2024-2025 Notre Dame Women's Basketball

[ab2cmiller]

Evidently Westbeld will not be available for "the beginning of the year".

 

[ab2cmiller]

 

[arrowryan]

Ehh alright

 

[Old Man Mike]

Both of these hurt us and the third unmentioned starter, Watson, does too. These three people represent the size (Watson) and muscle-hustle (Watson & Bransford) and the hard-to-match-up enigma (Westbeld) on our team. When Westbeld was "awake" we won almost every game. While people don't like Watson, I do. She began to understand that she had to slow down just a zen moment before shooting bunnies finally last year, and got to be a serviceable center --- always hustling. Bransford seemed to have gotten herself out of shape, then crawled back as the season went on. She is a bully girl who we need versus certain types of teams. We have part of a real solution here thankfully in our transfer from Pitt. She's a very tough person, coming out of a very tough life. Big effort player near the basket and on the boards ... and first team ACC. With a mix of people to play center, and her at power forward, I was looking to Westbeld to be the match-up nightmare at the "small" forward. but ....

Hannah, Sonia, Miles, and Risch spread all over the floor might look like fun, but we can't survive vs certain teams that small. Remember the big girl IS only a freshman, regardless how good. I watched one of her games --- she IS good but didn't quite look like a take-everything-over Breanna Stewart or Paige Boechers or any of those types of superplayers that Auriemma pulls every three years. And by the way, even being ranked around 5 or 6, people in my opinion are slightly sleeping on USC, which we play twice this year. They look incredibly loaded.

 

[Irish#1]

Five Earn Preseason ACC Honors, Irish Named Favorites To Win Conference

fightingirish.com

 

[Huntr]

Liv back on the floor.

Let's. F'in. Go.

 

[laughingirish90]

heard Soni was in a boot and Liza left early being helped off court which isn't good because we are going to need a fully healthy roster with 3 top 5 ranked teams on the schedule these first two or three months

 

[Old Man Mike]

"Soni in a boot" ... Good Lord Preserve Us. One doesn't lose the glue in a team. #$%^%$#@

 

[UPMich_NDfan]

Wow must be really banged up to play Miles, Hidalgo and King all 35 plus minutes in a 60 point exhibition win👀

 

[stpeteirish]

Only dressed seven players and one of them got hurt. Eleven on the roster. twelve if you count Bransford who is redshirting.

 

[UPMich_NDfan]

Only dressed seven players and one of them got hurt. Eleven on the roster. twelve if you count Bransford who is redshirting.

As loaded as they are - they still should have more filling out this roster. These ladies are going to play a lot of needless minutes in blowouts which only increase chances of getting injured.

 

[ab2cmiller]

 

[stpeteirish]

As loaded as they are - they still should have more filling out this roster. These ladies are going to play a lot of needless minutes in blowouts which only increase chances of getting injured.

Indeed, why do we have no walk ons?

 

[Old Man Mike]

We've been roster-light almost every year since I've been following on IE (maybe ALL years; I just can't remember) and this makes me think that there is a fundamental or systemic reason for that. Could it be that the admin actually limits our numbers for some unimaginable reason (one finds "funds" hard to believe as a limiter), or is it a limitation of staff to go out recruiting which curtails the number of actively sought targets to just a few, and we shoot for the highest peach on the tree and miss a lot? ... or something else. Our continued success in this sport should make roster filling easy --- even walk-ons. I'd be very interested if someone has real insight on this, as it has surely flummoxed me. (I remember from my old and very amateurish coaching days that it was a helluva lot more "peaceful" to coach DURING GAMES when you had only eight players whose minutes you thought you had to ensure to keep them happy. Hopefully deliberately lean teams is NOT any of this problem.)

 

[ab2cmiller]

 

[SDIrishFan]

Are we still super banged up? Really only 7 in the rotation at this point.

 

[Ndaccountant]

Are we still super banged up? Really on 7 in the rotation at this point.

Yes. A few injured.

 

[Irish#1]

Seems like injuries have been an issue for about 3-4 years now. Time for lady lucky to have a change of heart.

 

[Chicago Domer]

Why don’t they recruit a few more players? Why be so lean. How many scholarships are allowed?

 

[Old Man Mike]

Soni was back. Still seemed a little ginger but played well. Was in starting line-up (in second half at least; I missed the start of game.)

Risch seemed confident on three-point shot. If that keeps on, it's a big deal. Ponder was Robin to Hidalgo's Batwoman when it came to hawking defense. As I hoped, the Pittsburgh transfer (King) is a board bashing action monster.

We still lack Westbeld, and two others who would be starters most other places. Westbeld REALLY important for the highest competition.

Hannah is a completely novel type of woman's game player --- kind of like Muggsy Bogues --- crazy harassment. Probably the only time you'll be entertained purely by watching defense.

 

[irishrb]

This team is incredibly entertaining to watch. If they get healthy/stay healthy they are going to be tough to beat!

 

[NDWarrior]

 

[laughingirish90]

living only 30 mins or so away from Lafayette i can say that i really hate the toiletmakers as much as scUM so it was a great joy to watch that beatdown yesterday

 

[DCK_1981]

Looks like the ND women are back. Not sure what happened there at the end of the Muffet years.

 

[laughingirish90]

Looks like the ND women are back. Not sure what happened there at the end of the Muffet years.

Muffet and staff just lost out on several key recruits to other schools for whatever reason even though they were coming off a big final four run then some players transferred out i believe when coach Muffet retired

 

[notredomer23]

Another 1 member recruiting class for Ivy is certainly a choice

 

[Old Man Mike]

Muffet to my understanding KNEW that the recruiting problems had left pretty much a bare cupboard and I believe that she bit-the-bullet and stayed an extra year for Ivey, so the rebuild could begin. THEN, it turned out that Ivey herself was not really ready (this was exceptionally noticeable in game) and had to grow as a coach. I still do not believe that she is there, BUT getting Miles and Citron and THEN Hidalgo cures a lot of hiccups. The biggest early flaw was the lack of team defense intensity. Now along comes Hannah (and Ponder and Citron) and all of a sudden we have a "miracle" cure. Enjoy these sorts of unusually defensive oriented players while we can, gentlemen, then we can see if our head coach and staff can coach that side of the ball when they're gone.

 

[arrowryan]

They cruised to another easy win last night against JMU.

Koval had a great stat line. With that being said, she doesn’t seem to run the court well in transition. Hopefully she improves, as she spends more time in a college S&C program.

 

[irishrb]

They cruised to another easy win last night against JMU.

Koval had a great stat line. With that being said, she doesn’t seem to run the court well in transition. Hopefully she improves, as she spends more time in a college S&C program.

I agree....I will say, they basically never sub her out, so she is either going to get in game shape pretty quickly, or just get worn out and run down....

 

[arrowryan]

I agree....I will say, they basically never sub her out, so she is either going to get in game shape pretty quickly, or just get worn out and run down....

I had imagined that Koval would be an agile, athletic big because that’s what ND has always had in the past. She seems much more of a bruiser down low.