Notre Dame women's basketball season begins tonight with mix of new, old faces

There’s a saying that’s popular in American culture lately. It’s taken social media by storm. “The same, but different.” It’s used to mean that two things are more or less the same in spite of discernible differences.

The 2021-22 Notre Dame women’s basketball roster compared to that of 2022-23 might as well be the poster child of the saying. That’ll be on display at Purcell Pavilion tonight at 7 p.m. ET (ACCNX) when the Fighting Irish begin head coach Niele Ivey‘s third season at the helm in a season opener vs. Northern Illinois.

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The roster turnover was quite profound, once again. Four transfers (guards Anaya Peoples to DePaul, Abby Prohaska to San Diego State and Katlyn Gilbert to Missouri, and forward Sam Brunelle to Virginia) left the program, in addition to starting center Maya Dodson getting selected No. 26 overall in the WNBA Draft.

Poof, just like that, five important pieces from the prior roster went out the door.

But here’s the kicker: Dodson was the only starter from last year’s Sweet 16 team to leave. Sophomore point guard Olivia Miles is back as a preseason All-American. So is graduate student shooting guard Dara Mabrey along with sophomore combo guard Sonia Citron and junior forward Maddy Westbeld.

That quartet combined for 47.3 points per game last season. All four will likely be on the court together for tipoff tonight, as they were for an exhibition victory last week over Truman State. For fans in attendance, that’ll look familiar.

Almost exactly the same, minus Dodson. Not so different.

Those four know what it was like to be a possession away from the Elite Eight this past March, too. Notre Dame lost to North Carolina State 66-63 in the Sweet 16.

“Our phrase is ‘hungry for more,’” Ivey said. “We tasted it. I think you can utilize a loss for the next season. It’s going to always be in the back of their heads. They’re going to have a chip on their shoulder.

“They know how good they can be. They know the potential. They showed it last year. Raising that standard, raising that expectation every day is what I know they’re going to do.”

Given the departures, they’re going to need some help.

Dodson and the four transfers combined for 27.2 points per game. That’s a healthy chunk of scoring. How will Notre Dame overcome that? Not easily. The three transfers brought in — graduate students Lauren Ebo from Texas and Jenna Brown from Stanford, and junior Kylee Watson from Oregon — combined for 11.8 points per game last year. Brown did not play at all in Palo Alto because of an ACL injury. She’s been preparing this fall with a hefty brace on her right knee.

Ebo started 30 of 35 games in Austin and scored 8.0 points per game, and Watson scored 3.8 points in 32 games and nine starts in Eugene. The latter started last week’s exhibition, but Ebo quickly replaced her after early turnovers. Ebo finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds. Watson had 14 and 8. It was only Truman State, but that’s the sort of split Ivey is looking for.

The production of true freshman and former McDonald’s All-American KK Bransford is to be determined, meanwhile. But say she’s able to do what Citron did and average 11.8 points per game as a true freshman. That would match what Ebo and Watson combined for a season ago — and it’s definitely not farfetched. The 5-foot-11 Bransford averaged 21.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.3 steals per game as a senior at Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame High School.

“Even though she’s so young, she’s so talented,” Citron said. “I’m so excited to see what she does this season.”

A shade less than 12 points per game is a lofty yet attainable expectation for Bransford. For Ebo and Watson to combine for that — again — meanwhile? Nope. Those two players are in entirely different situations now. The Texas and Oregon rosters were loaded with post players that made playing time hard to come by. Notre Dame has nine scholarship players, and Ebo and Watson — both standing at 6-foot-4 — are the only candidates to compete for serious playing time at the five. Former five-star Natalija Marshall has had too much of a history with injuries to be in that conversation.

Watson was a five-star recruit and a McDonald’s All-American in her own right. Citron said she has “an insane motor.” The Linwood, N.J., native never got off the ground as a vital piece to the Oregon program. Being a potential starter out of the gates at Notre Dame could be the boost she needs to take off.

“Me and Ebo and everyone else that came in, we’re each going to bring our own style of game,” Watson said. “We’re going to do the things we can control. We’re going to do the little things but also be the big presence that [Notre Dame] needs. Just play really hard for our teammates.

“Obviously, our guard situation is pretty good. So we want to be able to help elevate that part of our game there.”

Elevation is what Ivey is looking for. Despite exactly half of last year’s scholarship players (five of 10) returning for this season, Ivey said the Notre Dame standard has not changed. It hangs over her head every day — literally.

There are two national championship banners in the Purcell Pavilion rafters, and she was a part of the first one (2001) as a player and the second one (2018) as a coach. Players resonate with that no matter if they joined the program over the summer like Watson, Ebo, Brown and Bransford, or three summers ago like Westbeld.

You don’t sign on at Notre Dame out of high school or transfer in from another university without embracing expectations. But there is a difference between aspiring for them and actually reaching them.

Ivey yearns for her group to accomplish the latter.

“I’m always pulling for more,” Ivey said, “I’m always trying to push them beyond what they think they can do. If they think we’re there, we’re not even close to being there. I know how hard it is.

“That’s what I’m trying to pull out of them and challenging them at all times to be their best.”