Hannah Hidalgo has been absolutely unleashed this season. With Sonia Citron, Maddy Westbeld and Liatu King off to the WNBA, and Olivia Miles transferring to TCU, the Notre Dame junior point guard is the unquestioned No. 1 option for Coach Niele Ivey.
She had 32 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and four steals in a 59-point win over Chicago State on Nov. 9 before putting up a program-record 44 points, nine rebounds, four assists and an NCAA-record 16 steals in a 27-point win over Akron on Wednesday.
After those performances, she was the nation’s leader in points per game (34.3) and steals per game (7.67).
“Obviously, the woman of the moment,” Ivey said after the Akron victory.
The moment, however, didn’t last long. The then-18th-ranked Fighting Irish hadn’t been close to being tested in the first three games, and then it met Michigan, ranked No. 14 at the time, in the Shamrock Classic on the campus of Wayne State in Detroit.
The story quickly shifted from the Hidalgo to the Wolverines and their group of talented sophomores. Michigan never trailed in a 93-54 win and never eased up until the final horn. The second-year group of Olivia Olson, Mila Holloway, Syla Swords and Te’Yala Delfosse combined for 52 points, 25 rebounds and 11 assists. Hidalgo finished with just 12 points to go with three steals and seven turnovers.
While No. 3 UCLA, No. 11 Southern California and No. 9 Maryland have dominated discussion within the Big Ten, Michigan has flown under the radar for a team that went 23-11 last year, returned its ascendant class and avoided being gutted by the transfer portal.
“Our three returning starters are sophomores,” Michigan Coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “Everyone looks at the year that they had last year and they have these expectations for them. And for me, they’re still babies.
“They have to be our leaders as sophomores, as well. So for me, that was a lot of unknown, like, could they carry that weight?”
The Wolverines moved up to No. 6 in the Associated Press poll released Monday, and their next benchmark comes Friday against No. 1 U-Conn.
There was a bit of added motivation for Michigan after a 21-point beatdown at the hands of Notre Dame in the second round of the NCAA tournament in March.
“The game last year in the NCAA tournament left a bad taste in our mouths,” Olson said, “and so we wanted our get-back.”
Bruins bullying opponents
UCLA had the best week in the country, with back-to-back victories over Oklahoma and North Carolina, who were ranked No. 6 and No. 11 before the losses. Not only did the Bruins win, but they did so by a combined 32 points and are now the only blemishes on the Sooners’ and Tar Heels’ records.
Oklahoma bore witness to how the already talent-rich Bruins truly became richer coming off the first Final Four appearance in program history. UCLA brought back four starters in Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez and Angela Dugalic before adding three-time all-conference guard Gianna Kneepkens, whose 19.3 points per game led Utah and ranked No. 4 in the Big 12 last season. Kneepkens scored 20 points for a second consecutive game while shooting 57.1 percent and showing off her wide array of offensive skills.
“We knew from the start that she was the one we had to get,” UCLA Coach Cori Close said. “Immediately when she went into the portal, we started strategizing. … Her skill set was the complementary piece that we needed.”
Dugalic added, “She’s made our team so much better.”
With Kneepkens surely high on the scouting report, the Bruins rode their four returning starters to an 18-point win against North Carolina, showing off the depth and versatility of the offense. Close explained that Kneepkens’s presence creates spacing that opens up driving lanes and punishes teams that send double- and triple-teams at Betts.
“It’s just going to be a different person every night,” Close said. “We have plenty, but we have to maintain our selflessness.”
Odds and ends
Oklahoma State set the NCAA record for the most three-pointers made in the first five games of a season with 72. … Both Hidalgo and Iowa State center Audi Crooks (43 points) scored 40-plus on the same day. … No. 10 TCU improved to 4-0 with a 69-59 upset win over N.C. State that was the program’s first victory over a ranked nonconference opponent on the road since January 2011. … U-Conn. star Sarah Strong had 29 points (career high), 13 rebounds, seven assists (career high), five steals, three blocks and zero turnovers during a 100-68 win over Ohio State on Sunday. … Three-time WNBA champion Natasha Howard had her No. 33 jersey retired at Florida State. … Navy defeated Florida, 69-54, for its first win over an SEC opponent since 1998, leading for nearly 34 minutes.
Poll movement
Michigan made the biggest leap after the Notre Dame blowout, going from No. 14 to No. 6. TCU was right behind with the N.C. State victory and moved from No. 17 to No. 10. Iowa State bumped up from No. 16 to No. 12.
Lower in the poll, No. 17 Vanderbilt, No. 18 Oklahoma State, No. 19 Iowa, No. 20 Kentucky, No. 21 Louisville and No. 22 Michigan State all ticked up between one and three spots.
The Duke Blue Devils had the biggest tumble as they fell all the way out of the poll from No. 15 after a loss to previously unranked West Virginia and falling to 3-2. N.C. State (No. 16) and Notre Dame (No. 24) both plummeted six positions, while No. 11 USC, No. 14 North Carolina and No. 15 Tennessee all dropped three slots. Oklahoma fell from No. 6 to No. 8 after the loss to UCLA.
Games of the week
The defending champion and top-ranked U-Conn. Huskies essentially play a home game away from home as they face No. 14 Michigan at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, on Friday.
Other games to watch: No. 7 Baylor vs No. 19 Iowa in the Orlando area on Thursday; No. 11 USC at No. 24 Notre Dame on Friday; No. 20 Kentucky at No. 21 Louisville on Saturday; No. 19 Iowa vs. Miami in the Orlando area on Saturday; Utah vs. U-Conn. in Uncasville on Sunday.
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