What Niele Ivey said before Notre Dame vs. Oregon State in Sweet 16

No. 2 seed Notre Dame (28-6) takes on No. 3 seed Oregon State (26-7) in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament at MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y., on Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET (ESPN). Here is what Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey said before she attempts to take the Fighting Irish into the Elite Eight for the first time in her four-year tenure.

On Notre Dame’s short bench

“I credit my performance team. They’ve done a tremendous job of our recovery. We’re very intentional with everything we’re doing this season. As our numbers have decreased, we’ve just been trying to be smart about practice times, recovery times.

“And unfortunately, like I mentioned, we’ve been in this situation before, myself as an assistant and then last year losing two starters. It just requires everybody to do a little bit more and just try to be smart about the way that we approach games, the things that we do in games, but also our recovery. I think it’s the biggest piece of it.

“I have a resilient group. To be honest, we’re fighting four our lives every night, 40 minutes, the lower roster, but just our resilience has been incredible.”

On how she became aware of Hannah Hidalgo in the recruiting process

“It was word of mouth. Obviously we have all the information, high school, AAU connections, relationships. So her name was brought to our radars. So I went to see her in AAU basketball, and I was amazed. She was the smallest person on the court but the one that had the biggest heart. She played with so much passion, so feisty.

“She was just different. Every year I watched her more and more, and her confidence grew. The stage became a little bit bigger: Nike EYBL, USA Basketball. The stage got bigger, and I feel like that’s when she shined the most.

“She always separated herself, watching her. She just plays with a different level of passion that you don’t see very often. Especially the new age of basketball, you just don’t see it as much. I always felt like she was different on the floor.”

On the potential she saw in Hidalgo

“The potential that I thought, I was like, ‘She’s going to be really special in college because the way she plays defensively. You don’t see a lot of players that love to play defense, and she loves to play defense. Her offense is most of the time dictated by her defense.

“But the passion that she played with, I thought she’s really going to change the game with that. I’ve been around it. Skylar Diggins, for us at Notre Dame, she changed our culture right from the time she stepped on campus because of the way she played defensively. That’s what I thought she was going to do to the collegiate game.

“Now coming to Notre Dame, I knew it was going to be a big assignment for her. I thought that she was going to take some time trying to implement the system. And she wasn’t with us in the summertime because of USA Basketball, but we played in a foreign tour overseas.

“So we had three games to play and practice, and that’s when I saw — I was like, she’s ready. She’s going to be ready for the stage. And then South Carolina in Paris, that was the first test for me to see, okay, how is she going to perform on this stage, the bright lights.

“She exceeded my expectations. This entire season she’s improved every game. She has been a sponge. Very high IQ. Ultimate competitor. I knew she was going to be special. I knew that. I feel like she’s definitely exceeded my expectations.

“And I’m so proud of her because it’s a hard task to come in, run a Power Five program. Credit to everyone around her. Credit to [Olivia Miles], Maddy [Westbeld], all of our upperclassmen, they’ve done a great job of helping her. But, yeah, she’s special.”

On the popularity of women’s basketball being reflected in attendance numbers in the NCAA Tournament and if the game has outgrown campuses as first- and second-round host sites

“If you just look at the numbers, like you mentioned, I think it’s all positive. There have been some upsets. It’s really hard to get in this position, no matter if you’re hosting or not. To get to the Sweet 16 is difficult. We fought to get our situation to host. We had to beat five ranked teams in a row, three games in a row in the ACC to achieve this, to achieve hosting.

“I think when you put in the work throughout the season, that’s a benefit, obviously, but you have to put in the work to be able to do that, and then again, I think there was a couple upsets.

“I like it, but obviously I know that there’s feelings either way, but for myself and our situation, we work really hard and we fought to be able to be in that position to host.

“Again, what you want to bring is sold-out crowds. You want to bring the energy. You want to bring the fan base. I think that was accomplished.”

On valuing former Notre Dame greats and using them as examples for current Irish players

“We always honor our alum. I’m an alum. I’ve got three alums on my staff. My associate head coach recruited me. She’s my recruiting coordinator. The way we recruit, the program that we are is all about honoring our alum and continuing the legacy that was laid before us.

“So that’s just what we do at Notre Dame. Luckily we’ve had so much tradition, so much excellence that have gone through this program, I think it’s important to highlight those players, for those players to come back to mentor our players.

“My team, they get me every day. They get to hear my voice every day. But I walked in their shoes. I was the first to win a National Championship. So the things I’m coaching in them, the things I’m saying to them, it actually happened for me. I went through two ACL injuries.

“I like to bring back our alum, number one, to honor them, but also to help our players and mentor them and help them navigate the time — explain their experiences, share those experiences and help them because it helped me as a player.

“I think that’s really important. That’s something that I really love to do within this program and this system, and I think it’s been very beneficial.

“My players have great relationships with our former players. And like you said, Skylar Diggins-Smith, she’s a legend in our game, she’s a legend in our school. So to have access to her is huge for our players, especially our point guards. Olivia has an amazing relationship with Skylar, and now Hannah.

“And they all come back. I had Devereaux Peters that was in practice yesterday just to send us off, and she’s a two-time WNBA champion. All those things matter because those are the women that my players are looking up to, and they just have that access, which I think is incredible.”

On national broadcasts in women’s college basketball

“It’s really important, especially right now. The talent, there’s so many generational talents, there’s so many rising stars and just stars in this game.

“We’re playing at an elite level, all these players, programs, coaches. It’s really high level. So having the opportunity to showcase our talent on these major networks is really important, like you mentioned, not just in February and March and one-offs, Big Mondays, it needs to be all the time because the game in itself is so elite right now, and we have a lot of support. And so I think just having all those networks can continue viewership and can help our game grow because of it.”

On Oregon State

“Well, first of all, just an incredible team. They have a lot of balance, a lot of depth, a lot of height. They’re averaging seven, almost eight threes a game. Great size. Their two best players are their post players, Timea Gardiner being the Sixth Woman of the Year in the Pac-12. Just amazing.

“I think for us it’s just managing their physicality, their size, but also their ability to shoot from the three-point line. We’re going to be very strategic tomorrow trying to attack the things that they have defensively but also finding ways to contain their posts and rebounds.

“It’s going to be a really tough task, but I’m excited. Scott [Rueck] does a great job at Oregon State. We played them two years ago. I’m very familiar with their system, their program, playing them even when I was an assistant coach. I think it’s going to be a great game, and obviously we’re fortunate to be here, and I’m super excited to get to work tomorrow.”