Three Notre Dame Women's Basketball Players In Transfer Portal
Three Notre Dame freshmen have entered the transfer portal following a 10-10 finish in head coach Niele Ivey’s first season, as reported first by @Raoul_000 on his Twitter.
Two of them were pretty much anticipated — point guard Alasia Hayes and guard Alli Campbell — while a third, forward Amirah Abdur-Rahim might have been a bit surprising.
• Hayes opted out in the final two weeks of the season, with COVID-19 concerns cited. However, it probably didn’t help that early entrant Olivia Miles, a top-5-to-10 recruit, enrolled in January and gradually took over present and future point-guard duties by the end of February.
The 5-7 Hayes appeared in 13 games, averaging 7.9 minutes per contest in the ones she played. She finished the season with 26 points, 12 assists and 14 turnovers.
Ranked the nation’s No. 44 player in 2021 by ESPN Hoopgurlz, the Murfreesboro, Tenn., native has two older sisters who star at Middle Tennessee State. Anastasia Hayes is second in the nation with a 26.5 scoring average — behind Iowa freshman Caitlin Clark (26.7), who nearly signed with Notre Dame — while Aislynn Hayes is the second-leading scorer with a 14.0 average.
• The six-foot Campbell, from Altoona, Pa., tallied more than 3,000 points in her high school career and was ranked No. 27 nationally by Hoopgurlz and No. 21 by Prospects Nation.
She barely played this season, inserted in only six games and totaling 13 minutes and 28 seconds, most of it earlier in the year when health issues struck the team. She tallied 13 points during the campaign.
Game action didn’t look any more promising next year with Dara Mabry, Anaya Peoples, Abby Prohaska and Katlyn Gilbert all returning at two-guard or wing, and incoming No. 16-ranked Sonya Citron enrolling.
• The departure of 6-2 forward Abdur-Rahim is slightly more surprising considering the Irish need front court help. However, classmate Maddy Westbeld is the prime figure there and 6-5 freshman Nat Marshall, sidelined this past year because of ACL surgery the previous year, is expected to complement 6-3 Stanford grad transfer Maya Dodson in 2021-22.
Plus, Notre Dame might be receiving a commitment this weekend from top-5-ranked Ayanna Patterson, a 6-2 forward from Fort Wayne.
From Marietta, Ga., Abdur-Rahim arrived as a developmental figure. She appeared in eight games, totaling 45 minutes and 49 seconds, eight points and nine rebounds.
Senior center Mikki Vaughn also will not return for a fifth season in 2021-22, per Ivey in a Thursday meeting with the media via Zoom.
Despite the attrition, the Fighting Irish still are expected to return 11 scholarship players next season.
Fifth-year senior (1): Stanford grad transfer center/post Dodson.
Seniors (4): Guards Mabrey, Gilbert, Prohaska and forward Danielle Cosgrove.
Juniors (2): Peoples and forward Sam Brunelle.
Sophomores (2): Westbeld and Marshall.
Freshmen (2): Miles and Citron.
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