Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo shuts down transfer portal rumors
The social media rumor mill is overflowing this time of year. Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo did her best to stop the flow late Thursday night. She posted an Instagram story with Fighting Irish head coach Niele Ivey. The caption was, “I’m not in the transfer portal yall.”
A source close to Hidalgo told Blue & Gold “it was never a thought.”
One of the the rumors with the most smoke tailing it was that there was going to be a transfer portal entry Thursday that would make waves in the women’s basketball community. Many suspected it would be Notre Dame’s Hidalgo. They were wrong. There was no fire there.
The prognostication could have been for Oregon State forward Raegan Beers, an All-Pac-12 recipient who averaged 17.5 points and 10.3 rebounds per game for the Beavers as a sophomore. She lit the Irish up for 18 points and 13 rebounds in OSU’s 70-65 Sweet 16 victory over ND.
Notre Dame has not been immune to transfer portal defections this week, even with Hidalgo declaring she’ll likely stay. Rising junior guard KK Bransford announced her entrance into the portal on Sunday. Graduate senior center Nat Marshall did the same on Wednesday.
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With Bransford and Marshall on the way out, Notre Dame is slated to have nine scholarship players for the 2024-25 season. That’s including incoming freshman Kate Koval, a 6-4 center who’s rated as the No. 5 overall recruit in her class according to ESPN. That’s also including Maddy Westbeld, who has a fifth year of eligibility if she wishes to use it. She has not made a public announcement on that front as of Friday morning.
Ivey is going to have to get busy in the portal herself. She’s brought in at least one player from an outside program every offseason she’s been Notre Dame’s head coach. She’s probably going to need to welcome more than one in this cycle to have a sufficient number of players heading into the upcoming campaign.
The Irish are in a tricky spot as it relates to the portal. The top end of the roster is as loaded as it gets with Hidalgo and fellow guards Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron. If Westbeld stays, she and Koval likely round out the starting five. So the task for Ivey is to convince solid players to come to South Bend even though they will not be guaranteed a starting nod.
