NCAA Tournament: What to know, how to watch Notre Dame women’s basketball vs. TCU in Sweet 16

Notre Dame is in Birmingham this weekend. The Fighting Irish would like to stay a while.

To do so, they’re going to need to do something they couldn’t do exactly four months ago — beat TCU. The No. 3 seed Irish (28-5) take on the No. 2 seed Horned Frogs (33-3) this afternoon with a spot in the Elite Eight on the line. That’d mean playing either No. 1 seed Texas or No. 5 seed Tennessee in the Birmingham 3 regional championship game Monday night.

It’s been six years since Notre Dame played in, and won, a regional title game. Here’s everything you need to know about what’s ahead for the Irish in trying to get back to that late stage in the season.

Notre Dame women’s basketball vs. TCU game info

• Teams: No. 3 seed Notre Dame (28-5) and No. 2 seed TCU (33-3)
• Head coaches: Niele Ivey (117-37, fifth year at Notre Dame); Mark Campbell (54-15, second year at TCU; 93-39, fifth year overall)
• All-time series: Notre Dame leads 3-1; TCU won the last meeting, 76-68, on Nov. 29, 2024
• Date: March 29, 2025
• Location: Legacy Arena (Birmingham, Ala.)
• Time: 1 p.m. ET
• Television: ABC
• TV broadcasters: Beth Mowins, Debbie Antonelli, Angel Gray
• Radio: 96.1 FM WSBT in South Bend
• Radio broadcaster: Sean Stires and Karen Keyes

What to know about Notre Dame

• The Fighting Irish got back to their best brand of basketball in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, beating Stephen F. Austin 106-54 and Michigan 76-35. They had lost three of their last five games entering the tournament after sustaining a 19-game winning streak before that.

• Notre Dame will put an eight-deep rotation on the floor with a lot of size coming off the bench in 6-5 Kate Koval, 6-3 Cassandre Prosper and 6-2 Liza Karlen. The Irish are still very much a guard-driven team, though, led by Hannah Hidalgo, Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron. Those three average 45.2 points per game in addition to the many other ways in which they contribute, from Hidalgo’s 3.7 steals per game to Miles’ 5.9 assists and Citron’s stingy on-ball defense.

• This has been the ceiling for Notre Dame during the Ivey era. The Irish have never advanced past the Sweet 16 for as long as she’s been the head coach. The Irish have also never had a team this healthy at this point in the season under Ivey, and that’s with three scholarship players currently sidelined with injuries. The eight Ivey has are more than enough to take another step in the NCAA Tournament, though, and then some — so long as the Irish play the way they did last weekend and not the way they had been playing in late February and early March.

What to know about TCU

• The Horned Frogs are in the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. The feat is directly tied to the transfer portal. TCU has three players averaging at least 14.6 points per game, and they all started their college careers at other programs.

• After a down year for her standards at LSU, former Louisville guard Hailey Van Lith is finishing her time in the collegiate ranks in style. She’s averaging 17.7 points per game, the second-best mark of her five-year career. She’s shooting a career-high 45.9 percent from the field, and she’s never dished out as many as the 5.5 assists per game she’s currently averaging. Van Lith, of course, was a thorn in Notre Dame’s side during her three years with the Cardinals. She’d like nothing more than to knock the Irish out of the tournament. Van Lith scored 21 points when TCU beat Notre Dame in November.

• Notre Dame needs to be just as locked in on 6-7 center Sedona Prince, who had 20 points and 20 rebounds against the Irish four months ago. She was simply unstoppable, but Ivey made the point Friday that the Irish played without forwards Maddy Westbeld and Liza Karlen in that game. They weren’t able to go at Prince in waves like they’ll be able to in Birmingham. Still, her 6-7 frame is unlike any on the Notre Dame roster. It’ll need to be a multi-faceted effort to keep her away from the basketball in the paint on both ends of the floor. Prince, an Oregon transfer, puts up 17.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.

• Former Arizona guard Madison Conner led TCU with 23 points in the Horned Frogs’ second-round win over Louisville. She hit some big threes to ignite the Frogs’ run against the Irish in the Cayman Islands. The Irish will need to make sure she doesn’t get loose because Van Lith and Prince are already enough to worry about on their own. If Notre Dame can subdue the starters — big if — then TCU’s bench is not exactly a strength. The Horned Frogs had 0 bench points against Louisville.

By the numbers

Stat	Notre Dame	TCU
Scoring offense	85.1	77.7
Scoring margin	23.4	20.2
FG%	49.0	47.9
3FG%	39.3	38.0
3FG made/game	7.4	9.6
FT%	77.5	75.0
FT made/game	12.4	10.9
Rebounds	42.9	38.2
Rebound margin	8.5	7.8
Assists	17.6	18.9
Turnovers	15.1	12.1
Turnover margin	3.6	1.2
Assist/turnover ratio	1.2	1.6
Steals	11.6	5.9
Blocks	5.4	5.8