SOUTH BEND — Can we put the focus back on the court for the Notre Dame women’s basketball program? Please?
No more transfer portal talk. No more losses of key players, either to graduation or defection. No more videos shot at halftime of the WNBA exhibition game that are dissected frame by frame. No more whispers. No more apologies. Can we make it again about the game?
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Noie: What was that between those two former Notre Dame women’s basketball All-American guards?
Noie: How did this former Notre Dame women’s basketball player become that good?
Following are five questions about the Notre Dame women’s basketball program that will accompany the Irish through the spring and summer and likely into the 2025-26 season.
Where’s the rest of the roster?
And then there were six. That’s it. Six. Not even enough scholarship players to scrimmage fullcourt. Or halfcourt. That’s eventually going to change and maybe it has by the time you read this. As the first full week of May ended, only six scholarship players were on the roster for 2025-26. There are three returning players (KK Bransford, Hannah Hidalgo, Cass Prosper) and three transfers (Malaya Cowles, Vanessa de Jesus, Gisela Sanchez). The newbies each may be nice fit-in pieces but nowhere near the elite talent needed to be, well, elite.
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Notre Dame needs at least nine scholarship players. If history is any indication, this program won’t make it through a season without somebody — make that somebodies — suffering an injury or two or three. It happens. It will happen.
That a team that was ranked No. 1 as late as late February has so few players on its roster so deep into the offseason is a little alarming. Make that a lot alarming. Give the coaching staff the benefit of (a lot) doubt that they know what they’re doing and see a bigger picture. Do they? Hard to tell.
How do you replace all of that productivity?
You can’t. It’s impossible. Improbable. Don’t even try. Look at all those points and rebounds and assists and minutes and games played gone from last season and you need to sit down. Lie down. Count to 100. Think of anything except the immediate future of Irish women’s basketball.
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The exits of (deep breath) Sonia Citron, Liza Karlen, Liatu King, Olivia Miles, Emma Risch, Kylee Watson and Maddy Westbeld saw a combined 158 games played, 124 starts, 1,720 points, 873 rebounds, 403 assists and … 4,293 minutes walk out the Rolfs Hall door. That’s just from last year.
None of the three early additions have averaged more than 10 points, six rebounds, three assists or 20 minutes in their careers.
No matter what the new graduate transfers do, no matter who Notre Dame eventually adds, it’s a massive ask/expectation for any of them to come close to last season’s numbers. Not to mention mirroring last season’s 84.4 ppg., that Notre Dame averaged. Will the Irish have enough to get to 70?
It’s going to look different next season. Niele Ivey and her staff are going to have to work some serious X and O witchcraft to scheme their way out of this corner.
Did recruiting just … stop?
A better question is how has this happened with recruiting? How did this coaching staff mismanage this roster? How does a program like Notre Dame sign only one prep player for 2024 (Kate Koval) and one prep player for 2025 (Leah Macy)? Was it fooled into thinking it could simply mine the portal to fill a need here or there? Did it take for granted that players with eligibility wouldn’t leave, only to see them leave? Did it just not know?
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A weird recruiting situation is even weirder when you realize the two recruits Notre Dame did sign — Koval and Macy — basically play the same position. It didn’t add any guards. It didn’t add any wings. It added two forwards who are better suited for a slower tempo than Notre Dame plays.
The immediate future of Macy is murky after a right leg (knee) injury. She may play as many minutes as a freshman as Koval will play for Notre Dame next season. Koval’s now at LSU, so there’s that.
Can we bubble wrap Hannah Hidalgo until fall?
Good luck asking someone who loves the game and breathes the game not to play the game until October. That’s not happening, but you know what else cannot happen? Hildalgo is seen hobbling around campus this summer in the dreaded walking boot. A rolled ankle. A bad foot. Something.
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You thought Hidalgo did a ton her first two seasons (and she did), she’ll have to do more heavy lifting in 2025-26. Score more. Assist more. Handle more. Be a voice. Be a leader. Just get her to October — get her there healthy — and hold on tight.
She’s going to have to play every game, take every big shot, make every big play. There’s no other option. She has to hold up. Just hold your breath this summer.
Is this the new (college) world order for Notre Dame?
Don’t look now, or maybe look now, but yes, this is the way of the world moving forward for a program that has averaged 26.6 overall wins and 13.2 league wins over the last 10 seasons. You’d have thought that after such a roster flush this season that elite portal talent would’ve walked to South Bend to play for Notre Dame.
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Of ESPN’s list of the top 34 transfer portal players this spring, not one chose Notre Dame. Is that on them? Is that on Notre Dame?
It didn’t happen because Notre Dame likely didn’t let it happen. It went a different portal direction with good/marginally good but nowhere near elite players by design. Like with the men’s program, it’s clear that the Irish women aren’t going to lean on the get-healthy-in-a-hurry route of the transfer portal. At least, not with elite players that command top Name, Image and Likeness dollars. Notre Dame’s not buying.
At Notre Dame, athletics is headed in the direction of let’s pour much of what we have into football. For the other sports, do your best with less. A lot less. If this is indeed the new athletics world, buckle up. The road ahead will be bumpy for a program that has long enjoyed smooth sailing — on and off the court.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: It’s not been the best of runs of late for Notre Dame women’s baksetball
