Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MAY 2023 39 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Plain and simple, Notre Dame did not reach its full 2022-23 potential because of the season-ending, season-altering injuries to Miles and Mabrey. "This team has faced so much adver- sity," Citron said after Notre Dame's loss to Maryland. "I never thought I'd be playing the point. I'm sure Maddy never thought she'd be basically a 2 or a 3 guard. But through all of that, we learned so much. "I think you can look on the positive side, and next year we will all just have so much more experience because of the situations we were put in." It's difficult to think to next year when this season had so much promise. But Notre Dame was left with no choice. The Irish lost their heart and then their heart- beat with the injuries to Mabrey and Miles. As much as every player said it was easy to look to the sideline and give ex- tra effort on the floor in their honor, it had to be just as easy for the thought of, "What will we ever do without those two helping us in these games?" to come up just as frequently as "what if." So after a 17-point loss to Maryland in a game in which Notre Dame led by one at halftime, it is on to next year indeed. And next year could be just as good if not better than 27-6 with an outright regular-season ACC championship. Mabrey and Ebo are the only Notre Dame players who exhausted their eligi- bility. The six other scholarship players — Miles, Citron, fellow guards Cassandre Prosper, KK Bransford and Jenna Brown, forward Westbeld and posts Watson and Marshall — are all slated to return. They'll be joined by five-star signees Hannah Hidalgo and Emma Risch, a pair of McDonald's All-Americans. Nothing is certain in the transfer portal era. Last offseason, Notre Dame lost four players to the portal and brought in three. The best-case scenario is every Irish player is extra motivated by the way the season ended and will stick around for an- other in addition to Ivey reeling in two or three players from the portal once again. Another center has to be on the menu. As things stand heading into the off- season, Notre Dame is going to be among the most talented teams in the ACC, if not the entire country, in 2023-24. Ivey said Miles' surgery was sched- uled for the final week of March. Her schedule to return to basketball activi- ties will be determined thereafter. For as long as she's out, Hidalgo can take charge. She proved that with a re- cord-breaking 26 points in the McDon- ald's All-American Game March 28. She had a record-tying 8 steals, too. Miles ran the point as a true fresh- man, albeit with six extra games of ex- perience as an early enrollee. Hidalgo is a slightly more highly heralded recruit than Miles was; the former is the No. 5 overall player in ESPN's recruiting rankings and the latter was No. 8. One of the pluses of recruiting at such an elite level is Notre Dame can plug play- ers like Hidalgo and Miles into the lineup right away and expect productive play. Just look at Prosper, an early enrollee this winter who got better with each game. The No. 16 overall player in ESPN's rankings was trusted to play 36 minutes versus the Terrapins in the Sweet 16. Much of that time was spent guarding Maryland's superstar scorer, Johnson. "It's invaluable the things she learned on the fly — she's a sponge," Ivey said. "She soaked up everything. She had to take on a lot to really adjust to college life, being a 17-year-old, and also me. I asked her to come in and guard one of the best players in the country. "It's going to help her down the road. It's going to help her throughout her career, having this experience, being on the big stage. She's a big-time player, and she wants to be on the big stage." The same can be said of Hidalgo, who averaged 28.8 points, 6.3 steals, 6.4 re- bounds and 5.1 assists for Haddonfield (N.J.) Paul VI High School as a senior. Risch, a three-point sniper, averaged 23.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.9 steals per game for Melbourne (Fla.) Palm Bay. She shot 45 percent from three-point range. Notre Dame's reinforcements are coming. As much as the Irish wanted to live in the moment and ride out this sea- son as long as they could, it was always going to be about the season ahead when Miles and Mabrey went down. That sea- son will be here before they know it, and the outlook for it is promising. "I'm just really proud," Ivey said. "Proud of my team, just like I was last year. No one expected us to be here. We're going to come back a stronger, better team because of this. "It never feels good when you go through a game like this, but what I am encouraged by is that I have a very strong core, and I'm looking forward to what Notre Dame women's basketball is going to look like in the future." ✦ OLIVIA MILES EARNS ALL-AMERICA HONORS For the first time since 2019, Notre Dame had an All-American. The Associated Press put sophomore point guard Olivia Miles on its second team, and the United States Basketball Writers Association awarded her a third-team accolade. Four years ago, the Irish finished as the national runner up with a one-point loss to Baylor in the championship game. Arike Ogun- bowale, Jessica Shepard and Jackie Young all received All-America honors of some sort at the end of that successful season. Miles is the 13th player in program history to be named an All-American, joining that trio, Skylar Diggins (2011, 2012 and 2013), Ruth Riley (1999, 2000 and 2001), Jewell Loyd (2014 and 2015), Kayla McBride (2013 and 2014), Brianna Turner (2016 and 2017), Nata- lie Achonwa (2014), Lindsay Allen (2017), Jac- queline Batteast (2005) and current Irish head coach Niele Ivey (2001). Before injuring her knee in the regular-season finale and sitting out the postseason, Miles aver- aged 14.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game. She was second on the Notre Dame roster in points and first in rebounds and assists. She finished No. 6 nationally in assists per game. — Tyler Horka The future is bright for the Irish thanks to players such as freshman guard Cassandre Prosper, who joined the team at midseason and played a big role down the stretch. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS