Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JUNE/JULY 2020 19 tempo style McGraw thrived with at Notre Dame, but will also incorporate some elements learned in the NBA. Continuing strong relationship with former players — "the heartbeat of our program, they laid the ground‑ work" — and the connections with the community are imperative for Ivey. A supreme recruiter during Notre Dame's run of seven Final Four appear‑ ances in the nine years from 2011‑19, Ivey said she is not far removed from the scene and still has relationships with the current high school junior class that she is contacting already. It showed when in her first few days she landed a pair of five‑star prospects. "It's all about relationships, hit the ground running and reach out to top prospects," she said. With so many top schools also hav‑ ing recruited her son, Ivey took some of her own notes. "It was really nice to be on the other side," Ivey said. "I felt like a lot of coaches were very careful when they talked to me. I learned so much … I really used that knowledge through mailers, social media presence, the way they interacted with Jaden, the way they interacted with [me]. "I used a lot of those things that re‑ ally mattered to me, that really spoke to my heart. It was like little nuggets for myself. The things that really stood out to me I tried to take heed and learn." That's how one can become a coaching legend of her own. ✦ Sizzling Start Niele Ivey receives commitments from two five-star players BY LOU SOMOGYI Just in case anybody needed reminding, Niele Ivey hasn't lost her touch on the recruiting trail. In her first four days as Notre Dame's head coach, Ivey received verbal commitments from a pair of five-star stalwarts in the 2021 cycle: 5-11 point guard Olivia Miles and 6-1 wing Sonia Citron. Ranked as the nation's top point guard and No. 2 overall by ESPN Hoop- Gurlz and No. 4 by Prospects Nation, Miles gave her pledge to the Fighting Irish program the day after Ivey was announced as the new head coach. Currently a junior at Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., Miles fills a prime area of need. With 2019-20 starter and Stanford graduate transfer Marta Sniezek out of eligibility, former Irish head coach McGraw indicated last month that the plan was to move sophomore two-guard/wing Katlyn Gilbert to point guard and have her share duties there with incoming freshman Alasia Hayes, ranked No. 44 by ESPN HoopGurlz and No. 130 by Prospects Nation. The Irish pursued top-five prospects Paige Bueck- ers and Caitlin Clark at the point in the last cycle, but Bueckers signed with Connecticut and Clark with the home state Iowa Hawkeyes. Notre Dame also recruited No. 10-ranked Deja Kelly, who inked with North Carolina. While leading Blair Academy to a 26-5 mark this past year, Miles averaged 13.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.6 assists per game. A few days after Miles' announcement, the Fighting Irish reeled in a pledge from Citron, who hails from Scarsdale, N.Y., and is listed as the country's No. 16 player by ESPN HoopGurlz and No. 33 by Prospects Nation. This past year as a junior she led The Ursuline School to a 24-0 record and Section 1, Class AA title. Citron was tabbed as New York's Gatorade Player of the Year after averaging 23.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 3.1 assists per con- test. In the classroom, she has a 4.83 grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale) in weighted courses. Like Miles, she also was on the 2019 USA Bas- ketball U16 team that won a gold medal last summer. Citron started in all six games and was named to the all-tournament team while aver- aging 13.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game to help the USA to a 6-0 record last June 16-22 in Puerto Aysen, Chile. Citron already had been promoted to the high school varsity as an eighth grader, and her father, William, played basketball at Bradley University. To ideally complement Miles and Citron in Ivey's first class, Notre Dame would like to add a premier figure in the frontcourt. However, three of their top targets have committed elsewhere: Amari DeBerry (Connecticut), Aaliyah Moore (Texas) and Destiny Adams (North Carolina). A fourth, Canada's Latasha Lattimore (No. 11 per ESPN HoopGurlz), had Notre Dame among her top 10, but not in her recently pared down list of six — Cal, UCLA, Florida, Kentucky, Mich- igan and Syracuse. — per recruiting website WBBBlog.com. ✦ 2020-21 ROSTER OUTLOOK The lone player after the 2020-21 season out of eligibility is guard Destinee Walker, so here is the 12-person scholarship breakdown for next season: Sixth-Year Senior (1) — Walker Senior (1) — Mikki Vaughn (eligible for a fifth year in 2021-22) Juniors (3) — Katlyn Gilbert (has a fifth year), Abby Prohaska (has a fifth year) and Danielle Cosgrove Sophomores (2) — Sam Brunelle and Anaya Peoples Freshmen (5) — Madeline Westbeld, Alli Campbell, Alasia Hayes, Amirah Abdur-Rahim and Natalija Marshall (might redshirt as a freshman while recovering from ACL surgery) With point guard Olivia Miles and wing So- nia Citron added to the 2021 recruiting class, a low-post figure is a priority. After Vaughn graduates the lone such player on the roster would be Marshall. Cosgrove and Brunelle are more "stretch fours," although Abdur-Rahim (not in top 100 on either ESPN HoopGurlz or Prospects Na- tion) might be able to help some at 6-2, as might McDonald's All-American Westbeld, who former coach Muffet McGraw said is more of a guard. — Lou Somogyi Sonia Citron, a 6-1 wing from Scarsdale, N.Y., was tabbed as New York's Gatorade Player of the Year after averaging 23.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 3.1 assists per game. PHOTO BY USA BASKETBALL Olivia Miles, who is rated as the nation's top point guard and No. 2 overall player by ESPN HoopGurlz, committed to Notre Dame the day after Ivey was announced as the new head coach. PHOTO BY USA BASKETBALL