SNOW FLURRIES FALL on a February night in Pittsburgh. An eager crowd — some kids, some adults, some security — gathers outside the Petersen Events Center. They stand beside the Notre Dame bus, trying to keep warm while they wait.
Less than an hour earlier, the second-ranked women’s basketball team in the country beat Pittsburgh 88-57 for its 17th straight win. The terrific trio in the Notre Dame backcourt combined for 61 points, 18 rebounds, 12 assists and 10 steals. The group waiting in the snow is hoping for an up-close look, a selfie, maybe an autograph from the backcourt bosses seemingly bound for the WNBA.
The first to come out of the arena is senior Sonia Citron, wearing team sweats and a winter coat. Her chestnut hair is pulled down from her game-day ponytail. She had 22 points, 10 rebounds and a pair of steals and assists against Pitt.
Former Notre Dame point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith describes Citron as a “Steady Betty.” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey says she is the “silent assassin.”
A group of autograph chasers present Citron with uninflated balls, fake hardwood squares and pictures. She smiles, though barely speaks, as she signs. Citron’s signature on its own, the autograph seekers say, isn’t worth as much as her teammates’ are, despite being a projected WNBA draft lottery pick. But if they can get all three on one item, that’s the jackpot.
Next out is Olivia Miles, wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants. She shivers and jumps around trying to keep warm as she signs the items thrust in front of her. She smiles through the cold with each selfie. Finally, one of her teammates comes out of the bus with a jacket and puts it on Miles’ shoulders as she continues signing.
Miles plays with a flair that invites comparisons to Las Vegas Aces “point gawd” Chelsea Gray. Miles loves no-look passes and has the audacity to throw unconventional ones, such as her patented one-handed, whip skip pass. Like Citron, she’s a projected lottery pick in next month’s WNBA draft.
Against Pitt, Miles tied the program record with eight made 3-pointers en route to 28 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
The last of the three out of the locker room is Hannah Hidalgo, bundled up in a puffy coat with her hood pulled tight. The kids swarm the sophomore, clamoring for photos and her signature. A security guard tells the autograph chasers that Hidalgo will sign only for the kids. One of the autograph seekers loudly voices his objection. A Hidalgo-signed ball can fetch as much as $300, one of them says.
On the court, Hidalgo is all energy and pace. She burns bright and white-hot on the floor, every inch of it. Despite being only 5-foot-6, she averages 24.1 points, good for third in the country. On defense, she jump-cuts and probes the ball handler, searching for the right angle to knock the ball out with her fingertips. Her feet and her hands are always moving. For every steal, she generates many more deflections and bad passes. She’s like a wasp, buzzing and buzzing in the opposing guard’s face, generating fear of a sting until she finally gets one. Or a handful, considering she’s averaging 3.7 steals per game.
But here in the dark parking lot, Hidalgo is patient. She signs for the kids and smiles for photos.
After signing the last item and returning the pen, Hidalgo steps onto the bus. The kids disperse. The bus pulls out of the parking lot carrying the best backcourt in the country.
No one saw the roadblocks just ahead.
SEVENTY-NINE MINUTES after the buzzer sounds in Notre Dame’s 86-81 loss to Florida State, the first time the Seminoles have ever won in South Bend, Fighting Irish coach Niele Ivey steps up to the dais flanked by Citron.
“My apologies to the fans,” Ivey says as the clock ticks ever closer to midnight and February’s final day.
As Ivey speaks, Citron stares down at the box score on the table, her cheeks resting against the backs of her hands. Even though the game ended nearly an hour and a half ago, she’s still in her uniform. She puts her hands under the table. Then she brings one back up and puts her forehead against her palm. She bounces her leg up and down. She still looks down, only raising her eyes from the single sheet of paper when she’s asked a question.
The Irish blew a 15-point first-half lead on their senior night on Feb. 27. More puzzling still, it was their second straight defeat after winning 19 in a row to ascend to the No. 1 ranking in the country. More worrisome still, March was fast approaching. Citron led the Irish in scoring with 21 points. But Miles and Hidalgo went a combined 7-of-25, including 0-for-5 on 3-point attempts. FSU guard Ta’Niya Latson won the head-to-head battle vs. all three of Notre Dame’s vaunted guards. The Seminoles senior took control in the fourth quarter, when she scored 13 of her 23 points to seal the upset.
“It’s a will we’ve got to have,” Citron says of turning around the team’s fortunes. “We can talk all we want, but if we don’t change… then our season can end real fast.”
Their season was supposed to go real long. After beating USC, Texas and UConn, Notre Dame was on the short list — maybe even at the top of the short list — of national title contenders. But during a long season, potholes can emerge on the road to a championship. The Irish hit three of them down the stretch, losses to NC State and Florida State, and then another loss, to Duke, in the semifinals of the ACC tournament. Instead of entering March Madness peaking and poised, the Irish entered the NCAA tournament sputtering, going 2-3 over their last five games. The selection committee took notice and demoted Notre Dame to a 3-seed.
But then the Irish steamrolled Stephen F. Austin and Michigan in the first two rounds by an average of 36.5 points. They have arrived at the Sweet 16. But to get where they want to go, hoisting their first national championship trophy since 2018, Notre Dame will have to do something only three 3-seeds have ever done before. And it will have to be the backcourt that drives the bus.
ALL IVEY SAW were options as she watched the summer workout ahead of the 2024-25 season. Miles and Hidalgo were sharing the same court after doing mostly individual workouts during the offseason, and the two point guards were blending beautifully.
Ivey — and her staff, and the players, and the fans — had been waiting for this for a year.
Miles enrolled early at Notre Dame during the second half of the 2020-21 season and played in six games. In her first two full seasons, she wowed. She averaged 13.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game as a freshman and 14.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 6.9 assists as a sophomore. In the regular-season finale of the 2022-23 season, she tore her ACL. She missed the entire 2023-24 season.
Enter Hidalgo, who seamlessly took the wheel during the 2023-24 season as a freshman.
One of her early AAU coaches told Hidalgo she would never be a Division I player. Wrong. The undersized point guard emerged as an All-American, a superstar. She set program records in points per game (22.6), total steals (160) and steals per game (4.6). She led the Irish to the ACC tournament championship.
Miles, meanwhile, spent the season on the bench, sharing advice and encouragement for her younger teammate.
On paper, Ivey knew that Notre Dame had a potent pair with Miles returning from injury. But the point guards had never shared the court. At that summer workout, Ivey allowed herself to dream big.
She noticed that they read each other’s actions well in 2-on-2 and 3-on-3 drills. When Ivey saw them in a full scrimmage, her excitement overflowed.
“It was just amazing,” Ivey says. “The offense is so much faster, because you can outlet to more people. You don’t have to just outlet to one person. You have multiple options.”
Both Hidalgo and Miles are from New Jersey and played for the same club coaches. The group that ran the Philadelphia Belles when Miles played for them left and formed the Philly Rise. Hidalgo was one of their first stars. They’re both expressive on the court. Hidalgo loves to flex after a bucket or a big play; Miles exudes cool, but she frequently celebrates loudly and regularly shares her feelings.
“Jersey girls are just different,” Hidalgo says.
Both are good facilitators, but Miles is the better facilitator. Both are good scorers, but Hidalgo is the better scorer.
“Olivia has extraordinary vision,” former Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw says. “I’ve never seen a player that can see what’s happening on the floor without looking. I mean, she seems to have eyes everywhere. She knows players are open before they know it.”
“[Hidalgo is] a dynamic three-level scorer with pace,” Diggins-Smith says. “She’s just a ferocious competitor. She’s the one we rely on for our edge every night.”
How Citron would fit in with Miles and Hidalgo was never in doubt; she already had chemistry with both. From Eastchester, New York, she played for the Belles with Miles, and the two of them went through the USA Basketball program together. While Miles was injured, Citron played alongside Hidalgo and averaged 17.3 points and 5.5 rebounds.
She’s far from a third wheel.
“Soni is her,” Miles says. “That’s my dog. We came to Notre Dame to do this together. Our chemistry is insane. She does everything this team needs to do and without a word said. Sonia is incredible.”
Through the first five games of the season, Notre Dame was too.
MILES HAD A triple-double in Game 1. Hidalgo had 28 points and six steals in Game 2. Lafayette “held” the Irish to a then-season-low 91 points in Game 4. All told, Notre Dame won its first four games by an average of 42.5 points. The Irish’s first big challenge loomed in Game No. 5, against JuJu Watkins and USC. But the challenge never materialized.
Hidalgo scored 11 first-quarter points and added two assists. Miles had four first-quarter assists and added four points. Citron held Watkins to five points on 2-for-9 shooting in the first half. Notre Dame never trailed against the No. 3 team in the country. The Irish led by as many as 21. They won 74-61.
“Everyone always says it’s a guard’s game. They’re very dynamic,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb says of Miles and Hidalgo. “You feel like you’re doing a decent job on Miles, and she goes crazy in the second half. Or then you think you make them take a tough shot, and then Hannah gets out in transition. So it’s difficult, it’s difficult to have two dynamic guards out there.”
They encountered their first bump in the road on an island in the Caribbean. The Irish lost back-to-back games, to TCU and Utah, on a trip to the Cayman Islands over the Thanksgiving holiday. Notre Dame blew an 11-point fourth-quarter lead against the Horned Frogs. Against Utah, they shot 10-of-32 in the second half after leading by five at halftime.
“We needed to pivot as far as just our sense of urgency,” Ivey says. “We had to get back to work. We kinda lost that.”
Pivot they did. The Irish won 19 straight, including a 30-point game by Hidalgo in an early-December win over Texas, a 29-point game by Hidalgo in a win over UConn after that. (“I don’t know if there’s a better combination of guards,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma says.)
A triple-double by Miles in a late-December win over Virginia. A 21-point game by Citron in January against Georgia Tech.
Fueling the win streak was the high-octane offense, which averages 85.1 points per game. The three guards seemed to thrive in each other’s presence. Prior to this season, Miles averaged 24.6% from long range; this season she’s shooting over 40% and during the win streak, Miles shot 41.7%. Citron, the most versatile of the three guards with her 6-foot frame and ability to play at an elite level on both sides of the floor, shot 42.3% from deep over the same stretch. She also averaged 2.1 steals per game, including seven against Texas.
“She doesn’t say, ‘I should get the ball. It’s my turn,'” former Notre Dame player and current Connecticut Sun guard Marina Mabrey says of Citron. “She waits for it to be her turn. And she takes advantage every single time.”
“Everybody talks about Hidalgo and Miles,” says Louisville coach Jeff Walz, whose team lost to Notre Dame twice this season. “But take Citron off the floor and that’s a big loss. The more she continues to get involved, they’re dispersing things then. All of a sudden, they’re so hard to guard.”
After the Irish won their 19th straight, at Miami on Feb. 20, Diggins-Smith, Arike Ogunbowale and other Notre Dame legends visited the team.
“These are the best times that you get to have in that jersey,” Diggins-Smith told them. “It’s a privilege, so don’t take it for granted… don’t take this opportunity for granted.”
IT HAPPENS, RIGHT? During the course of a long season, lapses and lulls happen. Three days after the visit from the former Notre Dame stars, the Irish lost in double overtime to No. 13 NC State. Stuff happens.
But four days later, the Irish lost to Florida State. They dropped to No. 6 in the AP rankings. Worry was on the rise.
Notre Dame entered the ACC tournament losing two of its last three regular-season games.
Now here they are, down five in the fourth quarter against Duke in the semifinals of the ACC tournament. Hidalgo comes off a ball screen and gets into the lane. She pulls up for a floater, and the ball clangs off the rim.
After the two confounding losses to close the book on February, the Fighting Irish have looked like themselves in flashes in this March 8 game against the Blue Devils: Hidalgo poking the ball out and leaking up the court for a fast-break and-1; Miles hitting a pull-up 3-point jumper. But for much of this game, the offense has felt stifled, the energy low and the focus lapsed.
Now comes a turnover on a routine handoff near midcourt. A bad shot late in the shot clock. More dribbling than passing.
These problems have been building over the past five games, culminating in this 61-56 loss to Duke. (Nineteen days earlier Notre Dame beat Duke by 15.)
Ivey preaches the gospel of space and pace. Against Duke, the Irish had just 12 fast-break points.
“I think there’s a mental aspect in all this,” Ivey says. “Managing your frustration and getting to the next play. We’ve got to come together.”
In addition to the mental aspect, there’s also the math.
Notre Dame averaged 18.2 assists in the first 26 games of the season but just 13.2 in the final five before the NCAA tournament. Its scoring also nosedived, 75.4 points the last five games compared to 86.5 in the first 26. The Irish didn’t make as many 3-pointers either (4.8 vs. 7.9 per game) and were shooting more inefficiently from long range (29% vs. 41%).
McGraw points out the methodology.
“[Teams] forced them to run half-court offense,” she says. “It kind of threw them. It even took a shot at their confidence. They had that feeling of invincibility, and I just don’t think they were prepared to run that much offense.”
The team that looked fabulous for much of the season suddenly looked flawed.
Subpar play by Miles and Hidalgo is one common denominator in the five Irish losses. In Notre Dame’s 26 regular-season wins, Miles and Hidalgo combined to average 41.5 points while shooting 50% from the field and 43% from 3-point range. In the Irish’s five losses, those numbers dropped to 34.8 points on 36% from the field, and 28% from beyond the arc.
“When our offense isn’t flowing, we need to be able to rely on our defense,” Ivey says after the Duke loss. “And I didn’t think we had that today.”
Sometimes, Hidalgo takes chances that leave her teammates in a tough spot. Sometimes, Miles seems glued to the floor as her assignment drives on by. Sometimes, the rotations are slow to recover.
Teams with quick, athletic guards have exposed a weakness in the Notre Dame defense. NC State’s Zoe Brooks had a career-high 33 against Notre Dame. FSU’s Latson dropped 23 on the Irish. Oluchi Okananwa had a team-high 14 (without a single miss) for Duke.
But the bottom line is that Notre Dame can’t score in transition if it can’t get stops or generate turnovers.
“We don’t want to play in the half court,” Citron says. “We get our momentum and energy from transition, and in order to be in transition, we need to get stops.”
The Irish know there’s no more room for error. One more loss and the season that once seemed so promising is over.
“It’s going to be our last chance,” Citron says from the podium after the Duke loss. “Turn the page, get better. We know we get one more shot at it.”
That response — that resilience — is what Ivey expects.
“We played below our standard,” Ivey says of the loss in the ACC tournament. “I need to make this team get better. When we get back on this court, we will be better for this loss.”
MILES SCOOTS DOWN the lane, defending Stephen F. Austin guard Harmaine Dominguez in the fourth quarter of Notre Dame’s opening NCAA tournament game. The Irish are up 41 points when Miles missteps, rolls her left ankle and collapses in a heap on the hardwood.
Miles’ teammates surround her as she clutches her ankle. She says something to make them all laugh before rolling onto her back. Hidalgo reaches for Miles’ hand in an effort to help her up, but Miles stays on the floor. She wraps her hand around Hidalgo’s ankle, squeezing as if she’s trying to wring out the pain while Hidalgo holds Miles’ wrist in support.
It looks like another bad turn for the Irish, perhaps the last gasp of their championship dreams.
But Miles plays through the pain in the second-round game against Michigan, and Notre Dame handles the Wolverines 76-55. Miles doesn’t have a huge game — eight points and five assists — but her fellow guards stuff the stat sheet. Hidalgo has 21 points and Citron 16. Forward Liatu King is a perfect 7-for-7 from the field for 18 points alongside 15 rebounds.
“Just having Liv back at all, she opens the floor up so much,” Hidalgo says. “She’s so dangerous. Just her ability to not only score but also to get all of her teammates involved. She can see the floor so well.”
After a week of practice that focused on defensive intensity and defensive rotations, Notre Dame held Michigan to 36.8% shooting and the Irish forced 16 turnovers. They looked much more like the Irish team that won 19 consecutive games than the one struggling at the end of February.
“Obviously everybody knows we went through a couple of weeks of tough stretch,” says Ivey, who is looking to advance beyond the Sweet 16 for the first time as Notre Dame’s coach. “The way that they fought back, got back on track, the way we defended the last two games has just been phenomenal. I’m so proud of this group.”
Standing on the court at Purcell Pavilion following the win over Michigan — likely her final home game — Miles grips a microphone and brushes away tears. She puts her hand on her hip. “I’m trying not to be emotional,” she says.
Behind her, a group of fans holds cards that spell “S-W-E-E-T-!” A leprechaun captures the moment on video. Miles thanks the crowd for supporting her through injuries and for the love they’ve shown the seniors. But, she insists, there’s more to do. TCU, the team that presented the first bump in the Irish’s road back in November, awaits in the Sweet 16.
After a few wrong turns, the Irish have arrived at their next stop, but not their final destination.
Back on the court, Miles takes a breath. “Job’s not done,” she says.
