The women’s college basketball season started this week, and No. 15 Notre Dame leads two local teams looking to return to the NCAA Tournament.
Here are five questions to consider for this season.
1. Will Hannah Hidalgo lead new-look Notre Dame to more?
The Irish have lost in the Sweet 16 in four straight seasons under coach Niele Ivey, including last year’s 71-62 loss to TCU, an obvious disappointment for a team that at one point ascended to No. 1 in the rankings.
The Notre Dame roster looks very different this year. Star guard Olivia Miles transferred to TCU, while forward Kate Koval left for LSU. Starters Sonia Citron, Liatu King and Maddy Westbeld were WNBA draft picks.
But Hidalgo, a preseason All-American and preseason ACC player of the year, is back. She averaged 23.8 points, five rebounds, 3.6 assists and 3.7 steals as a sophomore for the 28-6 Irish.
Guard Cassandre Prosper, who made four starts last season, also returns, and KK Bransford is back after sitting out last season with a lower leg injury. The Irish brought in transfers Vanessa de Jesus (Duke), Gisela Sanchez (Kansas State), Malaya Cowles (Wake Forest) and Iyana Moore (Vanderbilt) to try to fill the many voids.
The Irish have good early tests against three ranked teams in less than three weeks: No. 13 Michigan on Nov. 15, No. 18 USC on Nov. 21 and No. 12 Mississippi on Dec. 4.
Ivey isn’t changing her outlook despite a new group.
“Notre Dame is the standard,” she told reporters at the team’s media day. “We are obviously a different team, but the expectation never changes, the standard never changes.
“We had a target on our back (last year). This year we’re probably going to be under the radar from what people’s expectations are of us. That doesn’t matter to us.”
More Top Picks Best Premium Sketching Pencils For Artists
2. Will a young Illinois team return to the NCAA Tournament?
The Illini made their second NCAA Tournament in three seasons under coach Shauna Green and earned their first tournament win in her tenure before losing in the second round.
But Illinois lost five key seniors, including leading scorer and rebounder Kendall Bostic and No. 2 scorer and assists leader Genesis Bryant. The team’s average age is 19.91, according to the media relations department.
Green needs returnees such as junior guards Gretchen Dolan and Jasmine Brown-Hagger and sophomore forward Berry Wallace to step into bigger roles. They’ll be joined by freshmen Cearah Parchment, a 6-foot-3 Canadian forward, and Destiny Jackson, a guard from Young. Jackson was named Ms. Basketball of Illinois last season.
It has been a different challenge for Green to coach such a young team, but she’s embracing it.
“I joke with them because they’re going to give me more gray hair just from being youthful, but they’re so much fun to be around,” Green said. “They have a joy to them. Their youth, some of it is just they don’t even know what they don’t know. They’re so coachable. They’re so hungry. They want to be great.”
3. How will Northwestern coach Joe McKeown depart?
McKeown announced in the spring that he will retire from coaching college basketball after this season, his 18th at Northwestern and 40th as a head coach. The Wildcats will look to send him out on a high note after finishing with nine wins each of the last three seasons.
Grace Sullivan, a 6-4 senior forward, is the Wildcats’ top returnee after averaging 10.1 points and 3.8 rebounds, and 6-3 sophomore Tayla Thomas joins her in the post. McKeown has said more than once he believes Sullivan has a chance to be one of the better players in the Big Ten this season.
“These guys are playing off each other and they’re spacing well,” McKeown told reporters of Sullivan and Thomas after an exhibition game. “When it looks like it’s crowded, Grace will empty out and Tayla will replace her, and they both go to the offensive glass. It’s fun to watch. We’ve just got to get them the ball, get our timing down.”
They will be joined by returning guards Casey Harter and Caroline Lau, who led the Big Ten with six assists per game last season.
Guard Tate Lash (Furman) and forward DaiJa Turner (TCU) are among the Wildcats’ offseason additions.
4. Can Jill Pizzotti fill the big shoes of her predecessor?
DePaul named Pizzotti its head coach in April to replace longtime coach Doug Bruno, who retired in the spring after 39 seasons. Pizzotti, a DePaul assistant for 13 seasons, spent last season as the interim head coach while Bruno was sidelined after he suffered a stroke.
Bruno led DePaul to 25 NCAA Tournament appearances, the last in 2021-22, as the Blue Demons finished with losing records the last three seasons.
After taking off the interim tag, Pizzotti retained seven players and brought in seven newcomers, including six transfers. The Blue Demons were picked to finish eighth in the Big East preseason poll.
Guard Kate Clarke, a preseason All-Big East honorable-mention selection, and forward Meg Newman are key returnees, though both will be sidelined early this season with injuries. Guard Alayna West is on the court after missing last season with an injury.
More Top Picks Heaters Boat
Forwards Michelle Ojo (Delaware) and Justis Odom (Lindenwood) and guard Kate Novik (Morehead State) are among the newcomers expected to make an impact.
Despite the reboot, Pizzotti said the Blue Demons want to finish in the top four in the Big East and be in the conversation for postseason play.
“I really feel good about what our staff was able to get done in the portal,” she told reporters at a recent media availability. “We got in there late based on when the thing opened, but I thought our staff did a really good job of getting players.”
5. Which team will emerge as the Big Ten’s best?
The Big Ten has six teams ranked in the preseason AP Top 25: No. 3 UCLA, No. 10 Maryland, No. 13 Michigan, No. 18 USC, No. 21 Iowa and No. 23 Michigan State.
With USC’s JuJu Watkins out for the season as she recovers from a torn ACL, the spotlight is on UCLA.
Senior center Lauren Betts, the preseason Big Ten player of the year, and senior guard Kiki Rice lead the Bruins, who lost to eventual champion Connecticut in the Final Four last season. Betts is the headliner after averaging 20.2 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.9 blocks last season as a first team All-American.
UCLA coach Cori Close said she also expects big things from Rice, who has been helped by offseason shoulder surgery.
“She’s methodical,” Close said. “She’s got a plan. She knows what she’s trying to accomplish. She knows how this is all going to fit.
“She had an injury that has kept her from playing free and at her best over the last two years, and that finally got fixed. I’ve seen a hunger to play free and aggressive again.”