Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MAY 2025 39 Watson medically redshirted this past season. Macy recently had knee surgery. Her status for her freshman year is up in the air. Ever since Ivey took over for Muffet McGraw in 2020, the early part of her tenure had been building toward the re- ality of elite playmakers like Hidalgo, Miles and Citron playing together. Only one player from that unbelievable trio is left standing in South Bend, and all Notre Dame has to show for it is yet an- other Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament exit. It wasn't all doom and gloom. Notre Dame beat USC, Texas and UConn when all of those teams were ranked in the top five of the Associated Press poll. Beat 'em all by double digits, too. In fact, the Irish beat eight teams that were ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 at the time of tipoff by double digits dur- ing the regular season. There was also a 19-game win- ning streak in the middle of the Irish's 28-6 campaign. Toward the end of that, Notre Dame ascended to the No. 1 ranking in the AP poll for the first time in half a dozen years. And at that time, it truly looked like Ivey had the very best team in women's college basketball. The Irish's only losses until the final week of February came on back-to- back days to TCU and Utah in the Cay- man Islands Classic. For three months, what happened in the Caymans stayed in the Caymans. The Fighting Irish did not recognize the version of themselves that suffered those defeats. "The only thing that can beat us is ourselves," Karlen said in mid-February. "We don't come in, we don't take care of business, we don't take care of the ball like we should, we don't play like we know we can, we can lose. But at the same time, no one can beat us if we're playing how we play. "We're the only things blocking our own success. It's a blessing and a curse." Turned out to be a curse. Notre Dame did not take care of business. Good coaches on the schedule, like Duke's Kara Lawson and TCU's Mark Campbell, figured out the Irish's kryp- tonite; if you can keep them from run- ning and make it a half-court game, Hi- dalgo and Miles can't globe-trot and turn the matchup into an all-star exhibition. In the losses that knocked Notre Dame out of the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament, the Irish scored 56 and 62 points, respectively. They shot 37.5 per- cent against the Blue Devils and 31.9 per- cent against the Horned Frogs. They truly looked incapable of consistently getting quality looks in a slower-paced game. "We literally were just missing shots that we normally make, and that's going to happen at times," Miles said. The difference is, Duke hit the big shots in Greensboro. TCU hit the big shots in Birmingham. Notre Dame did not. The Irish didn't really make it dif- ficult on the latter via stout defense, either. All year long Ivey said if her team was exerting itself defensively, the rest would come easily. At times, it did. The second-round 76-55 victory over Mich- igan was a perfect example of it. Cham- pionship teams take a performance like that and replicate it from one round to the next, though. Notre Dame did not do that either. Turns out, Notre Dame was not a cham- pionship team. It had championship- caliber talent but not a championship team. Ivey and company learned that the hard way. ✦ Four Notre Dame Players Enter Transfer Portal Like she led Notre Dame as the team's starting point guard all season, Olivia Miles led the Fighting Irish charge into the transfer portal quickly following the conclusion of the 2024-25 season. Two days after a 71-62 loss to TCU in the Sweet 16, ESPN reported Miles' intention to enter the portal. The very next day, she was followed by rising junior guard Emma Risch and rising sophomore center Kate Koval. Then the day after that, graduate student center Kylee Watson followed suit. Miles, a second-team Associated Press All-American, is obviously the biggest loss of the bunch. She's got the most triple-doubles in Notre Dame history with six. She averaged 15.4 points, 5.8 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game. One of the best guards in the country, she will now play for TCU next season. In Risch and Koval, the Irish are losing two players with multiple years of eligibility remaining who could have been cornerstones of the program moving forward. They struggled early in their careers but might've been late bloomers. Watson missed the entire 2024-25 season while rehabbing a knee injury she went down with in the 2024 ACC Tournament. Koval is now headed to LSU. Miles and Watson each have one year of eligibility remaining, while Risch and Koval each have three. — Tyler Horka Star point guard Olivia Miles was among four Irish players who entered the portal after their season ended with a 71-62 loss to TCU in Sweet 16 on March 29. She announced she will play for TCU next season. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER NOTRE DAME'S NCAA TOURNAMENT RESULTS Date Opponent Result March 21 No. 14 Stephen F. Austin* W, 106-54 March 23 No. 6 Michigan^ W, 76-55 March 29 vs. No. 2 TCU$ L, 71-62 * NCAA Tournament first round in South Bend ^ NCAA Tournament second round in South Bend $ NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 at Birmingham, Ala.