ALBANY, N.Y. — Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo was a rising prep star growing up in New Jersey, but she did not start following women’s basketball until her junior year in high school.
Now, in the middle of a freshman All-America season, Hidalgo reflected how she has become a household name headed into the Irish’s Sweet 16 matchup against Oregon State on Friday.
“I never thought I would be the face of something,” Hidalgo said Thursday. “It’s still like, ‘Wow, people are trying to look up to me.’ When I was in Spain, and people are chanting my last name, it’s just like, people know me from all over and it’s humbling. I continue to be humbled because I know in an instant everything could be taken away from me.”
Hidalgo has led an injury-depleted Notre Dame team, playing with six players in its rotation, to its third straight Sweet 16 appearance. It was the work of coach Niele Ivey, a Notre Dame alum herself, that got Hidalgo interested in playing for the Irish.
But during a wide-ranging interview Thursday during the open locker room period, Hidalgo said she did not know much about Notre Dame women’s basketball’s rich history when Ivey started recruiting her because she did not watch women’s basketball growing up.
Hidalgo recalled, as a fifth grader, being turned off to the sport because, as she describes it, “people kind of bashed women’s basketball.”
“When I was seeing women’s basketball, and this is a big reason I didn’t really watch it, is hearing the media say women shouldn’t be playing basketball,” she said. “This is a man’s sport. They should be back in the kitchen and seeing all that it was like no encouragement. I’m like, ‘Do I really want to do this when I get older?’ It was just like, ‘No, I don’t really think I want to do this,’ and to see how much the women’s game has grown from back then to now is big.”
Hidalgo said she kept playing because she grew up in a basketball family, so being surrounded by the sport was inevitable. It was in seventh grade when she realized she had college potential, but even then she never considered the possibility she could become a game-changer so early in her college career.
“Never a thought in my mind,” Hidalgo said. “Of course, me and my parents set goals like, ‘Hey, we want you to accomplish this and that,’ and I didn’t know how big it was until I accomplished that — whether it was scoring 2,000 points or being a McDonaId’s All American, I didn’t notice how big it was until I actually started accomplishing these things.”
As a freshman, Hidalgo won ACC tournament MVP honors, in addition to ACC Rookie of the Year and ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors. Ivey said she knew how special Hidalgo was during the recruiting process, but wanted to see how she would respond with the bright lights on her in the season opener against South Carolina in Paris.
“She exceeded my expectations,” Ivey said. “This entire season, she’s improved every game. She has been a sponge. Very high IQ. Ultimate competitor. I’m so proud of her because it’s a hard task to come in [and] run a Power 5 program.”
Hidalgo prides herself on her defense, as evidenced by her ACC and school single-season steals records. But with the Irish depleted, she said she has had to play less aggressively on defense in order to try and stay out of foul trouble.
That is one key to watch against the Beavers.
“I hear Coach Ivey on the bench been yelling at me, ‘Hannah, be smart!’ if pick up an early foul,” Hidalgo said. “‘No more fouls, we need you out there.’ My dad’s yelling at me from the stands, just contain, make the ball handler uncomfortable. You don’t have to get a steal every single time.”
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