What Happens When College Basketball Embraces the Tunnel 'Fit?

Twenty-two-year-old Notre Dame grad Maddy Westbeld used her last year of NCAA eligibility to play one final season of college basketball with her teammates in South Bend, only to sit out for much of the regular season due to a foot surgery she could no longer delay. For 13 games, she sat on the bench, but her time off was in no way wasted. "When I was injured, I was nervous about asking to wear a 'fit on the sideline," Westbeld tells me over Zoom on the Friday before Selection Sunday, when the NCAA tournament brackets are announced and the gauntlet is set for March Madness. Tunnel 'fits aren't the norm in college the way they are in the pros. Rather, most college basketball players wear their travel suits to games. Think: a matching sweatsuit with their respective university's logo etched on one shoulder. Westbeld wanted to try something different and begin to prepare herself for her future in the WNBA. "We just asked—it was a shot in the dark," she says. Her coach, Niele Ivey, surprised everyone on the team when she agreed. After that, all bets were off. "Oh, it's a thing then," says Westbeld.

Ivey herself is a front-runner for college basketball's best dressed coach. She shows up to games in Alexander McQueen hourglass blazers and Prada denim jackets and is rarely seen without heels on despite having to pace along the sidelines scanning the game action, yelling out to her players, and pushing back against controversial calls by the referees. "I love being sharp and coming out with a powerful look," Ivey tells me on a separate call ahead of Notre Dame's first March Madness matchup against the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks from Nacogdoches, Texas. For her, every courtside outfit is an opportunity to bolster her own confidence, leading by example. "I know that the way I feel about myself is a reflection of this team," she says. The former All-American point guard at Notre Dame—who played in the WNBA with the Indiana Fever, Phoenix Mercury, and Detroit Shock—has always understood fashion's potential impact, particularly on athletes.

It's because of this that she was quick to allow her players to get creative with their pregame looks at select events throughout the 2024–25 season. "I've empowered them to utilize our platform at big games—television games—to show their personalities," she says. "The players on my team have a lot of fashion sense—number one, they're very creative. They're very strong, very powerful, and very confident." They also just happened to love being in front of the camera, Ivey continues. Players like Westbeld—as well as her teammates, stylist Liatu King and Westbeld's roommate and star senior Olivia Miles—have the capability to become style leaders in women's basketball, opening them up to an entirely different fan base from those who watch just for their on-court skills. "We are very intentional about trying to build their brands," says Ivey, and "trying to connect them with fashion designers, allowing them to use our photography and social media to showcase their looks."

It's almost as if Notre Dame was destined to be the school that broke college basketball's tradition of players remaining uniform in the tunnel, becoming the unofficial "spokesperson" for dressing well to play well in Division I women's hoops. Before Ivey took her head coaching position at Indiana's premier private university—she's risen the ranks on the coaching staff since 2007, only taking a brief hiatus to assistant coach in the NBA in 2019—it was Coach Muffet McGraw's program for 33 seasons. According to Westbeld, McGraw insisted on having an all-female coaching staff, something that impacted the team in a variety of ways. "Not necessarily that you have to have an all-female coaching staff to be fashionable by any means," she clarifies. "But having female role models walk around, you feel empowered."

All of the double standards that we're held to—you can challenge all of it.
Maddy Westbeld

Westbeld saw Ivey, then on the coaching staff, putting together looks for every single game. "We'd go back in the locker room and see all the coaches' 'fits, like Michaela Mabrey, one of our assistant coaches—she's always popping out with the 'fits too," Westbeld says. Notre Dame alumni like Skylar Diggins-Smith and Arike Ogunbowale are now some of the WNBA's most celebrated dressers, with Diggins-Smith being named League Fits' MVP in both 2022 and 2024. (Ogunbowale also won the National Championship with Notre Dame, adding to her influence over the program's current roster.) "You can be beautiful, you can be a hooper, you can be competitive, you can be everything," says Westbeld, speaking to the lessons the program, its primarily female staff, and its alumni have taught her. "All of the double standards that we're held to—you can challenge all of it."

Going into this season following her surgery, Westbeld knew it wasn't going to be easy. Having the freedom to style herself and experiment with fashion while on the sidelines served as a welcome distraction throughout her recovery. "During my rebab, it was something I did just to feel good every day," she explains. " walk in and look presentable in that space." In December, when Notre Dame played the University of Connecticut at home, Westbeld supported her team from the bench wearing an Alaïa turtleneck bodysuit and navy-blue pinstripe trousers by Oscar de la Renta. "Feel good, look good, play good," she says to me multiple times during our conversation. It's a motto both she and Coach Ivey live by. "I like to be in top shape to prepare for trying to play in top shape," she explains. Putting on a great outfit helped build her confidence and get into a winner's mindset so that when she could return to the court, she wasn't only physically ready but mentally prepared as well.

This year of extra eligibility wasn't just about recovery, though. Really, Westbeld was zeroed in on preparing for the WNBA. She finally got the surgery she'd long needed to set herself up for a pain-free career, got her mind right and balanced in order to withstand the increased pressures of playing basketball as a job, and explored fashion in anticipation of having her looks photographed in the tunnel night after night and her style used as a marketing tool. "My mindset has been that I'm a professional athlete already," she says. "This is a bonus year where I could be a with a safety net under me," referring to her university and student status.