With the Irish preparing to compete in their fifth straight Sweet 16 in Fort Worth, Texas, head coach Niele Ivey and star junior guard Hannah Hidalgo said that they wouldn’t be there without one player. Despite seemingly middle-of-the-road counting stats of 7.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game, senior guard KK Bransford has emerged as a spark plug off the bench since returning from injury Feb. 1.
The knee injury she suffered against Morehead State back on Dec. 11 didn’t immediately provide much promise for a return this season. Despite being heavily wrapped up and reduced to crutches, Bransford was determined to return and help her sisters in the Irish locker room. After all, this wasn’t the first blow of adversity she endured during her career in South Bend.
Coming out of high school, the Cincinnati native was a top-10 high school recruit, pursued intently by every major program in America. After leading Mount Notre Dame High School to Ohio state championships in 2019 and 2021 (the 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID-19, with the Cougars sitting at 28-0), Bransford took her talents to South Bend to play for Niele Ivey.
She immediately made an impact, averaging 8.2 PPG across 33 games as a true freshman to earn a spot on the ACC All-Freshman Team. That season ended in the Sweet 16, and her sophomore year followed suit. While preparing to play an even larger role on last year’s team, perhaps the most talented in school history, Bransford redshirted to recover from lingering lower body injuries that had hindered her strength throughout her time at Notre Dame.
This year, Bransford returned from the second of her setbacks on Feb. 1 for a crucial 78-66 win against perennial power Stanford. The Irish had struggled all year on the road, but her return eased some of the stressors that came with basketball away from home. Her athleticism, rebounding and basketball IQ sparked an Irish resurgence, moving them all the way from the bubble to a No. 6 seed in just a month.
The resiliency of Bransford has carried over to the rest of her team, especially as Notre Dame has reeled off 11 wins in 13 games since her return.
“This group is resilient. They’ve established a confidence in themselves and in our group, in our identity. It took us a while to kind of really have that consistent identity. We were working through it a lot this season,” Ivey said before Friday’s showdown with Vanderbilt.
Just like Bransford, Notre Dame struggled with adversity all season, but led by Bransford and her infectious energy on the court, it battled back and worked its way into the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in Bransford’s four years.
Asked about how her team responded to setbacks in December and January, Ivey said, “We added KK. That’s a big part of it. We were playing with six scholarship players at that time. KK being back with our team helped a lot.”
Bransford’s best performances have come on the biggest stages, and she was back in her home state for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. In the same building where she captured two state titles, the two-time Ohio Ms. Basketball showed out in front of friends and family to help propel the Irish to the Lone Star State.
In the first round against No. 11 Fairfield, Bransford scored five points and pulled down nine rebounds. In the fast-paced second round showdown with the third-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes, Bransford’s presence off the bench ignited the Irish comeback from an 11-0 hole. She was a +14 in the first half alone and finished the evening with 10 points, six rebounds and three assists en route to the 83-73 win.
Even with her own stat line of 26 points, 13 rebounds and eight steals, Hidalgo understood just how important Bransford was in giving the Irish life in the first half.
“KK brings so much for us on a different level,” Hidalgo said. “She knows the system so well. She brings something that we were lacking when she was out. So now to finally have her back you can tell. It makes a big difference with how we’re playing on the floor. She brings that spark off the bench that we really need and we didn’t have.”
“It means everything. I had a lot of fans out there. My high school team or my high school team was out there. So just to be able to play in front of them, to see my family, my sister, my brother, this whole trip has been amazing,” Bransford said of her performance following Monday’s victory.
If Notre Dame is to move beyond the Sweet 16, a round that has proven challenging throughout the careers of Ivey, Hidalgo and Bransford, it will need KK, just as it has all year.
