Notre Dame, UConn, women’s basketball. What more needs to be said?
Thursday night will pit the eighth-ranked Irish (7-2, 1-0 ACC) against the second-ranked Huskies (8-0) for the 55th time, with Connecticut making its 18th trip to Purcell Pavilion. Notre Dame will host its second top-four opponent in a week after defeating No. 4 Texas in overtime last Thursday and blowing out Syracuse on the road Sunday. UConn, meanwhile, will deal with its second consecutive ranked opponent after destroying Louisville in Brooklyn on Saturday.
Only eight other women’s college basketball games, none involving power-conference opponents, will take place on Thursday. The eyes of the sport will fixate squarely on South Bend at 7 p.m.
A yearly tradition
With the exception of 2020-21, Notre Dame and UConn have faced off at least once in every season since their first meeting in 1995-96. The matchup has visited the Big East Tournament 11 times, the national semifinal round six times and the national championship game in 2014 and 2015, with UConn winning both titles. Even after Notre Dame left the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference a decade ago, the Irish and Huskies have continued to play once yearly.
Though UConn holds a 39-15 advantage all-time over the Irish, Notre Dame has won each of the last clashes. Two Decembers ago, the Irish used a phenomenal first half to knock off the Huskies, 74-60, at home in the Jimmy V Classic. Current graduate guard Olivia Miles led Notre Dame with 21 points and eight assists.
In January last year, with Miles out, Notre Dame traveled to Connecticut on the heels of a tough home loss to Syracuse and beat No. 8 UConn by double-digits again. Current sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo shined in the 82-67 victory, amassing 34 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for a massive double-double.
Notre Dame’s backcourt on a tear
All signs point to Miles, Hidalgo and even senior guard Sonia Citron combining for a big night against the Huskies this year. The Irish backcourt trio has taken over its last two games, producing 66 of Notre Dame’s 80 points against Texas and 69 of the 93 Irish points at Syracuse.
In the Texas game, Hidalgo stole the show, racking up 30 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. Before hitting what turned out to be the game-winning three-pointer in overtime, she heaved an incredible, overhead pass to Miles that led to a second-quarter layup. Miles went on to score 18 points, add six assists and nearly win the game in the final two seconds of regulation with a go-ahead layup. Citron also contributed 18 points and notched a career-high seven steals, matching the magnitude of the game with the effectiveness of her defense once again.
Three days later, the trio went to Syracuse and lit up the stat sheet, marking the first time Notre Dame had three players go for 20 points since 2022 and the first time it had three players record double-doubles since 2019. Citron set the pace with 25 points and 11 rebounds, Miles went for 20 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists and Hidalgo notched 24 points with 10 rebounds. With her performance, Hidalgo became the fastest player in Notre Dame women’s basketball history to reach 1,000 career points, doing so in just 44 games.
Citron’s two-game sequence earned her national recognition as one of five U.S. Basketball Writers Association National Players of the Week. After missing the season opener with an injury and starting the year quietly, the senior has found her game. Over the last four contests, she’s averaging 19.8 points and 3.8 steals per contest with a three-point percentage of 47.8. Overall, she ranks 14th in the ACC with 14.9 points per game, one of only three major conference players nationally with the combination of 14 points, six rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block per game.
Another week, another All-American opponent
Having already beaten preseason AP All-Americans Madison Booker of Texas and Kiki Iriafen and JuJu Watkins of USC this season, the Irish will face another one on Thursday. Paige Bueckers, a redshirt senior, made the list after leading UConn to the Final Four last year. The AP Player of the Year in 2021 before knee injuries dashed her next two seasons, Bueckers returned in full last year, posting 21.9 points per game to finish as the Big East Player of the Year and a consensus First Team All-American. This year, she ranks inside the nation’s top 40 with 18.6 points per contest.
Freshman forward Sarah Strong, the top-ranked recruit from her class, has played a terrific Robin to Bueckers’ Batman this season. Having started all eight games, she’s averaging 16.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, ranking top-40 national with Bueckers for field goal percentage. Before UConn, she captured two Gatorade North Carolina Player of the Year awards and finished the 2023-24 season as the Naismith High School Player of the Year.
Like Texas, UConn plays with depth, regularly using up to 10 or 11 players during games. A knee injury to graduate guard Azzi Fudd, who missed last year’s Notre Dame game with a torn ACL, will likely put said depth to the test this week. When healthy, Fudd has averaged 10 points per game this season.
UConn heads into Thursday’s game with a well-earned 8-0 record. After reaching their 15th Final Four since 2008 last season, the Huskies have already defeated three ranked opponents, each by double-digits. UConn knocked off No. 14 North Carolina on Nov. 15, took down No. 18 Ole Miss in the Bahamas on Nov. 27 and curb-stomped No. 22 Louisville on Saturday.
From a matchup perspective, keep an eye on the battle between UConn’s efficient offense and Notre Dame’s stingy defense. The Huskies make more quality plays with the basketball than anyone in the country, leading the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.02. That leads to a nation-high field goal percentage of 51.8, as UConn makes the right moves to set up the best possible looks on the offensive end.
The Huskies haven’t yet faced the Irish, though. Notre Dame holds national rankings of sixth for blocks per game (6.9) and 25th for steals per game (12.6), limiting opponents to the 31st-lowest field goal percentage in the country at 35.4. UConn knows how to defend as well, with its opponents converting at an even more abysmal 34.3% clip from the field.
Notre Dame will host UConn at 7 p.m. in Purcell Pavilion on Thursday.
