2025-2026 Notre Dame Women's Basketball

UPMich_NDfan

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Eric Hansen mentioned on a podcast today that he thinks after football the program that will most benefit from the “looser” undergraduate admission standards will be Women’s Basketball. He thinks it will allow them to bring in some higher end transfers than previous years have allowed. To go with the talented freshman incoming class. He said to keep Hidalgo around but I thought she has to come back (rather than go pro)?
 

laughingirish92

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Eric Hansen mentioned on a podcast today that he thinks after football the program that will most benefit from the “looser” undergraduate admission standards will be Women’s Basketball. He thinks it will allow them to bring in some higher end transfers than previous years have allowed. To go with the talented freshman incoming class. He said to keep Hidalgo around but I thought she has to come back (rather than go pro)?
she is a junior so she can go pro after the season
 

UPMich_NDfan

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she is a junior so she can go pro after the season
I just looked it up. Here is what I found. Does anyone know if she meets any of these?

Women college basketball players can go pro in the WNBA by meeting one of three main criteria:
turning 22 in the draft year, graduating from a four-year college within three months of the draft, or being four years removed from high school graduation, with international players needing only to be 20 in the draft year. Unlike the NBA, there's no "one-and-done" path, meaning most U.S. players stay in college until they meet these requirements, often leading to later entry than male counterparts.
 

BabyIrish

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I think Hannah will come back for her senior year. She has already talked about her excitement for the incoming freshman.
 

irishff1014

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They don’t get paid much in the WNBA so it might not be hard to keep her.
 

sfk324

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Bad loss today, have to win home games against teams like Clemson. But it's going to be hard to do that when nobody besides Hidalgo can make a shot (Moore had a nice 4th quarter, but they were already down 13 by then after a disaster 3rd). De Jesus took 1 shot the whole game despite playing 38 minutes (writing with 1 minute to go, just in case she hoists another one here...). Cass played poorly. Nobody appears to be able to play defense without fouling.

Unless Bransford is able to return, there aren't really any switches to be flipped to change anything.
 

stpeteirish

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Watched the women today, haven’t watched them much. Surprised at how little talent we have beyond Hannah. Portal needed to save this year and they aren’t. Really just bodies who aren’t able to score or rebound well. And no bench. Hard to blame lack of effort when you are playing 38 minutes
 

irishjim

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Honestly, what was the expectation this year? Poor transfer class and lost lots of talent. Clearly some cultural issues when a star goes to a lesser program.
 

arrowryan

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I would still say Shrews. Ivey has her own issues, but at least she’s bringing in a very good recruiting class. Her program at least is providing hope.
 

Irish#1

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Given the history and the shape the program was in when Muffet retired, expectations are higher for the ladies. Seems like it’s headed in the wrong direction.
 

stpeteirish

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Not sure how good Garrity is at multitasking, maybe do one this year and one next year. Not joking, we need to do a bonafide search and get the right people. Probably the women's job is a little more attractive, way better recently than the men. 9-11 games left, still time to determine trajectory for either program.
 

BabyIrish

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I’m guessing Ivey’s seat is far from hot. If they were going to fire her it would have been in the off season with her terrible roster management. She has that problem fixed with the recruiting class and based on the transfers football got, I can imagine it will be easier for the women’s team as well.

As much as it pains me to say this I think it might be worth looking at firing Coach Owens. We have not developed a center since Brianna Turner. I think a new established coach for our front court could go a long way for this program.
 

BabyIrish

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It probably wasn’t a good idea when Ivey gave 2/3 of the team’s NIL to one player. That played a role in why a lot of players transferred last season.
Fair. And that problem is hopefully fixed with the hire of Garrity.
 

stpeteirish

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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
 

sfk324

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It probably wasn’t a good idea when Ivey gave 2/3 of the team’s NIL to one player. That played a role in why a lot of players transferred last season.
Who would you have given additional NIL to that left? It's pretty clear that Olivia had zero interest in playing with HH, especially with Maddy and Sonia leaving, so that would have been a wasted conversation. The noise coming from Koval's people back in NY during the season made it pretty obvious she was out the door once the portal opened, so another wasted conversation.

That leaves Kylee and Emma, two people coming off of significant surgery. The former is averaging 3 pts and 1.4 boards per game for Nova, and all signs were that between wanting to be closer to home and her fri mds on th team leaving, she was leaving, too. I will never understand why she couldn't put it together, but it is what it is, and I guess ultimately underlines how difficult it is to find a P4 impactful post. Emma hadn't been able to avoid injury in her two years at ND -- happily for her, she appears to be avoiding that this year and will play in her 20th game in their next contest, which is the exact number of games she played in 2 years at ND.

But the question remains, who are you giving that money to? Do either of them stay with increased money? And do either of them make a bit of difference?
 

Chicago Domer

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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.
 
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