Why Notre Dame women’s basketball shouldn’t sulk after another Sweet 16 exit

Notre Dame is not a house of cards. Far from it.

It’d be selling head coach Niele Ivey and the job she’s done in four years, each one yielding at least one more win than the one before it, short to label her program as such. But even sturdy cement- and steal-based structures are susceptible to falling in detrimental environments. Notre Dame’s environment in another run to the Sweet 16 was certainly detrimental.

Again, just like it was last year when Notre Dame’s starting backcourt imploded with a pair of season-ending knee injuries. Ivey can’t catch a break. She could only put six players on the floor in a 70-65 loss to Oregon State at MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y., on Friday.

“Tough experience, toss loss,” Ivey said.

Two of six finished with four fouls. Senior forward Maddy Westbeld had three before halftime, a number matched by two more of the Irish’s starters by the end of 40 minutes. Each time the whistle blew at for an Irish infraction, it felt like the equivalent of a hole popping up in the hull of a boat in the middle of the ocean.

“It kind of threw me off defensively a little bit in the second half with playing as aggressive as I wanted to,” Westbeld said. “That was really unfortunate.”

Since mid-February, the Irish did enough to patch such punctures. Freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo bailed ’em out. Or Westbeld made clutch shots and took games over. Junior guard Sonia Citron showed up and did the same. Those two gave it everything they had in combining for 41 points against the Beavers. Hidalgo only had 10 on 4-of-17 shooting.

“You can’t teach experience,” Ivey said of Hidalgo’s outing.

Perhaps even more painful than Hidalgo’s rare ineffective, inefficient game was Notre Dame’s defense. The Irish gave up 70 points for the first time since Feb. 11. The Beavers shot 60.4 percent from the field as a team. They made it look easy. The Irish weren’t able to win ugly against a top-tier opponent like they did in a 55-51 triumph over NC State, a similar team as Oregon State in structure and style, in the ACC Tournament game.

This time Notre Dame took on a lot of water. The blue and gold boat finally sunk.

Everyone on it went into the water together.

“I love my team,” Ivey said. “That’s the one thing that I know. This is an incredible group, and we battled a lot this season. We left it on the floor, and just proud of who we are.”

Her ship stayed afloat for so long. Ten straight wins, the first eight of which vaulted Notre Dame into a No. 2 seed, is nothing to shrug shoulders at when 2022-23 Associated Press Second Team All-American Olivia Miles didn’t play a single second in them — or a single second in any game all season. Most teams that lose a player of that caliber for a full season don’t end up in the Sweet 16. Notre Dame, despite Friday’s result, is not most teams.

Ivey said like she won even in defeat because of how far her team went against all odds.

“Redefining ourselves late in February, being ACC champs in a season that had a lot of highs and lows, we really battled,” Ivey said. “We found our identity, our character, and I’m just blessed to coach this group.”

The 10-game streak snapped by OSU is even more impressive when you consider Miles sat on the bench in a sweatsuit alongside several other contributors sidelined with injuries of their own, from freshman guard Emma Risch following hip surgery and sophomore guard/forward Cass Prosper with an unidentified lower-leg injury that kept her out since late November. And, of course, senior center Kylee Watson, who Notre Dame lost to an ACL injury in the ACC Tournament semifinals.

Notre Dame was undermanned. Easy to see. Notre Dame was also six points — three two-point baskets or a couple 3s — away from being one of the final eight teams still playing this season.

This time next year, they should be one of those. Also easy to see.

Oregon State forwards Raegan Beers and Timea Gardiner were unstoppable from the tip. They had 39 points and 24 rebounds between them. Notre Dame only had 24 rebounds as a team. The No. 5 player in the recruiting class of 2024, 6-4 center Kateryna Koval of Brookville (N.Y.) Long Island Lutheran, is arriving this summer to help the Irish combat what they couldn’t adequately compete with against OSU; size and strength in the post.

The only two Notre Dame players who exhausted their eligiblity are graduate student guard Anna DeWolfe and graduate student forward Becky Obinma. The latter never factored into Ivey’s rotation as a transfer from Pepperdine. The former started all 35 of the Irish’s games, but it’s Miles who will replace her and step into a starting role in the backcourt with Hidalgo.

Hidalgo is one of five players to ever be named an AP First Team All-American as a freshman. She was a top-five scorer in the country and led the nation in steals. Don’t let what happened against Oregon State make you forget she was one of the best players in America from the very start of the season when she dropped 31 points against No. 1 South Carolina in Paris, France.

Hidalgo never got the chance to face the Gamecocks again. A win over Oregon State would have set up a rematch in the Elite Eight. She’s got three years to get ’em again. They could be three years that resemble the best Notre Dame women’s basketball has ever had if everything falls into place. No injuries, Westbeld returning, Koval making an immediate impact. Hidalgo, Miles, Citron, Westbeld, Koval. There won’t be many starting fives better than that one, if any.

“We have great firepower coming back,” Ivey said.

Ivey has the pieces. She’s just got to put them together. She said she already cannot wait to get started.

“We’ve had so much growth this year, and I’m really, really excited for the team that’s returning,” she said. “It’s going to be incredible to see.”