Tag: ACC

Notre Dame to visit three top-10 2025 Indiana recruits

Hope at least one of them ends up with the Irish.

When Micah Shrewsberry took over as Notre Dame coach, he vowed to heavily recruit within Indiana. After all, that’s where he’s from and where Notre Dame is located. He’s done well with that so far with five players from the Hoosier State on this past season’s team, including ACC Rookie of the Year [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag].

Shrewsberry isn’t satisfied with his current number of Indiana players though. That’s why this week, he’s hosting visits with three recruits from the state, all of which rank in the top 10 of its 2025 class according to 247Sports. One tweet after another from multiple accounts confirms this:

For those keeping score at home, that’s one forward and two guards the Irish are looking to land. As you can see from these tweets though, they already are have some stiff competition in other programs. Virginia Tech seems particularly in on Mullins. Good luck to Shreswsberry and his staff with these meetings.

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Duke rises to No. 6 in D1Baseball poll after first road series win against Virginia Tech in years

Duke keeps rising in latest D1Baseball poll, moving up to No. 6 after they took a ranked road series against Virginia Tech.

Duke’s weekend in Blacksburg was full of excitement as Duke won a road series against Virginia Tech for the first time in six years. Both Duke wins came with late-inning dramatics, as the Blue Devils fought back and won the game late.

For their efforts against a top-25 team, the Blue Devils saw themselves rise one spot to No. 6 in the latest D1Baseball poll.

Duke’s win puts them two games behind UNC for the Coastal Division lead as the Blue Devils enter the home stretch of the regular season.

At the top of the newest D1Baseball poll, the Texas A&M Aggies remain the nation’s number one team. Arkansas is second while the Tennessee Volunteers are third. Kentucky and ACC foe Clemson are ranked ahead of Duke at fourth and fifth, respectively.

East Carolina, Wake Forest, and Oklahoma State follow in order before Duke’s next ACC opponent, Florida State, slots in at 10th.

The rest of the ACC continues to be well represented in the poll, with Virginia and North Carolina ranked 14th and 15th, respectively, while NC State ranked 21st.

Duke will remain on the road for a midweek game against a tough Campbell Camels team before returning home for a top-10 weekend series against the Florida State Seminoles.

Notre Dame’s Carson Tinney caps big weekend with grand slam

What a weekend for him.

It’s not often that a baseball player has two home runs in one weekend that often are sought but rarely achieved. However, [autotag]Carson Tinney[/autotag] of Notre Dame now can make that claim forevermore. He began the Irish’s three-game weekend series vs. Boston College with a pinch-hit inside-the-park-home run.

If Tinney enjoyed his inside-the-parker, he had to enjoy what came two days later. With the Irish en route to their first no-hitter since 1988, Tinney contributed to the offensive cause with a four-bagger:

It’s heartwarming to see Tinney’s teammates emerge to celebrate his big moment with him. He isn’t one of the big bats on the team, but he sure fit the part during the Irish’s sweep of the Eagles. He was 3 of 4 with two homers and five RBIs. That gave him an otherworldly slugging percentage of 2.750.

When Tinney looks back on his career, he can say that for one weekend, he could hit dingers like the best of them.

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BREAKING: Duke lands commitment from Syracuse transfer Maliq Brown

Duke lands it first transfer of the offseason as former Syracuse forward Maliq Brown commits.

After a week of nothing but departures from its program, Jon Scheyer and the Duke Blue Devils are finally playing offense in the NCAA transfer portal.

Former Syracuse forward Maliq Brown committed to Duke on Saturday afternoon, per On3 Sports’ Joe Tipton.

Brown, a four-star recruit, spent his first two collegiate seasons in Syracuse, where he played sparingly as a freshman. This past season, as a sophomore, the 6-foot-8 forward started 16 games for the Orange and was their de facto center after an Achilles injury sidelined starter Naheem McLeod for the season. Brown posted 9.5 points and grabbed 7.2 boards per game.

Brown’s game is defense, hustle, and finishing at a high rate around the rim. He shot nearly 70% from the field in both his freshman and sophomore years, and his 71.3% effective field-goal percentage was the highest in the ACC, according to KenPom.

He was an ACC All-Defensive Team nominee this season and led the conference with 2.2 steals per game last year. He’s a high-level athlete who will give Duke versatility as a small-ball five or by playing his natural spot at power forward.

Brown has already shown the Duke staff what he can do, scoring 28 points against Duke in Cameron this past season. Brown started his visit to Duke earlier in the week, and the rest was history. He didn’t visit anywhere else before ultimately committing on Saturday afternoon.

Brown will fill the void left by Mark Mitchell and Sean Stewart’s departures. He also brings another veteran presence and voice to a team that will add six freshmen in the summer and will need a lot of leadership as they attempt to gel.

Notre Dame’s Carson Tinney hits inside-the-park home run

You’ll enjoy this.

One of the most exciting plays in baseball is the inside-the-park home run. It doesn’t happen very often, which is why people always yearn to see one whenever they go to a game. Those who attended Notre Dame’s game Friday against Boston College were lucky.

The Irish crushed the Eagles, 14-3, in seven innings, but one moment stood out above the rest. With the Irish already up big in the bottom of the sixth, [autotag]Carson Tinney[/autotag] was called on to pinch-hit for [autotag]Joey Spence[/autotag], who already had a home run in the game. Tinney is one of the lesser contributors on the team, but he crushed a pitch and had a moment he won’t ever forget:

With the victory, the Irish extended their hitting streak to three and got their record back to .500 at 18-18. Their ACC record remains paltry at 3-16, the exact record of the MLB-worst Chicago White Sox. Needless to say, this has been a trying season for the Irish, but moments like this will make it stand out a bit.

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ACC starting quarterback rankings for 2024

Here are our ACC quarterback rankings for 2024, with projected starters.

We are still some time away from the start of the 2024 college football season, but that doesn’t stop us from looking ahead.

Today, we are looking at the ACC starting quarterbacks for 2024 and ranking them ahead of the season. This is just a preview, as it is still many months from the season, and things can change fast. While every team doesn’t have a starting quarterback on paper, we are making projections on these starters based on what we know right now.

The ACC is a bit different now, with the addition of new programs and new faces to the conference. Try not to get mad with these, they’re subjective! That said, here are our ACC starting quarterback rankings heading into the 2024 season.

– Updated 4/19

Three Notre Dame players projected as 2025 WNBA first-round picks

You’ll definitely want to watch these players for the Irish next season.

The dust barely has cleared on the 2024 WNBA draft. But that hasn’t stopped people from looking ahead to the 2025 draft. And if you do that as a Notre Dame fan, you’ll realize why next season likely will be the best chance yet for the current group to go far.

Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic has put together a list of who she believes will make up the first round of next year’s WNBA draft. Merchant figures three current Notre Dame players will be taken in that round, beginning with [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] at No. 3:

“It’s hard to design a more prototypically perfect 2-guard than Citron. She is tall and strong, defends well and has a beautiful jumper that goes in 37 percent of the time from long range. Citron is overtaxed as a primary ballhandler, but let her run off screens or handoffs, and she can create her own shot. She is plug-and-play on any team, adding positive value on both ends of the floor.”

[autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag], who announced her return to the Irish for next season earlier this week, also made the list as the sixth overall pick:

“Another player who could have been a first-rounder in this year’s draft, Westbeld does everything well. She can shoot from distance (36 percent on 3s in her college career), and she also can drive to the basket. Westbeld is a load in the paint and dominates on the glass. She can body bigger players on defense; her effort to limit (Elizabeth) Kitley to 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting during the 2024 ACC season was an eye-opener. It’s unclear if she has All-Star upside, but Westbeld is the type of player winning teams find minutes for.”

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] rounds out this list at No. 8, but she has an asterisk next to her name since she still has a medical redshirt year:

“It’s been a long time since we watched Miles play basketball, so in case you forgot, she’s an elite passer who excels at creating offense in transition. She rebounds well for her position and is a defensive playmaker with 2.1 steals per game. The 3-point jumper was a work in progress during her sophomore season, but she started to fill it up from midrange at least. Without the jumper, she’d be a solid backup point guard in the WNBA, but she has a chance to be even more if that developed during her rehab year.”

So yeah, the 2024-25 Irish are going to be special. Get excited for it now because there’s no time like the present, but more importantly, all of these special players will be off to greener pastures before you know it.

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Maddy Westbeld will return to Notre Dame for 2024-25 season

Big news for an Irish team expected to do big things next season.

Michael Jordan famously announced his first return to basketball with the iconic fax simply reading, “I’m back.” Well, times have changed, and sports figures can make announcements about their futures on social media. While [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag]’s two-word tweet Monday won’t become nearly as famous as Jordan’s fax, it nonetheless will thrill Notre Dame fans:

Yes, this means Westbeld will use her remaining college eligibility to return to the Irish for a fifth and final season in 2024-25. There had been questions lately about whether she would do so, but those can be put to rest now. It gives the Irish a veteran presence down low and a mentor for incoming big [autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag].

Still unknown is the future of fellow Irish big [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag], especially given the knee injury she suffered during this year’s ACC Tournament, but at least Westbeld will be on next year’s team. She is coming off her third All-ACC selection and a season in which she averaged 14.4 points, 1.1 blocks and a career-high 8.7 rebounds a game. She has started all 120 games she has played for the Irish over her first four seasons with the program, and there’s no reason to think that will change.

Westbeld clearly wants to be part of an Irish team that is expected to go far. Her presence will make that a lot easier to happen.

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Duke men’s basketball has most All-ACC Academic Team selections

Duke is known as an academic powerhouse as much as a basketball one, and the Blue Devils men’s basketball team showed the reputation is earned.

When people think of Duke, they consider the academic prowess and much as the five national titles in men’s basketball. After all, U.S. News just declared Duke the seventh-best college in the country.

The Blue Devils men’s basketball team showed they are more than just athletes on campus with their track records in the classroom. The ACC released its All-ACC Academic Team nominations for men’s basketball on Wednesday, and Duke led the way with eight players on the list.

All-American sophomore Kyle Filipowski, the 7-foot forward, made the list. He was joined by fellow starters Jared McCain and Tyrese Proctor. Teammates Jaylen Blakes, Ryan Young, Caleb Foster, Sean Stewart, and TJ Power.

Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest all had seven nominees, but no other team had eight. North Carolina had just a single nominee, graduate student Cormac Ryan.

Duke finishes at No. 9 in final AP poll

Four ACC teams, including Duke, crack final AP poll of the 2023-2024 season.

While the season’s outcome was not what many expected when Duke took the floor to start the season, Jon Scheyer’s team was, in essence, just 12 minutes from a Final Four berth.

NC State made more plays down the stretch and ultimately ended Duke’s season before having their season ended by national runner-up Purdue. Connecticut was always the best team from beginning to end, and they proved it by doing what hadn’t been done since Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators teams in 2006–07: winning a second consecutive national title.

It should come as no surprise that the Huskies end the season as the No. 1 team in the final AP poll for the 2023-2024 season. Purdue was second, while Houston, whom Duke beat in the Sweet 16, tied with Alabama for the third-place spot. Tennessee checked in at number five.

Illinois was next at No. 6, followed by North Carolina, Iowa State, and Duke. NC State rounds out the top 10 despite never joining the poll during the regular season. Clemson, one of four ACC schools to make at least the Sweet 16, finished at No. 14.

The ACC had the same number of teams in the final AP poll as the Big 12, with four each.