Niele Ivey's Notre Dame, with Hannah Hidalgo, seeks a magical March | Women's Basketball Podcast

coach Neel Ivy is here to talk Notre Dame Fighting Irish really interesting team some team that might be the final team standing so you're going to want to pay attention to this locked on women's basetball starts now you are locked on women's basketball your daily podcast on women's basketball part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day hi there everyone and happy Wednesday I am Howard megdal your host welcoming you to locked on women's basketball I want to thank you for making us your first listen every day over 200,000 of you showed up in August to listen to us the way we show up for you six days a week and of course it is not just me it is the incredible team across the board at the next the next ts.com where we have over 100 reported pieces every single month about the game of women's basketball subscribe $9 a month $72 a year you get them all right to your inbox and you make sure you're supporting the work that's being done we believe all of it matters if you do to join us the next hoops.com and we've had no shortage of work covering it's hard to call it work covering the Notre Dame program coach what your team has done what you have put together I just as way of introduction as a point of personal privilege it is not easy to take over for a legend of Legends as you well know in the woman who recruited you and Muffet mcra I guess I'm so curious because I've read the stories Through The Years about how you had your heart set on playing at North Carolina mufford came out saw you kind of behind scenes do the roles were a little different back then and change the trajectory of things it obviously worked out pretty well for everyone involved considering all that followed and the titles and the career that you've had but I guess I wonder when you think about how you go about recruiting how much your own experience informs that absolutely I think um relationships are the center of the way that I recruit and um yes my heart was set on North Carolina um lot of influence from Michael Jordan I just loved him um and just felt like okay this was a great place for me to you know have a career but it didn't um you know the cars did not go that way and met you know coach mcar was introduced to the Notre Dame family and the tradition and the network and um fell in love and I built a great relationship with Coach mcra um and I'm still here and it's you know really impacted my life and such a positive way and the way that I recruit now is based off of you know my experience my experience with um having a incredible relationship with the head coach that's kind of how I recruit I try to really build strong relationships with our recruits and um you know try to ex explain how positive my experience was here as a player and having that um having that experience kind of walking in their shoes I think has been helpful in my journey as a recruiter when you look at the programs growth over your time in charge again you know to go back to the idea that you are taking over a program that had remarkable success I mean in the handful of programs in the history of the game but indisputably and even when you go beyond just that Topline number of wins you are seeing consistent growth in terms of how successful the teams have been you go 24 and9 two years ago 27- six last year I guess now three years ago two years ago 28 and seven last year we or turning the page on it but your your net rating in all three seasons got better from 15 to 212 to 233 you are it seems finding a way to be elite consistently despite an enormous number of injuries that you guys have had to weather and overcome I just I wonder when you sort of look at those numbers just beyond the WIS right is there a Topline number that you're saying gee look at us and again I'll knock on with for you healthy coming into this year right that you see as sort of the next team spot for growth right um yeah I feel like I have incredible pieces here I mean I have um The Return of Olivia miles who you mentioned that was on the podcast where All-American point guard ton of experience just just she's in a class of her own you know she's a magician on the floor um you know her coming back from her injuries she's going to be spectacular she's so hungry ready to get back on the floor um returning all- Americans and Hannah Hado one of the best also another in a league of her own point guard I don't think I've ever been around a program that's had two Dynamic point guards in the way that we have um Sony Citron Mattie westbeld and add some incredible transfers um All-American post player freshman and um couple combo guards snip uh you know pure shooter and emerish and um all-around athlete and cast uh Prosper um so just a lot of great pieces and um I feel like for me my goal every year is to get better number one you mentioned already is staying healthy we've unfortunately have gotten hit um by a lot of um injuries that has really had to I've had to Pivot a lot of ways that I've had to coach um because of the injury so um I just try to work on just getting better every day um you know performing at a high level competing at a high level and I feel like I have Elite self-motivated performers and we are all I mean they're lit they're so locked in they're so focused we have a lot of experience this year which I think is going to help us and so I'm hoping always just to get better every year Sonia obviously there's not really been a player quite like her to have the kind of you know triple double success she has so early it's interesting because in theory and and sort of in the old school way of thinking about it you'd say all right well she's a one Hannah is a one how do they necessarily fit together but as as we're seeing you know the game is evolved in such a way that multiple Distributors on the floor at any one time has gone from an incredible luxury to almost a necessity to be at the very top do you see it that way and do you feel as if uh there's a certain uh joy that you get as you're designing your offense knowing you're able to sort of build plays around each of them being primary facilitators absolutely I think um again having multiple ball handlers allows my offense to be more open it opens up the floor more you know I have I have spacers I have great Shooters you know I have forwards that can shoot threes um and there's really there's so many threats on the floor it's almost like you got to choose uh which person that you're going to leave and you can't um and having that I think has probably been um the most exciting for me even watching it this summer is every I have multiple three level scores in every position and that's just been really fun and exciting like you mentioned like just to I'm you know looking at the offense and what works with our newcomers and and how um just building chemistry offensively and finding schemes that I feel that can highlight the strengths of every one of my players and that's been a lot of fun for me to um to to see and and to be on the court with him this Summer and and that's my focus this um this preseason is making sure the offense fits the strengths of this this group but it's been a lot of fun just to have multiple you know I like to play with pace so having multiple guards that can push Tempo and um to space the floor I think it's going to be exciting for us to for people to watch is worth noting right you're 41st in the country last year in Pace you're doing this without sacrificing being able to take good care of the basketball I mean that's putting it mildly in the top 10 percentile when it comes to turnover percentage it's getting better year after year after year do you feel as if those numbers can be Juiced even further because again seeing the two of them like you said together as you design it is there another level to reach with that or are there other areas where you feel like you know we can build in you know whether it's rebounding whether it's you know forcing even more turnovers than you did last year I'm just wondering sort of what that next level looks like to you absolutely I would love to force more turnovers I think defensively we can impact the ball more this year um adding some athleticism in the forward position and then adding live size back having cast back um I think that's going to help us impact the ball defensively which can force turnovers and I I I believe that Olivia coming back with her experience she does a great job obviously of facilitating um I think she's going to help as far as um you know our assist turnover ratio and I think Hannah just having a year under her belt I think you're going to see a tremendous improvement from her um she had to carry the bulk of the offense and um being that you know the primary distributor and you know she's gonna get they're going to help each other Olivia and Hannah but also having that year on your belt as a point guard understanding the system um knowing what the ACC looks like in non-conference I think that's going to really help her um in her decision making this year so I'm excited you know I have some forwards that can create plays you know I'm going to run through the post a lot and um we have better passers you know in all different areas Kate Koval I think the one thing um that everyone's going to be really um surprised about is her passing ability she she has great vision for post she obviously is an incredible scorer great size um but she can also uh pass really well so I think our team you're we're very unselfish but I think you're going to see that so I'm hoping that category uh improves as well it it's really exciting because you know in in Carlin and King you have a couple of transfers coming in we'll get to in segment three you know players who who fit what you're doing you know that's just's so interesting to me it's not just that you're bringing in Talent you're bringing in freshman Talent as well but they make they make sense for the system um segment two we're going to talk about Hannah hialgo and I just you know to sort of exit SE segment one I will just urge all of you uh some people don't to Art Museums you know where they go to theaters I like to go to CBB analytics and just look at all the green up and down the numbers as it comes to your program it it's just a thing of true beauty so back with Coach Neel Ivy talking Notre Dame I am Howard medd doll this is lockedown women's basketball lock on women's basketball is brought to you by FanDuel FanDuel has an opportunity to help you it's America's number one sports book and they now have a deal offered for NFL Sunday Ticket if now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube or YouTube TV so when you hear people uh cries of Anguish coming out of my home a New York Giants family it'll be because we are able here in the Philadelphia area to watch the New York Giants I believe get 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try your Miracle ma sheets with an extra discount use the promo code locked on a checkout you get three free towels save an extra 20% again upgrade your sleep with Miracle made try miracle.com lockon Cod locked on for your threepiece towel set and save over 40% off thank you to Miracle made for sponsoring this episode yeah going to be a going to be a real 215 season I think for for the New York Giants and our family but it's okay we'll we'll make the best of it so back with head coach the LI Ivy of Notre Dame and what this program has put together uh included you know to go back to our conversation about recruiting coming right to our neck of the woods I'm coming to you from Cherry Hill right over the border from Merchantville home of course of the great Hannah hialgo and I can tell you this the High School coaches around here whenever Hannah came up oh they're so grateful to you for taking her finally away from them having to face I knew you gonna say that I knew you gonna say that it I mean celebration teers of Joy now that she's gone on to school but you know to me the most impressive thing about seeing her I had the privilege of seeing her here in high school knew the transition was going to be as impressive as it was it's just the way it translated right away on the defensive end the steals num she's putting up it just it's not it it's video game numbers on the defensive side of the ball how do you account for a player being able to in in year one be right at the top I I mean if she wasn't at the top she was near the top of steals per 40 steel percentage you name it being being able to generate those kinds of turnovers for you right away honestly this that is a gift I I I haven't seen it and I've said this in a lot of interviews I've never seen anyone change uh the game like that since Skyler Diggins and her defense is contagious um she takes so much pride in it and it's every day she's one of the most competitive players I've ever seen um as far as you know her drive her work ethic um she changed she changes the energy defensively like everyone stepped up their defense last year um bringing her onto our program it's just when you get a program changer like that especially on the defensive end um I mean it's a a joy for a coach uh she is just I mean every I mean where we're going is our practice guys she has no fear she's fearless defensively and that ignites her it ignites it ignites her game you know when she gets to lock lock up somebody defensively or um turn him in the back court or get a turnover or steal you know it just really ignites everything that she does and it's actually fuels us it fuels us um the compet her competitive nature just fuels what we do and um she's she's just a special player you know I mentioned earlier about us wanting to impact the ball and I mean she's she's the head of the snake our on our defense you know she we go where she goes because she just brings so much energy on and as a two-way player so I mean I just love it it fires me up this jersey toughness she brings it obviously is something that you want to encourage and also try and make sure it's channeled in the right way at the same time I I I know obviously you know it's St Louis toughness for you but I know you know this firsthand right like how much has your own Journey allowed you to kind of guide her in that way and do you remember like a moment that really stands out to you where you were able to impart that on her yeah I mean I mean I have obviously her skill set is way more Elite than than when I played but I I love I love playing defense you know point guard that I took pride in my defense you know um I always was the hardest worker on the court um love stepping up to a challenge of Defending you know great players and took a lot of pride in that and I had a lot of toughness coming from St Louis and play with a lot of passion a lot of heart and I feel like that's how she is and so a lot of times it's just you know like you mentioned like allowing her to be her but also reeling her in when I need to um especially if if it's file trouble or depend you know depending on the game scenario but iow her to be her I mean um I try not to take away from her gifts and the things that makes her go um and just try to guide her alongside um whenever she needs it but um I give her a lot of freedom and I think that's what um I love that because I feel like she can just really be herself and um and we feed off of that we feed off the energy that she brings but I try to bring in experience as much as I can um but I understand like I coach with a lot of passion um I have a lot of fire um with the way that I communicate with the team and with her and um and yeah and so uh it's it's a lot of fun you know having a point guard like that to have I will just say I you kind of dismissed your own uh experience and and we must not let that go unchecked we're going to fact check you there National Championship winning point guard WNBA standout so we just let's not we can say it if you don't want to say it but a a a very impressive career but it does go back to even the the part of the Season where you guys fell short and I wonder whether I covered that game live that was one of the strangest games I ever saw where you guys you committed I want say it was like five turnovers I mean it was like you made very few mistakes you forced 26 right or something like that with Oregon State and they just made so many contested shots and you still ended up only losing by five right does that for her specifically right because she was so upset after that one yeah does that help help fuel her do you think she'll be a better player because of it absolutely um I think some of the hardest experiences and lessons are in losses and she took that one really really hard you know it was just a it was an awkward type of game you know was so many stoppages of play the nose ring like it was so many factors that happened in that game that were just um not what you expect and so you know we had ajust from that and we found a way to kind of um you know battle fight the storm weather the storm within that game and like you mentioned I thought Oregon State shot the ball really well um you know they had a lot of size we were down with numbers but I felt like we still had an opportunity um to um to win that game we unfortunately came up short um but also I know that that's going to ignite us like you know our conversation after the game um watching what Hannah did this summer individually and seeing her come back and Sony like at Maddie you know there's so so many players that um you know that experienced that loss unfortunately you know we're right there you know just trying to get over that hump um and you know it definitely didn't take away from all the success that we had the entire season but it definitely you know left um you know that desire um you know to to to win and um you know the experience that sometimes it's it's always hard going through it but we're gonna you know it's we're GNA come out on the other side because of that and I definitely feel like that's that's fueling our team especially Hannah it's it's a remarkable thing to consider the idea that she could somehow be even more motivated it's hard to imagine but just in general you know that in so many ways a freshman year is a floor such a high floor for where she's headed right it's I I I cannot wait I look forward to seeing what her college career is like and I expect to be covering her at the next level for a very long time to come as well yeah but with three jersey kids on that roster no no shortage of motivation for sure well I want to go up and down the roster to talk about your newcomers as well and what's ahead uh right back in segment three uh I'm Howard mdo you're listening to locked on women's basketball back here with head coach Neil Ivy of Notre Dame and so when I talked about the fit right and just sort of a way of introduction I haven't had a chance to see your your freshman uh Kate Koval you know I have seen obviously Li of Carlin and latu King uh the latter of course who I think scored like 34 against you in a game I mean you know she she brought it um but in both these cases these are these just skilled passing forwards who can also hit the boards for you again just all the ways that like in the way that your team checks every box when you go up and down to the things that you do well this broad base of skill how early do you identify who can come in you also like you said with so many returners there wasn't necessarily a lot of space for playing time so you have to be so selective of it how do you go about doing that and figuring out what makes sense for your program specifically yeah for me especially with the new new newcomers and additions is like trying to figure out building chemistry that's what I'm doing I did this summer and um looking at different lineups together some right now I'm doing different combo groups of getting building chemistry with um a lot of different looks with our team and um I it's exciting it's exciting to feel like we have more depth and um we're very very skilled in a lot of different positions but I also love that we have a ton of experience and I think that's what Liza and Leu brings they bring a ton of experience you know Liza first team Big East le as you mentioned one of her best performances against us um you know first team was most improved I think um two years ago so I'm bringing a lot of experience um in the forward position bringing back a an experienced point guard and um and and have a lot of experience coming in with Hannah and and Sony so we have a lot of different looks a lot of different pieces and you know my job is to try to make it all make sense put the puzzle together um but I'm just really encouraged with the pieces that I have and I'm I'm really grateful and blessed because they're fun to work with high k character they work so hard um so now my job is just to build that chemistry as we prepare for the season I see you have decided to take the Hard Road when it comes to the non-conference schedule yes I have just so people have a sense of it uh you know everything from Purdue away you got USC uh playing against Texas by the way that that alone right like Hannah hadalo versus Rory Harmon that is going to be one of the matchups of the year um there's this upand cominging new program Connecticut that I think is headed for big things and so I know that's always a fun one what what was sort of the driving Factor here for you when you put together this you know again and we talked about this at the Top This is a team with clearly National Championship Talent you're you're going to be in that discussion is it it just getting you guys ready for the grind of ACC play absolutely I feel like um you know non-conference always prepares uh you know my team for ACC tournament and also for the NCAA tournament you know we're trying to build a incredible resum um try to challenge ourselves as much as we can gota you know the USC we haven't played USC in in a while so it's kind of re um reintroducing that that matchup obviously with Juju Watkins like I'm trying to grow the game or be a part of growing the game you know um and I felt like the way that I can do that is to continue to bring in these type of matchups um that I think women's college basketball wants to see um and you know the ACC SEC challenge which is new um last year that was really excited we played Tennessee at Tennessee last year so excited um to play to Tech to play Texas really really talented team and roster have incredible returning players as you mentioned Roy Harmon so my non-conference I feel like is going to be exciting is definitely challenging um but I always feel like it's going to prepare us for ACC and hopefully you know to make uh NCAA run and the ACC I has 78 teams now is that correct is that what what are you guys up to in this yeah we were last yeah yeah eight teams went to the tournament now we've added Cal SMU and and Stanford so um you know such an incredible um and competitive conference which is a lot of fun I mean there's no there's no days off at at any point with this schedule so um I'm gonna be a little stressed this season with this schedule on the plus side the ACC network will be running 247 on the TVs in my house so to seeing all of it for you when you think about all that you've done and all that you want to do here how do you set those goals for yourself for your team you know as as I mentioned obviously you know you will be in the discussion as uh one of those teams I don't know what preseason is going to look like uh in terms of the top 25 but that's of course always a start and it's always it's probably more subjective than it's ever been with all the movement with transfers how do you set it for yourself and for your team yeah I mean the goal is always um obviously the expectation is to you take care of home you know to compete for a national championship gets back to a final four trying to get back to a final four obviously always the goal um but it the it's so lofty that expectation my goal is to stay healthy and um to get better every day I think that's if I can keep it where it's not as um I don't want it to be stressful for the group the expectation is already what it is you know there's a standard here at Notre Dame and my team knows when you you you put that Jersey on like you carry that Legacy that um that was built before you and so they understand that expectation and it's just to go out to compete to grow together and to get better every day and um like I said hopefully uh God is on our side this year we can stay healthy and just feel like we can um just we're growing and getting better every day that the there's so much parody in women's basketball um that the top 10 you know it's going to be probably a roller coaster um because there's so so many programs um that are really really talented um and um and Elite so we always want to be in that conversation but really focusing on building chemistry and getting better W you certainly are in that conversation cannot wait to see it all unfold coach thank you so much for your time to our listeners thank you for making us your first listen every day you get an upgrade in the host chair tomorrow GG spear will be joining you and we'll continue to be with you six days a week until then I'm Howard mdal wishing all of you a wonderful Wednesday you are locked on women's basketball your daily podcast on women's basketball part of the locked on podcast Network