By John Brice
Special Contributor
Two of its youngest players spent Summer 2023 abroad competing in international competition, as Notre Dame’s Cassandre Prosper and incoming, five-star point guard Hannah Hidalgo competed for Team Canada and Team USA, respectively, in competitions that spanned Madrid, Spain, to Leon, Mexico.
By late July and through the first week of August, the entire Irish women’s basketball was barnstorming Europe in a 12-day jaunt featuring multiple games, countless cultural experiences and an impossible-to-quantify dive into team bonding.
Oh, yeah: Notre Dame also stands as the program with 10 current WNBA players — second-most in the world’s preeminent professional women’s league.
For good measure, remember, then that third-year coach Niele Ivey is a former Irish national champion basketball player and assistant coach with bona fides from a stint as an assistant coach with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies.
In a time when women’s basketball at all levels is drawing record interest, Notre Dame’s level of elite carries with it, well, an undeniable swag.
“I mean, ‘Swag’ is something that we definitely talk about and something that we need to embrace more in a sense,” said Irish senior forward Kylee Watson, a New Jersey native and Oregon transfer who has carved an on- and off-floor persona in the program. “We have this awesome legacy that we need to uphold in a way, and we have so many great players that have come through. And obviously, our coaching staff is elite and they’ve accomplished so much. It’s a way of living up to that standard but also embracing ‘Hey, this is who we are. This is our path.’
“We’ve got to own that.”
While current players continue carving their paths, Ivey stands alone for her transcendence as a stalwart member of the storied program’s first-ever national championship to her glass-ceiling-shattering emergence as Notre Dame’s first Black head women’s coach in any sport.
Now Ivey – again, further burnishing Notre Dame’s global branding and augmenting the women’s hoops’ program’s profile in the process – is spearheading another groundbreaking endeavor: The Irish open the 2023-24 NCAA women’s basketball season opposite perennial power South Carolina in Paris. It is the first-ever NCAA basketball game – men’s or women’s – being hosted by the regal ‘City of Lights.’
“I’m fortunate to be behind a brand that’s national, even international, like Notre Dame,” said Ivey, whose third year atop the Irish program generated an ACC regular-season championship and enduring March Madness run. “We are afforded many incredibly opportunities to play and be a part of multiple historical matchups and moments. I was fortunate to have that as an assistant coach, and as head coach, I always want to give my players that experience.
“I understand that it’s bigger than basketball. We get a chance to go across the pond and we get a chance to play in a historic first NCAA women’s basketball matchup, but we also get a chance to impact the community there. Last year, the Citi Shamrock Classic was the first women’s game on NBC, and we have another matchup in D.C., this year, (a Nov. 18 game against Illinois). I think those are just such incredible experiences for the players. I recruit and I say you’re not just a basketball player; you’re going to learn a lot about life and different cultures.”
“I think that’s what makes Notre Dame so unique and special. I’m fortunate we have the resources that allow us to do those types of things, and I’m really grateful that we have a chance to be a part of these historic events.”
Also owning international experience from a scintillating prep career at The Ursuline School in Eastchester, N.Y., Sonia Citron also points to opportunity and profile as undeniable fabric of Notre Dame women’s basketball.
“It’s so much fun playing at the highest level, playing at Notre Dame; it’s an incredible opportunity,” said Citron, a former ACC Freshman of the Year honoree and Notre Dame’s returning leading scorer on the heels of posting 14.7 points-per-game in 2022-23. “I know all the girls on this team, we’re happy and we’re so lucky to be able to wear this uniform and play in incredible games like in Paris against South Carolina.
“It’s been amazing just seeing the growth in women’s basketball and being able to be a part of the first women’s collegiate international games. It’s kind of hard to believe how far we’ve come.”
After forgoing the final months of her high school journey a year ago to initiate her Irish women’s basketball career as early as possible, Prosper says the “Swag” of Notre Dame is undeniable on a roster with players from eight different states, as well as Prosper’s native Canada.
“For sure, for sure,” Prosper said. “We’re definitely very blessed. For Sure.”
On the cusp of her Irish career, the former consensus five-star point guard Hidalgo, among the most decorated recruits in Notre Dame women’s basketball history, rather simply boils it down.
“It was a no-brainer,’ Hidalgo said of her Notre Dame choice. “Once I came on my visit I was like, ‘This is home. This is where I needed to be.’”