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Alexa Philippou
Multiple Authors
FORT WORTH — Notre Dame junior star Hannah Hidalgo doesn’t have to be reminded about what happened the last time her Irish faced off against the UConn Huskies: a 38-point blowout in Storrs, the first time in her career she’d lost to Notre Dame’s longtime rival.
But Jan. 19 feels like ages ago — especially considering how far this No. 6 seed Irish team, now playing its best basketball, has come since then.
“I feel like I can say that UConn hasn’t seen the best Notre Dame,” Hidalgo said on Saturday, a day before her team will meet the Huskies in the Elite Eight for the first time. “I take joy in knowing that when they saw us the first time, it was not Notre Dame basketball. Now we’re playing Notre Dame basketball to the best of our ability, and so I think it’ll be a fun game.”
Hidalgo had been a problem for the Huskies earlier in her career. As a freshman, she put up 34 points, 10 rebounds and six assists against them in Storrs, and she once more nearly notched a triple-double against them the following year in South Bend with 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
But the script was flipped earlier this season. Hidalgo struggled in that January contest, finishing with just 16 points on 5 for 15 shooting. And the roster turnover Notre Dame experienced this past offseason meant this Irish group was relatively inexperienced going up against a program as iconic — and a team that remains as dominant — as the Huskies.
“I think before when we played UConn, we played a little afraid,” Hidalgo said, pointing in part to the Huskies’ physicality. “… I think we were a little probably starstruck. Being in a stage like that was different. … it was a lot of people’s first time playing at UConn, against UConn. So now that we’ve seen it, we’ve been through it, I think it’ll help us a lot.”
Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey — who won a national championship with the Irish as player and was a longtime assistant before taking over for Muffet McGraw — knows better than almost anyone what it takes to go up against and beat the Huskies.
“It’s a different type of game. It’s a different type of mindset,” Ivey said. “They can crush you from the beginning, so you have to have confidence for 40 minutes. You can’t come into the game not having confidence, because they’ll take it away right from the beginning.
“Everybody has that under their belt now. There’s no surprise in what we’re going to see tomorrow. It has to be 40 minutes of a lot of toughness and a lot of fight.”
The Huskies know better, too, than to expect the same outcome as January.
The Irish turned a corner in February, winning 10 of their last 11 games – their sole loss in that stretch by two against a tough Duke team that punched its ticket to the Elite Eight on Friday.
This Notre Dame squad has less star power than some of its previous teams, but the group has prided itself on its chemistry and is coalescing at the right time around its superstar. Hidalgo recorded the second triple-double in NCAA tournament history involving steals in Friday’s win, finishing with 31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals and seven assists.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma compared her to former NFL defensive great Lawrence Taylor.
“She’s just a unique player that comes along once in a lifetime, and she has the ability to disrupt and cause chaos like nobody I’ve ever seen,” Auriemma said. “I think her team obviously feeds off of that.”
Added sophomore guard Kayleigh Heckel: “She moves a lot, and it’s kind of hard to stay with her. Super athletic, super fast. She does everything, she passes, she rebounds, she’s a great defender, so it’s kind of hard to play against the player like her.”
The programs’ rivalry also remains difficult to ignore, even if it doesn’t look the same as it was at its height in the 2010s.
UConn owns the series history 40-16, but the Irish’s five March Madness wins against the Huskies — all under McGraw — are the most of any program. They are also the only program with a winning record against UConn in the NCAA tournament.
“Kind of like a bloodbath,” Fudd said describing the past UConn-Notre Dame matchups. “Definitely every time we get to play them and then any time you’re playing in March in Elite Eight, trying to get to the Final Four, it’s an honor, it’s a privilege, and every team is going to play their heart out.”
The Huskies will enter the game seeking the program’s 17th Final Four appearance in 18 tournaments, and to get one step closer to an undefeated campaign and securing back-to-back national titles.
The Irish? As a No. 6 seed few expected to make even beyond the second round, “we have nothing to lose,” Ivey said. “We have no pressure on us.”
“I think everybody counted us out, and everybody doubted us,” Hidalgo said. “And so it’s like, ‘Oh, why not [us]?'”
