Following the departures of Olivia Miles and three other starters, along with some key reserve players, the Fighting Irish are in need of reinforcements – but things aren’t as simple as they seem
Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey has already overseen a high turnover of players following the end of the 2024-25 season
New Notre Dame general manager Pat Garrity has conceded that further reinforcements for Niele Ivey’s side will come from bringing in freshmen and developing them, given the program’s limited ability in the transfer portal.
The Fighting Irish have already waved goodbye to the likes of star guards Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron since the end of the most recent campaign, with the former opting to take up her final year of college eligibility elsewhere, while the latter was selected as the third overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft last month.
Other departures include Emma Risch, Kate Koval, and Kylee Watson, who followed Miles into the transfer portal, while Liatu King, Maddy Westbeld, and Liza Karlen also saw their college basketball careers come to an end with their graduations. Suffice to say, Ivey has her work cut out if her side is to achieve the same feats from last season.
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But her hopes of bringing in adequate reinforcements in future transfer portals has taken a major hit after Garrity, who was this week hired hired by Notre Dame to be the general manager of both its men’s and women’s teams in a groundbreaking new role, provided an update on the program’s current state of play.
“The word is development,” Garrity told reporters at his unveiling on Thursday. “We’re bringing in freshmen and we’re finding roles and developing them. Families can hear that and pretty much take that to the bank here.”
In the most recent transfer portal following the end of the 2024-25 college basketball season, Gisela Sanchez, Malaya Cowles, and Vanessa de Jesus all transferred to South Bend for the upcoming campaign.
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Former Kansas State forward Sanchez, in particular, seems a big coup. Across the 2024-25 season, she averaged 4.2 points and 3.1 rebounds in 15.4 minutes and 27 games for the 28-8 Wildcats, helping the team reach the NCAA Tournament.
She will join returning guards Cassandre Prosper, KK Bransford, and Hannah Hidalgo. The latter’s decision to remain with Notre Dame is arguably the biggest boost of the off-season for Ivey, who recently named the sophomore star as the “face of women’s basketball” in an apparent snub towards WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark.
Last season, however, Hidalgo joined Clark as the only player to have scored 1,500 or more points and more than 300 assists in their first two collegiate seasons, firmly cementing herself as one of the best two-way players at the collegiate level.
Garrity’s appointment by Notre Dame is certainly a bold one, with the 48-year-old just one of only two people believed to have ever held the dual GM role and been the lead administrator for the men’s team in college athletics.
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According to CBS Sports, Garrity will be responsible for how Notre Dame’s men’s and women’s teams operate in NIL spending and much more, as per sources. As a men’s basketball sports administrator, he is also expected to have an influential voice in the program.
The former Notre Dame star, who spent four years in South Bend before being drafted as a first-round pick in the 1998 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, arrives back at his former stomping ground with a host of experience at the highest level.
While the collegiate game is a different story, Garrity will hope to use some of the skills he picked up as an assistant GM with the Detroit Pistons from 2016-2020 to aid his time with the program, which comes with a whole new level of responsibility.