ATLANTA — Notre Dame standout Hannah Hidalgo has been named to the 2026 Naismith Women’s College Defensive Player of the Year Late-Season Team, as announced by the Atlanta Tipoff Club on Thursday.
The junior is the best on-ball defender in college basketball, leading the country in steals per game with an unbelievable mark of 5.6.
The guard has five career games of 10 or more steals, four coming this season, making Hidalgo one of just two players since the start of the 1999-00 season to record five or more career games of 10+ steals.
Hidalgo set the NCAA record for steals in a game earlier this season, recording 16 against Akron. The junior has three games with 30+ points and 10+ steals. There has only been one other player in the country to record 30 or more points and 10 or more steals in a single game and it occurred just once.
The guard has already broken the Notre Dame program record for steals in a career, as she currently sits at 429, passing Irish legend Skylar Diggins’ mark of 381 earlier this season. The junior is just 10 steals shy of her own program single-season steals record of 160.
Hidalgo and the Fighting Irish wrap up the home portion of the regular-season schedule against Syracuse at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 26 inside Purcell Pavilion. The game will be streamed on ACCNX.