What Happens When College Basketball Embraces the Tunnel 'Fit?

Twenty-three-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 [total] 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 [so many] female role models walk around, you feel empowered."

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. "[I wanted to] 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 [pro] with a safety net under me," referring to her university and student status.

In just a few short weeks, Westbeld's time at Notre Dame will come to an end, and she'll enter the WNBA Draft, held in New York City on April 14. For the 2025 WNBA season, the minimum player salary is $66,079 for players with two or fewer years of service, according to Sports Illustrated. At the end of last year, the WNBA players' union opted out of its current collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which laid out this controversially low starting salary. With the league's popularity and viewership growing at record rates in 2024, the union is currently negotiating a new CBA that's expected to significantly increase salaries across the board. However, it won't go into effect until 2026, meaning Westbeld and all of the 2025 WNBA draft class will start their careers with relatively low-paying rookie contracts. What does that mean? Well, they'll likely have to offset their salaries with other income. In come sponsorships, which are much easier to come by when players have loyal followings coming out of college and relevance in multiple industries, including fashion.

For reference, according to NBC, 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year and all-time leading scorer in men's and women's NCAA basketball Caitlin Clark earned a base salary of $76,535 for her first year in the pros. Per Sportico, though, her WNBA salary only made up about 1% of her total income in 2024, with deals with Gatorade, State Farm, Nike, Wilson, and more accounting for the remaining estimated $11 million she earned between NIL deals in college and later in her rookie season. (NIL, or "Name, Image, and Likeness," refers to the 2021 policy change that allowed college athletes to monetize their personal brand through endorsements, a practice the NCAA previously prohibited.) This is what's possible, and with the WNBA only growing in popularity, and brands ranging from Louis Vuitton and Prada to Skims and J.Crew getting more and more involved with sports, there really is no limit to the financial and cultural success female basketball players can achieve.

"All eyes are on women's sports—women's basketball—right now," says Westbeld. "It's a blessing to be a part of."

Leaning into the fashion component of playing in the W is not all about marketing herself to brands or showing fans who she is, though. For Westbeld, a lot of this process has just been about having fun, gaining self-confidence, and exploring an interest she's always had but never given much time to before. Notre Dame gave her the freedom to begin that exploration, but going pro opens doors to tenfold more sartorial opportunities. "I'm excited to pop out with something that hasn't been seen yet," she says. "At Notre Dame, you have to be a little bit more conservative with what you wear." There, student-athletes are representatives of their university, limiting players from dressing in the type of daring ensembles that are often shot in WNBA and Unrivaled tunnels. "When you get to the W, it's free reign," she says. "You're there to break boundaries." Westbeld wants to dress in looks that'll make people look.

Part of that will involve hiring a stylist, a practice many in the W utilize to make dressing for games easier and help connect them with high-end brands. For Notre Dame's game against UCLA this season, Westbeld worked with a professional for the first time, Los Angeles–based stylist Vincent Weathersby Jr., otherwise known by his Instagram handle, @styledbyweathersby. The experience showed her the benefits of working with a stylist, encouraging her to pursue finding one next season. "It is a lot having to choose [that many] outfits," she says. Pulling, returning, and packing pieces—in the pros, she'll be traveling all across the country every week—isn't something she wants to stress about on top of her basketball workload. That being said, Westbeld still wants to be very hands-on in the styling process. "I would like to be right there making decisions about what I'm wearing," she tells me. "I have a specific look that I like, and also, it's just fun."

Before any professional tunnel 'fits can debut, though, Westbeld has to get through the draft, and by that, I mean figure out what she wants to wear on the orange carpet. "I haven't put too much thought into it, and I really need to start," she says. "I was looking at all the 'fits from last year, and obviously, everybody looked amazing." The 2024 WNBA Draft saw Clark become the first-ever athlete to wear Prada on draft night—she chose a white satin jacket and matching miniskirt. Angel Reese wore Bronx and Banco, Cameron Brink wore Balmain, and Nika Mühl wore Rotate. Paige Bueckers, who is projected to be the number one pick in the 2025 Draft, wasn't even part of the 2024 Draft class but wore Louis Vuitton from head to toe. Picking out your look for the once-in-a-lifetime event is important, to say the least. "I'm looking at all types of celebrities and red carpets—stuff that is really going to catch attention," Westbeld says. According to the 23-year-old, Zendaya is the blueprint, so expect something chic to debut next month.

Suffice to say, there's a lot for Westbeld to be excited about, but right now, Notre Dame's National Championship hopes are priority number one. This is a program that's nurtured and supported her in every way, on and off the court. Her coaching staff taught her lessons on passing and scoring, yes, but also exuding confidence and being true to herself. Coach Ivey empowered her and her teammates to express themselves, knowing that a player with self-assurance and an understanding of who they are is better on the court as well as off it. "The brand of Notre Dame has built such a solid foundation for me—it's a family I can always return to," she says. She wants to win for them just as much as they do for her. That, and debut as many tunnel 'fits as she can in her remaining days as a college athlete. The only way to achieve that is to make it to the national title game, something Notre Dame's program has achieved a total of six times. Once you're there, you might as well win it all.