Notre Dame failed its first big test of the season, losing to Michigan by forty points. That loss marks a big turnaround from the last time Notre Dame met Michigan. In March, the Fighting Irish secured a 76-55 win. So, the question is: what changed in a few months?
The answer is quite simple. Notre Dame lost most of its top players and didn’t replace them. In the 2024-25 season, Hannah Hidalgo, Olivia Miles, Sonia Citron, Liatu King, and Maddy Westbeld led the team in most areas, ranging from scoring to playmaking to rebounding. Miles transferred to TCU, and Citron, King, and Westbeld went to the WNBA. On top of that, Notre Dame also lost Kate Koval in the transfer portal.
Those losses have proven difficult to recover from.
Notre Dame sorely misses all the players it lost
Last season, Hidalgo, Miles, Citron, King, and Westbeld combined for an average of 72.4 points per game. With four of them gone, Cassandre Posper, KK Bransford, Vanessa de Jesus, and Gisela Sanchez stepped up as four of Notre Dame’s five top scorers. They can put a lot of points on the board. However, when Hidalgo struggles to score, the team lacks a lot of points.
While Notre Dame has plenty of talented scorers, it doesn’t have many great 3-point shooters anymore. Miles, Hidalgo, and Citron lit it up from behind the arc in 2024-25. All three of them shot at least 37% on a high volume. This season, Notre Dame’s only volume shooters are Hidalgo and de Jesus. Both shot below 30% in the first four games of the season.
With King, Miles, Citron, and Koval gone, Notre Dame also misses around 26 rebounds per game—a number Bransford, Sanchez, Prosper, and Moore haven’t been able to quite match so far this season.
Notre Dame fell significantly in the rankings
Notre Dame finished fourteenth in the preseason rankings due to the very offseason concerns that have since proven to be real issues. Even before the start of the season it was clear that Citron and Miles, in particular, wouldn’t be easily replaced.
After the loss to Michigan, Notre Dame fell even further. The team now ranks 24th, falling six spots compared to the previous rankings. Meanwhile, Michigan shot up eight spots, climbing all the way to six.
Notre Dame has another big game coming up. It will face USC on Friday. USC may not be the team it was last season with JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen leading the charge, but it still has plenty of talent headlined by freshman Jazzy Davidson.