Hannah Hidalgo sets Notre Dame record for Rookie of the Week titles
Nobody in the storied history of Notre Dame women’s basketball has won more conference Rookie of the Week awards than Hannah Hidalgo. The superstar freshman won her seventh on Monday, the ACC announced.
Last week, Hidalgo tied the previous Notre Dame record of six set by Jacqueline Batteast, Alicia Ratay, Brianna Turner and Sonia Citron. Batteast and Ratay won their awards in the Big East. Citron earned hers in the ACC two years ago.
Hidalgo averaged 20.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.5 steals in Notre Dame’s pair of games against Pittsburgh and North Carolina. For the season, she’s averaging 23.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 5.7 steals in the first 13 games of her collegiate career.
Hidalgo ranks tied for third in the nation in points per game and sits alone at the top in steals. She’s kept Notre Dame afloat during a period in which the roster has been decimated by injuries. Hidalgo has not played fewer than 34 minutes in any game since Nov. 24.
With such high usage and a high demand on production, Notre Dame’s 18-year-old phenom has been prone to turning the ball over. She has 50 turnovers for an average of 3.8 per game. That’s among the worst averages in the country.
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Hidalgo more than makes up for giving the ball away with everything else she does. Her steals alone offset the extra possessions afforded to the opposition. She has not had a game this season with fewer than 3 steals. Hidalgo recently did a video with ESPN walking viewers through the art of a basketball pickpocket.
“I obviously look at the ball to see when I can time it,” she said in the video. “And then I also watch the waist. My dad always told me growing up when I’m playing defense, ‘Just watch the waist.’ Don’t look at the eyes because the eyes can be deceiving. You can be looking that way and then pass the ball this way. So watch the waist.”
Hidalgo has 74 steals. The all-time Notre Dame record in a single season is 114 set by Skylar Diggins in 2012-13. Diggins also holds the record for most steals by an Irish freshman with 90. At Hidalgo’s current average, she’s on pace to break that mark by the end of the month. She could also be eyeing Diggins’ career record of 181. Current Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey ranks second all-time with 348.
