Release from Notre Dame:

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — After one of the best freshman regular seasons in the history of women's college basketball, Hannah Hidalgo has been named one of five finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award, which is given to the nation's top point guard.

Hidalgo heads into the 2024 ACC Tournament leading the league in scoring (23.8 points per game) and leading the nation in steals (4.9). She ranks third nationally in scoring.

The 5-6 floor general has had numerous great weeks this season, but last week was certainly one of her best. Hidalgo helped Notre Dame notch wins over No. 5 Virginia Tech and No. 22 Louisville. She averaged 24.5 points per game in the wins and led all players in points, rebounds and assists against the Hokies. She had 20 rebounds on the week, which was the second-most amongst all ACC guards.

The other four finalists for the award are Iowa's Caitlin Clark, Ohio State's Jacy Sheldon, South Carolina's Te-Hina Paopao and Virginia Tech's Georgia Amoore. Skylar Diggins is Notre Dame's sole winner to date (2012 and 2013).

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For the third time this season, Hannah Hidalgo is both the ACC Player and Rookie of the Week, the conference announced on Monday. It is the 12th time this season Hidalgo has earned the freshman honors, which is a conference record.

Hidalgo and Co. are coming off of a 2-0 week during which Notre Dame beat two ranked opponents: No. 5 Virginia Tech and No. 22 Louisville. The 5-6 point guard averaged 24.5 points per game over the two contests and had an ACC-leading 9 steals. She also notched 20 rebounds, the second-most by any ACC guard during that span.

On the season, Hidalgo is pacing the conference with 23.8 points per game and the nation with 4.9 steals per game. She finished the ACC regular season with 24 20-point games, five more than anyone else in the league.

Hidalgo is also the only player in the nation averaging at least 20 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals every time she takes the court.

As @Charleston Bowles reported last week, Notre Dame hosted former Colgate running back Max Hurleman on a visit last Thursday. Now Hurleman has committed as a preferred walk-on transfer for the Irish..

The Wyomissing (Pa.) native finished his Colgate career with 814 rushing yards, 841 receiving yards and four total touchdowns. He also handled return duties for the Raiders and was named All-Patriot League first-team special teams in 2023.

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Release from Notre Dame:

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — After concluding his senior year with the Fighting Irish, including a career-season with the Irish that included 20 points off 10 goals and 10 assists, Drew Bavaro has signed his first professional contract with the Boston Bruins. The Bruins of the National Hockey League announced Tuesday that they had inked a one-year entry level contract with the blueliner.

“I couldn’t be happier to sign my first NHL contract with the Boston Bruins,” Bavaro said. “Thank you to everyone who has helped me achieve this lifetime goal.”

With his contract, Bavaro will spend the remainder of the 2023-24 season with the Bruins’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Providence Bruins.

In two seasons at Notre Dame, Bavaro appeared in 72 games and tallied 39 points. Most recently, the senior defenseman appeared in all but one game for the Irish and recorded three goals in their final weekend at Michigan. He boasted three game-winning tallies in 2023-24 and had five career game-winners in South Bend.

Bavaro joined the Irish in 2022-23 after a two-year career at Bentley of the AHA. In four collegiate seasons, Bavaro appeared in 124 games and registered 78 career points off 27 goals and 51 assists.

“The past two years at Notre Dame have been a dream come true," Bavaro said. "Playing for Coach Jackson and the rest of the staff is something I will cherish forever and this wouldn’t have been possible without their hard work. I’m excited to see what the future holds.”

Bavaro will report to Providence, Rhode Island, later this week.

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Bench clearing brawl in the 4th quarter. These officials are terrible. They have allowed Cardosa camping in the kane and no three second calls. Allowing LSU's big players get beat around underneath. I am not an LSU fan and especially their coach, but they are getting the bad end of the calls. Referees allowed this to get out of hand i think this is first time i have ever seen anything like this in womens basketball. Definitely not good for the game.

@Adam Gorney described Notre Dame as a contender for 2026 WR Jonah Smithk, who won WR MVP at the Rivals Camp in Los Angeles.


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Notre Dame is one of the programs that has been in most consistent communication with four-star guard Darius Adams.

Story from basketball recruiting analyst Jason Jordan:

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ACC Tournament champs move up five spots. Selection Sunday is Sunday night at 8 EDT. Irish Runt is killing it with his WBB posts and was way earlier posting the latest bracketology, but in case you missed it, ND is a solid 3 and hosting per the latest projection, updated after Sunday's games.

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We'll discuss Notre Dame football's first spring practice, what they want to see later this spring from the Irish and the latest recruiting news while answering questions from viewers.

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James Simon, a four-star running back in the 2025 class, announced Monday his spring visit schedule. It included Notre Dame.

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The schedule ...
March 24-26: LSU
March 27-29: Alabama
April 5-7: Texas A&M
April 12-14: Notre Dame
April 19-21: Texas
April 22-24: Louisiana Tech
TBD: Miami

Those seven schools make up Simon's top seven, which he announced last week.

Simon is the lone running back target the Irish are still pursuing in the 2025 class. He's listed at a Medium heat rating on The Heat Index.

If accurate our bracket is

1) Stanford
2) LSU
3) ND
4) IU

Will play winner of West Virginia and play in game of Arizona/Miss St

We also moved up to 8 ahead of LSU in net rankings

These are the players I'm most eager to see more of when Notre Dame restarts spring football practice with session No. 2 on March 20.

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@Adam Gorney wrote a Recruiting Rumor Mill out of this weekend's Rivals Camp in Los Angeles.


It includes 2026 Notre Dame QB targets Troy Huhn, Ryder Lyons and Brady Smigiel and upcoming 2027 QB visitor Daniel Mielke II.

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Two running backs were named MVPs of their position at Sunday's Under Armour Next Football Camp in Dallas: Michael Turner Jr. and Notre Dame commit Daniel Anderson.

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Live Stats: LINK


Here is the latest ESPN Bracketology, updated Saturday morning: The Irish projected as a No. 4 seed.

Live Stats: LINK

As Irish Runt pointed out, Notre Dame is up to No. 3 in the latest ESPN Bracketology projection for the NCAA Tournament.

A four-run ninth-inning rally wasn’t enough to fend off a third straight loss Sunday for the Notre Dame baseball team in its ACC opening series at Virginia Tech.

The host Hokies (11-3, 3-0 ACC) battered Irish pitching again, scoring in double digits in all three games, including an 11-8 win Sunday for a sweep.

Right fielder Eddie Michletti Jr. launched two of Virginia Tech’s four home runs against the Irish (9-5, 0-3). Notre Dame collected 13 hits, including solo home runs from outfielder David Glancy and catcher Joe Spence.

Shortstop Jack Penney and first baseman Connor Hincks each went 3-for-5, with Penney scoring three runs and Hincks driving in two and hitting a double.

Starter Matt Bedford took the loss. He lasted 2 ⅓ innings, giving up four earned runs on three hits, two walks and three hit batsmen with one strikeout.

The Irish have a Tuesday/Wednesday Spring Break series at Radford (4 p.m. EDT both days) before resuming ACC play Friday night at Florida State against former Irish coach Link Jarrett in the first game of a three-game series.

VIRGINIA TECH 11, NOTRE DAME 8: Box Score

I understand that Antonelli played for NC State back in the day. But as the color analyst during ESPN's telecast of the ACC championship game, she could at least pretend to be impartial. But she is openly rooting for NC State to beat Notre Dame ... During the 1st half, she constantly commented on what NC State needed to do better, and hardly mentioned ND. That being said, I'm proud of how the ND women are competing with only 6 players available to play ... ☘️ 🏀☘️

Lots of talk about the offensive line, but hardly any talk on this young guy. He's seems like the closest thing ND has to Ronnie Stanley. I know he has had a hard time putting on weight, but is that the only problem. I personally would love to see him come into his own and start on the left side allowing Jagusah to move inside to guard where he and Billy Schrauth can be the best combo. of maulers ND has seen inside in quite a while. You guys see him at all during practice today? Did he look more the part now or does he still look more like a long TE?

The end of Notre Dame’s 2023-24 hockey season on Saturday night was a bit of a rerun of the night before.

Fourth-seeded Michigan rallied with two late goals to overtake 5 seed ND, this time 4-3, to win the best-of-three Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal series, two games to none. Both games were played at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The Wolverines (20-13-3) advance to the single-elimination tourney semifinals next Saturday against top-seeded Michigan State, which had a bye into the semis. Third seed Minnesota will play the winner of Sunday’s quarterfinal matchup between No. 2 Wisconsin and No. 7 Ohio State in the other semi. Their series is tied 1-1.

The Irish finish 15-19-2, ending on a five-game losing streak and losing eight of their last nine games.

The same players who scored goals in ND’s 5-4 come-from-ahead loss on Friday rose to the occasion again. This time Drew Bavaro, Landon Slaggert and Patrick Moynihan scored a goal apiece, with Slaggert being credited with an assist and Moynihan two assists.
Michigan outshot the Irish, 36-28. Ryan Bischel recorded 31 saves for Notre Dame.

TJ Hughes scored the first two Wolverines goals. After the Irish took a 3-2 lead in the second period on Moynihan’s goal, Duke Dylan tied the game, and Gavin Brindley scored the game-winner in the final period.

With potential match up vs USC if both make it to sweet 16…if it plays out this way it’s probably the most favorable bracket for the ladies.

Hopefully they can pull of another one today with an even shorter rotation.