September 4, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Niele Ivey keeps building in South Bend
By The Next
A look at Notre Dame ahead of the 2024-25 season
As Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey prepares for her fifth season leading the Fighting Irish, she joined host Howard Megdal on Wednesday’s episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball. Ivey discussed how her own basketball career has influenced how she’s approached constructing the program and looked ahead to the 2024-25 season.
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“The way that I recruit now is based off of my experience, my experience with having (an) incredible relationship with the head coach,” Ivey said. “That’s kind of how I recruit. I try to really build strong relationships with our recruits and try to explain how positive my experience was here as a player, and having that experience walking in their shoes, I think, has been helpful in my journey as a recruiter.”
Previewing what her team might have in store for the upcoming season, Ivey hopes the Fighting Irish find more success generating more takeaways.
“I would love to force more turnovers. I think defensively, we can impact the ball more this year, adding some athleticism in the forward position, and then adding Liv’s (Olivia Miles‘) size back, having Cass (Cassandre Prosper) back, I think that’s going to help us impact the ball defensively, which can force turnovers,” Ivey said. “And I believe that Olivia, coming back with her experience, she does a great job of facilitating. I think she’s going to help, as far as our assist-to-turnover ratio. And I think Hannah (Hidalgo), just having a year under her belt, I think you’re going to see a tremendous improvement from her. She had to carry the bulk of the offense and being that primary distributor, and they’re going to help each other, Olivia and Hannah. But also having that year under your belt as a point guard, understanding the system, knowing what the ACC looks like, and non-conference, I think that’s going to really help her in her decision making this year.”
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Tune into Locked On Women’s Basketball for more from Ivey about the state of the Fighting Irish, as the program looks to build off of its trip to the Sweet 16 this past season.
