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Somewhere, East Orange, N.J., native Queen Latifah is smiling.
Friday’s Sweet 16 matchup between Vanderbilt and Notre Dame is set to tip off at 2:30 p.m. ET at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. While the Regional 1 contest, which features the No. 2 Commodores against the sixth-seeded Fighting Irish, is being held more than 1,500 miles from the Garden State, Jersey definitely will be in the house.
The March Madness pairing pits Vandy (29-4), led by Somerset, N.J., sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes, against Notre Dame (24-10) and junior Hannah Hidalgo, who hails from Merchantville, N.J., for the first time in their already illustrious college careers. The estimated 14,000 who could witness the game in person, and the hundreds of thousands more who could watch or stream it, no doubt will be doing so to see the fellow Jersey girls in a battle between the best offensive player and best two-way player in the country, with a spot in the Elite Eight on the line.
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Blakes, who leads the nation at 27 points per game, is on pace to break Caitlin Clark’s all-time NCAA scoring record. The SEC Player of the Year is coming off a near triple-double, going for 25 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in a 75-57 dismissal of No. 7 Illinois in Nashville on Monday to advance to the Sweet 16. That performance was preceded by a 30-point, five-assist outing to oust 15th-seeded High Point in the opening round.
Hidalgo and Blakes were teammates this past summer, helping guide Team USA to a gold medal in the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup in Santiago, Chile, but there won’t be any U-N-I-T-Y come Friday.
“Just take it how we do every single game,” said Blakes, an AP first-team All-American, when asked about her approach to facing Hidalgo. “I think when we come into the tournament, we have to continue to be us. We’re gonna make our game plan our game plan, but she’s a really good player and we’re gonna play her like that too.”
Hidalgo is third in the country, averaging 25.2 points per game, but is even more impressive on the other side of the court. Named ACC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, an award she has won two years running, the 5-foot-6 point guard leads the NCAA with 5.6 steals per game. She fattened the stat sheet with eight takeaways to go along with a career-high 13 rebounds, not to mention 26 points, as her team busted brackets by upsetting No. 3 NC State in Columbus on Monday. Hidalgo also put up 23 points, nine rebounds and eight steals in Notre Dame’s first-round win against No. 11 Fairfield.
She’s been terrorizing opposing offenses all season. She set an NCAA record with 16 steals in a non-conference win against Akron in early November.
“For me it’s just reading what the offense is doing,” Hidalgo said. “Thinking one step ahead, I think, is really big — just reading the passing lanes.”
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It won’t be the first time Hidalgo and Blakes square off. New Jersey high school basketball fans got a taste of what the rest of the world will witness Friday years ago. Back in 2023, Blakes, a junior at Rutgers Prep, scored a game-high 34 points but fell to Paul VI senior Hidalgo, who dropped 29 points, in a close game.
Not Living Single
Neither Blakes nor Hidalgo is a one-woman show.
Blakes has point guard Aubrey Galvan riding shotgun. Galvan, the SEC Freshman of the Year, is averaging 13.2 points per game. She also led all Power 4 freshmen in steals and assists during the regular season. Justine Pissott (11.4 ppg) and Khamil Pierre (10.4 ppg) are also averaging double figures in scoring.
Cassandra Prosper (13.9 ppg) and Iyana Moore (12.2 ppg) help carry the load for Notre Dame.
History to be made
Despite some rocky spells, including a two-week stretch in January during which they lost four of five, Monday’s win was rather routine for the Irish. Friday’s game will be Notre Dame’s 15th straight appearance in the Sweet 16. Vanderbilt will be playing in the round of 16 for the first time in coach Shea Ralph’s five-year tenure.
Whichever team prevails could get the chance to make even more history. If No. 1 overall seed Connecticut gets past No. 4 North Carolina on Friday, the Commodores or Irish will get a crack at what would be a 53-game Huskies win streak.
More March Madness news:
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- Caleb Wilson shares honest feelings about staying at UNC
- How to tell the Boozer twins apart
- Darryn Peterson deals with cramps, commitment concerns
- NBA Draft scouting report on Florida's 7-foot-9 center
- Syracuse, Gerry McNamara, a near upset and a head coaching gig
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