Niele Ivey shares how women’s basketball can capitalize on momentum

As women’s basketball grows in popularity, Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey shared how she thinks the sport of women’s basketball can capitalize on the momentum it currently has.

While making an appearance on ACC PM, Ivey explained that she thinks the most important thing is making sure the game is easily accessible for people to see and for people who care about women’s basketball to continue to highlight the game’s stars.

“Continue amplifying our voices,” Niele Ivey said. “Continue having opportunities to be on major networks. Obviously, with our partnership with ESPN. Just finding ways to make sure that we are highlighting all the stories of so many different incredible players. Obviously, Hannah Hidalgo. There’s so many players in our league that are extremely talented and programs. So, continue to highlight them.”

Perhaps no player has been more viewed in the women’s game than Caitlin Clark, who broke records at Iowa before being drafted first overall by the Indiana Fever in the WNBA Draft. The excitement to watch her helped boost ratings, with the national championship game that Clark played in drawing 18.7 million viewers, which was a record-setting audience.

However, as Niele Ivey knows, she’s not the only exciting player, and making sure fans know about the next wave of great players in the college game is going to be key.

“Have them have the viewership and exposure that we need for [there to be] more eyeballs on our game. I think that’s how we grow it,” Ivey said.

“But, again, the momentum and actually fueling off the momentum that we have with women’s basketball is huge and we’ve done that the last two seasons, and continuing to ride that momentum and just showing our game is evolving. It’s hot right now. So, as many eyes as we can see to have on our game I think is the way that we can grow it.”

Niele Ivey on retaining Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame roster

Niele Ivey and Notre Dame are looking to compete at the top of the sport next season. To do that, Ivey knows retaining stars like Hannah Hidalgo this offseason was incredibly important.

“Roster retention is real. I think that was a big part of, right after the season. You never know. You never know the conversations. For me, I just rely on my relationship. My relationship with the players, it’s solid. They know my intent, they know my heart. So I kind of relied on that,” Ivey said.

“And I was more, if she wanted to have a conversation with me, I had individual player development meetings [to] kind of talk about what areas I needed them to work on, those type of things. Just having that communication and transparency is what I try to have with them and with her.”