No. 3 Notre Dame ventures to Blacksburg on Thursday night for a showdown with Virginia Tech in Cassell Coliseum. Jason Patterson, Mack McCarthy and Kyle Marchak have the call on ACC Network Extra at 6 p.m. ET.
The Fighting Irish (17-2, 8-0 ACC) have been one of the nation's best this year and are legitimate national championship contenders. They're the reigning ACC Tournament champions, too, and currently sit atop of the conference standings. Meanwhile, the Hokies (14-6, 5-4) are tied for eighth with Georgia Tech.
These two squads played twice in nine days last spring and neither matchup was pretty for Tech. The first came in Purcell Pavilion, where ND made the Hokies look mortal for the first time in six weeks. Despite the 71-58 loss, Tech still clinched the ACC regular season crown that night based on other results around the conference.
However, when they met again in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C., they were in completely different places. The Hokies were reeling from Elizabeth Kitley's season-ending injury and just trying to piece stuff together — they scraped by Miami in a 55-47 win in the quarterfinals — while the Irish had a head of steam. After their 82-53 drubbing of Tech, they beat NC State to win the tournament. They later made a run to the Sweet 16.
Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey brought almost every piece back from last year's squad, including a star that missed the entire season due to injury, and the group is rolling this season. The only blemishes on its résumé came in back-to-back days in the Cayman Islands in November to No. 17 TCU and Utah. It's 12-0 since with victories over No. 4 Texas, No. 2 UConn, No. 17 North Carolina and No. 17 Georgia Tech. It also beat No. 3 USC in Los Angeles earlier in the year.
Let's break down the Irish:
Notre Dame
Record: 17-2 (8-0 ACC)
NET ranking: 6 (VT: 50)
Coach: Niele Ivey — 5th season (106-34, .757)
Last season: 29-7 (13-5 ACC). The Irish won the ACC Tournament as the No. 4 seed and then, as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, made a run to the Sweet 16.
Series history: 20th meeting; ND leads 17-2. VT's two wins in the series: Feb. 9, 2003, in Blacksburg (53-50) and Feb. 20, 2020, in South Bend, Ind. (68-62). Current Virginia Tech head coach Megan Duffy was a freshman on that 2002-23 Irish team that lost to the Hokies.
Last game's starting five — Thursday at Boston College
Hannah Hidalgo (5-6, So.): 25.4 points per game
Olivia Miles (5-10, Gr.): 16.4 ppg
Liatu King (6-0, Gr.): 12.6 ppg
Sonia Citron (6-1, Sr.): 13.7 ppg
Maddy Westbeld (6-3, Gr.): 10.3 ppg
What to know
The Irish are coming off an open date and haven't played since last Thursday's 89-63 demolition of Boston College. They're elite across the board and might have the best starting five in women's college basketball.Hidalgo is a frontrunner for the national player of the year and is averaging 25.4 points per game while shooting 49 percent. She's also grabbing 6.2 rebounds per game, but what makes her most lethal is her defense. Her 4.2 steals per game leads the entire country. In two meetings with Tech last season, she had five and was extremely disruptive.
She was a first-team All-American, the ACC Tournament MVP and the ACC Defensive Player of the Year last year. This season, an ankle injury kept her out of two games in mid-January but she's played well since her return. She's been unbelievable in her last 10 outings: 26.4 points per game while shooting 52 percent (95-of-184), including a 45 percent clip (27-of-60) from behind the arc, while averaging 6.2 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 3.9 assists per game.
She also has an elite guard next to her. Back after missing last season with a knee injury, Miles is playing some of the best basketball of her career this year. She's scored in double figures all but once (Utah), is shooting a career-best 54 percent, has improved to 44 percent from behind the arc (up from 23%) and is on pace to match her 244 assists from 2022-23 when she was a second-team All-American. Moreover, she has three triple-doubles — the most in the nation.
Hidalgo and Miles might be the best all-around backcourt duo in the country, and that's without mentioning Citron. She's the Irish's glue player and does a little bit of everything, though she's overshadowed by the other two guards. Her scoring is slightly down this season (after averaging 17.3 points per game last year) and she isn't shooting as well from behind the arc — she's 0-of-10 over her last three games. However, she's a crucial piece. In two meetings with the Hokies in 2023-24, she posted 40 points, shot 59 percent (16-of-27), grabbed 12 rebounds and added three steals and two blocks.
While Ivey brought back that trio, she also added one of the ACC's best available free agents in King from Pitt, who was the league's most improved player last season at 18.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. She hasn't been asked to score as much, but her field goal percentage is up (from 52% to 56%) and her turnovers are down. Though slightly undersized at six-foot, she's averaging 10.7 boards per game and has a team-high eight double-doubles.
The other key cog is Westbeld. A second-team all-conference pick last year, she returned from a foot injury at the beginning of January and settled in quickly. She dropped 20 on Georgia Tech on Jan. 16 on 8-of-11 shooting — a good example of her efficiency — and allows the Irish to stretch the floor. She's a 36 percent 3-point shooter for her career, which causes issues for opponents.
Ivey likes to roll eight deep and has a few players come off the bench that would start anywhere else in the ACC. Megan Duffy is familiar with Liza Karlen (6-2, Gr., 6.3 ppg, 6.4 rpg), a Marquette transfer. She was a First Team All-Big East performer last season after averaging 17.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. Though she's not quite playing that well this year, she's also not being asked to do as much.
Cassandre Prosper (6-3, So., 7.2 ppg) and Kate Koval (6-5, Fr., 6.8 ppg) are the other names to know. A bronze medalist at the FIBA World Cup with Canada's U19 squad, Prosper rebounded well from an injury and has plugged some different holes this season. Meanwhile, Koval is a McDonald's All-American and was the top-rated post player in last year's recruiting class. She got off to a hot start in November but has been hit-or-miss since.
This is the best team the Hokies have played — and likely will all year — and Thursday could be a tough reunion for Duffy, who played for the Irish from 2002-06. Notre Dame is the best 3-point shooting team in the country (41.2%), has the fourth-best field goal percentage (49.7%), is the fifth-best rebounding unit (45.3 boards per game) and ranks seventh in blocks per game (6.1).
Virginia Tech has struggled against some really talented squads this year (Duke, Florida State, NC State) but fared well against others (Georgia Tech, Louisville). This feels like a different level, though. The Hokies will have to play a near-perfect game to beat the Irish.