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Hannah Hidalgo takes relentless approach to improving her game for No. 6 Notre Dame

Sport

Hannah Hidalgo takes relentless approach to improving her game for No. 6 Notre Dame
Sport

Sport

Hannah Hidalgo takes relentless approach to improving her game for No. 6 Notre Dame

2024-11-02 01:00 Last Updated At:01:10

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame point guard Hannah Hidalgo expects even more in her second college season than she did in her first.

Yes, more than first team All-American honors, more than a Sweet 16 run in the NCAA Tournament, even more than being named the top guard in Division I women's basketball.

It's her relentless pursuit of perfection — regardless of circumstances — that sets Hidalgo apart.

“The biggest thing is just being a great teammate. I definitely can be better at that and not be so focused on myself and my own goals," she said after Wednesday's 101-41 exhibition game rout of Davenport. “Having that year under my belt, I’m a lot more comfortable. So I’m just that vocal leader for the team. I try to bring that energy.”"

Hidalgo is still pretty good on the court, too. The preseason All-American finished that game with 31 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for the No. 6 Irish in a tune-up for Monday night's season opener against Division I newcomer Mercyhurst.

Though she made 10 of 13 shots and all 10 of her free throws, the 5-foot-6 sophomore from New Jersey shook her head with disdain when she read the stat line from 3-point range: 1 of 4.

That's just who she is.

“She’s never been a complacent player,” Notre Dame coach Nielle Ivey said. “So she’s always trying to find ways to get better.”

It won't be easy to improve on a 28-7 record, a 22.6 scoring average or leading the nation in steals (4.6 per game).

She burst onto the national scene with a 31-point game in a 100-71 loss to eventual national champion South Carolina.

Hidalgo also scored 34 points in an 82-67 victory at UConn and joined Caitlin Clark as one of four Power 4 players to average 20 points, five rebounds and five assists per game last season. She won the Dawn Staley Award, the honor named for the Gamecocks coach and awarded to the nation's top guard.

With stars such as Clark and Angel Reese off to the WNBA, Hidalgo could emerge as the leader of the next big wave of women's basketball stars. Taking that next step means Hidalgo wants to get stronger going to her left, finishing through contact and extending her shooting range.

Orlando Hidalgo, Hannah’s father and high school coach, said Hannah had a checklist this summer for personal improvement for one reason — bringing a third national championship banner to South Bend, Indiana.

“It's not about winning ACC Player of the Year or leading the NCAA in steals, she just wants to play hard,” he said. “What she wants is an NCAA championship."

Orlando saw that fire at an early age, when she competed fiercely with her four older brothers. It emerged at age 5, when played in a youth basketball league that included a few girls.

“She was the MVP,” he said. “A lot of kids feared her, because she was so aggressive. She would dive for the ball, she was an intense, lock-down defender even then. It’s rare to see someone make the same effort on offense and the same effort on defense. Michael Jordan was a two-way player. He was a killer on offense and defense. Hannah studies the game and works hard. She doesn’t take time off, she doesn’t take plays off."

It's a trait that hasn't wavered as she got older, either.

In addition to countless film study sessions with Ivey, Hidalgo is trying to become a more vocal leader behind the scenes. Teammate Cassandre Prosper says Hannah is always a presence at games and in practice, even if she’s not playing.

“She was screaming and coaching and was bringing the energy to the players in the drill. She is standing right there during the drill, focused and involved," Prosper said. ““I think people are going to see a different side of Hannah this season. They’re going to see her directing her teammates to the mountain top. She realizes that if we want to get to that championship, everyone needs to be involved and everyone needs to play their best.”

Hidalgo sought the advice of former Notre Dame star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Jewell Loyd. She currently plays for the Seattle Storm, who won WNBA titles in 2018 and 2020.

“Jewell was talking to me about preserving my body, which is something that I’ve also been working on," Hidalgo said. "The game is pretty rigorous, so taking care of my body and making sure while I’m getting hit, I’m not constantly going down. It prevents injuries.”

But in the end, Hidalgo's improvement still comes down to one thing.

“I think I’m my hardest critic,” Hidalgo said. “Honestly, me and Coach Ivey we're always watching film, and I’m always thinking I could do something better."

AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball

FILE - Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo, left, drives against Mississippi guard Kennedy Todd-Williams during the second half of a second-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament Monday, March 25, 2024, in South Bend, Ind. (AP Photo/Michael Caterina, File)

FILE - Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo, left, drives against Mississippi guard Kennedy Todd-Williams during the second half of a second-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament Monday, March 25, 2024, in South Bend, Ind. (AP Photo/Michael Caterina, File)

MADRID (AP) — It’s the eyes peering from the canvases that get him, their gaze piercing the boundary between art and life.

That’s why acclaimed Irish novelist John Banville prefers to visit Spain’s Prado Museum during its opening hours — even though he's been invited to browse anytime as part of a month-long literary fellowship.

Still, he doesn't want to be alone with the multitude of watchers hanging from the walls of the labyrinthine galleries.

“I don’t like coming here after hours, it’s too eerie. The pictures, they look at you,” Banville said turning away from the glare of Diego Velázquez himself looking down from the Spaniard's greatest work, “ Las Meninas.”

The huge 17th-century painting shows the Infanta Margarita, her young ladies-in-waiting, a dwarf, a buffoon with a dog, a nun, a mysterious man exiting through a door, a mirror reflecting King Phillip IV and his queen — and also Velazquez, stepping back from his canvas and looking straight down at the viewer.

The painting — a paragon of Baroque sophistication — has fascinated generations of artists. Banville, with his love of poetic detail, is no different.

“I find that ‘Las Meninas’ is always a surprise to me, and a challenge,” Banville told The Associated Press during a recent stroll through the Prado.

“It’s the enigma of it, the strangeness of it. Every time I look at it, it becomes stranger again," he said, surrounded by throngs of museumgoers. “Velázquez looks at you, saying, ‘Look what I did. Would you have been able to do anything like this?'"

Banville's privileged access to the Prado — including after hours and off-limits areas such as its restoration workshops — over the past month is part of the museum’s “Writing the Prado” program.

The program, sponsored by the Loewe Foundation, started last year and counts Nobel prize winners John Coetzee and Olga Tokarczuk, as well as the Mexican American author Chloe Aridjis, as its first fellows.

The fellows immerse themselves in the museum over four weeks before producing a short work of fiction published by the Prado with the editorial guidance of Granta en español magazine.

Banville, author of the Booker prize winner “The Sea,” the recent “The Singularities,” as well as popular crime novels, has an inkling of what he will write following his deep dive into the Old Masters.

“I haven’t worked out the details," he said — but it's about someone going through the gallery and about those piercing eyes.

“The eyes follow him. And I think ... all his life ... he’d had the fear of being found out, and all these eyes seem to know it. And I think Velázquez says ‘Yeah, I know who you are.’”

While his mesmerizing novel “The Book of Evidence” hinges on a failed art heist, the storyteller’s relationship to painting goes back to a restless teenager tempted to pick up the brush in addition to the pen.

“I couldn’t draw, had no sense of color, no grasp of draftsmanship. These are distinct disadvantage if you want to be a painter," Banville said with a wry chuckle. "I painted some dreadful pictures, oh God. If they ever come out I am doomed.”

From then on, he says, the sentence was his brushstroke.

Over 3.2 million people visited the Prado last year to admire an impressive collection of the artwork of Spain’s golden age.

The 4,000 artworks on display, including the world's largest collections of works by Velázquez, Rubens, Bosch, Goya, El Greco and Titian — along with gems by Caravaggio, Fra Angelico and Bruegel the Elder — are just a sample of the 34,000 items in its trove.

The Prado offers solace for Banville and others who need an escape from the modern world — taking pictures either with a phone or camera is strictly prohibited.

"It's wonderful. I see people going around other galleries just taking photos, and I want to say to them, ‘look at the bloody picture’!” Banville said. “All the museums in the world should bring in that rule."

While Banville considers that Goya’s sinister “Black Paintings” are “overdone,” the alluring ladies of Rubens’ “The Garden of Love,” who he jokingly says “are made of bread dough,” have won him over.

Another Velázquez catches his eye — or perhaps it's Banville who is noticed by the leering drunkards in “The Feast of Bacchus,” where the god of wine revels with some men well into their cups.

In Madrid, Banville has also allowed himself his first month off from a daily writing routine that he figures he's maintained since he started to scrawl out stories at age 12.

“This little voice inside of me said ‘John, take the month off. Just enjoy’,” he said. “My family in Ireland was telling me just how dreadful the weather was, and I am sitting here having a glass of wine in the sun. I don’t dare tell them.”

At age 78 and widowed three years ago, he is not sure how many more books he has left in him. But one thing he is not worried about is artificial intelligence usurping the place of true artists.

“A work of art is a very rare thing. There are attempts at works of art, and there are people who imagine that they’ve made a work of art, but they’re just kitsch. Real art won’t succumb to AI,” he said.

“I find works of art to be alive.”

Novelist John Banville poses between Tiziano's 'Sisyphus' on left and Tityus on right at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville poses between Tiziano's 'Sisyphus' on left and Tityus on right at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville walks around looking at paintings including 'Diego Velazquez's 'Las Meninas' in the background at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville walks around looking at paintings including 'Diego Velazquez's 'Las Meninas' in the background at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville looks at 'Diego Velazquez's 'Las Meninas' at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. Banville has enjoyed unlimited access to Madrid's great El Prado museum for the past month as its latest writer-in-residence. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville looks at 'Diego Velazquez's 'Las Meninas' at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. Banville has enjoyed unlimited access to Madrid's great El Prado museum for the past month as its latest writer-in-residence. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville looks at Diego Velazquez's 'Vulcan's Forge' at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville looks at Diego Velazquez's 'Vulcan's Forge' at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville poses in front of Tiziano's 'The Emperor Charles V at Muhlberg' at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville poses in front of Tiziano's 'The Emperor Charles V at Muhlberg' at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville poses by Diego Velazquez's 'The Feast of Bacchus' at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Novelist John Banville poses by Diego Velazquez's 'The Feast of Bacchus' at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

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