{"id":550876,"date":"2026-03-28T18:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T18:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/550876\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T18:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T18:10:08","slug":"indiana-fever-legend-sends-message-to-hannah-hidalgo-after-notre-dames-sweet-16-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/550876\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Fever Legend Sends Message to Hannah Hidalgo After Notre Dame\u2019s Sweet 16 Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

A legendary WNBA<\/a> figure did not hold back her high praise following a dazzling NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament showdown. Following a hard-fought victory on Friday, a former Indiana Fever<\/a> star sent a message to Notre Dame<\/a> guard Hannah Hidalgo and Vanderbilt<\/a> guard Mikayla Blakes.<\/p>\n

Ten-time WNBA All-Star Tamika Catchings, who spent 15 years with the Fever, praised the youngsters after No. 6 seed Notre Dame defeated No. 2 seed Vanderbilt 67-64 in a Sweet 16 showdown. The contest was billed as a marquee point guard battle, and both playmakers delivered on the national stage.<\/p>\n

Hidalgo scored 31 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 steals. She also broke the NCAA single-season steals record during the contest. Blakes fought valiantly and stuffed the statsheet with 26 points and eight rebounds in the narrow loss.<\/p>\n

Catchings took to social media to point out the elite performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m taking @HannahHidalgo (Hannah Hidalgo) & @mikaylablakes (Mikayla Blakes) on any of my teams!!! \ud83d\ude24\ud83d\udcaa\ud83c\udffd\ud83e\udd70 Love the straight up Dawg Mentality they play with! THIS is how you play!!!\u201d Catchings wrote.<\/p>\n

Despite the impressive shooting numbers, Blakes was struggling with the defeat.<\/p>\n

“I guess I just dribbled it off my foot,” Blakes told reporters postgame. “I saw an open lane, but I guess I moved too fast.”<\/p>\n

“Starting the game, I guess, [I’m] human. I miss shots,” Blakes said. “So I wouldn’t say it was nerves or anything like that. I just have to learn from the performance, because I can’t perform for my team like that in a moment as big as this.”<\/p>\n

Last season, Blakes and Vanderbilt were a No. 7 seed and lost in the opening-round matchup to No. 10 Oregon.<\/p>\n

Hannah Hidalgo Earning High Praise From ESPN Analyst<\/p>\n

Hidalgo propelled her team to the Elite Eight, earning high praise from ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith<\/a> for her intensity and playmaking. Smith pointed out her elite basketball intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that girl Hidalgo,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI mean, I love her, I mean, little feisty thing going out there balling, I can’t take my eyes off watching her play. I just wanted to say that I just wanted to say I really like her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hidalgo addressed the media<\/a> after Notre Dame secured its spot.<\/p>\n

“Yeah I think first and foremost to get over this hump with these group of women it it’s so special and it means so much more and I spoke earlier about how I used to take just being in the sweet 16 for granted um and how I embrace it so much more now and I’m so much more grateful uh to be here,” Hidalgo said.<\/p>\n

Coach Niele Ivey pointed out that the team’s developed chemistry over the summer contributed to this milestone.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame will play No. 1 seed UConn at 1 p.m. Sunday at Dickies Arena.<\/p>\n

Related: Notre Dame Coach Sends Strong Message to Hannah Hidalgo on Thursday<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 28, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Basketball<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A legendary WNBA figure did not hold back her high praise following a dazzling NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[15113,2839,72098,8393,99,17952,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-550876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-hannah-hidalgo","9":"tag-indiana-fever","10":"tag-mikayla-blakes","11":"tag-notre-dame","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tamika-catchings","14":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}