NCAAW: Hidalgo channels Taurasi in Notre Dame’s ACC Tournament win

On the court, she’s intense and laser-focused. Words like “tenacious,” “unrelenting” and “fierce” all spring to mind. The biggest stages in women’s basketball don’t intimidate her; more precisely, the bigger the stage, the better she gets.

All that could describe recently-retired women’s basketball legend Diana Taurasi. Or, it could capture Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, the ACC’s Player and Defensive Player of the Year. In fact, the descriptions define both, because Hidalgo is the apprentice to Taurasi’s Jedi Master in nearly every way that matters.

Friday’s ACC Tournament matchup between No. 7-seed Cal and No. 2-seed Notre Dame was a two-way battle from the start. Cal won first possession, but Notre Dame’s steely defense slowly cut the team down, and with two minutes left in the first it was clear the Golden Bears needed to take a beat to catch their breath. Unfortunately, when you’re facing a starting five that includes three All-ACC First Team members in Hidalgo, Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron, along with Second Teamer Liatu King and Maddy Westbeld, getting a rest isn’t typically an option.

Tournament season is notoriously unpredictable and wily, and nothing about the game was easy for either team. At the half, Notre Dame was leading 31-28, Westbeld was nursing a bloody nose, and Miles’ game was a little off. Cal’s Kayla Williams, Marta Suárez and Ioanna Krimil were keeping the team in the game, much to the frustration of their opponent.

If the first half belonged to anyone, it was Hidalgo. The 5-foot-6 sophomore from New Jersey demonstrated repeatedly why she is who she is and why she’s getting the attention she’s getting. If you haven’t seen her play in person yet, Hidalgo is tough. She’s also fast—one second she’s on one end of the court, and the next thing you know she’s laying it up on the other, and maybe two seconds have advanced forward on the clock.

Hidalgo and Krimili both found themselves on the floor in the second after the latter ran into the former while she was shooting, but Hidalgo had jumped back to her feet, hit a three, and was boring her eyes into Krimili’s soul before the latter had even recovered.

Taurasi was behind UConn’s bench in January 2024 when Hidalgo, then a freshman, helped lead the Fighting Irish to a 82-67 victory over the Huskies, rapidly gaining the attention of the women’s college basketball world at large. Even UConn head coach Geno Auriemma couldn’t deny the hold Hidalgo had on his team that night, saying in the postgame press conference, “I find it hard to believe, given that our defense has been so good, but she was able to get to the basket way more times—when someone gets to the basket that often, there’s nothing we can do about it, because that’s just a total breakdown.”

The coach continued, “And she has a variety of ways to score. And she’s obviously playing with a tremendous amount of confidence. And it did take a lot of guts to come in here and do what she did. She’s damn good, right?”

She is damn good—and she’s a lot like Auriemma’s former protégé and recent WNBA retiree.

In addition to the intensity with which Hidalgo and Taurasi both play basketball, the pair have something else in common: shared Latina ancestry. Hidalgo’s father is Puerto Rican and Taurasi’s parents immigrated to the United States from Argentina. Hidalgo is enjoying a powerful sophomore season, averaging 24.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.8 steals and 3.7 blocks (if you’re curious, Taurasi racked up 14.6 points, 5.3 assists, and 4.1 rebounds as a sophomore at UConn) and her ceiling is high—there’s no end to what she can accomplish under head coach Niele Ivey and, eventually, in the WNBA.

Notre Dame won the game 73-64 Friday night, with Hidalgo scoring a game-high 25 points. But that’s almost secondary to what became apparent on the court. If the WNBA needs a new menace, the league need not look much further than South Bend, where there’s certainly one in the making.