Hannah Hidalgo’s Good/Bad Game

[slepers]

EVERY team in the country would love to have Hannah Hidalgo. That’s a fact.

As an ND fan I like that HH hates to lose and is pissed when she doesn’t. She has the heart of a lion. If we had 5 other players with her heart we’d be a much better team.

Nope

 

[Zonepress]

Media reports seem to downplay this occurrence. They attribute Hidalgo’s behavior to the fact that she is an emotional player. Other reports consider her second technical to be a weak ejection.
Have you ever noticed that players tend to draw a second technical foul late in the fourth quarter after the game is already decided? Could that indicate that drawing the second technical was deliberate and not an emotional reaction? The ejected player is aware that ejection is only for a minute or so (or just seconds) and will have no bearing on the outcome of the game. A second technical and its ejection of the player should carry over to the next game on the schedule. The second technical should not be perceived as a heroic action.

Being a curious, enquiring sort of fellow, I can't help but wonder…

Is Ms. Hidalgo just a jerk with some prodigious basketball talents?

you just might be on to something!!

 

[Charliebball]

EVERY team in the country would love to have Hannah Hidalgo. That’s a fact.

As an ND fan I like that HH hates to lose and is pissed when she doesn’t. She has the heart of a lion. If we had 5 other players with her heart we’d be a much better team.

I'm not sure that Geno would love to have her simply because she plays so out of control........one could also accuse her of being a selfish player, but I have a feeling she's monopolizing the ball simply because she's the only prolific scorer on the team...

 

[oldude]

Why would you taunt someone or team if you’re going to lose the game at that point. Makes no sense to me. But these youngins make no sense to me these days. I guess now if you get your butt whipped in the schoolyard you can yap away and ppl will understand. Oh times have changed.

There’s a video online that shows Hidalgo taunting an Ole Miss player extensively after hitting a late and meaningless shot. After Hidalgo is T’d up and thrown out of the game, the Ole Miss player basically shrugs her shoulders, indifferent to Hidalgo’s taunting.

 

[oldude]

Griner has to be about done, she might not ever share the same court w/ Hidalgo.

If not Griner then Wilson, Boston or another Big.

 

[FairView]

Griner has to be about done, she might not ever share the same court w/ Hidalgo.

That's not the point.

 

[Bigboote]

Media reports seem to downplay this occurrence. They attribute Hidalgo’s behavior to the fact that she is an emotional player. Other reports consider her second technical to be a weak ejection.

There have been other players whose on-court demeanor is/was, uhmm, a little out of control, and it seems they've generally been referred to as emotional players. Coaches/mentors have just never gotten them to rein their emotions in.

Other players are just as emotional, they just don't act those emotions out. Can anyone say with a straight face that Hannah Hidalgo is more emotional than Napheesa Collier?

 

[Zanzman]

Hannah is more emotional than Napheesa

 

[cancontent]

There have been other players whose on-court demeanor is/was, uhmm, a little out of control, and it seems they've generally been referred to as emotional players. Coaches/mentors have just never gotten them to rein their emotions in.

Other players are just as emotional, they just don't act those emotions out. Can anyone say with a straight face that Hannah Hidalgo is more emotional than Napheesa Collier?

Or you hear the term "passionate" used instead.

The debate as to how an athlete should or shouldn't act depends on one's viewpoint which, in my opinion, will include some bias. It also impacts how it's framed by the media because two people will see the same action differently.

 

[cancontent]

Hannah is more emotional than Napheesa

Yeah, but do you want to take a chance and get caught in one of Collier's death stares when she's ticked on the court? It's usually the quiet ones who are the ones we need to be wary of. 😉

 

[Nolefan]

Folks that dont think character issues will drop you down the draft board might want to check out the NFL draft ..

 

[TheFarmFan]

There’s a video online that shows Hidalgo taunting an Ole Miss player extensively after hitting a late and meaningless shot. After Hidalgo is T’d up and thrown out of the game, the Ole Miss player basically shrugs her shoulders, indifferent to Hidalgo’s taunting.

Can you share the link? I watched ESPN's highlight of that play and I couldn't really see anything - even Rebecca and Ryan weren't sure what happened. Not saying she didn't, I just didn't see anything that was beyond a normal HH reaction to hitting a big shot.

 

[oldude]

Can you share the link? I watched ESPN's highlight of that play and I couldn't really see anything - even Rebecca and Ryan weren't sure what happened. Not saying she didn't, I just didn't see anything that was beyond a normal HH reaction to hitting a big shot.

There’s a “Shorts” clip on YouTube titled “Hannah Hidalgo EJECTED for taunt. It’s one of those cell-phone sized videos. It’s about 30 seconds long showing Hidalgo hitting a baseline jumper, then jawboning to her defender as she backpedals in the other direction. After the T is called, the video focuses on the Ole Miss player, who is indifferent to Hidalgo’s taunting. Then it goes back to Hidalgo on the bench as she is being told by Coach Ivy and one of her assistants to go to the locker room.

I would also point out that Hidalgo’s taunting occurred right in front of ND’s bench. So Coach Ivy had a front row seat to whatever Hidalgo said.

 

[FanInNC]

Based on what I saw it had to be what she said more than her antics. She didn’t appear to be overly demonstrative, clapped her hands and said something kinda nodding. I mean imo you look foolish celebrating anything you do when the scoreboard says you are taking a L for the game, but I’ve also seen much worse in the way of taunting.

I didn’t see the first T, and this one occurred 5 seconds later. I’m guessing this one happened because she had just been T’d up for trash talk and proceeded to say something immediately after kinda suggesting the message of the first T not getting through. The ole miss player had the right reaction, shrug and let the scoreboard do the talking.

HH is obviously polarizing. She’s an incredible talent, offensively and defensively. She’s a fireball. She has very little help this year and probably needs to be dominating the ball a large portion of the time, I also think it’s fair to wonder if this is the bed she made for herself. Is it her personality that pushed so many talented players out the door in the off season? Her style of play? She wasn’t exactly a distributor last year with all the talent around her. Averaged 4 assists and 3 turnovers per 40 minutes while taking 20 shots. Her assist totals are actually up this year to 5 per 40, though up to 4 turnovers too.

 

[JellyBean]

EVERY team in the country would love to have Hannah Hidalgo. That’s a fact.

As an ND fan I like that HH hates to lose and is pissed when she doesn’t. She has the heart of a lion. If we had 5 other players with her heart we’d be a much better team.

Well said. I am not an ND fan at all. Trust me. I can't stand ND and my dislike for ND is more football related. I can tolerate ND and their basketball programs, like I tolerate oatmeal. But I am a huge fan of Hannah Hidalgo, since her high school days. Her passion. Her competitive drive. That "Will to Win" mindset. HH has it and not everyone sees or understands that factor about some athletes. It might rub them the wrong way, as we have seen in the comments, and I get it. Everyone will not see things the same. I love HH and love what she is doing, and I agree that every team in the country would love to have a player like Hannah on their team.

 

[Jumper33]

Based on what I saw it had to be what she said more than her antics. She didn’t appear to be overly demonstrative, clapped her hands and said something kinda nodding. I mean imo you look foolish celebrating anything you do when the scoreboard says you are taking a L for the game, but I’ve also seen much worse in the way of taunting.

I didn’t see the first T, and this one occurred 5 seconds later. I’m guessing this one happened because she had just been T’d up for trash talk and proceeded to say something immediately after kinda suggesting the message of the first T not getting through. The ole miss player had the right reaction, shrug and let the scoreboard do the talking.

HH is obviously polarizing. She’s an incredible talent, offensively and defensively. She’s a fireball. She has very little help this year and probably needs to be dominating the ball a large portion of the time, I also think it’s fair to wonder if this is the bed she made for herself. Is it her personality that pushed so many talented players out the door in the off season? Her style of play? She wasn’t exactly a distributor last year with all the talent around her. Averaged 4 assists and 3 turnovers per 40 minutes while taking 20 shots. Her assist totals are actually up this year to 5 per 40, though up to 4 turnovers too.

I agree with most of this. I will leave speculation about whether it’s her personality or feistiness on the court out of the equation, but just looking at her playstyle itself, I can see why some players might not have wanted to play with her. There are many instances where she has a full head of steam and throws up a crazy shot and it’s very clear she isn’t considering passing or looking for the best shot. I can easily imagine this would be frustrating to play with someone like that.

I think this is ultimately on coaching. If they had a competent half court offense maybe they could run some plays to get better looks for her and others.

If someone wants to counter with “ND has no other scorers this year anyway”, I understand, but she would regularly ignore teammates last year too and we are all aware of the talent level of her teammates last year.

On the other side of the coin some young players probably want to play with a very talented player like Hidalgo. Because if I’m not mistaken ND has a handful of recruits for the next (Hidalgo’s senior) season. Basically I agree with you, she is polarizing. Some people really are not fans of her but many are. She can be frustrating to watch but also very entertaining and her motor is endless.

 

[DefenseBB]

I saw the game and in real time, it was a given that ND was going to lose so I thought the Technical a bit much and just prolonging the game. Yes, the T was deserved but at that point in the game, meaningless. In watching that game, it seemed to me Ivey lets HH act too obnoxious in the huddles that when Miles did that she was taken out. Seems Ivey s now compromised.

All that said, I just calculated the games scores for 214 quality players at this point in the season and HH ranks 3rd behind Sarah. Strong 30.6 and Audi Crooks 29,5 with HH at 28.4. 4th place is way back at 24.8. Azzi is 17th at 19.0 so these top 3 are far and away ahead of everyone…