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Notre Dame WBB gets its first commitment of the 2027 class in five-star forward Eve Long

Eric Hansenby: Eric Hansen05/20/26EHansenND

Notre Dame recruiting target Eve Long’s staggering statistics from her junior season at Olathe (Kan.) High School might suggest how easy success has come to the five-star prospect in the 2027 women’s college basketball recruiting class.

And that would be a misleading narrative.

How the 6-foot-3 power handled adversity — falling in love with the sport after wanting to quit in elementary school, pushing her work ethic and attention to detail to maniacal levels after getting cut from representing Team USA two summers ago — drove those numbers.

And ultimately helped her find a fit at Notre Dame with similarly resilient kindred spirits. Roughly 3 1/2 weeks after taking an official visit to South Bend, Ind., on Blue-Gold Game football weekend, the nation’s No. 8 player, per the Rivals Industry, in the 2027 class announced her verbal commitment to Irish coach Niele Ivey on Wednesday.

She is the first commitment for the Irish in the 2027 cycle. Long chose Notre Dame over fellow finalists UConn and reigning national champion UCLA.

Starting life after Hidalgo

In the summer of 2027, she’ll be joining the first Notre Dame team in four years not to be built around point guard Hannah Hidalgo, who will be out of college eligibility. Instead it will be built around the nation’s No. 2 recruiting class in the last cycle, comprising five players led by wing Jacy Abii.

“That’s really something that stands out to me,” Long told Rivals’ Talia Goodman, talking about the 2026 class ahead of her April 24-25 official visit, “because the girls that they recruited are girls who have similar values to me. A great team attracts great players, and so I’m excited just to keep learning more about them.”

The Irish hope the nation’s consensus No. 1 player, 5-5 point guard Kaleena Smith, has a similar takeaway from her Notre Dame experience. Smith was the other Irish official visitor that weekend.

Long’s father, Ben, helped her through the early “wanting to quit” stages of her basketball career. And Eve helped herself transform her game after getting cut from representing the U.S. in international competition in the summer of 2024.

She came back, though, last summer, made Team USA and helped lead the Americans to a gold medal in the FIBA U16 Women’s AmeriCup. Then she went out and averaged 32.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.4 blocks last season to lead Olathe South to a 20-5 record.

Thursday through Sunday in Colorado Springs, Colo., Long will be competing to be on the international stage again, as one of 46 players at the USA U17 Team Trials. The 12-member team is anticipated to be announced at the conclusion of trials.  

The team will compete at the 2026 FIBA U17 Women’s World Cup, scheduled for July 11-19 in Brno, Czech Republic. The team will reconvene in Colorado Springs for training camp in early July before traveling to Europe.  

Notre Dame, meanwhile, is coming off a 25-11 season, reaching the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2019 Irish team got to the title game under Hall of Fame coach Muffet McGraw.

The Irish finished No. 9 in the final Associated Press poll after falling out of the Top 25 completely in January. Three-time All-American Hidalgo is the only player from ND’s core rotation returning.

Notre Dame will open its 2026-27 season Nov. 1 against Villanova in Rome, Italy.