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BIRMINGHAM, Ala — One sat with her hands in her chin while another sat with her right hand stuck to the side of her face as if she was trying to make sense of something.
The third, there on the end, sat with her arms crossed. All three, sitting in alphabetical order and maybe in their own quiet ways, mentally turning the page on their next basketball chapters.
This one’s over.
They were supposed to be the trio that helped drive Notre Dame women’s basketball back to a place where it so believed it belonged. Deep into the NCAA Tournament. Elite Eight at the very least. Final Four. If everything broke right in this year or that one, back to the national championship game where they would win the program title No. 3.
Stay or go?: Notre Dame women's basketball guard Olivia Miles weighs her basketball future
Three thoughts: Notre Dame women's basketball loses to TCU in NCAA Tournament Sweet 16
That’s how it was supposed to play out for veterans Sonia Citron, Olivia Miles and Maddy Westbeld. That’s how it was going to work for the three, all of whom hauled home a host of accolades throughout their careers.
They each played in at least 100 games. They each scored at least 1,000 points. They grabbed big rebounds at big times, had key assists at key times and scored critical baskets in critical moments. They had become more than just players in the Notre Dame women’s basketball program. They were a part of the fabric.
Women who won and won a lot. Who did a lot.
They often liked to say, through everything they had done and seen and won, that the job wasn’t done.
Big win in Atlantic Coast Conference play?
Job’s not done.
Big win in NCAA Tournament play?
Job’s not done.
The expectation within the walls of the Notre Dame women’s basketball locker room mirrored those on the outside. Get through the Sweet 16. Get through the Elite Eight. Cut down nets and wear championship T-shirts and hats for winning one of the tournament’s four regionals, this one in Birmingham.
Get to Tampa, Florida, or as they call it this month — CHAMP-a — where the last time they held a Final Four at Amalie Arena in 2019, guess who played in it?
Notre Dame.
That was the baseline expectation for a program with a roster that had star power up and down and all around it. In the starting backcourt, which also featured electric sophomore spark Hannah Hidalgo. In the front court, where Pittsburgh transfer Liatu King was a one-year wonder who brought a toughness and a tenacity to a program that, honestly, is sometimes too pretty for its own good. From top to bottom.
There were stars. There were stats. There were win streaks and a No. 1 ranking and plenty of days to dream about what it might be like to see national championship banner No. 3 raised to the Purcell Pavilion roof.
Job’s not done.
The job will remain not done. Forever.
Despite 28 wins, despite being ranked No. 1 during the regular season, despite ripping off 19 straight wins and going 85 days without a loss, this season will be remembered by what Notre Dame didn’t do.
It didn’t get past the Sweet 16. It fell hard. That’s hard, but that’s life.
It didn’t do the job.
On Saturday at Legacy Arena in this city where summer arrived early, this Notre Dame women’s basketball team, loaded with stars and potential and plans to move on and play in the tournament’s final week, wound up falling in line. Quietly. Convincingly.
In the end, when it ended, this Notre Dame women’s basketball program fell to TCU (71-62) and then fell in line with too many other Irish teams of recent memory. Just like in 2022 and 2023 and 2024, the 2025 Notre Dame women’s basketball program had a chance, seemingly had all the pieces, but in the end, left everyone disappointed. Wanting more. More wins. More games. More chances.
More. Instead, they did less. Again. Against another team that cannot hold an NCAA candle to the Notre Dame program pedigree. North Carolina State, Maryland, Oregon State and now, TCU.
A program that everyone thought had it turned out not to have enough of it, whatever it was. Coaching. Chemistry. Trust. Togetherness. Pick one. They all apply. Maybe it just wasn’t supposed to happen, even when it looked like it might. Like it should.
There, in the fourth quarter of a game the Irish had led by as many as nine in the second half, when it came time to fight, like really fight, Notre Dame folded. All that talent, all that potential, all those players who had played all that basketball wound up letting it slip away.
In the end, it ended like too many recent seasons. There were tears, sure, because in the end, there are always some tears. There were words, but did anything any of them said really matter? Look at the faces of those three players on the dais, look at Citron and at Miles and at Westbeld, all absent of emotion and you got the sense that this ended in a way that was fitting.
This ended in a way it was destined to end. Here. Now.
Maybe next year? Perhaps. Maybe never?
Who can say?
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Could Notre Dame women's basketball finally clear Sweet 16 obstacle?
Continue reading...
The third, there on the end, sat with her arms crossed. All three, sitting in alphabetical order and maybe in their own quiet ways, mentally turning the page on their next basketball chapters.
This one’s over.
They were supposed to be the trio that helped drive Notre Dame women’s basketball back to a place where it so believed it belonged. Deep into the NCAA Tournament. Elite Eight at the very least. Final Four. If everything broke right in this year or that one, back to the national championship game where they would win the program title No. 3.
Stay or go?: Notre Dame women's basketball guard Olivia Miles weighs her basketball future
Three thoughts: Notre Dame women's basketball loses to TCU in NCAA Tournament Sweet 16
That’s how it was supposed to play out for veterans Sonia Citron, Olivia Miles and Maddy Westbeld. That’s how it was going to work for the three, all of whom hauled home a host of accolades throughout their careers.
They each played in at least 100 games. They each scored at least 1,000 points. They grabbed big rebounds at big times, had key assists at key times and scored critical baskets in critical moments. They had become more than just players in the Notre Dame women’s basketball program. They were a part of the fabric.
Women who won and won a lot. Who did a lot.
They often liked to say, through everything they had done and seen and won, that the job wasn’t done.
Big win in Atlantic Coast Conference play?
Job’s not done.
Big win in NCAA Tournament play?
Job’s not done.
The expectation within the walls of the Notre Dame women’s basketball locker room mirrored those on the outside. Get through the Sweet 16. Get through the Elite Eight. Cut down nets and wear championship T-shirts and hats for winning one of the tournament’s four regionals, this one in Birmingham.
Get to Tampa, Florida, or as they call it this month — CHAMP-a — where the last time they held a Final Four at Amalie Arena in 2019, guess who played in it?
Notre Dame.
That was the baseline expectation for a program with a roster that had star power up and down and all around it. In the starting backcourt, which also featured electric sophomore spark Hannah Hidalgo. In the front court, where Pittsburgh transfer Liatu King was a one-year wonder who brought a toughness and a tenacity to a program that, honestly, is sometimes too pretty for its own good. From top to bottom.
There were stars. There were stats. There were win streaks and a No. 1 ranking and plenty of days to dream about what it might be like to see national championship banner No. 3 raised to the Purcell Pavilion roof.
Job’s not done.
The job will remain not done. Forever.
Despite 28 wins, despite being ranked No. 1 during the regular season, despite ripping off 19 straight wins and going 85 days without a loss, this season will be remembered by what Notre Dame didn’t do.
It didn’t get past the Sweet 16. It fell hard. That’s hard, but that’s life.
It didn’t do the job.
On Saturday at Legacy Arena in this city where summer arrived early, this Notre Dame women’s basketball team, loaded with stars and potential and plans to move on and play in the tournament’s final week, wound up falling in line. Quietly. Convincingly.
In the end, when it ended, this Notre Dame women’s basketball program fell to TCU (71-62) and then fell in line with too many other Irish teams of recent memory. Just like in 2022 and 2023 and 2024, the 2025 Notre Dame women’s basketball program had a chance, seemingly had all the pieces, but in the end, left everyone disappointed. Wanting more. More wins. More games. More chances.
More. Instead, they did less. Again. Against another team that cannot hold an NCAA candle to the Notre Dame program pedigree. North Carolina State, Maryland, Oregon State and now, TCU.
A program that everyone thought had it turned out not to have enough of it, whatever it was. Coaching. Chemistry. Trust. Togetherness. Pick one. They all apply. Maybe it just wasn’t supposed to happen, even when it looked like it might. Like it should.
There, in the fourth quarter of a game the Irish had led by as many as nine in the second half, when it came time to fight, like really fight, Notre Dame folded. All that talent, all that potential, all those players who had played all that basketball wound up letting it slip away.
In the end, it ended like too many recent seasons. There were tears, sure, because in the end, there are always some tears. There were words, but did anything any of them said really matter? Look at the faces of those three players on the dais, look at Citron and at Miles and at Westbeld, all absent of emotion and you got the sense that this ended in a way that was fitting.
This ended in a way it was destined to end. Here. Now.
Maybe next year? Perhaps. Maybe never?
Who can say?
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Could Notre Dame women's basketball finally clear Sweet 16 obstacle?
Continue reading...
