Everything Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said after receiving No. 3 seed in NCAA Tournament

Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey spoke to the media Sunday night after the Fighting Irish earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. This is everything she said.

On her initial thoughts on Notre Dame getting a No. 3 seed

“Yeah, I mean honestly I’m so excited to play. We had a week off. We had some great practices. I always embrace this moment. This is a blessing. We’re going to be hosting. This is big. So, excited, ready to get to work.”

On what she learned from Notre Dame’s losses down the stretch

“Defensively, we have to lock in. I think that was the area, and they mentioned it on the television, we have to be better defensively. We’re a defensive-minded team. We showed it all season long. Have come up short these last couple weeks, so that’s what we’ve been focused on. What I’ve been focused on. And the team knows. They responded this last week.”

More on Notre Dame being a No. 3 seed

“You can’t control it. Control what you can control. My message is, coming out here, Stephen F. Austin is our next opponent and we have to get to work with them.”

On Notre Dame playing on Friday/Sunday

“It doesn’t matter. More time to prepare. Again, we’re at home. We have an opportunity to come out here, to put it on the line. The stakes are even higher than the ACC Tournament because this is the NCAA Tournament. We’re excited to play Friday. Excited to be in front of our fans. We’re going to take advantage of the opportunity.”

On how much time she gave the Irish off after the ACC Tournament

“I gave them like three to four days. They needed to reset mentally, physically, get some rest. And then it was right back to work. Knowing the lessons we had to learn from this last couple weeks, dropping three out of five games, very defensive oriented. Just back to basics. Sometimes the game can be more mentally challenging. The goal was to give them rest and mentally recharge, physically recharge, and that’s defensively. That’s rebounding, defense, and really locking in on our principles.”

On saying defense so much

“A lot of defense!”

On Notre Dame’s offense not looking great the last time out

“If you play defense, you get stops, you get in transition. This team is a transition team. I like to push pace. I think everybody knows that. We have the best back court in the country. So when you’re not getting stops, you’re not getting out to run and having freedom within our pace and our space. I think that’s why there is so much pressure in the half court, and we didn’t execute. Offensively, I’ve been working on that as well. But I really want to go back to our defense. And now finding out what type of strategy we need to do against Stephen F. Austin, we’ll get back to our offensive execution.”

On parity in college basketball and if the stars of the game can still dictate the tournament

“Stars are going to emerge. That’s what you’re going to see. You’ve got a lot of household names that are out there right now. You have some sleeper teams. But this is the moment where big players, big stage, they emerge. So I’m excited to see that from my team but also I’m excited for this women’s tournament because it’s going to be really fun.”

On how prepared Notre Dame’s stars are for answering on the big stage

“I think we’re prepared. I put them in a really incredible non-conference schedule. We played some of the best of the best. We’ve played on the big stage. We’re going to be prepared for this moment, and I think they’re ready for it.”

On how a team with dominant guards gets to the national championship

“Fortunately I’ve seen that with our 2018 team. We had a rock-star back court with Arike, Marina, Jackie Young. I’m just blessed that we have both. We have great guards but we also have really great post play. Want to be able to have that balance. When you have great guards, great guards get you going. They get the ball predominantly in their hand and do a great job of facilitating, especially with my guards. But I’m happy to have the balance of both.”

On how two ball-dominant guards in Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles have worked so well together this season

“They both were willing participants in this. They built chemistry in the summer time. They built chemistry this season. They both want to win. Liv, coming back from an injury, she was really self-motivated to come and make an impact. Both of them are playing unselfish basketball and learning to play with each other. A lot of individual sacrifice, and they just built that chemistry together throughout the season.”

On Maddy Westbeld physically and mentally

“Having that time off was helpful for the entire team. And this is it for her. This is her fifth year. This is her last hoorah being in the tournament. So she’s ready. Couple great practices and mentally ready.”