Offenses Beware - Face Nicole Cardaño-Hillary At Your Own Risk
11/2/2021 11:45:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Nicole Cardaño-Hillary is a pest. Let's get that out of the way first.
She annoys.
Frustrates.
Disrupts.
If you're an Indiana Hoosier, this is a very good thing.
If you're somebody playing the Hoosiers, good luck.
The 5-6 Cardaño-Hillary will ruin everything you try to do.
Well, she will try, and it's a big reason, although not the only one, why she has taken charge of the point guard role, allowing versatile Ali Patberg to become more of a shooting guard.
Where does this feisty playing style come from?
Cardaño-Hillary laughs before answering.
"I say the energy my teammates bring me helped me get into guarding on ball. Their energy pumps me up."
She pauses to smile.
"Whether or not I'm a pest is up to the offensive player."
Cardaño-Hillary spent a couple of seasons pestering teams in the Atlantic 10 as the conference player of the year and an all-conference player for George Mason. Then she transferred to Indiana, and played her way into a key role on last season's Elite Eight team.
With Cardaño-Hillary swarming all over the court, Patberg assumed more of a shooting guard role, which maximized coach Teri Moren's talented starting lineup.
Patberg averaged 14.0 points last season.
Cardaño-Hillary can score if needed. She did, after all, leave George Mason as the program's career leader with 1,766 points. That included a high of 41 in a victory over Penn State.
In her first season as a Hoosier, she averaged 8.5 points and 3.7 rebounds, and totaled 31 steals. She scored as many as 17 points, grabbed as many as 11 rebounds and had a double-double (16 points, 11 rebounds) against Ohio State.
In a Sweet Sixteen win over North Carolina State, Cardaño-Hillary had 14 points and four steals.
Cardaño-Hillary is not a finished product. Shooting was a big off-season priority after shooting 35.8 percent from the field, 27.3 percent from three-point range and 54.2 percent from the line.
"I focused the little things," she says. "Consistency on the shot. It's hard to pinpoint one. Understanding more of the game. Watching film. That's what I worked on the most."
Much of the film work came with associate head coach Glenn Box, who specializes in developing guards.
"Studying the game, seeing where I can take chances and where I can't," Cardaño-Hillary says. "That's helped me out.
"Coach Box helps me, with foot work, talking about, depending on who I'm guarding, how we will guard them. What's helped the most is seeing what I have done and what's worked the most and what hasn't, and going off of that."
Cardaño-Hillary brings an international flair to a Hoosier team with national title aspirations. IU opens its exhibition season on Nov. 5 against the University of Indianapolis.
She was born and raised in Spain before her family moved to Texas when she was 12. She was a McDonald's high school All-America and helped Vista Ridge High School win a pair Texas state championships before heading to George Mason.
That experience, and so much more, makes her an ideal leader for Hoosier freshmen Kaitlin Peterson, Keyarah Berry and Mona Zaric.
"My role is to help them out as much as I can," Cardaño-Hillary says. "I've been through different transitions. I've been a freshman, too. I try to help in the way I was helped out in a way that helped me.
"I feel I learned from them. They learn from us. You can learn at any point. I try to help as much as I can."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Nicole Cardaño-Hillary is a pest. Let's get that out of the way first.
She annoys.
Frustrates.
Disrupts.
If you're an Indiana Hoosier, this is a very good thing.
If you're somebody playing the Hoosiers, good luck.
The 5-6 Cardaño-Hillary will ruin everything you try to do.
Well, she will try, and it's a big reason, although not the only one, why she has taken charge of the point guard role, allowing versatile Ali Patberg to become more of a shooting guard.
Where does this feisty playing style come from?
Cardaño-Hillary laughs before answering.
"I say the energy my teammates bring me helped me get into guarding on ball. Their energy pumps me up."
She pauses to smile.
"Whether or not I'm a pest is up to the offensive player."
Cardaño-Hillary spent a couple of seasons pestering teams in the Atlantic 10 as the conference player of the year and an all-conference player for George Mason. Then she transferred to Indiana, and played her way into a key role on last season's Elite Eight team.
With Cardaño-Hillary swarming all over the court, Patberg assumed more of a shooting guard role, which maximized coach Teri Moren's talented starting lineup.
Patberg averaged 14.0 points last season.
Cardaño-Hillary can score if needed. She did, after all, leave George Mason as the program's career leader with 1,766 points. That included a high of 41 in a victory over Penn State.
In her first season as a Hoosier, she averaged 8.5 points and 3.7 rebounds, and totaled 31 steals. She scored as many as 17 points, grabbed as many as 11 rebounds and had a double-double (16 points, 11 rebounds) against Ohio State.
In a Sweet Sixteen win over North Carolina State, Cardaño-Hillary had 14 points and four steals.
Cardaño-Hillary is not a finished product. Shooting was a big off-season priority after shooting 35.8 percent from the field, 27.3 percent from three-point range and 54.2 percent from the line.
"I focused the little things," she says. "Consistency on the shot. It's hard to pinpoint one. Understanding more of the game. Watching film. That's what I worked on the most."
Much of the film work came with associate head coach Glenn Box, who specializes in developing guards.
"Studying the game, seeing where I can take chances and where I can't," Cardaño-Hillary says. "That's helped me out.
"Coach Box helps me, with foot work, talking about, depending on who I'm guarding, how we will guard them. What's helped the most is seeing what I have done and what's worked the most and what hasn't, and going off of that."
Cardaño-Hillary brings an international flair to a Hoosier team with national title aspirations. IU opens its exhibition season on Nov. 5 against the University of Indianapolis.
She was born and raised in Spain before her family moved to Texas when she was 12. She was a McDonald's high school All-America and helped Vista Ridge High School win a pair Texas state championships before heading to George Mason.
That experience, and so much more, makes her an ideal leader for Hoosier freshmen Kaitlin Peterson, Keyarah Berry and Mona Zaric.
"My role is to help them out as much as I can," Cardaño-Hillary says. "I've been through different transitions. I've been a freshman, too. I try to help in the way I was helped out in a way that helped me.
"I feel I learned from them. They learn from us. You can learn at any point. I try to help as much as I can."
Players Mentioned
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