2025-2026 Notre Dame Women's Basketball

[sfk324]

What a difference since Muffett left. We were definitely spoiled. Ivey’s program sure has significant problems. Hopefully next year’s class will help turn this around in 2 years.

This season doesn't appear to be a lot different than Muffet's final year in 2019-2020, other than the presence of Hannah. Muffet lost every key player from the prior season, including Jackie Young who still had a year of eligibility left but qualified as an early entrant to the WNBA draft, so she left.

If you think this roster is bad, go look at that one, and then remember that team was coming off a National Championship in 2017-18 and a Runner-Up in 2018-19. Yet despite all her years as a coach and what should have been recruiting advantages from those results, she had zero talent on the 2019-20 roster that anyone here would find acceptable for an ND team.

 

[irishff1014]

If there was not enough money to keep both Miles and Hildago they should have raised more money.
I think there was more to it than that

They did not like each other. Money can’t fix that

 

[pumpdog20]

This one. Way more built in advantages and local support. She chose to ride with HH, she must live with it.

Not that I'm that into women's basketball, but why would you not ride with Hannah Hidalgo?

 

[Old Man Mike]

You, of course, WOULD "ride" with Hannah, but NOT to the exclusion of TEAM involvement in the offense. Fabulous talent is one thing, but even Caitlin Clark (the ultimate ball-hogger) was better for Iowa when there was a center in the paint hugely involved with the offense.

I fear that we are forgetting that our coach could NOT find an offense which involved both Hidalgo and Miles ... AND even worse in my eyes would deposit Soni off in the corner almost out of the play, whenever all three of them were available --- Soni basically shined only when one of the others were not out there.

We've had lots of ball-hogs in Basketball, and they all have been talented and usually clear "first options", but they almost never succeed unless they have team consciousness and truly try to involve others (why Jokic is great and Doncic not as much.) Or, the other path to success is having a coach who demands and designs team play (Like Phil Jackson and the Triangle offense --- the gunner still gunned, but others were involved.)

Hannah and Miles were two VERY strong Alphas --- and too young to share.

 

[Ndaccountant]

Not that I'm that into women's basketball, but why would you not ride with Hannah Hidalgo?

Last years team had the talent to win it all and flamed out. Many reasons for it, but team dynamics played a significant role and Ivey explicitly or implicitly favored HH. It carried over into the roster this year. As Mike pointed out, HH alone will not be the answer. Ivey has, IMO, wasted a generational talent.

 

[pumpdog20]

Thanks for the explanation, makes sense.

 

[irishrb]

Last years team had the talent to win it all and flamed out. Many reasons for it, but team dynamics played a significant role and Ivey explicitly or implicitly favored HH. It carried over into the roster this year. As Mike pointed out, HH alone will not be the answer. Ivey has, IMO, wasted a generational talent.

Facts...Think of their starting roster last year..
Citron- 3rd overall pick, close to winning ROY
Westbeld-16th overall pick
King-28th overall pick
Hidalgo-Likely top 3 pick
Miles-Likely top 3 pick
Not to mention some highly recruited talent on the bench that just didn't get developed..

 

[Old Man Mike]

Yes. Ivey can be "forgiven" for not winning the championship even with that All-Star crew because sooner or later some big thug team would have put our girls on the bench (with fouls) or the hospital (a reason why King was such an unsung heroine), and consequently rebounded our brains out. There is no Center on that team.

BUT that is NO excuse for not getting five great talents at least smoothly functional, and all five hustling to play defense (not just three of them --- Westbeld and Miles were criminally lazy on defense and sometimes looked actually "stupid" as if they didn't have a clue about something called "help-side defense"). Our defense at least turned around mid-season when things were falling apart and Ivey finally decided on a "woodshed" talk meeting.

They (amazingly) had a press conference relatively soon thereafter, and Ivey, Miles, Citron, and, I think, Hannah, were all there. Soni was noticeably nervous the whole time but "not guilty" of the problems. Miles (also amazingly,) characterized the meeting as "hostile." When I heard that, I heard a distant "GONG" sound of the death of that year, and, in part, beyond.

 

[Ndaccountant]

Its pretty clear that HH alienated Miles and Westbeld with her comments on same sex marriage. The team never recovered. Sonia, as Mike notes, was likely trapped in the middle. It was a powder keg of emotion to be sure. Ivey needed to bring people together for the purpose of team. She could not. I blame HH for the initial comment, but I blame Ivey for not bringing everyone together after the fact. Many championship teams hated each other off the court, but they still performed on it. It was not an impossible ask. But she did not even come close....

 

[Old Man Mike]

I agree mostly with that.

For the "fun" of it though (re: boys and girls and Bball), I'll repeat a comment made to me by one of my brothers, who was an award-winning high school coach of teams of both genders.

He told me that it was his experience that you could have a couple of guys who hated each other off the court, but on the court would pass the ball to one another as if that didn't exist. BUT with girls it was different. If they hated each other, they'd hesitate or dribble the other way or ignore that other person entirely.

Whether applicable to our former circumstance or not, when watching the games I sometimes had the impression that I was watching two different semi-integrated conglomerations, based on whether Hannah or Olivia had the ball. and ... I REALLY think that Hannah was bothered by all this, and I believe that is why she essentially insisted that Soni come to her on the foul line and give her a two-handed handshake "comfort" sign (and she wants Cass to do this now that Soni is gone.)

THAT, my friends, is pretty overt emotional fragility spilling onto the floor. (sure she's toughening up, but she was awfully young to have all that swirling about.)

 

[BabyIrish]

The social media post from Hannah occurred during the summer I believe in the off season. Who's to say Ivey did not address the situation and Miles and Westbeld just did not want to get over it?

 

[sfk324]

Bransford is back and available for the game today against Stanford.

 

[irishrb]

Definitely beneficial to get KK back for a 7 person rotation. She was rusty, but will absolutely make this team better! Pretty much the Hidalgo show to beat a Stanford team that was without 2 starters. Either way big win...to get things back on track.

 

[burmafrd1944]

I soured on Ivey after the way last years team imploded

how maybe the toxic mix was simply too bad but in the end a top coach would have figured out how to win

and Ivey recruited these players so the ultimate blame is hers

 

[BrianWalsh]

The social media post from Hannah occurred during the summer I believe in the off season. Who's to say Ivey did not address the situation and Miles and Westbeld just did not want to get over it?

Honest question: why should Miles be free to state her views and support and Hidalgo not free to say the opposite? Who decides who gets to be offensive and has to be quiet? They were in scholarship to play basketball, not be buddies and decide who gets opinions and who doesn’t.

 

[burmafrd1944]

Honest question: why should Miles be free to state her views and support and Hidalgo not free to say the opposite? Who decides who gets to be offensive and has to be quiet? They were in scholarship to play basketball, not be buddies and decide who gets opinions and who doesn’t.

come on, anymore only one side gets to say anything and not get immediately attacked and destroyed. You know that.

 

[Ndaccountant]

Honest question: why should Miles be free to state her views and support and Hidalgo not free to say the opposite? Who decides who gets to be offensive and has to be quiet? They were in scholarship to play basketball, not be buddies and decide who gets opinions and who doesn’t.

It has nothing to do about the message and which one is "right". It has everything to do with group dynamics. Nobody is blaming her for her thoughts. What I would say though is that by being on scholarship, she needs to say and do what is best for NDs program. Miles too. Both took public stances that were combustible for the program. That is where the failure comes and the team never recovered. Ivey couldn't solve that group dynamic, Hannah and Miles couldn't get past it and the team collectively failed.

 

[Irish#1]

It has nothing to do about the message and which one is "right". It has everything to do with group dynamics. Nobody is blaming her for her thoughts. What I would say though is that by being on scholarship, she needs to say and do what is best for NDs program. Miles too. Both took public stances that were combustible for the program. That is where the failure comes and the team never recovered. Ivey couldn't solve that group dynamic, Hannah and Miles couldn't get past it and the team collectively failed.

This is where a strong leader comes into play.

 

[sfk324]

It has nothing to do about the message and which one is "right". It has everything to do with group dynamics. Nobody is blaming her for her thoughts. What I would say though is that by being on scholarship, she needs to say and do what is best for NDs program. Miles too. Both took public stances that were combustible for the program. That is where the failure comes and the team never recovered. Ivey couldn't solve that group dynamic, Hannah and Miles couldn't get past it and the team collectively failed.

I suspect there was more to it than just the Twitter stuff -- they were doing fine as a team most of the season and the comments were prior to it. Michaela doesn't seem to have any issues with HH, despite the comments. So if it is only the retweet, then I put a lot more of it on Miles being unwilling to move past it than I do on HH. And there's not a lot Ivey or anyone else can do if either or both of them are unwilling to bury the hatchet for the sake of the team.

 

[Ndaccountant]

I suspect there was more to it than just the Twitter stuff -- they were doing fine as a team most of the season and the comments were prior to it. Michaela doesn't seem to have any issues with HH, despite the comments. So if it is only the retweet, then I put a lot more of it on Miles being unwilling to move past it than I do on HH. And there's not a lot Ivey or anyone else can do if either or both of them are unwilling to bury the hatchet for the sake of the team.

Tough spot no doubt. But it started to crumble when Maddy came back. I am sure there numerous layers. I dont think Ivey navigated it as best as possible and the mass transfers at the end of the year proved that.

 

[burmafrd1944]

Tough spot no doubt. But it started to crumble when Maddy came back. I am sure there numerous layers. I dont think Ivey navigated it as best as possible and the mass transfers at the end of the year proved that.

to me the worst sign was the mass transfers; that says a number of players simply did not want to stay with her as coach

 

[sfk324]

Tough spot no doubt. But it started to crumble when Maddy came back. I am sure there numerous layers. I dont think Ivey navigated it as best as possible and the mass transfers at the end of the year proved that.

Maddy looked completely lost when she came back and they played anyone with a pulse. She couldn't make a shot, she didn't look like she had any idea on defense, and she wasn't rebounding...but the team's success depended on her figuring it out.

Disagree on the transfers. Emma couldn't stay healthy in 2 years. Fortunately for her, she's avoided that so far at FSU and has played as many games there as she did in 2 years at ND. With Kate, based on the noise from her AAU people in NY, she was basically out the door halfway through the year -- she was unhappy with he playing time, but what she was doing when she would play didn't warrant keeping her on the floor, so what was the solution there? Kylee left because her friends were gone and she decided to play her final season closer to home. Miles had no interest in being at ND anymore.

Ivey bears responsibility for the recruiting shortfalls that led to an unbalanced roster for sure. But Muffet did the same thing, so it just strikes me as odd to see people jumping on Ivey in year 6 for something a HOF coach was also guilty of doing. Hopefully the change in approach to undergrad transfers spurred by the football team helps bring in a few transfers to balance the roster for next year as the prior system was an impediment to doing so this year. The team would look a lot different if Kara Dunn and Serah Williams were able to transfer in like they wanted to before admissions said no.

 

[burmafrd1944]

Maddy looked completely lost when she came back and they played anyone with a pulse. She couldn't make a shot, she didn't look like she had any idea on defense, and she wasn't rebounding...but the team's success depended on her figuring it out.

Disagree on the transfers. Emma couldn't stay healthy in 2 years. Fortunately for her, she's avoided that so far at FSU and has played as many games there as she did in 2 years at ND. With Kate, based on the noise from her AAU people in NY, she was basically out the door halfway through the year -- she was unhappy with he playing time, but what she was doing when she would play didn't warrant keeping her on the floor, so what was the solution there? Kylee left because her friends were gone and she decided to play her final season closer to home. Miles had no interest in being at ND anymore.

Ivey bears responsibility for the recruiting shortfalls that led to an unbalanced roster for sure. But Muffet did the same thing, so it just strikes me as odd to see people jumping on Ivey in year 6 for something a HOF coach was also guilty of doing. Hopefully the change in approach to undergrad transfers spurred by the football team helps bring in a few transfers to balance the roster for next year as the prior system was an impediment to doing so this year. The team would look a lot different if Kara Dunn and Serah Williams were able to transfer in like they wanted to before admissions said no.

Make all the excuses you want but Ivey has really screwed up. And trying to use Muffet as a shield for her is BS. Muffett was clearly burning out towards the end. What is IVEY's excuse? Year six means she SHOULD be completely in control with all her own players and everything else. And then there is the EPIC collapse last season that you refuse to address.

 

[stpeteirish]

This is where a strong leader comes into play.

Two Alphas not sure if an easy fix. But Ivey needs to be the Alpha and apparently couldn’t.

 

[sfk324]

Make all the excuses you want but Ivey has really screwed up. And trying to use Muffet as a shield for her is BS. Muffett was clearly burning out towards the end. What is IVEY's excuse? Year six means she SHOULD be completely in control with all her own players and everything else. And then there is the EPIC collapse last season that you refuse to address.

I have addressed it. You refuse to acknowledge what I have said because you prefer the simplistic "Ivey sucks and should be fired!" It's not that simple. The fixes weren't that simple.

At the end of the day, she's given more to ND than this entire board combined, so I am of the opinion that she's earned some grace to do the job, which in the current environment also means figuring out how ND can navigate the portal. Up to now, she has not had a lot of support on that front. Now she has a Pete and Pat, plus an administration that has signalled this football portal season that it is willing to make some adjustments to meet the moment. She deserves the chance to succeed after having the administration kneecap her last off-season by denying Dunn and Williams.

On the other hand, you're the guy who tried to tell us all what Indiana is like as if we've never been there after trying to tell jprue what Utah is like when dude has lived there for near 20 years because you lived there in the late 90s. But go off, sport. I'm sure it will be super enlightening for us all.

 

[sfk324]

Two Alphas not sure if an easy fix. But Ivey needs to be the Alpha and apparently couldn’t.

It's also hard to pull the big dog routine when one or both of them can just hop in the portal. But honestly I think she tried.

There's a lot of pointing to the NCST game as the turning point of the season, and from purely a timeline standpoint sure. After that game, they never got back on-track. But that was a good team on the road in 2OT. Not a lot of shame in that loss, much as you would expect and want to win it as the #1 ranked team.

Not so much the game against FSU, which was not only at home, but Senior Night. Go back and watch the post-FSU loss presser. Sonia did everything but call out her teammates for not showing up to compete. She was out there talking to the press. Not HH. Not Olivia. I think that was Ivey telling both of them, and the rest of the team, who the leader was. From their performances the remainder of the season, I think those two took that revelation personally. Unfortunately, one of them took it in the Jordan sense and the other took it the opposite.

 

[Irish#1]

Two Alphas not sure if an easy fix. But Ivey needs to be the Alpha and apparently couldn’t.

Bingo. This is a team sport. The coach needs to get them on the same page even if they don't like each other.

 

[Irish#1]

It's also hard to pull the big dog routine when one or both of them can just hop in the portal. But honestly I think she tried.

If you're worried about a player jumping into the portal influence how you coach, then you don't need to be a coach.

 

[Irish du Nord]

If you're worried about a player jumping into the portal influence how you coach, then you don't need to be a coach.

Considering our issue this year is a net loss to the portal, I don’t think Coach Ivey can be that cavalier about losing a player to the portal.

 

[Old Man Mike]

OK. Life's tough. But you cannot be a coach who allows any player to run the program. Otherwise this is the NBA. You have to establish that YOU are running everything about the program day-one of every player's campus career. (Think Boone in Remember The Titans, or for a real life instance: Lou Holtz at Arkansas when he didn't even take several first team stars with the team to the bowl game because they decided they were above his rules ... "miraculously" the rest of the team manned-up and whacked the opponent.)

It takes guts to be the coach. You are not their "friend" nor their "Mom" nor even their "aunt Matilda." For damm sure you're not their Big Sister. It is a special commanding but supportive relationship that most people can't find in themselves. Much of that is their own self-confidence. All the big time coaches have that. I don't see it in Ivey. One CAN grow into it over time but ...........