Skip to main content
notre-dame logo

Notre Dame gets multi-year Vanderbilt starter Iyana Moore from transfer portal

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•05/19/25•

tbhorka

moore
Vanderbilt Commodores guard Iyana Moore (23) lines up for a free throw against the Tennessee Lady Vols during the second half at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. (Photo by Scott Kinser-Imagn Images)

Notre Dame lost a lot of starting experience to the WNBA and transfer portal. It hadn’t gotten much to come in on that front in return.

Until now.

Former Vanderbilt starting guard Iyana Moore is on her way to South Bend, per Talia Goodman of On3. She’s started 80 of the 100 games she’s appeared in at the college level. Notre Dame’s first three portal pulls had a combined 16 starts in 2024-25. Moore had 30.

Moore is coming off her third consecutive season averaging at least 12 points. She hit that mark as a true freshman in 2021-22 before missing the 2022-23 campaign with a knee injury. Coming back from rehabbing her knee, she hit a career-best 14.2 points per game in 2023-24. This past season, she put up 12.4. Moore has also averaged between 2.5 and 2.8 assists per game in every season she’s suited up.

Moore’s never been the most efficient shooter from the floor; she shot 1-of-14 in her final game in a Vanderbilt uniform, a 77-73 overtime loss to No. 10 seed Oregon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Just before then, though, Moore made 13-of-25 field goal attempts against South Carolina and Tennessee in the SEC Tournament. She scored 16 and 23 points against those opponents, respectively.

Notre Dame was in desperate need of another guard who can fill it up as a scorer, and that’s what Moore is. She went 13 games in a row scoring at least 10 points last season, many of those games being against SEC opponents. She matched her season high of 23 on the road at LSU. Moore’s career-high is 37 points against Kentucky two seasons ago. That’s more than Notre Dame junior guard Hannah Hidalgo‘s career-high of 35.

Moore has also been at least a 33 percent three-point shooter and an 80 percent free throw shooter in every year of her career. In 2023-24, she impressively made 110 of her 133 (82.7 percent) free throw attempts. She bettered that percentage last year by making 64 of 77 (83.1 percent).

Moore joins Wake Forest forward Malaya Cowles, Kansas State forward Gisela Sanchez and Duke guard Vanessa de Jesus as incoming Notre Dame players from the transfer portal. Notre Dame lost four players to the portal to necessitate the largest number of portal takes the Irish have ever had in the Niele Ivey era. Even then, Moore’s addition only takes Notre Dame up to eight scholarship players currently on the 2025-26 roster.

There’s room for more acquisitions if Ivey can get them.

You may also like