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2023 – 2025
The freshman: Hannah Hidalgo arrived from Merchantville, New Jersey, in the autumn of 2023, having won a gold medal with the United States at the under-19 World Cup and been named USA Basketball's female athlete of the year as an incoming freshman. She scored 31 points in her first college game — a Notre Dame debut record for a man or a woman — and finished the season with 790 points, a program freshman record, and 160 steals. She was the ACC rookie of the year and its defensive player of the year, and won the Dawn Staley Award as the nation's top guard.
The 2024 tournament title: Miles's lost season made Hidalgo the point guard of the 2023–24 team, and she led it to the ACC tournament championship — Notre Dame's first tournament crown since 2019 — beating North Carolina State in the final, with Hidalgo the tournament's most outstanding player. The Irish (28–7) lost their Sweet Sixteen game to Oregon State, 70–65.
The backcourt year: Miles returned for 2024–25, and the Miles–Hidalgo backcourt carried Notre Dame to a 28–6 season, a share of the ACC regular-season championship, and one week at No. 1 in the polls in February 2025. In December, in a sold-out building, the Irish beat fourth-ranked Texas 80–70 in overtime and second-ranked Connecticut 79–68 a week apart. The season ended in the Sweet Sixteen, a 71–62 loss to TCU — and then, in the transfer era's signature transaction, Miles left for TCU herself, the team that had ended her season.
Citron's exit: The 2025 draft took Sonia Citron third overall to Washington — where she started all forty-four games as a rookie, made the All-Star team and the All-Rookie Team, and finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting — and Maddy Westbeld sixteenth to Chicago. The 2025–26 season, told next, would be built around Hidalgo alone.
Sources:
- University record book — Hidalgo's freshman records (790 points; 160 steals; the 31-point debut); the honors lists (ACC rookie and defensive honors; the Dawn Staley Award; the 2024 ACC tournament award); the NCAA history (the Oregon State and TCU games); the polls history (one week at No. 1, 2024–25); the sellout list (the Texas and Connecticut games of December 2024).
- WNBA (Washington Mystics) — Citron's 2025 draft position, All-Star and All-Rookie honors and rookie season line.