Notre Dame women’s basketball smothers Purdue on Muffet McGraw statue day

Muffet McGraw spoke to a full house at halftime of Notre Dame’s 76-39 victory over Purdue on Sunday. The former Fighting Irish head coach, who had a statue of herself unveiled outside of Purcell Pavilion prior to tipoff, told fans she remembers when the arena she was standing in the heart of sold out for the first time.

Jan. 15, 2001. Notre Dame vs. UConn.

“They came as No. 1 and left as No. 2,” McGraw said of the Huskies to thunderous applause from roughly 9,000 Irish fans.

It’s moments like those, a 92-76 shellacking of a UConn team that hadn’t lost in 30 games, that made McGraw worthy of her bronze sculpture. Her protege, current Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey, coached her team to a win that resembled so many of the ones McGraw rattled off in 33 years on the job.

The Irish got out to an 11-0 start and never looked back.

“That was honestly what I really wanted,” Ivey said. “I wanted that. Almost like a gift so it wasn’t stressful today. Today is a day to honor one of the greatest coaches of all time, a legendary coach here at Notre Dame. Somebody that I adore and my mentor. So to be able to give her a dominant performance was what I was praying for.”

Prayers answered. Notre Dame was destined for a blowout victory from the moment university president Father John I. Jenkins blessed McGraw’s statue with holy water moments after its uncovering.

Ivey watched the ceremony but did not soak in the theatrics of it quite as much as the few hundred fans who gathered around the main entrance of Purcell Pavilion to see the effigy for the first time. She went back inside to put the final preparations forward for what would be yet another impressive showing for a team missing four key players, including two starters in junior guards Sonia Citron and Olivia Miles.

Like she’s done all year, freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo did the bulk of the damage. She had 23 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists and 7 steals. She is to Ivey what the likes of Skylar Diggins and Arike Ogunbowale were to McGraw. Absolute game wreckers. The team with Hidalgo on the roster has an upper hand every single time it steps on the floor.

Ivey is beyond grateful that for the next four years, that team is her own.

“Hannah is just having an incredible beginning to her freshman career,” Ivey said.

Perhaps it was fitting the only two players on the roster who committed to Notre Dame when McGraw was still the head coach, Maddy Westbeld and Nat Marshall, provided Hidalgo with the most help. Westbeld had 15 points and 12 rebounds. Marshall had 14 points, 7 rebounds and 6 blocks.

Fifty three points and stuffing the stat sheet in other areas was more than enough for Notre Dame to pound Purdue. But it was the defense, definitely to the delight of an intense and adequately demanding coach like McGraw, that Notre Dame rode to its eighth straight win.

The Boilermakers had 21 turnovers and shot 24.6 percent from the field. The Irish, down Citron, Miles, sophomore Cass Prosper and freshman Emma Risch, have everyone who’s healthy playing a suffocating style of defense that opponents cannot get good looks against with any kind of consistency.

“Holding a team like Purdue to 39 points, they were so locked in on the scouting report and just did everything we needed to do,” Ivey said. “Taking away their tendencies and were so locked in on everything we were practicing all week.”

Execution of a game plan. There was a certain former head coach in attendance who can appreciate that.