Vanderbilt basketball is back in the Sweet 16 of the Women’s NCAA Tournament for the first time in 17 seasons.
The No. 2 seed Commodores (29-4) play No. 6 seed Notre Dame (24-10) on March 27 (1:30 p.m. CT, ESPN) in Fort Worth, Texas.
Vanderbilt is led by sophomore SEC Player of the Year Mikayla Blakes, who’s averaging 27 points, four rebounds and 2.8 steals. Blakes is a finalist for the Naismith Trophy Women’s College Player of the Year.
Notre Dame is red-hot behind the play of Hannah Hidalgo, who’s averaging 25.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and nation-high 5.6 steals. Hidalgo logged 26 points, 13 rebounds, eight steals and two assists in the Irish’s 83-73 upset over No. 3 seed Ohio State. She was named a Naismith Women’s College Defensive Player of the Year finalist.
Vanderbilt and Notre Dame will play the UConn-UNC winner in the Elite Eight on March 29.
The Vanderbilt Commodores and Notre Dame Fighting Irish will play at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, March 27 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Vanderbilt Commodores vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish game in the Sweet 16 will be broadcast on ESPN.
The Tennessean reporter Aria Gerson’s prediction: Vanderbilt 75, Notre Dame 63.
Vanderbilt is 9-2 over its past 11 games. The Commodores average 85 points, and the offense has been pretty consistent in two NCAA Tournament blowouts thus far.
Vanderbilt defeated High Point, 102-61, in the first round and eliminated Illinois, 75-57, in the second round. Blakes averaged 27.5 points in those games. She had help from the supporting cast too: Aubrey Galvan scored 17 points against High Point and Justine Pissott finished with 18 against Illinois.
More importantly, Vandy found its groove from the 3-point line after two subpar outings. The Commodores were 11-of-26 from 3 against Illinois (42%), led by Blakes’ 4-of-10 mark. They were 15-of-52 (28%) in two previous games.
Can that continue against a Notre Dame defense forcing 20 turnovers per game, led by ball hawk Hannah Hidalgo? The Irish completely locked Ohio State up in the fourth quarter of their second-round game. The Buckeyes logged just nine field-goal attempts with seven turnovers.
Odds courtesy ofBetMGM.
This game will be billed as a Mikayla Blakes vs. Hannah Hidalgo showdown.
Blakes, a USA TODAY and AP All-America first team selection, has been one of the nation’s top scorers since her freshman season when she twice scored 50-plus points in a game over a 17-day stretch. She scored 53 at Florida, followed by 55 points at Auburn.
Her 55 points at Auburn set an NCAA single-game record for most points scored by a freshman.
Blakes, a 5-foot-8 former McDonald’s All-American guard out of Rutgers Prep in Somerset, New Jersey, set the all-time Division I sophomore scoring record during the game this year, reaching 891 points for the season.
Hidalgo is a two-time ACC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
She’s done it all for the Irish this season. She entered the NCAA Tournament third in the nation in scoring (25.2 points) and first in steals (5.4.) In the ACC Tournament, she broke Notre Dame’s single-season steals record.
Against Akron earlier this season, Hidalgo set Notre Dame’s single game scoring record with 44 points and broke the NCAA’s single-game steals record with 16.
Vanderbilt women’s basketball coach Shea Ralph is married to Tom Garrick, a former NBA player who turned his career to women’s college basketball. Garrick joined Ralph’s staff at Vanderbilt as an associate coach in 2021.
Ralph is a finalist for the Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year. She was named national coach of the year by ESPN and Sporting News.
Iyana Moore, a Blackman graduate, left Vanderbilt in the offseason to play at Notre Dame as a fifth-year graduate transfer. She played four years at Vandy prior to that, averaging 12.4 points.
Moore is averaging 12.2 points per game at Notre Dame with a career-high 39.7% from 3-point range.
2026 NCAA Women’s Tournament schedule for March Madness on Friday, March 27
● Fort Worth Regional 1: (2) Vanderbilt vs. (6) Notre Dame, 1:30 p.m. | ESPN
● Fort Worth Regional 1: (1) UConn vs. (4) North Carolina, 4 p.m. | ESPN
● Sacramento Regional 2: (1) UCLA vs. (4) Minnesota, 6:30 p.m. | ESPN
● Sacramento Regional 2: (2) LSU vs. (3) Duke, 9 p.m. | ESPN
2026 NCAA Women’s Tournament schedule for March Madness on Friday, March 27
● Fort Worth Regional 3: (2) Michigan vs. (3) Louisville, 11:30 a.m. | ABC
● Fort Worth Regional 3: (1) Texas vs. (5) Kentucky, 2 p.m. | ABC
● Sacramento Regional 4: (1) South Carolina vs. (4) Oklahoma, 4 p.m. | ESPN
● Sacramento Regional 4: (3) TCU vs. (10) Virginia, 6:30 p.m. | ESPN
● Vanderbilt’s 102-61 win over High Point in the first round was an expected mismatch. The Commodores grabbed 56 rebounds to High Point’s 36 and scored 27 second-chance points. Mikayla Blakes scored 30 points on 11-of-16 shooting.
● The second round game against Illinois was a little tighter, but Vanderbilt turned an 11-point halftime lead into a 75-57 win. Blakes scored 25 points and was 4-of-10 from 3.
● Hannah Hidalgo flirted with a quadruple-double in a 79-60 win over Fairfield in the first round, finishing with 23 points, nine rebounds, eight steals and six assists.
● Five players scored in double-figures in an 83-73 win over Ohio State in the second round, led by Hannah Hidalgo’s 26 points, 13 rebounds, eight steals and two assists. Notre Dame fought back after trailing by double-digits in the first quarter.
Notre Dame leads the all-time series 1-0, winning 72-64 when the teams met in the 2001 Elite Eight.
● 1 Mikayla Blakes, G
● 2 Jada Brown, G
● 3 Aubrey Galvan, G
● 4 Madison Greene, G
● 8 Ava Black, G
● 11 Monique Williams, F
● 13 Justine Pissott, G/F
● 14 Aiyana Mitchell, F
● 15 Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda, G
● 24 Aga Makurat, G
● 30 Trinity Wilson, F
● 32 Aalyah Del Rosario, C
● 35 Sacha Washington, F
Ralph is 102-63 since taking over in 2022 and has led the Commodores to the past three NCAA Tournaments. She was named The Athletic’s women’s basketball Coach of the Year in 2026 and is a finalist for Naismith Coach of the Year.
● 1 Kelly Ratigan, G
● 2 Vanessa de Jesus, G
● 3 Hannah Hidalgo, G
● 5 Malaya Cowles, F
● 8 Cassandre Prosper, G
● 10 Bella Tehrani, F
● 11 Jordyn Smith, G
● 14 KK Bransford, G
● 15 Luci Jensen, G
● 23 Iyana Moore, G
● 30 Gisela Sanchez, F
● 44 Leah Macy, F
Ivey, a Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach in 2019-20, played at Notre Dame from 1996-2001 and has been the Irish coach since 2021. She’s 141-48 in that span.
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform,@tpalmateer83.
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