“It was almost insulting to her teammates, to everybody in the game”: Ex-Notre Dame coach admits disappointment over Hannah Hidalgo’s post on IG

Former Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw admitted her disappointment over Hannah Hidalgo's controversial post on Instagram. She believes it was a poor choice for her to make such beliefs at a time when there are a lot of basketball players, who opened up as gay.

Hidalgo, who leads the team in scoring (25.7 points per game) and steals (4.1 spg) this season, shared a video on her Instagram Stories in which political commentator Candace Owens told former CNN host Don Lemon that same-sex marriage is a sin.

The Notre Dame superstar's post sparked outrage from the college basketball community. She later deleted the video but posted a part of the video where Lemon asked Owens if she believes that he's sinful because he's married to a man.

"Yes, you're sinning. You're in a sinful relationship. I actually don't believe marriage can be between two men," Owens replied.

Hannah Hidalgo's post was revisited in Sarah Spain's Good Game podcast and her guest was two-time national champion coach Muffet McGraw of Notre Dame. McGraw, who retired in 2020 after 33 seasons as coach of the Fighting Irish, noted that Hidalgo's post insulted her gay teammates and the basketball world as a whole.

"I thought it was really poor choice on her part," McGraw said. "First believing that I think it's a poor choice, and then saying it on, as you said, on a stage where women's basketball there are a number of gay players out there. And I thought that it was almost insulting to her teammates, to everybody in the game of basketball."

McGraw expressed disappointment with the guard's post and believed the damage was done before Hidalgo deleted the post. Up to this moment, the Notre Dame star has yet to address the issue.

After her retirement, McGraw, who retired with a record of 936-293, was succeeded by former player and assistant coach Niele Ivey.

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Muffet McGraw believes Hannah Hidalgo's post affected Notre Dame's locker room

Former Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw believes the team's locker room is indirectly affected by the post of superstar guard Hannah Hidalgo.

McGraw feels the team needs to address the situation before the season ends, for this may affect their campaign moving forward.

"I think it's really hard to have a player in the locker room that feels that way about somebody else in the locker room who may be gay," McGraw said. "I think it's going to take... It would take a lot of conversations. Accountability for me was like, that was the number one thing about having a championship team. Honesty, trust and accountability."

As of the moment, Notre Dame seems to be unaffected by Hannah Hidalgo's social media post. The No. 3-ranked Fighting Irish are 6-0 in the ACC and 15-2 overall and on Thursday, the Niele Ivey-coached team outplayed No. 17 Georgia Tech 81-66.

Hannah Hidalgo didn't play for the second straight game due to an ankle injury, but Notre Dame emerged victorious, thanks to big games from Sonia Citron and Maddy Westbeld. Citron finished with 21 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals, while Westbeld tallied 20 points, five rebounds, one assist and two blocks.