Another NCAA game, another improbable Notre Dame women's basketball result – South Bend Tribune

This Notre Dame women’s basketball team really did that. 
Seriously, it did. It went final. It’s official. It’s improbable. 
This Notre Dame women’s basketball team, the one that plays only seven, the one that seemed an easy out in March, the one that may be a year away, just did that. Elite Eight, anyone? Why yes, answered Notre Dame (25-10) on Friday afternoon in a regional semifinal against Vanderbilt in Fort Worth, Texas. They’ll take it. 
They took it. 
Why stop here? Why not make plans and charter flight arrangements and book hotel rooms for Phoenix and the program’s 10th Final Four? Why not do what many believe cannot be done and beat big, bad No. 1 overall seed Connecticut (37-0) in Sunday’s regional final in Fort Worth, Texas? 
Why freaking not? 
Just extend a season filled with so many starts and stops, ups and downs, fun and frustration for another week. Play at least another game, have another improbable moment for a group that wasn’t supposed to do this. Certainly not this. There have been other more talented, more complete, just better Notre Dame women’s basketball teams that have rolled through the right side of Rolfs Hall the past five years, but none of them have done what this group has done. 
Win a Sweet 16 game, which it did, 67-64. Advance to an Elite Eight, which it did. 
Decades ago, Kentucky men’s basketball had the Unforgettables. Notre Dame women’s basketball has the Undeniables. Dismiss them and then watch them deliver. 
“This is a special group,” said Irish head coach Niele Ivey. “We have connected. We have a bond.” 
They have an Elite Eight. They stared down the recent history of four straight losses in the Sweet 16 and figured out a way to do what Notre Dame did against Vanderbilt, the region’s No. 2 seed that was supposed to breeze through this one. Instead, it got caught up in a tornado that wears No. 3 in blue for Notre Dame. 
Vanderbilt doesn’t have Hannah Hidalgo. It doesn’t have the DNA of Notre Dame. On Friday, it didn’t have the toughness or the tenacity or the will to find a way. All of it was on display for 6-seed Notre Dame in a second NCAA tournament game in five days. 
This postseason run has already been silly for Notre Dame; no reason to stop the silly. Go and beat the bully. Stay deep in the heart of Texas for another few days, keep believing, keep playing and go punch UConn in its nose and keep these good times rolling with this group, in a season as unlikely as this program has had, maybe since 1997. 
That’s when Notre Dame women’s basketball became NOTRE DAME WOMEN’S BASKETBALL. That year, it came from nowhere to get to the program’s first Final Four. Notre Dame has had chances to do that each of the previous four years, with teams that maybe should have gotten there but didn’t get there. 
Last March in Alabama, Notre Dame was expected to cruise into the Final Four with a group that included Hidalgo and a pair of future pros in Sonia Citron and Maddy Westbeld. And that guard with the glasses … what was her name? It was another Sweet 16 stopping point for a fourth straight season. 
Good, not good enough. This team was good enough. 
Those previous Irish teams didn’t have this version of Hidalgo, who became only the second player in NCAA Tournament history to tally a triple double (31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals) with double-digit steals as part of that stat line. Add to that about a dozen flexes/primal screams after key plays. Quadruple double. 
“I came out and tried to be a pest on the ball as I always try and do,” Hidalgo said. 
She was a pest. She was the best. 
Vanderbilt looked like it had never seen anyone like Hidalgo. Did it watch film? Did it read the scouting report? The Commodores looked like they bothered with neither. Hidalgo set the steal tone of this one by notching her first 60 seconds in. 
The play-by-play got redundant. 
Hidalgo steal and score. 
Hidalgo steal and score 
Hidalgo steal and score. 
While Hidalgo was her usual wizard self, the nation’s leading scorer, Mikayla Blakes, was bad. Or was it Mikalya Bricks? She made one of her first 15 shots and seemed fine to keep chucking and missing. She got going late, but it was too late. Notre Dame was too far down the Elite Eight road, too much in a flow, too confident that it would figure out a way to stay a few more days. 
How did Vanderbilt win 29 games? Who did it play? What a grease fire in that first quarter. It made two baskets. It had 10 turnovers. You expected more from a team out of the conference where it just means more. 
It’s only fitting that this group is back in the Elite Eight for the first time since 2019. That year, a team that was far more talented but far less likeable, got all the way to the national championship game in Tampa. It was the last deep run for Hall of Fame coach Muffet McGraw. Maybe this is the first of many deep runs for Ivey. 
Many wondered when/if Notre Dame would ever get back. In January, that looked impossible. 
“We’ve come a long way,” Ivey said. 
The team that was least likely to get back got back. Might as well win. By the time these words see the printed page, the regional final will have already gone final. Maybe Connecticut sledgehammers Notre Dame. Maybe this ride will end. Maybe Notre Dame turns college basketball on its head. We don’t know. 
This much we do — with this group, anything is possible. Especially this month. In December and January and February, it didn’t look like Notre Dame women’s basketball. 
It sure does now. 
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at [email protected]

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