FORT WORTH, Texas — Niele Ivey was the first person off Notre Dame’s bench as the clock hit zero and her team clinched an Elite Eight berth.
She embraced star guard Hannah Hidalgo, who ran right to her, and was then swallowed in a massive pile, surrounded by the players who bought into her vision of the Notre Dame program.
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When five players graduated and three players transferred last year, and there was just Hidalgo, KK Bransford and Cassandre Prosper on the roster, nobody believed except them. Even when Bransford’s mother called her delusional for having faith.
“I would be like, no, just watch,” said Bransford, a senior who missed last season with a foot injury. “I see how we look in practices, I see the glimpses we had. I knew if everybody clicked and bought in we could do it.”
That trust in Ivey and each other led Notre Dame down an improbable season turnaround.
From not having enough players last spring to play pickup basketball to having just six healthy scholarship players in January, the Irish have made the Elite Eight for the first time since 2019.
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They’ve done so with an improbable run: Many picked No. 11 Fairfield as an upset Cinderella against the sixth-seeded Irish. They then surprised No. 3 seed Ohio State on its home court. And No. 2 seed Vanderbilt was expected to be a sure bet for the Elite Eight.But the Irish didn’t let up yet again, putting together a 67-64 victory on Saturday.
It’s Ivey’s first time as a head coach in the Elite Eight. It’s not her most talented team, either, but it’s surely her best coaching job. This season is becoming a legacy moment for the sixth-year coach, who won a national championship as a player and later as an assistant coach at Notre Dame.
“I love this program. I pour into these kids,” Ivey said. “It means more to me because I went here, I walked in their shoes, so I want them to experience what I experienced and I experienced a national championship twice. That’s the reason why I give back to this program.”
Ivey has been an elite recruiter in her time at Notre Dame, but one of the most memorable recruiting calls she had was with Prosper. They met on a Zoom call, when Prosper told Ivey, “I want to be part of your legacy.”
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“That really touched my heart, because I’ve never heard a player say that. I’ll never forget that,” Ivey said.
It’s no surprise that Prosper was a key piece in lifting the Fighting Irish to the Elite Eight.
Hidalgo scored 31 points to go with 11 rebounds and 10 steals to propel Notre Dame. But Prosper’s presence on the floor was crucial. She scored 15 points, and was also one of the main defenders against Vanderbilt star, and the nation’s leading scorer, Mikayla Blakes. Blakes, who averages 27 points per game, scored 26 points, but shot just 7-of-26 from the field.
Her versatility was a difference-maker in the Sweet 16, but the Irish might not have even reached this point without her behind-the-scenes impact during the offseason.
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Though Ivey was recruiting transfers to join the roster, Prosper was at every dinner and on every phone call to help recruit the right players. Instead of going to play for the Canadian national team this offseason, she stayed back to help build chemistry with her new team, as well.
It paid off.
“That tells you her commitment to this program,” Ivey said. “She knows that I love her so much, but it’s because of what she’s done for me, and it’s rewarding to receive that back and forth from each other.”
The transfer of former Irish guard Olivia Miles to TCU was one of the most noteworthy offseason moves.
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Prosper is one-third of the returning trio that meant so much to Ivey. Hidalgo sat in Ivey’s office in the offseason and told her she was locked in, as did Bransford. Ivey said she didn’t take some of the transfers to heart, and she didn’t have time, especially in an era of college basketball with so much roster turnover.
“It was 59 other schools that were in the same position,” she said.
She had a trio she could build around, but while being the head coach of a storied program like Notre Dame comes with its perks, it also makes recruiting transfers more difficult.
Because of the way Notre Dame registers its credits, the Fighting Irish largely have to recruit graduate transfers. Most transfers don’t want to lose a year on their academic record because their credits didn’t transfer over, but Notre Dame doesn’t have that problem with graduate transfers.
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The positive side is the experience those recruits brought.
Of the players brought in, Ivey added former Duke guard Vanessa De Jesus, who played in the Elite Eight last season, Iyana Moore from Wake Forest, Malaya Cowles from Wake Forest and Gisela Sanchez from Kansas State.
“I knew that would be helpful, with the experience, but knowing it was everybody’s last year it was that much more motivation to win,” Bransford said.
It was a roster that put Notre Dame at No. 21 in The Athletic’s preseason Top 25, so there was some potential, but with a nearly brand-new roster, nothing was assured. Bransford hated sitting out nearly a month and a half, stretching from Dec. 12 to the end of January.
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The only person more upset was Ivey, who had just six scholarship players in January as the Irish went 6-6, a run that included an unthinkable 95-90 loss to Georgia Tech, which finished under .500 this season.
“Just even having one more player to stretch my roster to seven makes a big, big difference,” Ivey said. “Also, even with adversity, we learned a lot. It’s a lot of experience. Our back was against the wall. We had to learn how to fight through things, and it’s paying off now.”
When Bransford returned, the Irish caught fire. Notre Dame has won 12 of its last 14 games, being carried by a defense that is built to cause chaos and wreck havoc on offenses.
In the NCAA Tournament, Notre Dame has forced 63 turnovers, led by Hidalgo, who broke the program’s NCAA Tournament record for steals against Ohio State and broke her own record again on Friday. She also set the single-season record for steals.
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After Friday’s win, Hidalgo and Notre Dame legend Skylar Diggins, a former Final Four player for the Irish, shared a long embrace.
“Players like that, they built it up, Jackie (Young) was over there too, they made the foundation,” Hidalgo said. “We’re just able to kind of live, play through them from what they’ve built. So it’s great to have the alum come back and watch us succeed.”
Diggins played in two national championship games in 2011 and 2012. It will take a major upset for Notre Dame to beat UConn in Sunday’s Elite Eight matchup, the Irish lost by 38 in January, but the underdog role is not new to this Notre Dame team.
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A year ago, they were just getting to know their new teammates. On Friday, they were dancing on the court celebrating a second straight upset win.
“To be in this position where we’re still dancing, it’s honestly a blessing,” Hidalgo said.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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