Notre Dame 2023-24 Season (merged)

[DefenseBB]

Yes but, ND lost to Cuse while UNC demolished the Orange. That's why I think UNC will win it.

Wait, what? ND lost to Syracuse at Syracuse. ND beat Pitt at Pitt. So on the road they are 1-1. Syracuse lost to NC at NC. Home court actually matters and is why the rating services qualify Quad games based on where they are played.
As much as I dislike both ND and NC (albeit ND more), I think ND wins at home in a close game. Massey has the game as 70-62 with the HFA (Home field advantage) of 2.72 points or 3 points so neutral court would be ND by 5.

NC is wildly inconsistent and like many teams, trying to figure out the injury situation.

 

[DallasDomer]

Wait, what? ND lost to Syracuse at Syracuse. ND beat Pitt at Pitt. So on the road they are 1-1. Syracuse lost to NC at NC. Home court actually matters and is why the rating services qualify Quad games based on where they are played.
As much as I dislike both ND and NC (albeit ND more), I think ND wins at home in a close game. Massey has the game as 70-62 with the HFA (Home field advantage) of 2.72 points or 3 points so neutral court would be ND by 5.

NC is wildly inconsistent and like many teams, trying to figure out the injury situation.

Not sure how this game will go particularly because Westbeld left the Pitt game after a head butt by King. She had a bloody lip and nausea. The nausea scares me since it's a concussion symptom. If she's out ND is very limited but I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Reypl21]

ND has been hard to watch. Their guard depth is zero and their posts aren't elite (except Westbeld who is more of a stretch 4). Hidalgo is a stud!
I hope Bransford starts finding her spots to score from because they're going to need her.

 

[Hester42]

ND has been hard to watch. Their guard depth is zero and their posts aren't elite (except Westbeld who is more of a stretch 4). Hidalgo is a stud!
I hope Bransford starts finding her spots to score from because they're going to need her.

I have been a bit underwhelmed with Bransford relative to her recruiting hype, was expecting more from her. Hidalgo is excellent but they need more from the surrounding cast. ND will need to hit the portal and add some posts this offseason, I know they have Koval coming in but they need more.

 

[Reypl21]

I have been a bit underwhelmed with Bransford relative to her recruiting hype, was expecting more from her. Hidalgo is excellent but they need more from the surrounding cast. ND will need to hit the portal and add some posts this offseason, I know they have Koval coming in but they need more.

I agree. In theory they should invert the offense and post up Bransford more. But if they have Watson in they will never be able to do that. Watson just isn't a starter quality big if ND wants to be a final four team. She is foul prone, only has a few moves that she can't score with, and is getting blitzed in the paint and can't make decisions fast enough down there. She would make a perfect big off the bench, but ND couldn't get Betts in the portal. Marshall hasn't had a good couple of ACC games so far, but she's been playing more on the perimeter. She was a bright spot against SC, so I think she has potential against the better teams.

Hidalgo does miss some open looks for her teammates and takes shots. I think she can clean that up, but ultimately she has to take a lot of shots for ND to win. Her potential maximizes when she has other scorers around her. I presumed Miles would miss this season from the start, but ND had a lot of guard depth at the beginning of the season. Hopefully next year everyone will come back and hopefully be healthy. Miles will be the point and Hidlago will be the SG.

ND will need to hit the portal for bigs very hard. I think Westbeld will graduate and move on, but I'm not sure about Marshall and Watson. They could both stay and I think ND will still need to get two more bigs in the portal.

 

[DallasDomer]

ND has been hard to watch. Their guard depth is zero and their posts aren't elite (except Westbeld who is more of a stretch 4). Hidalgo is a stud!
I hope Bransford starts finding her spots to score from because they're going to need her.

Keep hearing that Citron and Miles will come back sooner rather than later. If they do come back it fixes the guard depth but I'll believe their back after I see them on the court. Bransford seems to be in a sophomore slump I think she'll play her way out of it. Time will tell...

 

[oldude]

Just watched ND lose at home vs UNC. I didn’t think it was possible that another team in the country would be dealing with more injuries than UConn. Today, ND dressed only 7 players, and played only 6. Citron was back and played reasonably well, but Westbeld was out with concussion syndrome (sound familiar).

Without Miles, the pg responsibility falls on freshman Hannah Hidalgo. Hidalgo is an incredibly talented player with unbelievable quickness, similar to KK Arnold. But unlike Arnold, who has Paige & Nika on the court with her, Hidalgo has the entire weight of running the show in South Bend, and while she makes a lot of great plays, sometimes she makes freshman mistakes.

Beyond that, ND doesn’t appear to get a lot from their 2 Bigs (Watson & Marshall), or the other 2 guards DeWolfe & Bransford. Unless some players get healthy fast, it could be a long season in South Bend.

 

[Blueballer]

I'd like to know why ND has been ranked in the teens the entire season despite all their injuries when we got massively bumped down because of our injuries?

 

[oldude]

I'd like to know why ND has been ranked in the teens the entire season despite all their injuries when we got massively bumped down because of our injuries?

Well, until the past week or so ND’s only loss was to SC in Paris. But over their last 3 games, ND lost to an unranked Syracuse on the road and today to UNC at home for the first time ever. So the Irish will undoubtedly drop in the polls tomorrow. But if they get their core of Westbeld, Miles, Citron & Hidalgo healthy at the same time, they can still make some noise in March.

 

[Blueballer]

Well, until the past week or so ND’s only loss was to SC in Paris. But over their last 3 games, ND lost to an unranked Syracuse on the road and today to UNC at home for the first time ever. So the Irish will undoubtedly drop in the polls tomorrow. But if they get their core of Westbeld, Miles, Citron & Hidalgo healthy at the same time, they can still make some noise in March.

But we went down 15 spots from pre=season and our last 2 losses were to a 2 higher ranked teams. It still doesn't add up. And I'll bet ND doesn't drop below 20.

 

[oldude]

But we went down 15 spots from pre=season and our last 2 losses were to a 2 higher ranked teams. It still doesn't add up. And I'll bet ND doesn't drop below 20.

We’ll see. I don’t really worry too much about the polls, particularly in season. All I really want is for UConn to be 1 of the 16 teams that get to host the first 2 rounds on campus and then head to Albany for the regionals. If the Huskies take care of business in the BE, beat ND at home, regardless of what happens against SC in Columbia, that scenario should play out, giving UConn a realistic chance of making it to yet another FF.

 

[hoopsnloops32]

Well, until the past week or so ND’s only loss was to SC in Paris. But over their last 3 games, ND lost to an unranked Syracuse on the road and today to UNC at home for the first time ever. So the Irish will undoubtedly drop in the polls tomorrow. But if they get their core of Westbeld, Miles, Citron & Hidalgo healthy at the same time, they can still make some noise in March.

Miles is coming back this season?

 

[oldude]

Miles is coming back this season?

Nobody seems to know for sure

 

[Reypl21]

Miles is coming back this season?

I doubt it. I can't see her using a year of eligibility to play half the last half/third of the season.

 

[Frankus]

Great to have Soni back. She opens the court for everyone. Had we hit the wide open shots we had at the end of the game, we win. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

In the 3 ACC games, it’s clear how bad our bigs are. We’ll win a lot of games when Maddy gets back, but our bigs are a huge liability to being an elite team.

Assessing why our bigs are so bad is difficult. Both were highly rated out of HS, but both play small and weak compared to their size and are unskilled compared to their opponents. Watching Shrewsberry coach ALL his players, I’d like to se Nielle more involved coaching the bigs during the game.

 

[Monte]

ND missed Westbeld A LOT in the loss today to NC. When and if, she returns will make a big difference for that team.

 

[Puppy Love]

I doubt it. I can't see her using a year of eligibility to play half the last half/third of the season.

She’ll be 22 in January 2025 and eligible for the WNBA. She might not care about losing a year of eligibility.

 

[my2cents]

As a UCONN fan, watching ND the last few games, they are so decimated with injuries, you almost feel sorry for them. No Luck of the Irish this year.

 

[Dillon77]

As a UCONN fan, watching ND the last few games, they are so decimated with injuries, you almost feel sorry for them. No Luck of the Irish this year.

It's like a non-winnable cha-cha game:

• One player up, one comes back, get used to chemistry (again).
• Oh, Soni's back, but Maddy's out with a concussion.

If you're an Irish fan and a practicing Roman Catholic, this is what purgatory is

BTW, here's an amazing stat: Maddy Westbeld is mid-way through her senior year (4th season). Yesterday, was the first game she has not started in an ND uniform since arriving on campus.

 

[oldude]

It's like a non-winnable cha-cha game:

• One player up, one comes back, get used to chemistry (again).
• Oh, Soni's back, but Maddy's out with a concussion.

If you're an Irish fan and a practicing Roman Catholic, this is what purgatory is

BTW, here's an amazing stat: Maddy Westbeld is mid-way through her senior year (4th season). Yesterday, was the first game she has not started in an ND uniform since arriving on campus.

Dillon, misery loves company. Over the past few seasons both ND and UConn have been in their respective purgatory when it comes to injuries. So it appears that God doesn’t distinguish between a Catholic university and a secular university.

Hopefully, Westbeld’s concussion syndrome is short lived, and doesn’t take on the lengthy battle that appears to threaten to end Caroline Ducharme’s career.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Dillon, misery loves company. Over the past few seasons both ND and UConn have been in their respective purgatory when it comes to injuries. So it appears that God doesn’t distinguish between a Catholic university and a secular university.

Hopefully, Westbeld’s concussion syndrome is short lived, and doesn’t take on the lengthy battle that appears to threaten to end Caroline Ducharme’s career.

Secular? I always thought UCONN was solidly Northern Baptist!

 

[Dillon77]

Dillon, misery loves company. Over the past few seasons both ND and UConn have been in their respective purgatory when it comes to injuries. So it appears that God doesn’t distinguish between a Catholic university and a secular university.

Hopefully, Westbeld’s concussion syndrome is short lived, and doesn’t take on the lengthy battle that appears to threaten to end Caroline Ducharme’s career.

Ironically, Maddy was caleld for a foul on the Pitt player who drove into and head butted Maddy -- At first, it looked like the head butt just caused a (very) bloody lip, but it became apparent Maddy was not all there. (I'm still trying to figure why Coach Ivey and staff didn't challenge that one). However, she looked pretty good sitting on the bench on Sunday. Stay tuned.
It's been a -- ahem, challenging -- year so far.

 

[DefenseBB]

ND missed Westbeld badly yesterday and their other front-court players have simply not performed well enough to give any real hope to the team. At least when Citron gets her basketball legs and shooting in shape and gets Maddy back, they still should be good enough for a top 4 ACC seed.

 

[DallasDomer]

ND missed Westbeld badly yesterday and their other front-court players have simply not performed well enough to give any real hope to the team. At least when Citron gets her basketball legs and shooting in shape and gets Maddy back, they still should be good enough for a top 4 ACC seed.

Citron played 38 minutes in her first game back. Every time out the trainers had to get the cramps out of her legs and she drained almost two drinks each time. She was really tired in the post game press conference. I've never seen her look so gassed before. She'll build back her conditioning but they need Westbeld, she actually makes the post players better by drawing coverage away from them and the entire team needs more players to take minutes.

I won't speculate about Miles, toss a coin for an answer but at least she's on the bench cheering every game.

 

[visitingcock]

Citron played 38 minutes in her first game back. Every time out the trainers had to get the cramps out of her legs and she drained almost two drinks each time. She was really tired in the post game press conference. I've never seen her look so gassed before. She'll build back her conditioning but they need Westbeld, she actually makes the post players better by drawing coverage away from them and the entire team needs more players to take minutes.

I won't speculate about Miles, toss a coin for an answer but at least she's on the bench cheering every game.

38 minutes in first game back? Sounds like a questionable decision to me.