As Hidalgo emerges as player of year favorite, Notre Dame looks like team to beat

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- In the third quarter of a marquee matchup between No. 8 Notre Dame and No. 2 UConn, the Irish's 13-point lead was down to one after a Huskies run. Notre Dame needed a momentum shift -- and Hannah Hidalgo delivered. With the clock winding down, the Notre Dame sophomore hoisted a step-back 3-pointer -- her sixth of the night -- over the outstretched arms of a UConn defender. The shot swished, the buzzer sounded and Purcell Pavilion erupted, the control firmly back in Notre Dame's favor.

Among those jumping to their feet were three legendary Notre Dame guards -- Skylar Diggins-Smith, Arike Ogunbowale and Marina Mabrey -- who were sitting courtside a few feet away. Six years ago, Ogunbowale hit a buzzer-beating triple against UConn in the Final Four in one of the most famous shots in women's college basketball history. Now she was celebrating the dagger of another Irish icon in the making.

"When I hit that shot, I was looking over [at Ogunbowale] like, 'We in it too,'" Hidalgo said after Thursday's 79-68 win.

The season is just five weeks old, but Hidalgo is hoping that, just like Ogunbowale in 2018, she can lead Notre Dame to a national championship. She also has a chance at achieving something that neither Ogunbowale nor Diggins-Smith, nor Jewell Loyd, who also attended Thursday's game, managed during those players' time in South Bend: winning national player of the year.

Thursday's spellbinding 29-point, near-triple-double performance was another signature moment in Hidalgo's growing case for player of the year. For the second time in 11 months against UConn, she was the best player on the floor, establishing herself as a Husky slayer of historic proportions. On Thursday she became the first player over the past 25 seasons to record multiple games against UConn with at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists, and tied Sabrina Ionescu for the most such games versus an AP top-10 opponent. Hidalgo tallied both stat lines before her 20th birthday.

UConn's Paige Bueckers, the 2021 national player of the year and a candidate once more this season, put up a more-than-respectable 25 points on 11-for-20 shooting Thursday. But Hidalgo was the one who made her impact felt in every phase of the game.

Her defensive presence helped Notre Dame keep the UConn offense off-kilter. Her career-high six 3s was twice as many as UConn hit. Her 10 boards -- mind you, she's 5-foot-6 -- helped the Irish earn a plus-8 edge on the glass. On countless possessions, she'd grab a defensive board, fly down the floor and find open teammates for a bucket, in all scoring or assisting on 48 of Notre Dame's 79 points (61%).

It was a similar story three weeks ago in Los Angeles when the Irish toppled then-No. 3 USC 74-61. Hidalgo dazzled on both ends with 24 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 5 steals, outplaying fellow sophomore JuJu Watkins, the other preseason player of the year favorite. Bueckers and Watkins face off Dec. 21 in Hartford, but Hidalgo's brilliance against the Trojans and Huskies arguably makes her the current front-runner.

Fans spent the offseason wondering how guards Hidalgo and Olivia Miles, back from a February 2023 ACL tear that cost her all of last season, would operate together in the backcourt. Those concerns over their dynamic seem silly now, with both so clearly amplifying and opening opportunities for the other.

With Miles the primary facilitator, Hidalgo is putting up even better scoring numbers than last season. Her 25.0 points per game ranks second in the country, and she's shooting 46.2% from the field, including 42.6% from 3, while averaging 7.1 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 3.8 assists per game.

Before Thursday's tip, Hidalgo was honored for reaching the 1,000-point milestone, which she accomplished in a school-record 44 games. Then she went out and reached 200 career steals in her 45th career game, tied for the fastest to reach the mark across all of Division I over the past 25 seasons.

Hidalgo said her energy on court, which she calls "this dog," is different from her low-key personality off it. But it's that two-way tenacity -- the competitive fire she shows with every stomp and scream, every fist clench and fist pump -- that gives her an "it" factor.

"There's a talent level that she has that's pretty unique," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "But I think more importantly is the way she attacks everything that she does. The way she attacks your defense, the way when she's on defense, she attacks your offense, and the way that she leads her team in so many different ways. I think you put all those three things together, and it's just a really, really, really difficult matchup for anybody.

"She does what she does, and I don't know that there's a lot of strategies that you can use."

On Thursday, Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said she knew when recruiting Hidalgo out of Merchantville, New Jersey, that she would be special -- even if she then was "shocked" Hidalgo came along so quickly. Ivey said she realized during the team's summer foreign tour just how big-time Hidalgo would be.

"She always played with a chip on her shoulder. She always wears her heart on her sleeve, having that passion and that energy and the love and joy of the game," Ivey said. "She's different in such a unique way, the way that she plays, and she's just stepped in, and she's just growing and blossoming. She's one of the best in the country."

So special that if she continues on this track throughout ACC play, Hidalgo could end up Notre Dame's first national player of the year since Ruth Riley won the Naismith Award in 2001 -- also the year the Irish clinched their first of three national titles. And that's a realistic ceiling for this Notre Dame team, Ivey's most promising since taking over for Muffet McGraw in April 2020.

The Irish (8-2) still have a pair of losses on their record, to then-No. 17 TCU and unranked Utah in the Cayman Islands on back-to-back days to end November. But now, with their third top-five win, they have reaffirmed they're legit championship contenders, and not just because they have Hidalgo. Miles has played her way into a potential WNBA draft lottery pick; Sonia Citron is another potential first-round WNBA prospect, and the frontcourt corps will only get stronger with the return of injured Maddy Westbeld and Liza Karlen, who made her season debut Thursday.

"Obviously they lost two games, so there's probably no team out there you can say is unbeatable," Auriemma said. "And if you put Notre Dame against any other team in the country, I don't think anybody would be surprised if they won that game."

After Thursday's game, Diggins-Smith embraced Hidalgo. During her time in South Bend, Diggins-Smith ushered in a golden era of Notre Dame basketball, leading the Irish to the first three of five consecutive Final Four appearances. Diggins-Smith's South Bend career (2009-13) was also the last time the Irish boasted a three-game win streak over the Huskies -- until now.

"Great job," Diggins-Smith told Hidalgo after the game. "Keep going, OK? That's how you play."