FORT WORTH, Texas — The intentionality of team building clicked for Hannah Hidalgo after speaking with Maya Moore as an attendee, rather than a participant, at the 2025 Final Four.
She listened as the two-time UConn national champion, four-time WNBA champion and Naismith Hall of Famer recalled how her teams would stash their phones on bus rides. They pulled out games to carry their attention instead. Natural chatter would rise as teammates became family. Their bonds strengthened, making their play on the court easier.
Hidalgo said she had never considered or understood how to create that type of camaraderie on her AAU teams or as a freshman at Notre Dame. At the time of the conversation with Moore, senior point guard Olivia Miles had already announced her intention to transfer, forgoing the WNBA Draft and eventually signing at TCU. Emerging freshman center Kate Koval also left, as did a few others.
The exodus left Hidalgo as the only returning starter from a team many thought could sneak into the Final Four. Their ceiling dropped, even though Hidalgo can pack a stat line and pour in points like few in the country.
“I know what I have to do in order for us to get to that next level,” Hidalgo remembered telling herself.
we believe in us, no matter what gets stacked against us. #GoIrish // @MarchMadnessWBBpic.twitter.com/U7pIk8edZX
— Notre Dame Women’s Basketball (@ndwbb) March 24, 2026
No. 6 Notre Dame is not quite at that next level yet. The Fighting Irish (24-10) will play in the Sweet 16 for a fifth consecutive season when they face No. 2 Vanderbilt in the Fort Worth 1 regional on Friday. They’re after their first Elite Eight since back-to-back national champion appearances in 2018, which they won, and 2019 under Muffet McGraw.
They’re the clear-seeded underdogs for the first time in Hidalgo’s tenure in a tournament berth that sixth-year head coach Niele Ivey called “sweeter” than any before, given its unlikely nature.
“I got the chance to get back here with this group that no one thought was going to be here,” Ivey said. “It means more to me.”
They are the second-worst seed remaining in the bracket, a result of a rocky season that included a 38-point loss to UConn, a 39-point defeat at the hands of Michigan and a fifth-place finish in the ACC. Their seed line trails No. 10 Virginia, the postseason’s Cinderella and another ACC savior, out of Sacramento 4. No. 5 Kentucky in Fort Worth 3 is the only other non-chalk entry.
The return stems from Hidalgo’s conversation with Moore, which developed into a dogged pursuit of leadership. The National Player of the Year contender became the no-doubt No. 1 on the scouting report and in the locker room without Miles.
In the offseason, she began building the foundation of off-court activities with a nearly clean slate, as one of merely three returners alongside seniors KK Bransford and Cassandre Prosper.
“This year it was kind of a sense of urgency where she really had to be that leader, in a sense, because we didn’t have a lot of returners,” Cassandre Prosper told Yahoo Sports. “She really took it on her shoulders.”
Whereas past Notre Dame teams received external confidence “poured on them” from their placement atop power rankings, top contenders and elite teams, this squad had to fill that void.
“We’ve had to generate a lot of confidence from ourselves,” Prosper said. “I feel like that’s the best way.”
Ivey, a former Notre Dame player who stepped into McGraw’s footsteps, watched a different energy in her team this year. Past seasons had more talent and a longer bench. She knows there is a “hump I’m trying to get over” to reach what would be her first Elite Eight as a head coach.
Ivey credited Hidalgo with that connection and growth of confidence throughout a resilient season that could deliver it.
“Hannah is somebody that comes in with that confidence,” Ivey said. “You can tell that they’re feeding off of her energy. Everybody, again, has really developed that level of confidence. That’s what you see, so that’s why she’s saying, ‘Why not us?”
Unlike Moore’s UConn and Lynx squads, this Notre Dame team is riding that underdog mentality that Hidalgo fed upon as an overlooked high school star. She’s a known name now at a legendary program, and understands it’s not simply about the 25.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 5.6 steals she averages.
Her battle with Vanderbilt guard and Division I leading scorer Mikayla Blakes is the centerpiece of a game that will form legacies for each, as well as the head coaches standing at the edge of their mentors’ shadows. The Commodores’ Shea Ralph spent 13 years with Geno Auriemma at UConn as an assistant, during which Moore won those two national championships.
Not everyone is UConn, and reaching this far is an accomplishment. Hidalgo said she took for granted her previous Sweet 16 berths. That, too, has changed.
“I felt like we should have been in the Sweet 16 and we should have been winning,” Hidalgo said. “So now I think this year it feels so much different, because I think I’m appreciating it a lot more. I’m more present where my feet are.”
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