Notre Dame’s unlikely run to the Elite Eight started with offseason dedication to Niele Ivey
FORT WORTH, Texas — Niele Ivey was the first person off Notre Dame’s bench as the clock hit zero and her team clinched an Elite Eight berth. She embraced star guard Hannah Hidalgo, who ran right to her, and was then swallowed in a massive pile, surrounded by the players who bought into her vision of the Notre Dame program. When five players graduated and three players transferred last year, and there was just Hidalgo, KK Bransford and Cassandre Prosper on the roster, nobody believed except them.
Even when Bransford’s mother called her delusional for having faith. “I would be like, no, just watch,” said Bransford, a senior who missed last season with a foot injury. “I see how we look in practices, I see the glimpses we had.
I knew if everybody clicked and bought in we could do it. ” That trust in Ivey and each other led Notre Dame down an improbable season turnaround. From not having enough players last spring to play pickup basketball to having just six healthy scholarship players in January, the Irish have made the Elite Eight for the first time since 2019.
They’ve done so with an improbable run: Many picked No. 11 Fairfield as an upset Cinderella against the sixth-seeded Irish. They then surprised No.
3 seed Ohio State on its home court. And No. 2 seed Vanderbilt was expected to be a sure bet for the Elite Eight.
Continue to the original source for the full article.