The ACC Tournament is now well underway, but which player will clinch the Player of the Tournament award?

Despite the Duke Blue Devils and Toby Fournier being the favourites to walk away from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Tournament as champions, there is another star who could walk away as the best player of the competition.

Duke clinched the ACC regular-season title with relative ease — ending the year with a 16-2 record. However, defeats to Clemson and North Carolina in the final weeks of the campaign proved that they are far from indestructible.

Notre Dame may not be a team that is expected to challenge the prestigious NCAA programme for the championship trophy; however, they boast an outrageously talented two-way guard who could drag her teammates to the later rounds of the tournament.

Hannah Hidalgo is Notre Dame’s talisman

As The Athletic’s Women’s basketball writer, Sabreena Merchant, stated during her appearance on the Britsdontjump podcast, Notre Dame has had a heavy turnover of personnel during the 2025 offseason.

Losing players with the calibre of Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron would damage any programme. Notre Dame’s 28-6 record showed that the team had its struggles, but inevitably created a good case to qualify for the NCAA tournament later in March — much to the thanks of Hannah Hidalgo.

Hidalgo is a tenacious guard who is the perfect example of a complete basketball player. Her tenacity on defence is nothing short of incredible, while she offers just as much devastation on the offensive end of the court.

Throughout the 2025-26 season, the Junior has averaged 25.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists, and 5.6 steals per game, while shooting 47.7% from the floor.

Breaking records has become a habit for the Notre Dame star. This year, Hidalgo became the fastest player in ACC history to reach 2,000 career points (86 games).

Additionally, Hidalgo smashed the ACC single-game steal record as she recorded 16 steals in an 85-58 victory against Akron — a game in which she also notched 40 points in 28 minutes.

Duke’s Toby Fournier will also be aiming to win an award that highlights the ACC Tournament’s greatest talent; however, Hannah Hidalgo’s overwhelming influence on both sides of the ball should be enough to pip her talented opponent to the accolade.