Inside Notre Dame, Niele Ivey's improbable journey to women's Elite Eight

FORT WORTH, TX ― By every logical metric, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (25-10) aren't supposed to be in Sunday's Elite Eight game against the UConn Huskies (37-0) at Dickies Arena. Before this season began, Notre Dame lost four players to the transfer portal, including starter Olivia Miles . Miles, who averaged 13 points and nearly six assists a game during four seasons at Notre Dame, moved on to TCU, reconfiguring the identity of the Irish with her decision.

Within weeks, Notre Dame also lost glue player Sonia Citron and two others to the WNBA, further decimating its already thin roster. Hannah Hidalgo , KK Bransford and Cassandre Prosper were lone returning players, looking to get Notre Dame back to the Women's NCAA Tournament. "I don't think anybody had expectations for us this season, so I'm the type of coach that I have a bubble.

I have a circle, (a) circle of network, and I stay within that bubble," Irish head coach Niele Ivey said. "We talked about, in the beginning of the year, no one is going to expect anything out of us. We have to expect it out of ourselves.

That's what we talked about, and we kind of (quieted) the noise, got to work, built the relationships, and I just focused on trying to get better. That's all you can do. " Ivey says with so many changes, she began looked for players to fill open positions.