From teaming with National Player of the Year Ruth Riley to help Notre Dame to a national title in 2001, to helping assemble elite talent as assistant coach/recruiting coordinator for another championship in 2018, first-year head coach Niele Ivey has been around basketball royalty for decades.
After just a couple of weeks of practice last fall, she already projected 6-3 freshman forward Maddy Westbeld would join that exclusive company in Notre Dame lore.
So it hardly came as a surprise to Ivey on Tuesday when Westbeld, in a split decision, was named the ACC Rookie of the Year, as voted upon by the coaches, and first-team All-ACC (10 players) by the ACC Blue Ribbon media panel.
Syracuse center Kamilla Cardoso won the Rookie of the Year honors from the Blue Ribbon Panel, but was second team All-ACC by the coaches with Westbeld.
“From the moment she stepped on this campus I felt like she was one of the best players in the ACC, and I knew she was going to be,” Ivey said. “She came in with a college body, the transition has been very simple for her … she’s always been my hardest worker. She’s always in the gym, so coachable, such a great teammate.”
Amongst ACC freshmen, Westbeld ranked first in scoring (14.9 points per game), second in rebounding (7.8), second in steals (27), fourth in assists (49) and fourth in blocks (18). No other freshman in the league ranked in the top four in all the above-mentioned categories.
Her scoring average also ranks 12th among all Division I freshmen and currently would rank third amongst freshmen in Notre Dame history, behind Beth Morgan Cunningham in 1993-94 (17.9) and Shari Matvey in 1979-80 (17.6).
She’s the lone freshman in the country averaging at least 14.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals, one of only nine Division I players achieving the feat — and the sole one from a Power Five school.
Finally, Westbeld ranks fifth among Division I freshmen when combining points, rebounds and assists with a 25.3 figure.
Her advanced physical maturity is credited much to older sister Kathryn, who also was a McDonald’s All-American in 2014 and a starter/the heartbeat for the 2018 national champs.
“Having her to answer questions, having her to let me know what I should look like, how I should be training, what kind of shape I should be in by the time I get there was really vital in me being ready and being in that position to then show up ready for college,” the younger Westbeld said. “That whole summer of quarantine, we were working out together every day and we kind of had the same goal of be ready and just put yourself in the best position to succeed by the time you get to college. That was my mindset.”
The Kettering, Ohio, native admitted she hit the “freshman wall” this winter, but points to her teammates and the staff for keeping her confident and in the moment, which helped her post a couple of double-doubles in scoring and rebounding over the past week.
“Everybody kept the same faith in me and the same confidence that I would do well,” Westbeld said. “That just made it so much easier on myself to succeed. And then having my teammates to put me in the position to score, the offense that we ran, are running, it’s just kind of easy to get looks off of that."
The consummate position-less basketball player in a positive way because of her versatility, Westbeld is as comfortable settling low into the blocks as she is at running the attack from the point or shooting the three, where she converted a healthy 39.6 percent (18 of 49).
“I’ve always started out as kind of a 4, at least at the beginning of the game…and kind of just do whatever I wanted from there,” Westbeld said. “It kind of is an advantage and a disadvantage because having that many options throughout the game, it kind of gets more mental than physical.
“So I think the easiest part for me to start out a game is in a 4 position where I can be on the boards or I can crash the glass and still be that physical inside player — but then also I can start the break, start the press, run the offense a little bit.”
Although her personal goals always have been high, the foremost objective is generating wins.
“It’s kind of indescribable,” Westbeld said of her rookie-year honors. “I feel like literally none of this would have happened without God blessing me with the opportunity to play the game that I love, and then my teammates and coaches to instill the confidence and just let me play in an atmosphere I’m capable of playing in.”
Westbeld and the rest of the Fighting Irish (10-9 overall, 8-7 in ACC) return to action in the second round of the ACC Tournament against Clemson March 4 at 8:30 p.m. EST on RSN.
The Irish currently are listed as “the last team in” for the NCAA Tournament per ESPN’s Charlie Creme’s Bracketology.
Notre Dame Rookie Of The Year Winners
ACC
Maddy Westbeld (2021)
Brianna Turner (2015)
Big East
Jewell Loyd (2013)
Jacqueline Batteast (2002)
Alicia Ratay (2000)
Midwestern Collegiate Conference
Beth Morgan (1994)
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