Hannah Hidalgo is “clearly National Player of the Year favorite” ahead of Paige Bueckers, JuJu Watkins, sports broadcaster presents bold claim
There is just no stopping the Hannah Hidalgo hype train right now. The Notre Dame guard has been the talk of the town ever since she led the Fighting Irish to a 79-68 win over then No. 2 UConn Huskies on Thursday. Sports broadcaster Robin Lundberg upped the stakes on Monday, claiming on his YouTube channel that Hidalgo is the clear favorite to win the National Player of the Year award.
"The emergence of Hidalgo is one of the stories that is only going to get bigger as the season goes along. It’s only going to get bigger because you can’t control how the audience is going to react to something," Lundberg said.
Lundberg explained that as more basketball experts and fans see Hidalgo play this season, the greater the call will be to anoint the Notre Dame star as the best player in the women's college game, ahead of other big names such as Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins.
"Right now, she’s clearly the National Player of the Year favorite. If you are looking at the college basketball landscape, the top 3 teams at the moment should be UCLA, South Carolina and Notre Dame," Lundberg argued.
Notre Dame leapfrogged UConn in the Associated Press rankings, moving from eighth to the No. 3 spot. The Huskies dropped to No. 4 from the second place after picking up their first defeat of the season against the Fighting Irish. The UCLA Bruins held on to the No. 1 ranking as they finished the week with a perfect 10-0 record. The South Carolina Gamecocks moved up to No. 2 with a 10-1 slate.
Hannah Hidalgo enters the Best Player conversation with a superb showing vs UConn
If the Naismith Women's College Player of the Year award goes to Hannah Hidalgo at the end of the season, she will look back at her performance against UConn as the moment the tide swung in her favor. She outplayed Paige Bueckers in that contest, scoring 29 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out eight assists for a near triple-double.
Hidalgo also made her mark on the defensive end, recording three steals against the Huskies.
The Fighting Irish followed up that victory with a win over Eastern Michigan, with Hidalgo taking center stage once again. She led Notre Dame in the 118-49 victory, racking up 27 points on 10 of 14 shooting. She stuffed the stat sheet in the rout, recording six steals, four rebounds and four assists.