hailey and Prince pick and roll, which is what we ran. They executed better than us. Plain and simple. Could we have adjusted and went to zone? Possibly. But that opens up the three point shot which TCU is also good at.
2. Ivey is not a terrible coach. Is she elite? No. But she certainly has seemed to out scheme Gino the last two years and the USC coach this year.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

Say what you want but Ivey is not a good coach she’s average at best and her recruiting has been lacking. They’ll have the top play in the nation and 1 recruit coming in they better hit the portal hard and surround her with talent.

At one point this team won 19 games in a row and beat UCONN, Texas, USC this season. We were ranked #1 in the country. I think everyone needs to take a breath. Ivey is a really good coach. I was one of her more vocal critics years ago, especially late situation wise.

We lost a game today in which we shot 32% from the field.

 

[Irish5Saint]

At one point this team won 19 games in a row and beat UCONN, Texas, USC this season. We were ranked #1 in the country. I think everyone needs to take a breath. Ivey is a really good coach. I was one of her more vocal critics years ago, especially late situation wise.

We lost a game today in which we shot 32% from the field.

Is she going to utilize depth going forward then? It just seems like she needs a BK 2.0 scenario where she gets some new assistants and maybe a different mindset/

 

[BuaConstrictor]

hairstyles became too big a focus.

?

Coach lost control of the egos

I'm not sure what this is based on. This team is one of the tightest teams friendship wise that I've ever seen at ND. I'll be honest, I think this team lacked a big ego from anyone. At times it felt like the team was missing a "get the **** out of my way type". Honestly, I was hoping to see Miles take over the game a bit more in the 2nd half and just grab the bull by the horns. Sometimes the team played too unselfishly.

I feel bad for Maddy. She just seemed kind of lost on what her role was when she came back. Never seemed to get comfortable.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

Is she going to utilize depth going forward then? It just seems like she needs a BK 2.0 scenario where she gets some new assistants and maybe a different mindset/

I disagree with the premise of your question.

Utilize depth? She played 8 players today. Prosper played nearly 20 minutes off the bench. If Risch hadn't been sick/hurt all season Ivey would have been playing her more as well.

Ivey's "mindset" is fine. I think the lesson today is that you can't shoot 32% in the S16 and expect to win.

I'd like to see some better recruiting results

 

[BuaConstrictor]

re: Koval...long term I think she'll be fine....just looked like the game was moving way too fast for her at times. Got overwhelmed too often this season. She's a freshman though.

 

[SoIll]

She struggles in games bro. Full stop.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

She struggles in games bro. Full stop.

?

 

[arrowryan]

Hey at least she has a good recruiting class coming in. Oh wait..

 

[NumbersGuy0520]

The fourth quarter, to me, felt frenzied and it would have been nice to slow things down and gain some composure.

How many blocks did TCU have in the fourth? Those count as missed FG attempts.

Our 2 on 1 missed fast break opportunity - another example. You have to convert those.

Hannah, especially, felt erratic in the fourth.

Call a timeout, gather the team & emotions, and regroup. Instead we just let things spiral.

We had some open misses but this wasn’t all bad shooting, at least not the game I watched.

Niele is definitely a good coach but she’s not without fault past roster construction. I don’t like how she uses her timeouts, I’m not a fan of how much run the players got in blowouts, and I think this team needed a lot of work mentally.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

would have been nice to slow things down

That's exactly what TCU wanted/did. THis ND team plays best when we play with pace. TCU wanted to slog this game and minimize possessions. We couldn't generate any pace today at times because of the amount of misses we had. TCU also did a good job of limiting turnovers in bunches to prevent us from getting out on the break. Our secondary break was pretty quiet too.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

At one point this team won 19 games in a row and beat UCONN, Texas, USC this season. We were ranked #1 in the country. I think everyone needs to take a breath. Ivey is a really good coach. I was one of her more vocal critics years ago, especially late situation wise.

We lost a game today in which we shot 32% from the field.

She is not a "really good coach." She is a decent coach with some impressive wins on her resume. However, this team underachieved and and it's hard to see a significant improvement next season.

 

[BabyIrish]

The fourth quarter, to me, felt frenzied and it would have been nice to slow things down and gain some composure.

How many blocks did TCU have in the fourth? Those count as missed FG attempts.

Our 2 on 1 missed fast break opportunity - another example. You have to convert those.

Hannah, especially, felt erratic in the fourth.

Call a timeout, gather the team & emotions, and regroup. Instead we just let things spiral.

We had some open misses but this wasn’t all bad shooting, at least not the game I watched.

Niele is definitely a good coach but she’s not without fault past roster construction. I don’t like how she uses her timeouts, I’m not a fan of how much run the players got in blowouts, and I think this team needed a lot of work mentally.

Well said. Blame is on both players and coaches on this one. Players missed shots they normally make and looked out of character in the fourth. Coaches didn’t try their best to get the back in character.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

She is not a "really good coach."

She absoluely is. She has her faults. She's not perfect but she's a really good coach.

 

[Redbar]

?

I'm not sure what this is based on. This team is one of the tightest teams friendship wise that I've ever seen at ND. I'll be honest, I think this team lacked a big ego from anyone. At times it felt like the team was missing a "get the **** out of my way type". Honestly, I was hoping to see Miles take over the game a bit more in the 2nd half and just grab the bull by the horns. Sometimes the team played too unselfishly.

I feel bad for Maddy. She just seemed kind of lost on what her role was when she came back. Never seemed to get comfortable.

I don’t necessarily disagree with you. When I say egos, I don’t mean that there was any animosity between the team, I simply mean I don’t think the distractions were managed well. When a player is not playing their best and her hair up or down is a part of social media or when both your backcourt stars continually put up contested, sometimes 1 on 3 or 4 PRAYERS but don’t make the extra pass. That needs to be addressed. If you don’t like ego, we can call it something else. Maybe “distractions” or the “noise” that comes with flashing some really high potential.

 

[ndfanatic78]

She absoluely is. She has her faults. She's not perfect but she's a really good coach.

She is not a really good coach. Maybe solid but nothing special.

 

[arrowryan]

She absoluely is. She has her faults. She's not perfect but she's a really good coach.

She’s an okay coach. Notre Dame women’s basketball making it to the elite 8 should be a common occurrence. She hasn’t proved to anyone yet that she can coach in March.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

When a player is not playing their best and her hair up or down is a part of social media

This has nothing to do with anything.

Miles hasn't posted on Twitter in over a month. She posted a question about her hair on January 8th. The team went on to win 12 games in a row after that post.

Maybe “distractions” or the “noise”

I can confidently tell you this was not an issue.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

She is not a really good coach.

Yes. She is.

She’s an okay coach. Notre Dame women’s basketball making it to the elite 8 should be a common occurrence.

She's a really good coach.

This team underachieved but I'd also say this is the first team Ivey has had that underachieved.

The program needs to be better in March.

 

[Old Man Mike]

A thought on one "small" part of this: The team was not an ideally personnelled team. It was always gong to be a struggle against very good opposing coaching who had seen plenty of who we are and who we are not. Using the old, but still useful, number system for beginning assessment:

1 (point guards): Miles; Hidalgo. [you can play two point guards, but you should then genuinely share the rock];

2 ("shooting" guards): Citron maybe. Not the ideal spot. Especially if you don't design the offense to get her shots;

3 ( small forward): Citron; Prosper. Supposedly a scoring position and Jack-of-all-trades; not so good if you don't include her actively;

4 (big forward): Westbeld; King; Karlen. Primary job is post-help defense and rebounding. Only one of these players consistently rebounds and enjoys playing in the paint, and, due to defensive scheme, or the lack of it, none regularly strongly commits to post-help defense;

5. (Center): Koval. Jobs: rim-protection, rebounding control, low post scoring, physicality. Well ... maybe not so much.

When I look at that "menu" of choices, I see wild talents scattered about, but hardly balance or ideal role players. There is no effective "Big", and almost no real physicality other than Liatu jumping for hard-gotten rebounds. This roster killed you if you were inferior, and killed you if you were stupid, but if you were talented and physical, and your coach wasn't stupid, you could beat us by lowering our production by 50% and mainly beating us physically where it counted.

This was/is a flawed roster with fabulous individual skill pieces here and there. Its main flaw was lack of overall physical involvement --- some by "nature", some by design. A coaching flaw here was the "gentle babyish treatment" of the "girls" by the staff. It was astounding that it took until the NCAAs before the players experienced an emotionally challenging practice.

 

[NDpendent]

We are projected to have the 2nd and 4th overall picks in the WNBA draft plus Maddy projected in the 2nd round and our best player in Hidalgo. The talent on this team was unreal. Sorry but there is no way you can argue against how much this team grossly underachieved.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

Sorry but there is no way you can argue against how much this team grossly unachieved.

No one has said this team didn't underachieve.