Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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48 AUGUST 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED WOMEN'S BASKETBALL BY TYLER HORKA I n a span of 24 hours from May 5 to May 6, Notre Dame received transfer portal commitments from Marquette's Liza Karlen and Pittsburgh's Liatu King plus a high school pledge from highly heralded forward Leah Macy of Eliza- bethtown (Ky.) Bethlehem High School. Head coach Niele Ivey has always been busy in the portal since taking charge of the program at her alma mater in 2020. She got Dara Mabrey to come in from Virginia Tech that year. Maya Dodson arrived from Stanford in 2021, followed by Lauren Ebo from Texas and Kylee Watson from Oregon in 2022, and Anna DeWolfe from Fordham in 2023. All of those players had prominent im- pacts on the program in recent seasons, and Karlen and King are the next to take the torch and run with it. Macy's commitment, though, is just as important as theirs. It's an early-ish start to the recruiting class of 2025 for Ivey and her Irish, for starters. Notre Dame has a better chance of not ending up with just one player in its recruiting class like it did with KK Bransford in 2022. There is time for Ivey to get another player or two. But, most importantly, Macy is a 6-foot-2 forward who makes an impact on both ends of the floor — like Maddy Westbeld, who will be walking out the door at Notre Dame as soon as Macy walks in it. Just like Ivey drew it up. "She just really knows what's best for the player," Macy told Blue & Gold Illus- trated of Ivey. "For me, she emphasized how I fit in her playing style. Which, I fit perfectly. I'm very similar to Maddy. I was able to see somebody in the pro- gram now playing that way and how Coach Ivey uses her, and I really, really enjoyed seeing that. My family did too." Quite frankly, Macy, the No. 12 player in the class of 2025 according to ESPN, would fit into anyone's system. "She can do it all," Bethlehem High School coach Jason Clark told Blue & Gold Illustrated. "She can handle the ball. She can shoot the three. She can play with her back to the basket. She's got a nice little midrange pull-up game. She rebounds the ball and plays good defense. I could see why college coaches want her. I won the lottery when she came to us, so I know how they feel." Macy averaged 24.9 points and 13.9 re- bounds per game, and made 67.3 percent of her shots as a junior at Bethlehem. She got her feet wet on the inter- national front with Team USA's U18 squad this summer playing for none other than assistant coach … Niele Ivey. Long before the duo will have a chance to win championships at Notre Dame, they took one home together in the FIBA AmeriCup. Team USA beat Canada in the tournament's gold medal game. Macy played in five games off the bench for the U.S. in the tournament, which was held in Colombia in late June. She averaged 6.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.4 steals in 13.2 minutes per game. She showcased the best of her ability in scoring 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting against the Dominican Repub- lic in the quarterfinals. She also made all 4 of her free throw attempts and added 7 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal. At Macy's best, that's who she is — a stat stuffer. Westbeld has been doing the same at the forward spot for four seasons. After Westbeld's fifth and final season in 2024-25, Macy will enter the fold and, if all goes to plan, make it seem like Westbeld never left. Attention to detail — even the most minuscule of them — will allow for that to transpire. Macy is the quintessen- tial "doesn't like to lose, doesn't like to feel like she let the team down" type of player. She said her mom made a win- or-lose game out of potty training back in the day — and it worked. "That's how you get me to do stuff — I have to be able to win," Macy said. "I have to win." "I can remember one of the first games she played for us," recalled Clark. "My wife keeps our stats, and after the end of the game Leah came over and said, 'How many turnovers did I have?' My wife said she had two or three. It wasn't like it was eight or nine. "She said, 'That's way too many. I have to fix that. I have to go to work on that.' That right there told me this girl wants to be good. She wants to compete to help her team in any way she can. That's when I knew I had something re- ally special." ✦ Elite Forward Leah Macy Commits To Notre Dame Notre Dame received a commitment from Macy, On3's No. 15 overall player in the class of 2025, on May 6. PHOTO COURTESY LEAH MACY