Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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48 NOV. 23, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA N otre Dame beat its first opponent by 44 points. Then its second by 44. And the third by 46. And yet, head coach Niele Ivey wasn't satisfied. She might not ever be unless the Fighting Irish are the last team standing at the end of this 2024-25 season. That's how high expectations are in South Bend. "I think we're still just a work in mo- tion as far as everybody understanding their spots, working on our spacing and screens," Ivey said. "We're still working at that, working on reads in practice and learning each other. It's a process, and every team defends us differently. "I think we're still growing in that area. Even though we're scoring a lot, that's just a credit to all of our talent, but I still think there's areas to improve." Notre Dame hit 105 points in the sea- son opener, 102 on the road against rival Purdue and 92 against a James Madi- son team that didn't allow more than 56 in any of its first three games, and the Irish got to those marks with just seven healthy players in the first game and eight in the two thereafter. James Madison head coach Sean O'Regan, like all of us, wonders what Notre Dame could do with a full roster of healthy players. A lot. "That landslide of injuries, I really hope doesn't continue for them," O'Regan said. "I'm really hoping we're watching them play in Tampa at the end of the year." Tampa is the host site of the Final Four. The talent Ivey speaks of obviously starts with backcourt mates Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles. Their stat lines are second to none, with Hidalgo averaging 23.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 5.3 steals per game through the first three appearances of the 2023-24 All- American's sophomore season. Miles, a graduate student with junior eligibility, has returned after missing all of last year and gone for 17.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game. She was named the ACC Player of the Week in the award's debut this season. There were four more Notre Dame players averaging double digits in scor- ing beyond those two. Pitt transfer Liatu King recorded a dou- ble-double in the first two games of the year. She left the third early with an ap- parent head injury, though, after totaling 11 points and 3 rebounds in 19 minutes. King's status moving forward was uncer- tain as of Nov. 14. Notre Dame needs her; she's been arguably as valuable as Hidalgo and Miles while averaging 17.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game. Senior guard Sonia Citron missed the season opener but averaged 10.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in the two games after it. She looks like her usual self. The emergent play of freshman center Kate Koval and junior forward Cassandre Prosper is truly what has given the Irish a boost. Ivey named them her players of the game against JMU. Koval had 14 points, 16 rebounds and 6 blocks. Prosper had 11 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists. "She is a competitor," Ivey said of Prosper. "She is driven, passionate, al- ways working on her game, her athleti- cism. She's like a Swiss Army knife — she does so many things well." As for Koval, O'Regan saw enough to describe her. "Just has a calm out there, and is bigger than you would think," he said. "Her length really bothered our center. … She's more versatile than you think playing at the elbow." Hidalgo and Miles will always make plays. When Koval and Prosper fill up the stat sheet, too, in addition to King and Citron's steady contributions as starters, Notre Dame has a corps of half a dozen players any national title contender in the country would want on their side. Then there's sophomore sharpshooter Emma Risch, who bur- ied her last two attempts from deep in the JMU game to finally set herself in the right direction, and the calvary expected to come back at some point in graduate student forwards Maddy Westbeld and Liza Karlen. If they all come together and are available at once, Ivey will be closer to satisfaction — but not all the way there until she's hoisting hardware. "We're still going to be working on some things," she said. ✦ Notre Dame Not Satisfied After 3-0 Start WOMEN'S B A S K E T B A L L IRISH SIGN FIVE-STAR FORWARD LEAH MACY For the fifth time in the last three recruiting cycles, Notre Dame signed a five-star talent — forward Leah Macy. Macy joins Hannah Hidalgo, Cassandre Pros- per, Emma Risch and Kate Koval as five-star signees for the Irish in the last three seasons. She's been committed to Notre Dame since May when she chose the Irish over Connecti- cut, Louisville and Kentucky. She is the only player who signed with the Irish in the early signing period. The 6-foot-2 forward from Bardstown (Ky.) Bethlehem High School is the No. 19 player in the class of 2025 per ESPN's rankings. Accord- ing to MaxPreps, Macy scored 24.9 points and 13.9 rebounds per game as a junior at Bethle- hem last season. She made 67.3 percent of her shots from the floor. Macy also won a gold medal with Team USA at the 2024 FIBA U18 Women's AmeriCup in Colombia with Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey serving as a bench coach. "She's just a Notre Dame kid," Ivey said of Macy. "Great culture kid. She's been on cam- pus multiple times. She's really family. She brings an IQ, versatility and a motor. She'll fill that forward position." — Tyler Horka Freshman center Kate Koval has gotten off to a strong start with the Fighting Irish. She pro- duced a 14-point, 16-rebound and 6-block effort in a 92-46 win over James Madison Nov. 14. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS