Notre Dame 2025-2026 Regular-Season Thread. | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Notre Dame 2025-2026 Regular-Season Thread.

Bad News: The Notre Dame Football team (bunch of crybabies) announced that they are foregoing any bowl game and ending its season effective immediately.

Good News: Its will give them more time to watch the women's team feast on the cupcakes it has on its schedule the rest of the month.
 
A first half leg injury to KK Bransford. She was helped off the court and did not return. No update on the injury, but it didn't look good.
 
Bransford came out on crutches to greet her teammates after the game. Still no update on her injury.
 
rvwsleep said:
Bransford came out on crutches to greet her teammates after the game. Still no update on her injury.
Expand ...
the affair GIF
 
.-.
cancontent said:
A glass half full kind of update. Better than what most of us feared is how I see it.
Expand ...
The good news: no surgery needed. The bad news: the dreaded, week to week prognosis.
I've included an article from Blue & Gold that gives a bit more detail, particularly about Bransford's eligibility. Bransford took last year off to fully recover from a past foot issue, so this knee problem is a kick in the you know what. She will have another year to play, if she chooses to do so.

KK's injury reduces the Irish rotation to six players, since Coach Ivey has shown no inclination of playing Loyola transfer Kelly Ratigan.
The Wake Forest transfer center, Malaya Cowles, has slid into the starting spot with Gisela Sanchez sliding over to her natural role -- stretch forward -- and Cass Prosper playing the 3.

www.on3.com

Niele Ivey reveals knee injury status for Notre Dame guard KK Bransford

Notre Dame played without KK Bransford for the first time this season Sunday. Are the Irish going to have to play without her much longer?
www.on3.com www.on3.com
 
ND Goes to 8-2 After Win at JMU. Some Monday AM-Thoughts:

In Sunday's 78-65 win at Harrisonburg, Va., ND beat a team that has a few P5 wins under their belt and the place was packed to lend support. The Irish led wire-to-wire, which helped with tonality (keeping the volume down). ND had a 14-point lead at half and basically played JMU even in the 2nd half. Had a bit of a drop-off in late third quarter/early fourth, but then had a run and brought it over the finish line.

- Like usual, ND's defense turned into offense. The Irish scored 21 points off JMU's turnovers, vs the four JMU got off Irish T/O's.

- Poise. That's a word Cass Prosper used in her post-game interview to describe what she's looking to continually add to her game. Don't rush, don't overthink. Do what she does well. Seeing more of the latter and not as much of the first two. She led the Irish with 24 points on 11 of 16 shooting. The spin move down the lane and to the left was superb and pretty unstoppable. Cass pretty much played all but 2 seconds of the game.

- Malaya Cowles in the starting lineup rather than Iyanna Moore? Looked like the right call yesterday. KK, although listed as a guard, adds toughness, rebounding and paint presence for the Irish. So does Cowles. She's got presence on defense, as well as a surprisingly quick first step which allows her to pick off passes or get to loose balls. Plus, she seals as well as Lauren Ebo does, then does that spin into the baby hook. Great shot. Great shot. End result: 5 steals and 17 points on 7-12 shooting.

- In 2024, Kelly Ratigan came to JMU as the first guard off the bench for Loyola and played 15 minutes, dropping 13 points on 3-8 from 3-pt. land, a respectable 37%. Now I know, ND has quick, talented and short guards in HH, VDJ and Moore. Ratigan would be another short back-court player.
However, I've got to think she can spell people for more than 2 seconds at the end of a quarter. Once ND hits the ACC schedule, it will be a grind.
Not getting her some minutes, with all due respect, strikes me as being a bit short-sighted. There's always Bellarmine.

- Speaking of that, week off for finals then on against that team on Sunday.
 
ND Wins First At-Home ACC Game Against Out-Matched Pitt Panthers

94-59 final and the Irish pretty much put this away with the 24-12 second quarter. Third was virtually even but Irish had a run in the early fourth that extended the lead (way) beyond a doubt.

  • Iyana Moore was consistent and aggressive in her scoring last night. Yes, the three ball was/is crucial (5-9) but -- as noted in Romper Room -- her hard take to the foul line on a fast break and pull-up jumper was a really pleasant surprise.
  • Vanessa de Jesus is just such a solid, all-round team leader to balance Hannah Hidalgo: 7 points and rebounds, 6 assists and three steals. Loves the way she comes back to rebound -- smaller version of Miles, in that respect. What an off-season pick-up.
  • Double (18 pts)-Double (10 rebounds) for Cass Prosper, who can do things like hit old-school behind the head layups and drill back-to-back trey's and then miss gimmes. Still, her confidence is great and she continually plays hard on defense and 50-50's. BTW, 4 blocks and steals.
  • Hannah's continual hunting is contagious, whether on defense or attacking 50-50's in the offensive end. She and VdJ are relentless.

  • It was noted that Pitt made a decision to go young and build internally. We'll see how all those frosh develop, but I thought Mikayla Johnson was an eye-opener with 22 points on inside drives and wing jumpers. Fatim Diakhate, the very tall center, wracked up a double-double. She's still very rough around many edges, but made some nice seals and spins to the hoop. If she continues to develop, she'll be a player.
  • Pitt plays hard like Tony Verde teams always do. We'll see if he can turn the corner. Gosh, they're better than BC, who I glimpsed last night against UNC. They're devoid of talent.
 
Hannah Hidalgo led the Irish with 30 points and set the tone defensively, in which the Irish had 17 steals: 4 each by HH, Malaya Cowles and Cass Prosper and 3 by Vanessa de Jesus. With those four steals, Hidalgo passed her coach - Niele Ivey -- to take over the second-most steals in ND WBB history, with 350 (Ivey has 348). The leader: Skylar Diggins, with 381. That will come shortly. Kelly Gramlich, the ACC studio host and game commentator, thinks HH's numbers will never be approached after HH hits the pro's.


 
Dillon77 said:
Hannah Hidalgo led the Irish with 30 points and set the tone defensively, in which the Irish had 17 steals: 4 each by HH, Malaya Cowles and Cass Prosper and 3 by Vanessa de Jesus. With those four steals, Hidalgo passed her coach - Niele Ivey -- to take over the second-most steals in ND WBB history, with 350 (Ivey has 348). The leader: Skylar Diggins, with 381. That will come shortly. Kelly Gramlich, the ACC studio host and game commentator, thinks HH's numbers will never be approached after HH hits the pro's.


Expand ...

To think she has one more season of eligibility left. Holy cow.
 
.-.
BRS24 said:
Expand ...


Didn’t they say some thing similar about miles? There was a chance she’d return for the tournament later. To she was out the following year. Never actually saying she tore her acl
 
A really good win for the Irish against a young, and athletic and skills overmatched, Pitt team. If Iyana Moore can shoot like that consistently, ND will be a much more dangerous team, as HH will make defenses sag. Cass Prosper came achingly close to what everybody hopes- a slasher who can score AND a three point shooter. These two players are the key to the season. We will give up points to teams with bigger front lines. I really like Cowles, but we don't have enough quality depth down low. This weakness can be diluted if Moore and Prosper can score like last night, where we looked like one of MM's high scoring teams. We'll see, but hope springs eternal.
 
Geew1992 said:
Didn’t they say some thing similar about miles? There was a chance she’d return for the tournament later. To she was out the following year. Never actually saying she tore her acl
Expand ...
Yup.
ND's Athletic Department is known for obtuse, open-ended descriptions. Some of that is due to privacy, but they also border on "huh?"

Having watched KK Bransford go down that game, it looked like the kind of fall that comes about due to an ACL, as opposed to what happened to Sonia Citron when a Northwestern player fell into the back of her knee, which resulted in a sprain. Citron, of course, did come back...strong. KK's brace looks long and huge and protective. I don't think we'll see her anytime soon.
 
Blue Huskie said:
Ivey on hot seat?
Expand ...
I can’t understand how she wasn’t on the hot seat last year. She had a team that looked like National Champions early in the season and it spectacularly fell apart at the end of the year. I think that letting ‘Hannah be Hannah’ was part of the problem, but it seems like the chemistry issues ran much deeper. She can’t control for the injury problems, but the exodus at the end of last year seems telling.

I think it’s nearly impossible to be the coach who follows a long time winner. Up until last year, I thought that Coach Ivey had done better than most in that role. Now, it seems that the honeymoon is over and I’m wondering if she has the skills for the current mess, which is at least partially her own doing.
 
.-.
Puppy Love said:
I can’t understand how she wasn’t on the hot seat last year. She had a team that looked like National Champions early in the season and it spectacularly fell apart at the end of the year. I think that letting ‘Hannah be Hannah’ was part of the problem, but it seems like the chemistry issues ran much deeper. She can’t control for the injury problems, but the exodus at the end of last year seems telling.

I think it’s nearly impossible to be the coach who follows a long time winner. Up until last year, I thought that Coach Ivey had done better than most in that role. Now, it seems that the honeymoon is over and I’m wondering if she has the skills for the current mess, which is at least partially her own doing.
Expand ...
The biggest issue I have with Ivey has been her (or her offensive scheme's) inability (or lack of desire) to recruit quality bigs and help bigs thrive both as scorers and rebounders

This year's roster has two scholarship players over 6 feet, and one walk on who never plays.

UCONN and South Carolina's roster have 9 players over 6 feet [not sure how many walk ons] . This year, I only consider Cowles a true inside player. Last year, neither Karlen or Westbeld thrived in this offense inside. The year before only only Kylee Watson thrived as a big.

Compare this to the 2017-2018 National Chamionship team that had 7 players over 6 feet, two of which were true bigs and are still in the WNBA.

Next year, Ivey has 6'2" Leah Macy coming back from injury, 6'3" Cassandre Prosper presumably returning and is bringing in three 6'2" wings and one 6'3". Whether her offense thrives both outside and inside and whether Ivey's teams can or cannot compete with the heavyweight college basketball teams on both ends of the court is a huge question mark. I suspect she'll get at least two more years, if not three. I think ND is committed and has the money to be an elite woman's basketball team. Whether Ivey can get them there is up for debate, and it didn't help that she did a poor job with bigs in the portal, but she's not going anywhere. She is revered by Notre Dame's heirarchy.
 
If you look at recruiting, it seems to have cooled off, sort of.
  • 2021 she got Miles and Citron
  • 2022 their highest was KK Bransford, in the 20's ranking
  • 2023 Hidalgo, Prosper, and Risch, all top 20
  • 2024 it was #5 Koval
  • 2025 - Macy at #26 was the highest
  • 2026 - #9 Alibi and then a bunch of 4* kids
Maybe not that much cooling off - pretty consistent with top 10 kids, but Miles left and she, Hidalgo, and Citron were their superstars. But none lately.
 
Wait, I am not understanding why anyone would think Niele Ivey is on the "hotseat". I mean in addition to the Dr. Pepper endorsement 🤣, she's done a pretty good job following a legend who left the cupboard completely bare. She's been there 5 years, won 2 ACC titles and has made the Sweet 16 4 straight years. She's recruited pretty well and is able to compete in this new NIL landscape. I get the whole "Miles-Hidalgo thing" was bad and then losing multiple transfers was not a good look AT ALL, but she has proven worthy of being a good coach. She is 3-1 vs UConn and has won the last 3 games.
 
EricLA said:
If you look at recruiting, it seems to have cooled off, sort of.
  • 2021 she got Miles and Citron
  • 2022 their highest was KK Bransford, in the 20's ranking
  • 2023 Hidalgo, Prosper, and Risch, all top 20
  • 2024 it was #5 Koval
  • 2025 - Macy at #26 was the highest
  • 2026 - #9 Alibi and then a bunch of 4* kids
Maybe not that much cooling off - pretty consistent with top 10 kids, but Miles left and she, Hidalgo, and Citron were their superstars. But none lately.
Expand ...
I don't know enough about recruiting sites. Hoopgurl has Abii at 16, Ragone at 19 and Biles at 23. It's a solid class, but -at least by the high school evaluators- lacking a top 10 5 star player.

Ivey had to bring in a big class, as I think ND wbb is going for something like the football program, using small numbers of portal players to fill holes. But you're right, unlike Freeman who looks to be building a powerhouse, and who just signed 5 5* players, Ivey does not appear to be gaining substantial momentum as a coach via recruiting.
 
She will get a couple more years at least. I hope her team can remain as healthy as possible. They are logging heavy minutes, and there's only 6 of them in the rotation right now. Really hope Bransford and Prosper come back for another year.
 
I am betting that Dillon may beat me to this post, however we had the game on, and although ND had 3 starters in DF, it was surprising that Duke had all 5. Wondering if this is a one off, or has Lawson figured out her team's offensive woes? Time will tell with the remainder of the ACC season.
 
.-.
BRS24 said:
I am betting that Dillon may beat me to this post, however we had the game on, and although ND had 3 starters in DF, it was surprising that Duke had all 5. Wondering if this is a one off, or has Lawson figured out her team's offensive woes? Time will tell with the remainder of the ACC season.
Expand ...
In contrast to all those P4 coaches whose OOC schedule is loaded with cupcakes, Kara Lawson & Duke stand in stark contrast. Duke had a brutal OOC schedule, took some tough losses and was knocked out of the top 25. Now they’re rolling at 4-0 in the ACC and will likely find themselves back in the top 25 tomorrow.
 
BRS24 said:
I am betting that Dillon may beat me to this post, however we had the game on, and although ND had 3 starters in DF, it was surprising that Duke had all 5. Wondering if this is a one off, or has Lawson figured out her team's offensive woes? Time will tell with the remainder of the ACC season.
Expand ...

Don't want to hijack the ND thread, but Riley Nelson entered the starting lineup about 6 games ago replacing Jadyn Donovan. Unlike Donovan, Nelson is a natural scoring wing, and her play has allowed for Fournier to operate with more spacing.
 
Frankus said:
The biggest issue I have with Ivey has been her (or her offensive scheme's) inability (or lack of desire) to recruit quality bigs and help bigs thrive both as scorers and rebounders

This year's roster has two scholarship players over 6 feet, and one walk on who never plays.

UCONN and South Carolina's roster have 9 players over 6 feet [not sure how many walk ons] . This year, I only consider Cowles a true inside player. Last year, neither Karlen or Westbeld thrived in this offense inside. The year before only only Kylee Watson thrived as a big.

Compare this to the 2017-2018 National Chamionship team that had 7 players over 6 feet, two of which were true bigs and are still in the WNBA.

Next year, Ivey has 6'2" Leah Macy coming back from injury, 6'3" Cassandre Prosper presumably returning and is bringing in three 6'2" wings and one 6'3". Whether her offense thrives both outside and inside and whether Ivey's teams can or cannot compete with the heavyweight college basketball teams on both ends of the court is a huge question mark. I suspect she'll get at least two more years, if not three. I think ND is committed and has the money to be an elite woman's basketball team. Whether Ivey can get them there is up for debate, and it didn't help that she did a poor job with bigs in the portal, but she's not going anywhere. She is revered by Notre Dame's heirarchy.
Expand ...
Actually the Irish have three bigs >= 6'3", all averaging over 25 minutes, nine points and five rebounds per game: Cass Prosper, 6'3" Mayala Cowles, and 6'4" Gisela Sanchez. Additionally, all three are shooting above 54% from the field.

The ND problem isn't the bigs. The problem is committing the offense to a single player. And it will not get better next year if the Irish view all of the incoming talent as back-up to Hidalgo.
 
YKCornelius said:
Actually the Irish have three bigs >= 6'3", all averaging over 25 minutes, nine points and five rebounds per game: Cass Prosper, 6'3" Mayala Cowles, and 6'4" Gisela Sanchez. Additionally, all three are shooting above 54% from the field.

The ND problem isn't the bigs. The problem is committing the offense to a single player. And it will not get better next year if the Irish view all of the incoming talent as back-up to Hidalgo.
Expand ...
Prosper doesn't play like a big. She's seen herself more as a guard when she came out of high school. I wouldn't put her in that category.
 
The Duke game went as expected. ND misses KK. The most concerning this is still ND's offense. Niele will not adjust to the talent she has. I don't expect a different offense to win these games, but it just shows Niele's lack of adjustments.it worries me for next year.
 
YKCornelius said:
Actually the Irish have three bigs >= 6'3", all averaging over 25 minutes, nine points and five rebounds per game: Cass Prosper, 6'3" Mayala Cowles, and 6'4" Gisela Sanchez. Additionally, all three are shooting above 54% from the field.

The ND problem isn't the bigs. The problem is committing the offense to a single player. And it will not get better next year if the Irish view all of the incoming talent as back-up to Hidalgo.
Expand ...
If you think prosper and Sanchez are "bigs" you and I have different definitions. Sanchez can hardly grab a rebound and hold onto it. Prosper is a slasher who is rarely on the block.

And ND isn't committed to one player, but she is indispenspible to us being decent, compared to bottom of the barrel.
 
.-.
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
167,930
Messages
4,545,411
Members
10,426
Latest member
kmbazz15


Top Bottom