March 21, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: March Madness with Notre Dame’s Anna DeWolfe
By The Next
DeWolfe: 'I love the laser focus that I can feel on the court by not only my teammates, but my coaches as well'
On today’s episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, Notre Dame guard Anna DeWolfe joins host Gigi Speer to talk about the player experience of the NCAA Tournament and all about her college basketball experience. The Fighting Irish ended their ACC season with a 55–51 win over NC State in the tournament final, leaving them as 2024 ACC champions.
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Thankfully, DeWolfe says, they were afforded a break after such an accomplishment: “We got really lucky and blessed that [head coach Niele Ivey] gave us the whole week off,” DeWolfe said. “That actually fell on our spring break, so I was able to travel, go see [UAlbany guard Sarah Karpell], kind of reset, regroup, watch her play.”
“And then I came back and it was right back to work where we started. We had the last three days of practice that were really intentional focusing on us. We didn’t know who we were going to play yet, what our path was down the future. So we’re really just focusing on Notre Dame basketball, what we needed to pick up on,” she continued. “So it’s been really good, it’s been a little bit tiring, because obviously we’ve been going for a while, but it’s been super fun. And I love the laser focus that I can feel on the court by not only my teammates, but my coaches as well.”
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Then, they discussed her transfer from Fordham to Notre Dame as a fifth-year graduate student, including how it feels to be wrapping up her college basketball career.
“At Fordham, like there was a lot of pressure to score the ball, there’s a lot of pressure I felt like I put on myself just being in the A-10. And I think I knew when I was transferring, it was gonna be a lot different in that sense,” DeWolfe explained. “I knew it was going to be a challenge as well. Like it wasn’t going to be an easy change. But I think I really took that upon myself to just grasp every change, every challenge, and just go in and know that this was my last year of eligibility, my last year to play the sport that I love.”
“I feel like my whole life, … I’ve known exactly what I’m going to do next year, even when I was transferring, I knew that I was gonna be playing college basketball. And like, you always have a set schedule, someone’s telling you where to be, you have classes every day, the same time. Like, it’s just weird to think that’s not going to be my life next year,” she said. “I plan on playing next year, but it’s not going to be the same. It’s not going to be a structure, it’s going to be different. It’s going to be, hold yourself accountable, which I think I’ll like a lot, but it’s weird that I just don’t really know what’s gonna look like.”
Tune in to hear more from DeWolfe about playing South Carolina in Paris, how it really feels to cut down a net, her relationship with head coach Niele Ivey, playing with Hannah Hidalgo, and much more. Make sure to subscribe to the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast to learn more about the WNBA, women’s college basketball, basketball history and much more!
