First look at new Notre Dame women’s basketball players
It’s officially summer. Fall will be here before we know it. And with it will come the 2023-24 Notre Dame women’s basketball season, head coach Niele Ivey’s fourth since taking over for Muffet McGraw in 2020-21.
The Fighting Irish added four new players to the roster this offseason; two freshmen (Hannah Hidalgo and Emma Risch) and two graduate transfers (Becky Obinma and Anna DeWolfe). That quartet has enrolled for summer school and has started working out with the rest of the team in South Bend.
The official Notre Dame women’s basketball account tweeted photos of the new players. We’ll go through those below.
Five-star guard Hannah Hidalgo
Hidalgo was a prized recruit who could have chosen to play college basketball anywhere. She picked Notre Dame. She could be asked to step into a significant role right away depending on how long it takes junior Olivia Miles to come back from surgery on her knee.
If Miles is not full-go for the start of the season, the most logical replacement for her at point guard is Hidalgo — the McDonald’s All-American Game MVP.
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Five-star guard Emma Risch
Notre Dame’s next great sharpshooter has arrived.
Risch won’t start for an Irish team that is loaded at the guard position with Miles, Sonia Citron, KK Bransford, Jenna Brown and even Cassandre Prosper (who doubles as a guard and a forward) all returning from last year’s roster. She might immediately be the team’s top three-point shooter, though, and that will be a big boost off the bench.
Former Fordham guard Anna DeWolfe
DeWolfe will have something to say about the title of Notre Dame’s best shooter.
A volume shooter, DeWolfe has attempted 7.0-plus three-point shots per game in each of the last three seasons. She shot 35.4 percent from distance this past season. That would have ranked second on the Irish behind Citron’s mark of 40.0 percent. DeWolfe gives the Irish another shooting threat, which was needed after losing Dara Mabrey to graduation.
Former Pepperdine, TCU forward Becky Obinma
Notre Dame also lost Lauren Ebo to graduation. Kylee Watson needs to have the best year of her career in the post for the Irish to reach their full potential, and Obinma must give her some help.
She’s only 6-2, but Obinma recorded 6.0-plus rebounds per game in each of the last two seasons at Pepperdine. She averaged 6.0 points per game in the same span, but the Irish are not going to ask her to be a scorer. Paint defense and rebound control are the two areas in which Obinma can help Notre Dame the most.
Notre Dame women’s basketball 2023-24 roster (scholarship players only)
- Freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo
- Freshman guard Emma Risch
- Sophomore guard KK Bransford
- Sophomore guard Cassandre Prosper
- Junior guard Olivia Miles
- Junior guard Sonia Citron
- Senior forward Maddy Westbeld
- Senior center Nat Marshall
- Senior center Kylee Watson
- Graduate student guard Jenna Brown
- Graduate student guard Anna DeWolfe
- Graduate student forward Becky Obinma
