Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1533229
44 APRIL 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA I f there was a real-life equivalent to "Michael's Secret Stuff" and it wasn't just a bit in a Looney Tunes movie, Notre Dame would need it by the gallon coming out of the ACC Tournament and heading into the NCAA Tournament. This team's problems are aplenty. For starters, coach Niele Ivey, after losing three games in five appearances down the stretch, continually assigns blame to Notre Dame's defense. Sure, the defensive end of the floor was a primary complication in giving up 104 points to North Carolina State, with the aid of two overtimes, and 86 points to Florida State, but in the Irish's most recent defeat they only surrendered 61 points to Duke. And just a few weeks prior, this same Notre Dame team held the Blue Devils to 49 points in a 15-point victory. It was actually the Irish offense that looked off in that game, and it was un- questionably the Irish offense that looked off against Duke the second time around in the ACC Tournament semifinals. Notre Dame scored a measly 56 points. Yet, Ivey has her players firmly believ- ing they need to be better defensively to avoid losses like that one. Her first stick- ing point in her postgame press confer- ence, which she took nearly an hour to get to following the final whistle, was about not being able to take any pride in the way the Irish defended Duke despite forcing 21 turnovers, 16 of which went down in the box score as Notre Dame steals. "I don't think we were great defen- sively either," sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo said. "It starts on defense," graduate student forward Liatu King told Blue & Gold Illus- trated in the locker room after the game at the Greensboro Coliseum. "When we get stops on defense, we're able to play in transition. When we play in transition, that's our best game, just going out and running and getting easy buckets. "We have to rely on easy buckets. It's hard to win when you're taking tough shots." There is absolutely something to de- fense leading to offense, and when Notre Dame is at its best that's what's occur- ring in waves. There isn't another team in the country that can go from coast to coast as breathtakingly as Hidalgo, senior guard Olivia Miles and company. But there's also something to be- ing able to set up within the frame of a 30-second shot clock ticker and score the old-fashioned way. The Irish are at a loss in trying to accomplish that at the time of the year when championships are won and lost on the ability to do it. The Irish don't even have much desire to try to win that way, which is incred- ibly alarming. "We don't want to play in the half court," senior guard Sonia Citron said. "I know obviously sometimes we have to, but we get our momentum and our energy from transition, and in order to be in tran- sition, we have to get stops. That's some- thing that we need to be able to rely on." LOSING THE PLOT King was a part of a Notre Dame starting frontcourt duo, along with fel- low graduate student forward Maddy Westbeld, that combined to play 44 minutes in the ACC Tournament semi- final loss to Duke. Their combined sta- tistics? Zero points on 0-of-8 shooting with 3 total rebounds. Three rebounds from the two players who are supposed to be securing oodles of them. Rebounding is the quintessential hustle stat. If you're grabbing more boards than the opposition you're generally getting to the right place at the right time more of- ten. There is always a bit of luck involved, but when the margin is 12 — Duke had 38 Notre Dame Stumbles Into NCAA Tournament WOMEN'S B A S K E T B A L L Sophomore Hannah Hidalgo was tabbed as the winner of the 2024-25 ACC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS