Latest news with #NieleIvey
USA Today
27-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Niele Ivey believes one of her former Notre Dame stars will win WNBA Rookie of the Year
Niele Ivey believes one of her former Notre Dame stars will win WNBA Rookie of the Year While it has been just a few games into the WNBA season, former Notre Dame star Sonia Citron has been playing like a seasoned vet. The Washington Mystics newest star is averaging 15.4 points-per-game, which as its official social media points out is the top number for rookies in the league. Citron is doing this on 53.2% shooting from the field, shooting three's at 47.6% and making a living at the free throw line by making 89.5% of her attempts. Unfortunately Citron's great play hasn't sparked the Mystics to a winning record, as they are just 2-3 early in the season. Everything that she's done early in her WNBA career has caught the eye of her former coach, Niele Ivey, who believes that she's the front-runner for the Rookie of the Year Award. While it's very early in the season, it does look like Citron is one the early candidates to win the award this year.
Irish Daily Star
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Star
Hannah Hidalgo breaks silence on decision to stay with Notre Dame
Notre Dame starlet Hannah Hidalgo has revealed that her sense of "loyalty" to her teammates and coaches inspired her decision to stay put with the Fighting Irish. Spectulation had previously abounded that the youngster could enter the transfer portal , following the lead of Olivia Miles, Kate Koval and Emma Risch in joining the exodus . However, the highly-rated guard has instead decided to return to the program next season - putting an end to rumors over her future. The 20-year-old ended her sophomore year at the school having averaged an impressive 23.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game across 2024-25. Eventually Notre Dame's NCAA Tournament tilt ended at the Sweet 16 stage, with TCU inflicting a 71-62 defeat to end their hopes of a March Madness triumph. Read More Related Articles Fake Donald Trump message opens NFL Draft before rapid apology issued Read More Related Articles Notre Dame star had visit with 3 NFL teams including Pittsburgh Steelers Speaking to NBC Sports, Hidalgo has now opened up on her reasons for wanting to remain with the Fighting Irish beyond the most recent campaign. Issuing a vow to fans, she reaffirmed her commitment to the program, saying: "I think I'm just being loyal, you know I'm with my coaches, my teammates. I'm with them until my last day playing at Notre Dame. "I think that was the biggest thing with a whole bunch of stuff with the NIL and the portal and everything like that. I'm where my feet are and I'm happy where I'm at," she said, before looking forward to a break over the summer: "I'm taking it day by day, just getting in the gym and summer time is next. I'm getting in the gym and working on my craft. Speaking with pride about the rise of the women's game generally, she added: It's a blessing, just to be an inspiration to the younger generation. You know, these kids have somebody to look up to and to see how far the women's game has come. When I was younger, it wasn't being talked about and was very talked down on so to see how many people are talking about women's basketball is truly a blessing." Hannah Hidalgo paid tribute to head coach Niele Ivey's message as she vowed to stay put at Notre Dame (Image: Photo by Michael Miller/) Previously, the prospect discussed her future in length, as she expressed her admiration for Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey. In a revealing conversation with Sportskeeda , she said of the Fighting Irish figure: "She's tough coaching me on the court. And then off the court, she's coming to me and inviting us over and showing love. That's so important because I want to play for somebody who cares for me, and doesn't just care what I'm providing for them on the court." Revealing her reasons for staying in Indiana, she added: 'I want to be at a program where I'm at for four years. That's my goal. That was my goal coming into college, and that's still my end goal. 'It's also about loyalty. It's also about being loyal to my coach. She has done so much for me. She has treated me so well. She has been through a lot of ups and downs with me. And she's been consistent throughout the whole process. She's given so much to me, and I want to be able to give back to her.'
USA Today
01-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Two more Notre Dame women's basketball players enter transfer portal
Two more Notre Dame women's basketball players enter transfer portal Less than a day after Olivia Miles unexpectedly announced she would enter the transfer portal, the Notre Dame women's basketball team has been bitten by that portal twice more. It's the latest example of the current era of college athletics. Kate Koval and Emma Risch are the latest Irish players who have been confirmed to be entering the portal. That brings the number of Irish players who had made this decision to three. The 6-foot-5 Koval is coming off an ACC All-Freshman campaign in which she ranked fourth in the conference at 1.7 blocks a game and also averaged 5.3 points and 4.7 rebounds. Risch was hampered by injuries during her time with the Irish, but she averaged 5.3 points in 20 games over two seasons. The 2025-26 Irish look like they will be a much different team from the 2024-25 iteration that was expected to at least get to the Final Four but fell two rounds short. In fact, Tyler Horka of Blue and Gold Illustrated has spelled out the grim state of the current roster: That third national championship might not come for a while now, folks. The window has slammed shut on this group, and Niele Ivey now must figure out how to navigate what quickly is becoming an uncertain future. Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions. Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89 More: Notre Dame quashed Miles transfer rumors near end of 2023-24 season More: Notre Dame star makes shocking decision More: Niele Ivey, Notre Dame players speak after NCAA Tournament run ends
USA Today
01-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Notre Dame quashed Miles transfer rumors near end of 2023-24 season
Notre Dame quashed Miles transfer rumors near end of 2023-24 season Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey confirms Olivia Miles is locked in with the Irish amid speculation of a potential transfer. 'She's crushing it. She looks fantastic. Her comeback is going to be a movie. It's going to be incredible... Everybody needs to get their tickets right now.' — Tyler Horka (@tbhorka) March 6, 2024 The news that Notre Dame star Olivia Miles will enter the transfer portal instead of jumping to the WNBA is sending shock waves throughout women's basketball. In general, it raises a lot of discussion about how much players can make playing college ball in the NIL era instead of turning professional as soon as thy can. For Irish fans, it's a cruel knock into reality that no player is safe from the portal no matter how much they have meant to a program. And yet, this isn't the first story about the possibility of Miles going elsewhere. Miles missed all of the 2023-24 season with an injury, and that coincided with Hannah Hidalgo having a historic freshman campaign. This fueled speculation that Miles didn't feel she could co-exist with Hidalgo in the backcourt, which meant she would look to play elsewhere after that season. Ivey couldn't answer to these rumors when asked about them during a news conference after the regular-season finale, but she came back a few days later ahead of the ACC Tournament and confirmed that Miles was returning to the Irish for 2024-25: Now, one year after the speculation was put to rest, Miles indeed has entered the portal. It's a rough ending to an Irish tenure that should have provided more than it ultimately did. Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions. Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89 More: Niele Ivey, Notre Dame players speak after NCAA Tournament run ends More: Photo gallery of Notre Dame NCAA Tournament loss to TCU More: Notre Dame falls to TCU, goes out in Sweet 16 for fourth straight year
USA Today
29-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Niele Ivey, Notre Dame players speak after NCAA Tournament run ends
Niele Ivey, Notre Dame players speak after NCAA Tournament run ends There's no question Niele Ivey and her Notre Dame players will be wondering what could have been this season. Stacked with the most talent she'd had in her five years coaching the Irish, Ivey was well-positioned to lead the Irish to a national title. Instead, Ivey and the Irish have exited the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16 for four consecutive seasons. Their latest one came in a 71-62 loss to TCU. Afterwards, Ivey took to the postgame podium alongside three players, at least two of which have played their final games for the Irish. The other has to decide whether or not to jump to the WNBA now or wait another year. Olivia Miles scored 10 points and led the Irish with three assists. Sonia Citron had nine points, and Maddy Westbeld added seven, though both players also finished with four fouls. Here's what all four had to say after the game: Ivey's opening statement "Well, tough loss today. I want to start off thanking my seniors. Exactly what I said after the game in the locker room, these three believed in my vision and they are so loyal, amazing young women that have a lot of great basketball ahead of them. I am just really grateful for what they have done for me and for our program. It's a resurgence of the program taking over, and they've left it better than what they came in with. I'm really grateful, such an incredible group of young women. I'm really proud to be their coach. They know that I've got 'em for life. This is just an amazing group of young women that are so talented, so gifted. But more importantly, they are better humans than they are basketball players. I'm just really grateful I had this opportunity to be part of their journey. They're very special to me. They mean so much. Again, came up short today. I thought with the game, obviously a high game. A game of runs, we had a great stretch in that third quarter defensively that we went up, but unfortunately, tables turn, couldn't make shots that we normally make. Couldn't get the stops and just didn't finish the game the way we wanted to. For this group and for these three, like I said, just really, really grateful and looking forward to eventually trying to build this back up. Or not even build it back up, but, again, with Notre Dame women's basketball, they put it in a great place, and I'm really grateful for that." Westbeld on guarding Sedona Price "I think definitely the plan was to be as physical as possible with her. She is a great post player. She is the center of the offense. So being as physical as I could, really tried to push her off the block and make her try to work for everything. So I think fouls here and there, but I think we tried to do just that." Miles on why the defense was so difficult "I can comment on that. No offense to them, but it was really nothing they did to alter us. Obviously, Sedona is in there. She was blocking shots. That's one factor. But we literally were just missing shots that we normally make, and that's going to happen at times. In those moments, we have to rely on our defense, and we tried to do that. I thought my team played extremely hard and fought to the end, so I'm very proud of them for that. But it's just shots that we should make that are on us at the end of the day." Westbeld on the legacy she created at Notre Dame "I think that this group of girls is so special. Coming in with all of them you never – oh my goodness (tearing up). There's truly no place on earth that I would want to play with. There's no people that I would want to play with other than these two, other than Coach Niele, other than play for this university. When you go around the locker room, it's not about the basketball. It's not about anything other than the people, and that's why you do it. You do it for each other, and throughout my entire career, I have done it for them. I know that they would say the same thing about me and I know they say the same thing about Coach Ivey and about this university." Miles on the legacy she created at Notre Dame "When I think about legacy, I think more about the impact that I leave on people. Winning is great. Obviously, everyone wants to do it. But as Coach Ivey said, as long as you leave the place better than you found it, you left a really good impact. And these two sitting by my side and Coach Ivey not only had a big impact on my life, and I hoped that I had a big impact on their life. At the end of the day, my goal coming to Notre Dame was to leave Notre Dame better than I found it, and I think I did a pretty good job of that. I hope so. Like Maddy said, I love all my teammates in that locker room. We've stayed together. We've grown so much through this entire season. We are very proud of the work we've done, and ultimately, we have had fun. That's really what this is all about. You sign up as a kid because it's fun to throw a ball in a hoop, and look where it's gotten us to at this point. Just love them a lot." Citron on the legacy she created at Notre Dame "Hard to follow those two, but I think they hit it on the head. Again, I wanted to leave the program better than I found it, and Coach Ivey believed in us, and we believed in her. We committed to that, and four years later, here we are, and again, I think it's better off than it was a couple years ago. And then I think an important thing that Maddy said was just the people. Thinking now, I'm not even thinking about the game. I'm just thinking about the people that I've met here, the relationships that I've formed, the friendships that I've formed, and it truly is – Notre Dame is such a special place. We're just so blessed to be able to play the sport that we love with the people that we love for the coaches and the university that we love. So I mean, reflecting on it, I'm just – we're all truly blessed." Citron on what was different about this season "I think we just had so much talent. Sometimes too much talent, you know, we didn't even know what to do with. We got Liv. We got everybody. So I think this year was just how talented we were." Westbeld on balancing aggressive play while in foul trouble "Yeah, I've been trying to figure that out this whole season. I think just not thinking about the fouls. You go in a space where people are saying you're in foul trouble, and then, you're thinking about fouling, and you're trying not to foul, and you can get in this space where it's tough. So just staying present, not focusing on it and just trying to play as aggressive as possible but as clean as possible. So just staying disciplined I think really is the key to that." Ivey on what it will take to finally get past the Sweet 16 "I think playing 40 minutes. We showed that stretch that really kind of catapulted us, went up nine, but you have to sustain that for 40 minutes. So having the sustainability on this type of stage. Unfortunately our fourth exit, but knowing that you have to sustain that for 40 minutes because of this stage and how big the stage is." Ivey on defending Prince "We were trying to be physical with her, I had more size, adding Liza (Karlen) and Maddy within the rotation. They weren't available for us the first time around. So just wanted her to defend on the opposite end and be physical with her, wall her up and obviously try to limit her touches, but they did a good job of getting her the ball, and she had a really great game." Ivey on the talent of her senior class "Special group. So talented coming into the season. Sonia and Liv are generational talents that I have had a chance to foster and help to develop and grow the last four or five years. So it's been a blessing from the beginning, and Maddy Westbeld (is) super versatile. It's just been amazing. They're amazing humans, and I feel like you got a chance to listen to who they are as people. They're very caring, nurturing. They understand at some point, it's bigger than basketball. They love each other, they love this group, they love this university, and I wouldn't want to coach anyone else that didn't recognize the beauty that is Notre Dame. They understand it. They understand that it's bigger than the basketball piece, but talent-wise, they're just so gifted. I'm excited to be able to watch them in their professional careers, but, again, they're just special. They're special young women outside of basketball." Ivey on getting production out of Miles with an injured ankle "She was a little sore today, every day it feels differently for her. Last game against Michigan, she went off a lot of adrenaline, and today, she was a bit little sore, so just kind of watching. It's more of a feel. We were in great communication, kinda knew before the game that she was a little bit sore. And she fought through – she is resilient, so she was fighting through some things, but, again, just the awareness of how she was feeling. And I thought (Cassandre Prosper) was great. I thought Cass came in and gave us a great spark, like she always does, always ready, so just kind of saw how the game was dictating itself with her and how she was moving." Ivey on Hailey Van Lith "She is a three-level scorer, a great player, and I feel like she saw the ball going in, and she kinda rose. You could tell her energy, her confidence was getting stronger, play by play. I thought she made some really good defensive plays as well. Yeah, this is that stage where great players emerge, I thought she had a really complete game. You know, she is a really good player." Ivey on Miles and Citron's development "We're not in a collegiate landscape that you see that very often, so that kind of speaks to their loyalty to me, and I'm really grateful that I've the had the opportunity to watch both Sonia and Olivia grow and be their coach for four plus years. It's special. They will always have a special place in my heart, because they believed in me when I took over this program, and being a first-time head coach, we'll always that special bond because of that. But, again, it just speaks to their loyalty, the vision that they were looking for, for the institution of their choice, being Notre Dame, and the vision I had with them being my premiere guards. I'm just grateful that they trusted in that, and, again, there is a bond that I will always have with both of those two." Ivey on whether Van Lith has grown as a player "I think she has definitely grown with the experience she has had. Playing in the ACC (at Louisville), SEC (at LSU) and now the Big 12, she has all that experience under her belt. I think she is just – her composure has gotten a lot better and just, again, and being able to score with a lot of different defenses, I think, has been really helpful for her, as far as just the way she can dictate games and take games over. But you can tell with her experience, she has gotten more confident and has played against a lot of different type of styles with three different conferences, and you can tell it's paid off with the way that she plays."
