Sports
Breaking down Notre Dame women’s hoops and the transfer portal – WNDU
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – Each year, countless players switch teams in the transfer portal in college basketball. And now we’ll know which names will be moving, as the deadline to enter has just passed.
The portal opened back on March 18 and is now closed — even for graduate transfers, which used to be exempt. However, there is still one big exception, as players do have 30 days to enter their name if their coach leaves.
During this offseason, nearly 2,000 Division I men’s players and over 1,300 DI women’s players entered their names into the portal.
On Wednesday, we broke down the Notre Dame men’s team with South Bend Tribune Sports columnist Tom Noie. Tonight, we’re breaking down the Notre Dame women’s team with the South Bend Tribune’s Anthony Anderson.
The Irish haven’t been too active in the portal this year, but the team did lose Nat Marshall, who went to Miami after entering the portal as a grad transfer.
JACKSON: What will Notre Dame be losing with her gone?
ANTHONY: With Kylee Watson injured, they lose quite a bit — at least temporarily — because they’re going to have to fill these spots. Nat is kind of a unicorn. She presented as a finesse player, but she could actually play fairly physical, and she did a good job in the NCAA Tournament when she finally got some minutes that she didn’t get earlier in her career because of injury.
Other than Marshall’s departure, there hasn’t been too much movement. The biggest storyline for Notre Dame really is how much talent is returning, as the Irish are bringing back basically all their stars.
JACKSON: Take me a little bit through this team bringing back a lot of talent right now.
ANTHONY: Obviously, you have the big four with Hannah Hidalgo, Olivia Miles, Maddy Westbeld and Sonia Citron — maybe as good of a four as you’ll find in the country. It sounds like Olivia’s going to be fully healthy, and then they’ve got Kate Koval coming in. The freshman is ranked as the top post player in the country by some services. So, you’ve got a great five.
Hannah was All-American first team, and Olivia the year before was All-American second team, and I found it farcical that some people wonder if they can play together. They’re basketball players, they’re point guards. . . basketball is more positionless than it’s ever been, they’ll be awesome together.
While players can’t enter their names into the portal anymore, those who did before the deadline still have time to choose what school to transfer to. This means we aren’t necessarily done with transfer news just yet.
JACKSON: What should the Irish be looking for if they’re going to add another player?
ANTHONY: They should be looking for post players because they’re fairly deep and rich at guard. KK Bransford is coming back — she’s a versatile player, she can play up front, but she’s more of a guard. And obviously, three of those big four that we talked about are guards, so they need post presence most of all.
JACKSON: We’re not reporting these names as connected to Notre Dame. But Anthony, you had some players in mind who would be good fits here?
ANTHONY: The top 10 are basically signed if you use ESPN as the measure, but there’s three between 11 and 20 that are either post players or wings that I think could play the post. The three that I have in mind — again, there’s no ties necessarily — are Janiah Barker from Texas A&M, Liatu King of Pittsburgh, and Liza Karlen from Marquette.
For more from Anthony Anderson, you can follow him on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Copyright 2024 WNDU. All rights reserved.
News
Notre Dame
Notre Dame
News
Notre Dame
News
Notre Dame
News
Notre Dame
News
Notre Dame
