20yr old Hannah Hidalgo reacts to birthday wishes from Notre Dame HC Niele Ivey, Madison Booker and others
Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo reacted to coach Niele Ivey and her teammates' birthday wishes through Instagram on Saturday. The star guard turned 20 years old on February 22. Hidalgo began by reposting multiple stories by Cassandre Prosper, followed by a candid picture by Ivey.
She then reposted a collage from her friend, a video with "bestie" Madison Booker and another collage by Madeline Westbeld.
The sophomore guard is currently having her best offensive season, averaging 24.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists on 48.5% field goal efficiency and 40.5% shooting. She is ranked second on the NCAA's scoring leaderboard, surpassing last season's leaders JuJu Watkins, Lucy Olsen and more.
With three games left in Notre Dame's regular season, Hannah Hidalgo's consistent production has lifted the Fighting Irish to No. 1 on the AP Poll. The program has defeated teams like Duke, North Carolina, UConn, Texas and USC.
Hidalgo is one of the best players in the current college basketball landscape. However, she will have to wait until 2027 to translate her scoring skills to the big league. According to the WNBA, a player must be at least 22 years old to be eligible for the draft.
Hannah Hidalgo gets her fighting spirit from her defense
As a 5-foot-6 guard, Hannah Hidalgo possesses a diverse scoring arsenal. However, in an episode of the "Sometimes I Hoop" podcast last month, she said that she takes pride in her ability to defend and gets her drive from making integral stops.
"I get my energy from my defense, especially being a smaller guard," she said. "Always being a smaller guard I had to figure out how to do something else because scoring wasn’t always my thing, especially playing against bigger girls.
"I was so small I didn't know how to finesse and score over taller girls. So, I was always told that defense wins championships. So, I always took pride in my defense."
Hannah Hidalgo is averaging 4.0 steals, which ranks third on the NCAA's leaderboard. She garnered a season-high seven steals against the Pittsburgh Panthers earlier this month and has had six steals four times this season.