Notre Dame women’s basketball is as good as ever under Niele Ivey, and they’re just getting started

SOUTH BEND, IND. — Hannah Hidalgo counted the points on her fingers. Notre Dame’s pint-sized sophomore supernova had just drilled a corner three off a feed from Olivia Miles to give the Irish a 10-point lead on the UConn Huskies mid-way through the second quarter of a nationally televised clash of power programs. Hidalgo stared at her flaming hot right hand and lifted three fingers, slowly and dramatically, before running back to defend, as if to savor the opportunity to step into the spotlight created for her by the Irish legends sitting at the other end of the court.

It’s hard to find a rivalry that has meant more to its sport over the last 15 years than Notre Dame vs. UConn in women’s basketball. So many of the modern game’s defining talents have been forged in its heat, with four Final Four matchups and two national championship showdowns since 2012 serving as its foundation. Notre Dame’s famous WNBA alums lined the floor seats, with Arike Ogunbowale, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Jewell Loyd, and Marina Mabrey bearing witness not just to the long shadow of their legacy, but perhaps also the induction of the program’s next star.

Legends are born in March in this game, not mid-Dec., a fact Notre Dame’s glamorous grads know more than anymore. It was Ogunbowale’s overtime dagger in the 2018 national championship between these two teams that energized the sport around the same time Caitlin Clark was attempting her first logo threes in West Des Moines. Hidalgo will have to wait for the NCAA tournament to truly shape her own legacy, but the outline is already easy to see.

Notre Dame beat UConn, 79-68, in a potential 2025 national championship preview. It was the Huskies’ first loss of the year, and a sobering reminder that Paige Bueckers can’t really hold the world on her shoulders, it only feels that way. For Notre Dame, this was more than a palette cleanser after it ended Nov. with back-to-back losses at the Cayman Islands Classic (to TCU and to Utah) — this was proof that, at its best, the Irish just might have the most stacked roster in America.

Hidalgo was electric, playing the entire game until garbage time in the final minute. She possesses a level of showmanship that can only belong to the greats, and she put it on full display under the bright lights of ESPN against the ultimate measuring stick opponent.

“She always wears her heart on her sleeve,” Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey said after the game.

“I know I’m that energy piece for my team,” Hidalgo said. “So, I try and bring it.”

UConn’s apparent game-plan was to pack the paint to cut off Hidalgo’s forays to the rim. She responded by ripping the nets from deep, hitting 6-of-11 shots from behind the arc. Each one of Hidalgo’s 29 points felt like a spike through UConn’s soul, and there wasn’t an adjustment Geno Auriemma could make to stop her.

With Notre Dame up two near the end of the third quarter, Hidalgo punished the cardinal sin of a defender going under a screen on her to extend the lead to five. The period closed with Hidalgo probing the defense, retreating her way behind the arc, and dropping a dagger to halt UConn’s momentum for a potential late comeback.

“She does what she does, and I don’t know that there’s a lot of strategies that you can use,” Auriemma said.

Bueckers was phenomenal in this game in her own right, but her 25 points didn’t come easy with Notre Dame’s Swiss army knife Sonia Cintron hounding her all night. It’s tempting to anoint Hidalgo as the best player in America after she’s out-dueled both Bueckers and Juju Watkins in recent weeks, but if anything Notre Dame’s win was proof of just how balanced and well-tailored this Notre Dame roster is. Everyone plays their role, and Hidalgo’s just so happens to be hitting back-breaking jumpers.

Miles and Cintron will be first-round WNBA draft picks after this year. Miles is the college game’s resident Point God, a heady floor general who has overcome a torn ACL without losing the mastery of her floor game. Cintron is the type of player every team covets: a wing who can impact the game without holding the ball, a floor spacer who knock down spot-ups with range on one end and lock up a talent like Bueckers at the other.

“Our unsung hero,” Ivey said of Cintron after the game. “She was working so hard on defense.”

Ivey complemented this core well in the transfer portal, with former Pitt wing Liatu King (16 points, 12 rebounds) and Marquette forward Liza Karlen rounding out a short rotation.

Who wouldn’t want to play for Ivey? In only her fifth year on the job, Notre Dame’s head coach already has a palpable presence. She exudes a coolness and charm that attracted a top-five recruit like Hidalgo to South Bend, and she figures to land many more McDonald’s All-Americans in the ensuring years.

The pieces on Notre Dame just fit so well. Hidalgo is a speed demon who can shoot from anywhere while also using her scoring gravity to set up her teammates. Miles is never rushed with ball in her hands, and has the type of passing vision that can’t be taught. Cintron is a basketball sicko’s fever dream, a subtle star whose skill set amplifies everyone else around her. Notre Dame is a little weak inside with true freshman Kate Koval learning on the job in the middle, but the perimeter is so strong that she can afford to take her time getting up to speed.

Bueckers looked dejected speaking to a small group of reporters after the game. As a recruit, she was supposed to be the next big thing in the sport before Clark claimed that title. She left her Midwest roots to extend UConn’s championship lineage, but as she navigates her fifth year, the Huskies still haven’t won it all since Breanna Stewart was on campus. Perhaps UConn can win a rematch against Notre Dame in March if Azzi Fudd is in the lineup. Maybe Sarah Strong — an absurdly talented true freshman forward who feels destined to be a future No. 1 overall WNBA draft pick — will grow up quickly in the spotlight the way so many Huskies have.

On this night, the Irish were just too much. Get used to it, because this Notre Dame team isn’t going anywhere, not with Hidalgo as its leader and Ivey as its figurehead. The Irish now have three wins over top-five teams before Christmas, but the matchups we remember always come in the tournament. Notre Dame instilled belief that they will be back, with Hidalgo and Co. counting down the weeks until this Irish team can prove it belongs among the program’s very best.