Tag: Big East

Notre Dame men’s basketball crushes Georgetown in Washington matinee

Terrific afternoon for the Irish.

Even with both teams in similar situation, the Notre Dame men’s basketball team’s game against Georgetown figured to be a real test. After all, the Irish frequently played the Hoyas when they were in the Big East, and this was their first opponent this season from a power conference.

Instead, the Irish came into Washington and did whatever they wanted on this Saturday afternoon en route to an 84-63 victory. It was easily their most complete game of the young season.

The Irish (3-0) went on a 13-0 run early in the first half and never looked back. Although the Hoyas (2-1) cut a 12-point Irish lead to four during that half, it proved to be a minor setback as more Irish runs would occur throughout the rest of the game. The offense was in sync throughout.

Not only did the Irish play tight defense, but they benefited from poor Hoyas shooting from the field at 31.4%. So it should come as no surprise that the Irish pulled away by shooting 59.3% from the floor:

[autotag]Matt Allocco[/autotag], who didn’t shoot a single field goal in the Irish’s win over Buffalo, scored 15 of his game-high 17 points in the first half, making four 3-pointers during that time. [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] scored 16 points, which included making all eight of his free throws, and [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] flirted with a double-double with 13 points and eight rebounds.

[autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag] added nine points, and Lehigh transfer [autotag]Burke Chebuhar [/autotag]scored nine off the bench by making all three of his 3-point attempts.

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Virginia Tech coach Megan Duffy talks Notre Dame at ACC Tipoff

We wish her reasonably well in her first ACC season.

[autotag]Megan Duffy[/autotag] knows all about Notre Dame. She played there for four years during its Big East days, making the all-conference first team twice and being named the conference’s most improved player once. She led the conference in free-throw percentage twice and steals and minutes once apiece.

After playing professionally for a few years, she turned to coaching. For the past five years, she coached Marquette and made three NCAA Tournament appearances, including last year when the Eagles got to play their lone tournament game at Purcell Pavilion.

Duffy now is beginning her first year at Virginia Tech. So when it was her turn to field questions at the annual ACC Tipoff in Charlotte, North Carolina, it was inevitable that she would be asked about the Irish. She was, and here was her answer to that question:

“This has been a dream to play and coach at the best and with the best every single day. My Notre Dame background back in the old Big East it was the depth of the conference, how competitive it was, and this is the same in the ACC.

We obviously understand this is the best conference in the country for all different reasons: the talent of the league, guard play, post play, and then some of the best coaches. I’ve always wanted that challenge.

Just to have it unfold as player and then you obviously build your resume as a coach. It’s special to be here at Virginia Tech and to hopefully be just a small piece of a bigger picture of women’s college basketball and continue to put a great product out there.”

Duffy won’t get to return to South Bend this season as the Hokies will be hosting the Irish on Jan. 30 in Blacksburg. Hopefully, when the time does come for her to come back to her roots, she’ll get a nice ovation from the Irish faithful. She’s earned it.

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2002 ESPN highlight of Notre Dame’s upset win over Pittsburgh

Remember this game?

Notre Dame had a pretty good 2001-02 season. [autotag]Mike Brey[/autotag] was in his second year at the helm and on his way to coaching the Irish to their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance. One reason they got that far came when they visited Pittsburgh, then a Big East rival.

The Irish were down five late before scoring the game’s final eight points and winning, 56-53, thanks to a late 3-pointer by [autotag]David Graves[/autotag], whose 12 points tied [autotag]Ryan Humphrey[/autotag] for the second-most on the team. [autotag]Matt Carroll[/autotag] was the Irish’s big player with game highs of 15 points and nine rebounds.

ESPN recapped the game after it was over as such:

The loss temporarily knocked the Panthers out of the rankings, but they bounced back to where they became co-Big East champions and ultimately placed ninth in the season’s final poll. Needless to say, this was a highlight for the Irish in a season full of them.

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Oklahoma’s move to the SEC 10 years in the making

When conference realignment hit the Big 12 more than a decade ago, Oklahoma athletic director took a proactive approach to secure OU’s future.

The foundation of college football is built on an ever-shifting bedrock, as conference realignment has redefined the sport over the last 40 years.

Whether it was the merging of teams from the Southwest Conference and Big 8, the ACC and Big Ten’s raid of the Big East, or the Pac-12’s fall from football relevance, realignment has been a constant in modern collegiate athletics. Blue-blood programs have consolidated over the last decade. The SEC and Big Ten have solidified themselves as the power players in college football, while the Big 12 and ACC have remained steady. For the moment.

It’s survival of the fittest on the collegiate landscape. Administrators are forced to be proactive and forward-thinking to ensure their school’s place at the media rights buffet.

“Understanding some way, shape or form those things that we saw eight, 10 years ago are happening,” Joe Castiglione shared with the media on Monday.

The last round of realignment saw the Big 12 lose key members, including a Nebraska program that was one of Oklahoma’s longest-running rivals. It forced Sooners’ athletic director Joe Castiglione to consider where his school stood in the collegiate athletics landscape. In the span of just a couple of years, the Big 12 went from one of the strongest conferences in football to a league in turmoil.

When Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, and Texas A&M departed, it left the Big 12 in some unsteady waters. The additions of TCU and West Virginia righted the ship, but Castiglione knew then that realignment wasn’t over and the University of Oklahoma had to be proactive.

“It came after a lot of thought,” Castiglione ellaborated. “Deep, deep thought about us as a university, and where we are, you know, in the world, what we’re trying to accomplish, broadly as a university, and what role intercollegiate athletics plays in that. And trying to keep an eye on how college athletics was evolving much more quickly than some people 10 years ago, wanted to admit.”

It’s understandable that some institutions are frustrated with the Sooners and Longhorns for leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. It’s understandable that institutions felt left in the dark about a big-time business deal that had huge ramifications, not just for the schools involved but for the sport as a whole.

But at the end of the day, it’s not personal. It’s business.

When the writing was on the wall more than a decade ago, Joe Castiglione began to proactively look at what would be in the best interest of the University of Oklahoma. On July 1, Oklahoma officially began its tenure as an SEC school, ready to remind everyone who’s at the pinnacle of collegiate athletics.

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Oklahoma Sooners fall to UConn Huskies 4-1 in Norman Regional

Oklahoma Sooners couldn’t hit with runners on and fall to UConn 4-1.

After a picture-perfect start to hosting their first regional in almost 20 years, [autotag]Skip Johnson[/autotag] and the Oklahoma Sooners saw it all come crashing down on Saturday night. They lost to the Big East regular season champion UCONN Huskies 4-1.

The Sooners came into the game with loads of momentum after a 14-0 shutout of Oral Roberts Friday night. On Friday afternoon, UCONN beat the two-seed in the region, Duke, by a 4-1 score.

Both teams knew Saturday night would be a grind, but for OU, they felt great.

[autotag]Braden Davis[/autotag], the staff ace, didn’t pitch on Friday because Johnson wanted to save him for this matchup instead. While he was right in theory, things didn’t go as he wanted them to.

Oklahoma was the road team, so they started the game batting first. Oklahoma could get nothing off Connecticut pitcher Stephen Quigley despite a Bryce Madron hit.

Davis worked out of a jam in the bottom of the second to keep things tied. Oklahoma had two hits in the top half of the third, but Quigley worked himself out of a jam and kept Oklahoma off the board.

In the bottom half of the inning, a two-out rally featuring two walks and a single by the Huskies’ Korey Morton allowed UConn to draw first blood and take a 1-0 lead.

Oklahoma got doubles in the fourth and fifth innings from [autotag]Michael Snyder[/autotag] and [autotag]John Spikerman[/autotag], but couldn’t bring them home.

That would remain the story of the night for the Sooners. In the bottom of the seventh inning, after back-to-back 1-out singles, RHP Dylan Crooks entered in relief of Braden Davis, who pitched 6.1 innings, allowing seven hits and walking three batters. He threw 109 pitches and struck out ten batters. He was also on the hook for three earned runs when Luke Broadhurst hammered a ball to deep left field to push the Huskies’ lead to 4-0.

Kendall Pettis hit a homer in the eighth, but that would be the last hurrah from the Sooners before the game ended. The Sooners got Jackson Nicklaus up for the tying run, but Nicklaus couldn’t make any noise, and the game was over.

Oklahoma’s inability to get the big hit doomed them. They pitched well enough to stay within striking distance but could never push themselves to get the one or two big hits necessary to flip momentum to their side.

Redshirt senior outfielder Kendall Pettis went 2-for-3 with a home run. He was the standout offensively.

With the loss, the Sooners will face Duke, the two-seed in this regional, with their season on the line.

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Fresh off ACC Tournament title, Duke baseball heads to Oklahoma as No. 2 seed in the Norman Regional

Duke earns the second seed in the Norman Regional after winning the 2024 ACC Tournament Title.

The newly minted 2024 ACC Tournament champions are headed to Norman, Oklahoma.

Following their offensive explosion against Florida State in the ACC title game, many around the Duke program thought there was a chance that the Blue Devils could sneak a late hosting bid away. Sunday night, the NCAA disproved that by now awarding Duke with a top-16 seed. On Monday, the Blue Devils discovered which regional they would participate in.

The Blue Devils will head to Norman, hoping to advance to the Super Regionals for the second consecutive year. This will be no tall task, as the hosting Oklahoma Sooners are a well-rounded ball club with offense, defense, and a deep pitching unit that features quality starters and challenging bullpen options in relief. Oklahoma dominated the Big 12, posting a 23-7 record in the conference. They also came up just short of winning the tournament title.

The Big East regular season champion, the Connecticut Huskies, are also in the region and they are no slouches. Lastly, the Blue Devils will have the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, this year’s Summit League tournament champions, to contend with.

Regionals will run from May 31 through June 3 at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman. Duke (39-18) is slated to open the regional against No. 3 seed UConn (32-23) on Friday at 8 p.m. EST. The game can be seen on ESPN+.

The winner of the double-elimination NCAA Regional will advance to a best-of-three NCAA Super Regional, which will run from June 6-8 or 7-9. The Norman Regional winner will face the winner of the Tallahassee Regional, which features Florida State, Alabama, UCF, and Stetson.

Notre Dame lands Marquette forward Liza Karlen from transfer portal

Big get for the Irish.

When Marquette traveled to Notre Dame to play Ole Miss the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament, it had a future Irish player in tow. That player was standout forward [autotag]Liza Karlen[/autotag], who was in her fourth season with the Golden Eagles. Karlen announced on Instagram that she is transferring to the Irish for the 2024-25 season:

https://www.instagram.com/liza_karlen/p/C6mZ5a2OO68/

Karlen made First Team All-Big East last season, so that alone makes this a big get for the Irish. Her career-high 17.3 scoring averaged ranked fourth in the Big East and would have just edged out [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] for second in scoring on last year’s Irish. She also would have ranked second in rebounds (7.9) and blocks (1.2).

The 6-foot-2 Karlen is the latest big the Irish are adding for next season after incoming freshman [autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag]. [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] also is returning next season. We still don’t know the latest on [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag]’s knee injury, but this move gives the Irish insurance and much more. Either way, the lack of bigs the Irish had last season shouldn’t be an issue this time around.

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Xavier transfer Desmond Claude brings Big East savvy to USC basketball

Desmond Claude thrived in a tough Big East Conference. Eric Musselman recognized that.

Xavier transfer Desmond Claude from Putnam Academy in Putnam (Connecticut) has transferred to USC basketball and Eric Musselman. Claude won the Big East Most Improved Player Award last year by averaging 16.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game for the Musketeers. Claude shot 42.6 percent from the field, but only 23.9 percent from 3-point range last season.

He’s the No. 41 overall prospect in the 247Sports transfer portal rankings and the No. 9 point guard on the board. Coming out of high school, he was ranked No. 101 overall in the 2022 class.

“The vision that Coach Musselman laid out for me blends perfectly with my playmaking ability, NBA aspirations and ongoing development as a lead guard,” he said. “I’m excited to make the next big jump in my development and I’m especially excited to be a part of the USC family.”

Claude will likely start at point guard this upcoming season for the Trojans and coach Musselman.

One of the key attributes Claude brings to USC is Big East experience. He went up against national champion UConn, No. 2 seed (in the 2024 NCAA Tournament) Marquette, and No. 3 seed Creighton, among others, in a tough and rugged conference. That set of encounters against quality competition should help Claude — and Musselman — as they team together this season at USC.

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Notre Dame’s Markus Burton named ACC Rookie of the Year

Congrats, Markus!

Notre Dame has a brighter future than it did a year ago, and a lot of that has to do with [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag]. The freshman “from next door in Mishawaka” as he’s introduced before home games now has some serious hardware. Burton has been named the ACC Rookie of the Year.

This is the first time a first-year Notre Dame player has earned this honor in the ACC. The Irish had two Big East Rookies of the Year in [autotag]Chris Thomas[/autotag] (2002) and [autotag]Troy Murphy[/autotag] (1999), the latter of whom just had his program rookie freshman scoring record broken by Burton (535).

Burton also tied with Duke’s Jared McCain for the most votes on the ACC All-Rookie Team. This is the third straight year a Notre Dame freshman has been so honored after JJ Starling in 2023 and [autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] in 2022.

Burton, who is averaging 17.6 points, 4.3 assists and 2.0 steals a game, also made the All-ACC Third Team. This marks the Irish’s return to the all-conference team after being shut out from it a year ago.

Here are some images from Burton’s impressive freshman campaign:

Top 10 scorers in Notre Dame women’s basketball history

Here are some Irish legends.

The sports world is abuzz with Caitlin Clark becoming the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer in women’s basketball. She hasn’t even gone professional yet, and many already are crowning her the GOAT. That label gets tossed around very liberally these days, but it’s hard to picture many athletes who have transcended their sport the way she has.

Despite what our site editor Nick Shepkowski might have said about me, Caitlin Clark is not my sister. Athleticism is not in my immediate family’s gene pool, or I would have kept following my NBA dreams years ago. Alas, the closest I can get to organized basketball these days is to write about it and create listicles about it.

I would like to demonstrate that ability right now by assembling a listicle of the top 10 scorers in Notre Dame women’s basketball history. It’s a great way to celebrate the new scoring queen in women’s college hoops, and the timing couldn’t be more appropriate: