Where Notre Dame women's basketball ranks in Week 16 AP Top 25
Notre Dame only had one game for Associated Press pollsters to examine for this week’s AP Top 25. The Fighting Irish lost it, 59-43, to NC State. Naturally, Monday slapped ’em in the face with a steep drop in the rankings.
Notre Dame went from No. 16 down to No. 19, tying the Irish’s worst ranking for the Irish this season.
It’s a trying time for head coach Niele Ivey‘s team. Competing with a seven-player rotation can wear on the ones who have to shoulder most of the weight. Freshman sensation Hannah Hidalgo, for instance, is coming off the worst game of her young career. She scored 10 points on 4-of-19 (21.1 percent) shooting against the Wolfpack.
Junior guard Sonia Citron has mostly struggled since her return from a knee injury that held her out of the lineup for two months. She has shot below 43 percent from the field in five of her last seven games, including a dismal 23.5-percent outing in a loss to Syracuse on Jan. 25. That was disappointingly similar showing to that of Hidalgo last week. Those numbers aren’t normal for Citron, a career 45.7 shooter. She’s sitting at 43.5 this season, the worst percentage of her career.
Finding offense won’t be any easier for Notre Dame tonight against Duke, holder of the ACC’s best points allowed per game average of 57.8. All told, though, this is a game the Irish need to have. Notre Dame still has not lost back-to-back games since Ivey’s first season — the one marred by the pandemic in 2020-21 — and now is no time to snap the streak with five games left in the regular season.
Realistically, the goal should be to win four of them. The next three opponents, including Duke, are unranked. Got to beat the Blue Devils, Clemson and Boston College. Then split a pair of home games against No. 8 Virginia Tech and No. 20 Louisville.
Best-case scenario? The Irish wake up, come alive and win all five. It’s not impossible, even with how dreary the outlook has been lately with two losses in the last three tipoffs.
Below is a look at the current AP Top 25 and ACC standings.
Week 16 AP Top 25
- South Carolina (25-0)
- Ohio State (22-3)
- Stanford (23-3)
- Iowa (23-3)
- Texas (24-3)
- NC State (23-3)
- USC (20-4)
- Virginia Tech (22-4)
- Oregon State (21-4)
- Kansas State (22-4)
- Colorado (20-5)
- UCLA (20-5)
- LSU (21-4)
- Indiana (21-3)
- UConn (22-5)
- Gonzaga (26-2)
- Syracuse (22-4)
- Utah (19-7)
- Notre Dame (18-6)
- Louisville (21-6)
- Creighton (1-3)
- West Virginia (22-3)
- West Virginia (22-3)
- Baylor (19-6)
- Princeton (20-3)
ACC standings
No. 8 Virginia Tech (22-4, 13-2)
No. 17 Syracuse (22-4, 12-3)
No. 6 NC State (23-3, 11-3)
No. 20 Louisville (21-6, 10-4)
Florida State (19-8, 10-4)
North Carolina (17-9, 9-5)
No. 19 Notre Dame (18-6, 8-5)
Duke (16-8, 8-5)
Miami (16-9, 6-8)
Georgia Tech (15-12, 6-8)
Clemson (11-15, 4-10)
Virginia (12-13, 4-10)
Boston College (11-16, 3-11)
Pittsburgh (8-19, 2-12)
Wake Forest (4-22, 0-14)
