Notes From the NDWBB Awards Night

1. I can confirm that Carol Owens was at the airport and that caused her to be a few minutes late as Coach Ivey noted when introducing the coaching staff. The King family probably went straight to their hotel because I did not see them.

2. Hannah Hidalgo won Best Defensive Player, the media MVP award, gave the closing prayer, and shared the team's MVP award with Sonia Citron. Fr. Monk Malloy gave the invocation

3. Maddy Westbeld was named Most Improved Player and seemed truly happy to confirm that she will be returning for next season.

4. Sarah Cernugel and Cass Prosper shared the spirit award.

5. Jenna Brown, Sarah Cernugel, and Anna DeWolfe received senior awards and spoke about their time at ND. Jenna's speech about the ups and downs of her six years of college was the most eloquent as she related missing 1,000 days of basketball between her final game at Stanford and her first game at ND. She also mentioned that the death of a close friend was another burden that she carried.

6. There is a chance that Sarah Cernugel will return next season. Reading between the lines, it may depend on finding the right grad program for this computational math major who won the team's academic award.

7. Anna DeWolfe had the best one-liner of the event as she asked the staff to make certain that they save two tickets for her when ND advances to the final four next season.

8. KK Bransford and Kylee Watson were both there on crutches which was especially sad to see when compared to how vibrant they looked when seen in the season highlights video.

9. I was surprised that Natalija Marshall and Becky Obinma were not in attendance. I hope that this was not a sign that they are graduating with some ill feelings toward the coaching staff.