Muffet McGraw talks Hannah Hidalgo off-court controversy ‘it was virtually insulting to her teammates’

There’s no denying the ability and talent of Notre Dame sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo on the court docket. In her first collegiate season, Hidalgo was solely the fifth participant within the girls’s school basketball historical past to earn First Crew All-American honors, lead the nation in scoring and be elevated to a spot of management within the Combating Irish program.

Then, in July of 2024, Hidalgo shared a controversial submit on social media between CNN anchor Don Lemon and political commentator Candace Owens.

Within the snippet of an extended dialog, Lemon, a married homosexual man, requested Owen what she thinks about identical intercourse marriage.

“It’s a sin,” stated Owens.

“You assume it’s a sin?” stated Lemon. “So that you assume I’m sinful as a result of I’m married to a person?”

“Sure, you’re sinning. You might be in a sinful relationship,” stated Owens. “I really don’t consider marriage might be between two males.”

Quickly after sharing the video, Hidalgo deleted the submit.Hidalgo hasn’t publicly responded to her social media submit.

Hidalgo excels on the massive stage, like when Notre Dame defeated the UConn Huskies behind her 29 factors, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Nevertheless, the submit she shared in July continues to be one thing behind talked about this season.

On Tuesday, former Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw joined the podcast “Good Recreation with Sarah Spain.” McGraw, who was the pinnacle coach at Notre Dame from 1987 to 2020, and likewise has a statute on the South Bend campus of her, was clear on the place she stood on Hidalgo’s submit when requested about it by Spain.

Picture by Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photos

“I believed it was a extremely poor selection on her half,” stated McGraw when requested about Hidalgo’s social media submit. “First, believing that, I believe is a poor selection. After which saying it, as you stated, on a stage the place girls’s basketball there are a variety of homosexual gamers on the market.”

McGraw continued, speaking about the way it impacts the locker room, saying “I believed that it was virtually insulting to her teammates, to all people within the sport of basketball. I used to be actually disenchanted that it got here out that method. I used to be pleased that she deleted it, however the harm I believe was performed earlier than she deleted it.”

The 2-time Nationwide Championship-winning coach is aware of what it means to construct a profitable program, explaining how basketball itself is consultant of society. That means that individuals need to work alongside people who find themselves totally different than them, all to realize a typical objective.

“Accountability for me was like, that was the primary factor in having a championship workforce. Honesty, belief and accountability. It’s laborious to belief when you might have someone that believes that what you consider is fallacious.”

Neither Hidalgo nor her teammates have talked about any type of accountability throughout the Notre Dame locker room, now six months after the submit.

Hidalgo’s capacity has her primed as a excessive draft prospect for WNBA. Ought to this case proceed to go by quietly, Hidalgo will be a part of a league that has much more brazenly homosexual gamers than school, together with married LGBTQIA+ {couples}.

Hidalgo isn’t the one Notre Dame athlete to return beneath fireplace for sharing views in opposition to the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood. United States girls’s nationwide soccer workforce supporters discovered posts on former Combating Irish standout soccer star Korbin Albert’s social media pages. It resulted in boos each time she stepped onto the sphere for the USWNT, with Albert later apologizing for the posts, and head coach Emma Hayes discussing how the 2 have had productive dialog round her views.