Duke WBB plays at Notre Dame on Monday 2/17 at 6pm ET on ESPN (
streaming link,
listen,
live stats)
The #13 Blue Devils travel north to face the #2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the 9,000-seat
Purcell Pavilion, and will try to give the home team its first ACC loss. The Monday evening game is the first of a Duke Basketball doubleheader on ESPN, with the Duke men playing at Virginia right after.
This will be a tough challenge. Notre Dame has double-digit wins over fellow top 10 teams Texas, USC, and Connecticut. Aside from a pair of late November losses to TCU and Utah in the Cayman Islands Classic, they have not lost a game this season. They are undefeated in the United States, which is concerning, since the NCAA Tournament will definitely take place on the mainland.
Head coach Niele Ivey is in her fifth season on the job, and her team has torn through the ACC schedule so far. Aside from a 9-point win at Clemson (where they were without their leading scorer, Hannah Hidalgo), they have not been seriously challenged in 13 conference games, winning most of them by 20 or more points. They most recently had a 31-point road victory against Pittsburgh (88-57:
recap,
box score,
highlights,
full replay).
In last Tuesday's
ACC media teleconference, Duke coach Kara Lawson did not want to look ahead to Notre Dame -- her focus was correctly on Wake Forest -- but she did take the time to point out that she'd never seen a team stockpile so much talent:
Coach Lawson:
"I think they have 6 first team All Conference players on one team, is that right? I mean, [Hannah] Hidalgo's first team, [Olivia] Miles is first team, [Sonia] Citron and [Maddy] Westbeld have had to have been first team at some point in their career, maybe. Last year [Liatu] King was first team All-ACC, last year [Liza] Karlen was first team All-Big East... holy moly, that's pretty impressive. It's a lot of experience, right? I just know what they are on paper: one of the most talented teams, probably, that we've gone against since I've been here at Duke."
She's correct, by the way.
2020-2021 All-ACC: 1st team Westbeld
2021-2022 All-ACC: 1st team Miles
2022-2023 All-ACC: 1st team Citron, Miles; 2nd team Westbeld
2023-2024 All-ACC: 1st team Hidalgo, King (at Pittsburgh); 2nd team Citron, Westbeld
2023-2024 All-Big East: 1st team Karlen
If Coach Ivey continues her current rotation, we're looking at a starting lineup of 5 former first team All-ACC players. Here's a look at the Fighting Irish
roster:
PROBABLE STARTERS
5-6 sophomore guard
Hannah Hidalgo #3 (25.2 pts, 5.4 reb, 4.0 ast, 4.1 stl)
5-10 grad guard
Olivia Miles #5 (17.0 pts, 6.0 reb, 6.3 ast, 1.4 stl)
6-1 senior guard
Sonia Citron #11 (13.5 pts, 5.4 reb, 2.9 ast, 2.0 stl)
6-0 grad forward
Liatu King #20 (12.0 pts, 10.6 reb, 1.6 ast, 2.2 stl)
6-3 grad forward
Maddy Westbeld #21 (8.5 pts, 3.4 reb, 0.8 ast, 1.1 blk)
TOP RESERVES
6-2 redshirt sophomore guard
Cassandre Prosper #8 (6.8 pts, 4.4 reb, 1.1 ast)
6-2 grad forward
Liza Karlen #32 (6.3 pts, 3.5 reb, 1.3 ast, 1.0 stl)
6-5 freshman forward
Kate Koval #13 (6.0 pts, 5.6 reb, 1.6 ast, 2.1 blk)
6-1 sophomore guard
Emma Risch #2 (5.7 pts, 1.8 reb, 1.1 ast)
BENCH PLAYERS
5-4 grad guard
Sarah Cernugel #25 (0.8 pts, 0.1 reb, 0.1 ast)
5-10 freshman guard
Luci Jensen #15 (0.0 pts, 0.7 reb, 0.2 ast)
6-3 junior forward
Bella Tehrani #10 (0.0 pts, 0.0 reb, 0.0 ast)
INJURED/OTHER
5-11 junior guard
KK Bransford #14 -- lower leg injury, redshirting this season (link)
6-4 senior forward
Kylee Watson #22 -- knee injury, out indefinitely (link)
Hannah Hidalgo is ranked 2nd nationally in both points and steals. She went full Grinch -- the green uniform helps -- in this
video from last December, How Hannah Stole the Ball:
Hidalgo had a phenomenal freshman campaign last year in the absence of Olivia Miles, whose knee injury in the spring of 2023 wiped out her 2023-2024 season. Now healthy, Miles has definitively answered any questions about how she and Hidalgo would coexist. Basically, they've become one of the nation's most dynamic backcourts. Miles ranks 6th nationally in assists, and she's coming off a season-high 28 points in Thursday's win over Pittsburgh, including 8 made threes, which ties a school record.
Together they put up an average line of 42 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, and 5 steals. They shoot in volume and shoot the ball well, combining for about 43.6 percent from outside and 84.8 percent at the line. The ACC Digital Network has put together midseason highlights for both
Miles and
Hidalgo.
Liatu King, a grad transfer from Pittsburgh, is now a 3rd or 4th option on offense, but still averages a double-double. She leads the ACC in field goal percentage, is 2nd in rebounds, and 6th in steals. Sonia Citron leads her team in free throw percentage (over 89 percent) and her steal average is 10th in the league; she, Hidalgo, and Miles are high usage players, all averaging over 33 minutes per game. Maddy Westbeld missed half the season with a left foot injury, but returned in early January and was soon inserted into the starting lineup. Kate Koval, a freshman, is 3rd in the conference as a shotblocker.
Because the Irish are so loaded at the top, they do not produce a lot of bench scoring, but they look elite in so many other team stats. According to
Sports Reference, they rank in the top 20 nationally in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, and are top 30 in every form of shooting percentage. I took a look at the other 9 teams in the AP top 10 to see if that across-the-board excellence is normal. It's not.
UCLA: 211th in steals, 124th in 3-point percentage, 183rd in free throw percentage
Texas: 31st in rebounds, 30th in assists, 32nd in steals, 46th in twos, 208th in threes, 51st in free throws
South Carolina: 31st in assists, 69th in steals, 39th in twos, 84th in threes, 46th in free throws
LSU: 68th in assists, 54th in steals, 38th in blocks, 68th in twos, 77th in threes, 83rd in free throws
USC: 26th in assists, 24th in steals, 55th in field goals, 58th in twos, 107th in threes
Connecticut: 182nd in rebounds, 23rd in steals, 72nd in blocks, 57th in free throws
Kentucky: 36th in points, 66th in rebounds, 340th in steals, 36th in field goals, 109th in threes
Ohio State: 186th in rebounds, 78th in assists, 86th in blocks, 48th in field goals, 63rd in twos, 140th in threes, 239th in free throws
NC State: 30th in points, 151st in assists, 294th in steals, 37th in blocks, 44th in field goals, 51st in twos, 93rd in threes, 313th in free throws
Bart Torvik is predicting Notre Dame to win, but by single digits at home: 74-65.
| Category | Notre Dame (22-2, 13-0 ACC) | Duke (20-5, 11-2 ACC) |
| Points Scored | 87.6 (4th nationally) | 76.4 (38th) |
| Points Allowed | 60.9 (98th) | 58.4 (56th) |
| Scoring Margin (NCAA.com) | +26.7 (2nd) | +18.0 (24th) |
| Bench Points (NCAA.com) | 14.0 (293rd) | 33.0 (2nd) |
| Total Rebounds | 44.0 (5th) | 39.2 (72nd) |
| --- Offensive Rebounds | 12.4 (110th) | 15.0 (21st) |
| --- Defensive Rebounds | 31.6 (3rd) | 24.2 (225th) |
| Assists | 18.5 (12th) | 17.6 (21st) |
| Assist/Turnover Ratio (NCAA.com) | 1.21 (29th) | 1.19 (33th) |
| Steals | 11.7 (18th) | 11.1 (30th) |
| Blocks | 5.7 (8th) | 4.3 (40th) |
| Turnovers | 15.3 (126th fewest) | 14.8 (96th fewest) |
| Personal Fouls | 15.0 (68th fewest) | 16.9 (200th fewest) |
| Field Goal Percentage | 50.4% (3rd) | 45.6% (35th) |
| 2-Point FG Percentage | 53.6% (20th) | 49.4% (82nd) |
| 3-Point FG Percentage | 42.3% (1st) | 35.7% (32nd) |
| Free Throw Percentage | 76.9% (29th) | 66.9% (294th) |
| NET Ranking (NCAA.com) | #4 (NET Summary) | #8 (NET Summary) |
| --- Strength of Schedule | 11th | 10th |
| --- Quad 1 record | 5-2 | 4-4 |
| --- Quad 2 record | 7-0 | 5-1 |
| --- Quad 3 record | 2-0 | 7-0 |
| --- Quad 4 record | 8-0 | 4-0 |
| T-Rank (Bart Torvik) | #4 (T-Page) | #7 (T-Page) |
In October, the NCAA published a
PDF file of frequently asked questions for the NET in women's basketball. Quadrants are defined on page 4:
Quadrant 1: Home 1-25, Neutral 1-35, Away 1-45
Quadrant 2: Home 26-55, Neutral 36-65, Away 46-80
Quadrant 3: Home 56-90, Neutral 66-105, Away 81-130
Quadrant 4: Home 91-362, Neutral 106-362, Away 131-362
