ALBANY, N.Y. — Indiana University guard Sara Scalia said Thursday, after less than 24-hours in the Capital Region, that she has yet to form an opinion on the Hoosiers’ new home for the next several days.
“I don’t really have a first impression yet,” Scalia said. “I haven’t seen enough to say yet.”
Oregon State has traveled the furthest than any of the eight teams in Albany this weekend for the Super Regional – Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds of the NCAA Tournament and haven’t even played a game outside the Western or Pacific time zones this season.
“I think the two of us are the only ones on the team that played this far. We got here yesterday. So just resting up and taking our time, obviously, with practice. But when we’re not practicing, we’re just resting and taking care of our bodies,” said Beavers’ junior guard A.J. Marotte.
“We got here Tuesday, so we had the extra night. We definitely slept-in a little bit Wednesday morning,” added OSU junior guard Talia von Oelhoffen, “but I think at this point we’re all adjusted and it feels normal now. But, yeah, New York is great so far.”
South Carolina, the top-overall seed among the field, took to its first practice at MVP Arena on Thursday, seemingly loose and full of smiles from the trek up the East Coast. Gamecocks’ legendary head coach Dawn Staley believes not everything meets the eye.
“We’ve got a pretty loose team. You saw the beginning of practice and they were pretty focused for about 30 minutes and then they went into a mode of being really loose, but focused. I think they’re probably more focused than they’ve ever been,” Staley said in her first press conference, Thursday.
“But for (a) certain amount of time in practice, I’m real thankful to the NCAA only gave us 60 minutes because I couldn’t take any more than 60 minutes.”
If it wasn’t clear, the March Madness has touched down in MVP Arena and is underway, as the first four teams competing in the Albany Regions get ready for the Sweet 16 to tip-off, with two games on Friday.
#3 Oregon State (26-7) vs. #2 Notre Dame (28-6), 2:30 p.m., ESPN
Fighting Irish freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo might just be the best defensive player in the country and she’s only a freshman. She’s also the only player her teammates, amongst a star-studded field of teams in the Albany side of the NCAA bracket, would pay to see.
“I think she’s runner-up in every single thing that you can see. Every time I go on Instagram, she broke another record, and it’s something that you don’t see every day,” said Notre Dame senior Forward Maddy Westbeld. “She’s special. She’s different. If I wasn’t her teammate, I’m blessed that I am, but if I wasn’t, I would pay to go watch her play.”
“I would have to say Hannah, too, because you don’t see a lot of people do what she does on the offensive end and the defensive end and the way she just picks up people and terrorizes them, I would pay to see that, too,” added junior backcourt teammate Sonia Citron.
Hidalgo is a first team All-American, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Postseason Tournament MVP, ACC Rookie of the Year, ACC Defensive Player of the Year, Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Finalist and leads the NCAA with 4.6 steals-per-game, setting a record with 147 this season.
But as a whole, the Notre Dame defense is stingy, even with a limited rotation of players due to having lost three to season-ending injuries. The Fighting Irish rank inside the top-75, nationally, in opponent two-point-percentage, per-game (.423), and are inside the top-25 in opponent three-point percentage, per-game (.276).
“I think we do a really good job of holding each other accountable. I think it takes pride. We’ve said that all season. It takes individual pride to lock your defender up,” said Westbeld. “I think Hannah leads us in that regard. She leads us for 94-feet in that regard. She brings that fire. I think me and Sonia are, like, kind of quieter players. We’re a little bit more calm, and she brings the fire out in us. And I think it’s an amazing addition to this team. I think it’s what we needed in the past.”
“Like I said, it’s just individual pride that we’ve really been able to hold each other accountable on.”
The Notre Dame offense is certainly no slouch, as the team’s 79 PPG ranks 20th in the NCAA. Hidalgo paces the group with 22.9 PPG, while Citron follows with 17.1 and Westbeld with 14.
Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey, who won the school’s first championship as a player in 2001, said there are some things about the team’s opponent Friday – Oregon State – that could give the shorthanded-Fighting Irish some problems, especially inside.
“Well, first of all, (OSU) just an incredible team. They have a lot of balance, a lot of depth, a lot of height. They’re averaging seven, almost eight threes a game. Great size. Their two best players are their post players, at Timea Gardiner being the Sixth Woman of the Year in the Pac-12. Just amazing,” said Notre Dame head ccoach Niele Ivey during her opening press conference, Thursday. “I think for us it’s just managing their physicality, their size, but also their ability to shoot from the three-point line.”
“We’re going to be very strategic tomorrow trying to attack the things that they have defensively but also finding ways to contain their posts and rebounds.”
“It’s going to be a really tough task, but I’m excited. Scott (Rueck) does a great job at Oregon State. We played them two years ago. I’m very familiar with their system, their program, playing them even when I was an assistant coach. I think it’s going to be a great game, and obviously we’re fortunate to be here, and I’m super excited to get to work tomorrow.”
Third-team All-American Raegan Beers leads the Beavers, averaging a double-double of 17.5 PPG and 10.2 rebounds-per-game, while also leading the NCAA with a 66% field goal percentage on the season. Her counterpart in the frontcourt, Timea Gardiner, seconds Beers with 11 PPG and 6.7 RPG.
It’s the inside where the Beavers can control the game, as their 35% two-point defense ranks ninth in the Nation, and their 27% three-point defense places them 26th. Oregon State is also fifth in the NCAA in defensive rebounds per game (31.0).
“We take a lot of pride in our defense. We work super hard on it. And not a lot of teams can say they love defense, but I feel like all of us can,” said Oregon State junior guard A.J. Marotte.
However, the team now lines up against one of the best individual defenders in the country in Hidalgo.
“I think just our league scouts so heavy, and it’s very personnel based. So we’re used to teams kind of keying in on us and taking away maybe what we want to do. So being able to go to second and third options and having counters to different looks that are thrown at us,” said Beavers’ junior guard Talia von Oelhoffen. “But, I think there’s just so many different types of defenses and different dynamics in the Pac-12 that we’ve kind of seen it all at this point. So, yeah, that’s definitely prepared us for this tournament, and going to be huge for us going forward.”
“Such a dynamic player. She impacts the game in so many ways. Her pace and her speed is special. Her skill set is special. Her ability to score is special, and her ability to disrupt defensively is special. She’s gotten the keys to the team. She plays with that confidence and that swagger that she has, the green light. So give Niele a ton of credit for building her up like that,” said Oregon State head coach Scott Rueck.
Neither side had met during the season en route to this weekend’s Sweet 16, but Oregon State does still carry some not-so-distant history with them into MVP Arena from a prior visit back in 2019, when it lost to Louisville on the same stage.
Oregon State has not been back to the Elite 8 since 2018, when it also lost to Louisville with a chance at a Final Four appearance, while Notre Dame last advanced in 2019 – just one season removed from winning its last, prior championship in 2018, also missing four players to injury.
#4 Indiana (26-5) vs. #1 South Carolina (34-0), 5 p.m., on ESPN
Indiana went a staggering 17-0 on its home floor of famed, Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, but away from the friendly confines, went just 7-4. None of those matchups were against a competition like it will face on Friday afternoon in undefeated South Carolina.
“We’re definitely gonna miss our fans. It’s a crazy environment in Assembly hall. They obviously help us out ,as far as just bringing us a lot of energy and support, but it’ll definitely be a different environment here tonight and it’s a neutral site,” Scalia said . “So, I think it’ll be fun just to see how many fans we have and they have and just kind of play through that.”
“Obviously, we’re underdogs in this game, so I wouldn’t say there is as much pressure on us; we can just kind of play freely and play our game. I think that’s the biggest thing.”
The Gamecocks have gone 34-0 across the 2023-24 season, including tournament wins over Presbyterian, 91-39, and North Carolina, 88-41, but need no reminder of the last time it saw an undefeated season end – versus Iowa in last year’s Final Four, to go 36-1 on the year.
“They have short memories. I mean, they only deal with the present, which is pretty cool. You don’t have to talk them off of a ledge because their thinking is going to be an easy thing. They take one game at a time,” Staley said.
Indiana has a history of its own in breaking-up a South Carolina undefeated season, as in 2019-2020, the Hoosiers marked the only loss on the Gamecocks’ schedule – a regular-season tournament loss in the U.S. Virgin Islands – until the campaign was cut short due to COVID-19.
“With me, it’s a vivid game that I remember us losing in the Virgin Islands. I actually looked back at that box score. They scored 20, fourth quarter points. We scored six,” said Staley. “Yikes.”
“It was a really good game. It was a very physical basketball game. It was probably one of the games that – we haven’t lost very many of them, so I remember the ones that we’ve lost over the past couple of seasons.”
“They can be very similar in style of play, but they can be more efficient at what they’re doing, and to me that’s what Indiana is. They’re more efficient with what they’re doing, and it doesn’t matter their age. Teri does a great job of coaching up her team on both sides of the basketball. It won’t be a cake walk. I hope it is, favoring us, but I know in my heart of hearts, in my basketball knowledge and understanding of prepping for them, it’s going to be a really hard game.”
South Carolina has the best record in College Basketball for good reason, as the top-overall seed in the tournament is balanced both as a team and through individual play. The Gamecocks rank second in the NCAA in scoring-offense, averaging over 86 PPG, while placing 11th in scoring-defense, allowing just 55 points-per-game, and no.1 in blocks-per-game with 7.9.
Kamilla Cardoso, the Gamecocks’ senior forward, was tabbed as the Southeast Conference (SEC) Defensive Player of the Year and also to the all-conference first team, while averaging nearly 14 PPG and 10 RPG, with a 58% field goal-percentage – good for 18th in the nation.
Six other Gamecocks average above or near double-digit scoring-totals, in MiLaysia Fulwiley (12.2), Te-Hina Paopao (11.2; also leading NCAA in 3P%), Ashlyn Watkins (9.6), Chloe Kitts (9.6), Bree Hall (9.5) and Raven Johnson (8.0; also seventh in NCAA in assist/turnover ratio).
“It’s not just (Cardoso). Like I said, they’re loaded with talent. But I think you try to crowd her. You’re not going to keep her from scoring. She’s too talented for that, and this is too good of a basketball team. They intentionally find ways to get her the ball,” said Hossiers’ head coach Moren. “I think you have to try to do your work early and try to keep her away from the rim as well as you can, but I also think it requires help from others, whether that’s doubling, digging, just trying to crowd her as well as we can.”
The Hoosiers presents some problems defensively of their own, behind an inside-out game of graduate-forward Mackenzie Holmes and Scalia, as the two combine for over 36 of the team’s 79 PPG. Holmes, who’s 65% field goal shooting is good for third in the nation, also pulls down a team-high 6.8 RPG while Scalia, who’s 30 turnovers are the least in NCAA, shoots over 43% from three-point range.
“They have a really good high-low game so we need to be able to try and take that away and they also have shooters and they move well, so we’ve just got to lock in on defense and Coach will put us in a good situation, and we’ve had a couple good practices and we’re ready for them,” said Gamecocks’ sophomore forward Chloe Kitts.
“Yeah, as she said, they have a really good inside-outside game so we as guards are going to have to do a good job at guarding perimeter and trusting our posts that they’ll lock down Holmes and do what they can, and at the end of the day we’ve just got to play team defense and stop Scalia, obviously, and then stop their next leading scorer and just play team defense and lock in,” added teammate and senior guard Te-Hina Paopao.
While the other headliners of the weekend slate at MVP Arena may still be waiting in the wings to get their first practices in on Friday, the fireworks will have already ensued as Albany and NCAA Women’s Super Regional are off and running.
