Notre Dame women's basketball coach Niele Ivey met with the media at Rolfs Athletics Hall for about 15 minutes Thursday ahead of her team's practice on Irish Media Day. The fifth season of ND women's hoops under Ivey is set to open Nov. 4 with a home game against Mercyhurst, preceded by an exhibition game Oct. 30 vs. Davenport. Here's everything Ivey had to say Thursday during her press conference. Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.
There will be an a practice, free and open to the public, Friday at Purcell Pavilion from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. EDT. The ND men's team will follow with an open practice of its own from 4 to 5:30 p.m.
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Q: I know there's really never an offseason anymore, but now that you guys are in season, what's it been like just to be back out on the floor with your team?
Niele Ivey: “It's been awesome. The energy is great. Everybody came back in better shape and worked on their craft. Everybody's a lot better. All the new additions, their transition has been seamless. So, I love the energy from practice and just seeing how much we're growing every day.”
Q: Having Olivia Miles on the floor with Hannah Hidalgo, what does that look like to you?
Ivey: “Electric is one word. It's really fast paced. It's a lot of energy. They do a great job of sharing the ball. And I could have never expected the pace to be even faster, but it is. Liv looks amazing. She's strong and confident. She's ready, and just seeing their chemistry growing has been a lot of fun.”
Q: Is one of them the 1 versus the 2? Or how does it look?
Ivey: “I mean, honestly, Hannah will bring up the ball. Liv will bring up the ball. So, they kind of play off of each other. Right now, they’re just working through the offense, but yeah, both of them run the point, and then one person will be off the ball. It kind of depends on who's closest to the ball or some things that I'm running. So, they're done a great job of kind of sharing it, but sharing that responsibility.”
Q: As someone who has a point guard's mind, what would it be like to be on the floor with someone who's as good as you are at what you do?
Ivey: “They make each other better and they like they make their job easier, because you have two incredible minds on the floor. So, I mean, personally, as a point guard, I would have loved to have another point guard with me, because it takes a lot of pressure off of the offense, defenses — stuff like that. So, they're doing a great job of kind of just flowing off of each other and kind of feeling each other.”
Q: You've got four, maybe five players on your roster with the potential of being THE person if they're in a different place. How do they work together and figure out; it's my turn, it's your turn. Like, what's That equation look like?
Ivey: “I have a very unselfish team. So that's No. 1. They're very unselfish. They all want to win. They all want to compete. So, we see a mismatch, something's called for that mismatch. We see somebody that needs to be fed. You know, they'll do that. So, when you have a great group of unselfish players, no one cares about getting the credit. They all want to win. And we're just growing, trying to figure out, Where does Liatu like the ball? Where does Liza like the ball? Because we have a lot of new pieces. So, I think that's the recipe you guys are going to see is that they're unselfish, and anyone can step up. We have a lot of weapons, and I'm hoping that helps us as we're going against opponents, because it's not really one person you can stop.”
Q: You talk about the point guards taking pressure off each other. But for you, does it take pressure off? Or does it add pressure, like, I can expand this playbook?
Ivey: “I hope it takes pressure off me this year. It's just fun to watch those two. I think again, when we have multiple ball handlers on the floor, it allows the offense to work even better. But yeah, I trust both of them. I have a lot of confidence. I believe in their abilities. They believe in their abilities, and right now they're all believing in our vision. So, I think it's been a lot of fun as a coach.”
Q: Not trying to get you to predict the future here, but do you sometimes kick your feet up in your office and you're like; It's going to be a good year? Like, this is fun?
Ivey: “No, I don't. I'm always thinking about plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D. I take every day and try to stay present, take every day and try to work on how I can be a better leader for them, and also how I can make them better every day. So, I feel like with this job, there's always a lot of expectations. I talk to myself about quieting the noise and just focus on getting better every day.”
Q: How do you create the chemistry with this group, because every team is different?
Ivey: “I think, in the offseason, this summer, having them together, obviously, in the summertime has helped. This preseason we've done a lot of things together as far as team meals, just being around each other, getting to know each other. They go to volleyball games together. Maddy and Liv have had Sunday brunches or Saturday brunches, so they've had opportunities just to spend time with each other. Because I think when you build great chemistry off the floor, it translates on the court. So, we’ve found pockets of times where we can just get together and have fun, and it's been awesome kind of just learning each other and building that chemistry off the court.”
Q: Maddy Westbeld has already declared that Kate Koval is NOT a freshman. What do you see from Kate, the freshman?
Ivey: “She's so dominant, but I think I'm most impressed by her confidence, because sometimes — even as a player — my post players my freshman year, sophomore year, it takes time to really kind of know who you are and how you fit within a system. Kate has come in to South Bend ready. She knows who she is. She's very dominant. She's very smart, and I've learned that her passing ability is just as great as her scoring ability. And she's great defensively. So, she's been prepared for this level, but I think her confidence is what impresses me the most.”
Q: Where does Sonia Citron fit in this group right now, because not a lot of people talk about her, and yet she's very good?
Ivey: “It's funny, because Soni is the quiet assassin. Soni is the glue. Soni looks fantastic. I would say her experience — she's gotten stronger faster if you can even believe that. In practices, she's one of our best defenders, but she's also the most efficient. Two words for her, for me are: Efficient and disruptive.”
Q: Are Cass Prosper and Emma Risch full go? And what's the status with Kylee Watson for this season?
Ivey: “So, Emma and Cass are full go. Kylee six months post [ACL] surgery, I think, yesterday. So she's still in rehab, and she's taking it day by day with her process.”
Q: Is there a chance to play this season?
Ivey: “Not sure.”
Q: In light of that and with Maddy being out for a while, what does your post depth look like as you start the season?
Ivey: “I mean, not what I expected, I would say, coming out of the summer. But Maddy is healing and is coming along really well. Right now we have LIatu and Liza and Kate, and I'm the type of coach that might play four guards. It just depends on what looks good at the time and what lineups work for different matchups. But right now, that's our post depth chart.”
Q; Cass Prosper finally got cleared early this summer, right before she kind of got involved in the Canadian team commitment for the Olympics. So, this is like a whole new player. What are you seeing from her, and where do you feel like she fits in?
Ivey: “First of all, I think she's grown. She just seems stronger, and she had that opportunity to rest properly. And this summer she gained a lot of experience being a part of the Olympics, going to France. And I think having her back now, I feel she’s just wiser. Just understands the game a little bit more. You gain a lot of experience when you're playing against Olympians, and she's an Olympian. So, I feel like she's come back just stronger, better. She does a lot of things well. Her versatility, her size, her ability to score at all three levels, but also using her size — her defense is incredible. She looks faster, I guess you can say. But just having that experience, having another year under her belt, and having that Olympic experience, I feel like she's come back a lot better.”
Q: I don't think anybody would question your team's toughness after what you rose above last year. But adding Liatu King to the mix, what does that bring to it in terms of toughness?
Ivey: “She is so versatile. She is — I call her a bucket, because she's so smooth. She's never too high or too low. She plays really hard. She plays a lot bigger than her size. Having her on campus, playing against her, I always felt like she was a lot bigger. And then when she got here, I was like, ‘Wow, she plays a lot bigger than her size.’ But I love her experience. She gives a lot of poise within our post position, our depth in our post position, but she's just really smart and can score at will.”
Q: I think last year at Media Day, I asked you about maybe doing a little pressing full court with all the depth you had, and then suddenly you didn't have that depth. So, I'm wondering if that maybe is back on the table a little bit this year?
Ivey: “Yeah, I'm just trying to be strategic right now with everyone returning to play, making sure everybody's healthy. That's my No. 1 goal, is to stay healthy all season and get those injured players back. So, we'll see. I have put in kind of a small press just to have something in the bag — which I’m always going to have something, just in case we can use it — but I was hoping to press a little bit more. So, we'll just see what it looks like as we open up on November 4.”
Q: What did you need to see in spring or summer from Hannah and Olivia that told you they can play together? Because you put two point guards together like that, maybe one would want to be too unselfish. What had to work for this to work?
Ivey: “Honestly, this summer was a time just to grow. They played a lot of pickup together, just getting comfortable playing the game together, because they've never had an opportunity to do that. And I feel like they just grew this summer. And in practice, I worked on a lot of fundamental concepts. We worked on a lot of player development, and then I allowed them again to play more five-on-five. We scrimmaged more this summer. And I think with scrimmaging — outside of the coach telling you exactly what to run — you get a chance to build your chemistry on your own. That’s what I tried to do with them, and they did. It's just when you haven't had an opportunity to play both sides with somebody, that dynamic is just you grow together once you can finally play together five-on-five. So that's what they did. A lot of scrimmaging.”
Q: There was no reference point for you, as far as playing two elite point guards together. So, did you talk to anybody to try to figure it out — like, how am I going to make this work?
Ivey: “Yeah, honestly, I watched a lot of NBA this summer. You see a lot of teams that have dynamic guards. The Celtics. You’ve got [Jaylen] Brown. You have also [Jayson] Tatum. You have Kyrie [Irving] and Luca [Doncic, with Dallas]. With the Pistons, I watch Cade [Cunningham] and I watched [son] Jaden [Ivey]. So, I kind of use those references just to see what does the offense look like? How does that work? I try to do a lot of research, watching a little bit of WNBA. You see Jewell [Loyd] and you see Skylar [Diggins-Smith] playing together. So, I look at all those types of offenses and schemes, and try to kind of implement things that I think could work for us.”
Q: What is it about Liza Karlen that says, Yeah, she'll fit?
Ivey: “Oh, her motor. You talked about toughness, she brings toughness. She has the experience. She's really a great locker room young woman, as far as, like, culture. She's such a great leader — quiet leader. But I feel like her experience is exactly what we needed, especially with the absence of Maddy for right now.”
Q: Even with Maddy out, you have a couple of transfer forwards who obviously started pretty much every game where they were previously. You have a five-star freshman in Kate Koval. How hard has it been to kind of say, Hey, here's our starting five. This is who's going to go out first in games?
Ivey: “I mean, I'm looking at different rotations. I think it usually determines itself more toward the beginning of the season. I’ve tried a lot of lineups, so we'll figure it out more in November. But, again, they love to compete. Everybody's unselfish. And so, it's been working.”
Q: I think it was Olivia Miles who singled out Emma Risch at the ACC Tipoff, and said: Watch out for her this year. Where is she at? And we know she can shoot, but in terms of being able to be trusted, to be on the floor in the regular rotation, where is she at?
Ivey: “She's doing great. She's coming back from injury, so we're kind of taking it day by day with her, making sure that she's smart with her return to play. And again, she brings a different element to our team. We haven't had a sniper in the way that she can shoot in a very long time. Because she didn't get as much time last year as far as just working with the team and being active and being healthy, so for her No. 1 is just getting healthy, staying healthy, and then just figuring things out defensively and offensively. But she's been great. I would totally agree with Liv. There's so many players that I can say that are under the radar, and she's definitely one.”
Q: This team comes in with a lot of expectations. How do you manage that and not allow the team to get too far ahead of itself?
Ivey: “Just having transparency with the group as far as not listening to the noise, focusing on our goals. We meet a lot. And, fortunately I've had a lot of opportunities to either bring speakers in, just to kind of talk about being focused and things like that. I know you guys saw Tamika Catchings, who came in and spoke to the team. But mostly it's just keeping the main thing the main thing, and not worrying about the outside noise, and focusing on getting better day by day.”
Q: Defensively, Hannah was one of the better defensive players in the country last year. What do you hope to see from her this season, taking that next step forward?
Ivey: “Just continuing to grow from what she learned last year. I think she has such incredible experiences under her belt. I think she's going to be more comfortable this year, especially, obviously, with Olivia back. She’s worked on her finishes. She's worked on her 3-point shot. She's always trying to get better. And so, for me and for her, my goal is for her to continue to grow, and grow as a leader. I'm going to require her to score a lot, to kind of either run the point or be somebody that's coming off the pin-downs and screens and stuff like that. So being experienced as a sophomore —sometimes you hear about like the sophomore slump. For me, for her, I just want her to stay consistent and keep growing and get better.”
Q: With multiple seasons now as a head coach, how do you feel that you've matured and become a better coach throughout these past couple of years?
IVEY: “Just trying to work on my craft every year. For me as a coach, I talk to a lot of coaches. USA Basketball really helped me as far as just being in a different environment. I've never had the opportunity to coach in USA basketball, and I feel like I learned so much with that experience, I'm so grateful for that. But never being satisfied and complacent as a coach. I'm always growing. I'm always trying to learn. I'm always going to practices, trying to find ways for me to be better, and just learning from mentors and that kind of thing. So, even growing as a coach, I'm never the type of coach who wants to be complacent. I'm always trying to push myself to get better.”
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