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Where Notre Dame women’s basketball slots in way-too-early top 25 rankings

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•04/06/22•

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notre dame women's basketball
Notre Dame women's basketball guards Olivia Miles (left) and Dara Mabrey (right) will both be back for head coach Niele Ivey. (Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Three NCAA transfer portal defections didn’t keep Notre Dame out of the top 10 of two prominent way-too-early 2022-23 rankings projections.

ESPN’s Charlie Creme and The Athletic’s Chantel Jennings released their rankings this week after the 2021-22 season concluded with South Carolina’s national championship victory over UConn on Sunday. Those two teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2, in that order, in both Creme and Jennings’ lists.

Notre Dame came in not too far behind.

According to Creme, Notre Dame should be the No. 9 team in the country entering next season. Jennings has the Fighting Irish slotted at No. 7. Each article arrived within a week of Sam Brunelle, Anaya Peoples and Abby Prohaska — three valued bench pieces for head coach Niele Ivey — entering the portal with intent to play out the rest of their careers elsewhere.

Here’s why Creme and Jennings aren’t too deterred by Ivey’s thinning roster.

Creme: “The possibility of all five starters returning makes Notre Dame a top-10 team. Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron might be the best freshman tandem in the country, and a year ago Maddy Westbeld was the ACC Rookie of the Year. Dara Mabrey has already decided to return as a super senior, and Maya Dodson has petitioned the NCAA to do the same.”

Jennings: “If Dodson is able to return, Notre Dame will have a dangerous starting five. With Miles and Citron making the expected freshman-to-sophomore leap, a group that already did most of the work for the Irish can do even more. With Notre Dame’s losses to the transfer portal, Niele Ivey could look there to add some more experienced depth.”

More Notre Dame women’s basketball

• What Notre Dame women’s basketball transfers mean for Niele Ivey, Irish

Brunelle’s departure heightens the importance of Dodson’s waiver status. She’s still waiting to see if the NCAA will grant her another year of eligibility on the grounds of only playing nine games at Stanford because of injury in 2019-20. Dodson has entered her name in next week’s WNBA Draft, but she could retract it at any time before the draft if the NCAA grants her another year of eligibility.

According to a source, Dodson “would like to stay” at Notre Dame. That is her No. 1 option. She is at the mercy of the NCAA’s decision on the waiver, though. Notre Dame’s status in these way-too-early rankings would likely be heavily affected by Dodson not being able to play one more season in blue and gold. She’s all Ivey has right now in terms of pure post players.

Here are the full sets of each rankings.

ESPN

  1. South Carolina
  2. UConn
  3. Stanford
  4. Texas
  5. Maryland
  6. Iowa
  7. Iowa State
  8. Tennessee
  9. Notre Dame
  10. Oklahoma
  11. North Carolina
  12. Arizona
  13. Ohio State
  14. Louisville
  15. Virginia Tech
  16. NC State
  17. Indiana
  18. Oregon
  19. Utah
  20. Nebraska
  21. Kansas
  22. UCLA
  23. Princeton
  24. Creighton
  25. Baylor

The Athletic

  1. South Carolina
  2. UConn
  3. Stanford
  4. Iowa
  5. Iowa State
  6. Texas
  7. Notre Dame
  8. Tennessee
  9. Maryland
  10. North Carolina
  11. Oklahoma
  12. Virginia Tech
  13. UCLA
  14. Louisville
  15. NC State
  16. Kansas State
  17. Ohio State
  18. Arizona
  19. Belmont
  20. Indiana
  21. Kansas
  22. Creighton
  23. Michigan
  24. Oregon
  25. Oregon State

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