Any discussion of ND starts with sensational sophomore point guard Hannah Hildago. A McD's AA coming out of HS and had a monster freshman year, contending with Juju Watkins for FOY nationally. Next to her is Olivia Miles, a potential WNBA lottery pick and multi year starter for ND at pg, now playing 2 guard but still has the handles and passing to play point. She missed all of last year injured, but seems to be playing at 100% now. Playing 2 potentially AAs pgs together will make ND VERY hard to press, especially if Amiyah and Poole are not available for this game. Good news is ND is dealing with a lot of injuries at the moment, but unlike ours most of theirs are to key pieces in their rotation. 3 forwards missed their first game, including AA Citron who likely won't play against us. Don't shed any tears for the Irish though. Along with their outstanding starting pgs, they have King, a first team all ACC player from Pitt that transferred to ND for her Covid year, and Prosper, who also missed last season injured and put up 17 points and grabbed 5 rebounds their first game. Anchoring the Irish in the middle is 6'5" Ukranian freshman Kate Koval, the #5 recruit in this years class. While not as broad of shoulder as McCarthy, she is not a skinny girl either. She got 18 points on 11 shots with 7 rebounds in her first game and she will be a good gauge for how good our frosh centers are at this point in their careers. ND only played 7 girls first game out and the two guard bench players combined for 7 points, so any foul problems for ND could be significant. I would guessND by 30, but their lack of depth could make this a much closer game if they have to sit a starter for a long period for any reason.
