CHARLOTTE, N,C. (AP) — There's a relentlessness to Hannah Hidalgo that shows every time she takes the floor, from her game-changing scoring to the way she harasses opposing ballhandlers.
It originates with “that competitive mindset, that kill mindset” that she carries into every game.
That has brought Notre Dame's 5-foot-7 point guard to her senior season, a career that began with immediate stardom and a never-stopped-flowing run of accolades in making
her one of the faces of the sport. She's dreaming of helping the Fighting Irish take another step forward after coming within a win of the Final Four last year.
And the top WNBA prospect could end up as Division I's career steals leader along with ranking among its top 10 all-time scorers.
“I don't focus on the numbers ever,” Hidalgo said Monday during the ACC Tipoff preseason media days. “All the numbers I put up last year was never about me saying, ‘OK, I’m going to get this amount of points and this amount of steals.' I go out every single game and play every game like it's my last, and the numbers just come with how I play.”
If Hidalgo wanted to keep track, well, it would be easy to lose count. Both with stats and honors.
She is averaging 23.9 points, 6.1 rebounds. 4.8 assists and 4.7 steals for three college seasons. She was a first-team Associated Press All-American in each of her first two seasons and was a second-team pick last year. She has been named the ACC's defensive player of the year in each of her three seasons. And she has a chance to join Duke's Alana Beard (2002-04), Maryland's Alyssa Thomas (2012-14) and Virginia Tech's Elizabeth Kitley (2022-24) as the only players to be named ACC player of the year for three straight seasons.
If she matches last year's output, Hidalgo would rank sixth in career scoring with 3,369 points while setting a steals record with 683, breaking the mark of 648 set by Lamar's Chastadie Barrs from 2016-19.
Seventh-year coach Niele Ivey wants to savor what Hidalgo is doing even amid the broader focus on team goals.
“She gives our team her heart and soul every night,” said Ivey, the point guard on Notre Dame's 2001 NCAA title winner.
"The things that she does is very abnormal, it’s very special, it’s very unique. So I try to make her at least bask in it a little bit. ... I try to celebrate her in the moment, especially in front of the team, and acknowledge it because it really is supernatural what she does.”
Hidalgo was the no-question leader of the Fighting Irish last year after fellow backcourt star Olivia Miles transferred to TCU. Hidalgo ranked third nationally in scoring (25.3) while leading the country in steals (5.6) for the second time in three seasons.
She had a program-record 44 points to go with an NCAA record 16 steals and nine rebounds in a November win against Akron before eventually setting the NCAA's single-season steals mark.
She turned in a masterpiece in the NCAA Sweet 16 by flirting with a quadruple-double (31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals, seven assists) in leading the Irish to an upset of 2-seed Vanderbilt — led by AP first-team all-American Mikayla Blakes — and sending Notre Dame to its first Elite Eight under Ivey.
And her output isn't just the product of firing 3-pointers in lieu of attacking off the bounce. She didn't attempt more than four 3-pointers in any of Notre Dame's last 17 games.
Louisville’s Jeff Walz, who enters his 20th season as the league’s longest-tenured men’s or women’s coach, watched from the sideline as Hidalgo capped the regular season with 30 points, 10 rebounds, even assists and five steals in a road win against his top-10 Cardinals team.
It marked the third straight year that Hidalgo had scored at least 30 points on Louisville's homecourt.
“We just need to play them up there twice, solve that problem,” Walz said with a chuckle.
Jokes aside, Walz was quick to point to Hidalgo’s impact in ways such as avoiding having the player Hidalgo is guarding bring the ball up the floor.
“If you get sloppy and you lose focus, then that’s when she takes advantage of things,” Walz said. “She’s a crafty kid, she plays hard. It’s the one thing you can never question her on, is she going to show up and play hard? She does it every single night, it’s really impressive.”
Duke coach Kara Lawson got an up-close look at Hidalgo’s competitive burn when she coached her in the 2025 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup in Chile, with Hidalgo helping the Americans win the gold medal.
“I can’t say I was surprised by it, because typically a player of that caliber, that’s how they’re going to operate, that’s how they’re going to practice,” said Lawson, now the USA Basketball Women’s National Team coach.
“So I would say that’s the thing with her that jumps out: just her approach every day, her competitiveness. There’s a lot of players on that team that had that, too, but she was definitely one of the standouts.”
That much is obvious when talking with Hidalgo. Ask about racking up steals, she points to a mindset to harass an opponent and “make this day the worst day of their life, the worst game of their life.”
She said she has worked to improve as a locker-room leader, along with managing expectations thrust upon her in that star-making freshman season.
“I think what I’ve learned is to not care about the expectations and what other people put on you,” she said, “because I feel as though if I’m consistently focused on that, it brings too much pressure on yourself. You wont be able to please everyone, is a big lesson that I had to learn.”
Besides, it's simpler to just stick with her “heart over height” motto, formed from typically being the smallest player on the court back to elementary school.
“I want everybody to see how competitive I am,” she said. “And I think they’ve already seen that. I don't really have much to prove to anybody anymore.”
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