Notre Dame PG Hannah Hidalgo wins ninth ACC Rookie of the Week Award
Someday Hannah Hidalgo might have to endow the ACC Rookie of the Week award in the same way positions of power are endowed within the Notre Dame athletics program. The Fighting Irish freshman point guard won the award for the ninth time on Monday.
Already named the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Week, Hidalgo is backing to being recognized as the ACC’s best first-year player after a rare one-week absence from claiming the title. The nod has been doled out by the league 12 times now, and Hidalgo has taken it home 75 percent of the time.
Hidalgo is tied for the second-most ACC Rookie of the Week honors all-time. She’s the Notre Dame record holder and is now sitting alongside Wake Forest’s Tracy Connor and Duke’s Elizabeth Williams. Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson owns the record by herself with 10. Hidalgo could tie that this week with standout performances against Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh.
The only other winners this year have been Alyssa Latham of Syracuse (Dec. 4), Zoe Brooks of NC State (Dec. 11) and Kymora Johnson of Virginia (Jan. 22). Hidalgo was somewhat victimized by a light December schedule when she didn’t win the award in back-to-back weeks that month. The Irish played three times in the first 30 days of December.
Now Notre Dame is in the thick of conference play, and the Irish had a non-conference game against UConn to boot. Syracuse clipped the Irish, 79-65, in South Bend on Thursday, but Hidalgo still laid down a solid effort with 23 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.
Against the Huskies, she was out-of-this-world good.
Hidalgo scored a Notre Dame freshman record 34 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 6 assists. It was her sixth double-double of the year and her third time scoring 30-plus points. That is also a Notre Dame freshman record.
The Irish are limited by injuries, especially with junior guard Olivia Miles making it official she will not suit up and play at all this season. But with Hidalgo running things on both ends of the floor, the ceiling for this team is much higher than it would have been if she hit the same acclimation struggles just about every player her age goes through at some points if not all of a freshman campaign.
Those are simply foreign to Notre Dame’s new floor general.
“[Head coach Niele Ivey] has been telling us from day one we need to trust each other and we just need to have trust in each other,” Hidalgo said on a March Madness interview with Autumn Johnson. “Even if we don’t have our full squad, we need to trust what we have right now because what we have right now is enough.
“Not just for regular season games, but for the tournament — what we have is enough. If we trust in each other, we’re going to be good.”
