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Notre Dame freshman Hannah Hidalgo wins 2024 Dawn Staley Award

IMG_9992by: Tyler Horka04/05/24tbhorka
hannah (2)
Notre Dame Fighting Irish guard Hannah Hidalgo (3) returns the ball against the UConn Huskies in the first half at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion. (Photo by David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports)

There are brilliant guards scattered around NCAA women’s basketball this year. Two of them will face off in the Final Four on Friday night in Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and UConn’s Paige Bueckers. Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo has something this year neither of them do.

The 2024 Dawn Staley Award.

Hidalgo beat out Clark, who had won the award three years running, for the hardware. The trophy has been given annually to the player who “exemplifies the skills that [Staley] possessed throughout her career; ball-handling, scoring, her ability to distribute the basketball and her will to win” per a press release on the award’s website.

“Hannah Hidalgo’s court vision, passing ability, ball-handling and ability to create scoring opportunities for herself and her teammates combined with her relentless defense is unmatched,” Staley stated in the release. “She is the embodiment of a two-way force on the basketball court and the essence of what the award represents. In a season where there are several deserving candidates Hannah has separated herself from the group.” 

Hidalgo set new Notre Dame single-season records with 22.6 points and 4.6 steals per game. She led the nation in the latter category. She accomplished many feats that hadn’t been achieved by a player in a Notre Dame uniform since Skylar Diggins a decade ago. Diggins is the only other Notre Dame player to win the Dawn Staley Award. She took it home as the inaugural recipient in 2013.

Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey was an Irish assistant when Diggins was in South Bend. She compared Hidalgo to Diggins before the former ever even logged a collegiate minute. Turns out, she was right — and then some.

“Just magical,” Ivey said in a postgame interview after the Irish’s regular season win over Virginia Tech. “Her middle name is Grace. God’s grace. She’s a gift. She loves this game, and she has passion. She plays for me, and I’m so grateful to be her coach.”

Those are the attributes it takes to get singled out by Staley as the best guard in the country. Here’s a full list of Dawn Staley Award winners.

Dawn Staley Award winners

  • 2013: Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame
  • 2014: Odyssey Sims, Baylor
  • 2015: Tiffany Mitchell, Baylor
  • 2016: Moriah Jefferson, UConn
  • 2017: Kelsey Plum, Washington
  • 2018: Kelsey Mitchell, Ohio State
  • 2019: Asia Durr, Louisville
  • 2020: Tyasha Harris, South Carolina
  • 2021: Caitlin Clark, Iowa
  • 2022: Caitlin Clark, Iowa
  • 2023: Caitlin Clark, Iowa
  • 2024: Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame

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