Notre Dame beats Virginia Tech to end seven-game losing streak

A victory!

Notre Dame hadn’t lost eight consecutive games since the 1965-66 season. This season has been bad enough that it wouldn’t have been surprising for the Irish to tie that mark Saturday against Virginia Tech. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case as the Irish beat the Hokies, 74-66, snapping their seven-game skid.

The Irish (8-16, 3-10) trailed by nine late in the first half before turning the tables on the Hokies (13-10, 5-7). They scored 14 unanswered points to take a five-point lead early in the second half.

The Hokies later tied it at 51, and the Irish responded with a 9-0 run. They never led by less than six the rest of the way. While the outcome still was in doubt during the game’s final minute, the Irish made the plays they needed to on both ends to close it out, something they’ve struggled with this year.

In 35 minutes, [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] led the Irish with 16 points on 6-of-18 shooting, but that only was the beginning. He dished out eight assists to tie his career high, which came during the Irish’s last home victory against Virginia. He also had six steals to not only set his career high but also tie the Irish record for steals in an ACC game, which first was reached by [autotag]Demetrius Jackson[/autotag] in 2016.

All of [autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag]’s 12 points came on four 3-pointers. [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag] scored 11 points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds.

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On this day: Lewis, Lohaus, Acres, Wenstrom, Jackson debut; Green signed; Turner cut; Kuberski born

On this day, former Celtics Reggie Lewis, Brad Lohaus, Mark Acres, and Matt Wenstrom made their debuts for Boston, and Steve Kuberski was born.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, forward Reggie Lewis debuted for the team in a 125-108 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in 1987. Born on the 21st of this month in Baltimore, Maryland, Lewis would play collegiately for Boston-area Northeastern University under New England coaching legend Jim Calhoun (better known for his time at UConn) before being drafted by Boston with the 22nd overall pick of the 1987 NBA draft.

He would later collapse and die of heart-related medical issues he’d been recently diagnosed with many years later but would play with Boston for six seasons, starting with this win over the Bucks.

The Maryland native would log 4 points in 5 minutes of game time in his debut.

Which Boston Celtics alumni are earning the most dead money?

Sometimes, even very well-run ball clubs like the Boston Celtics make mistakes big enough that they hang around to haunt a team.

Sometimes, even very well-run ball clubs like the Boston Celtics make mistakes big enough that they hang around to haunt a team for seasons after the mistake was made. Most often, this comes in the form of signing a player to a contract they cannot possibly live up to the value of due to any of many unforeseen circumstances.

When that happens, a franchise will usually cut and stretch a player’s salary over multiple seasons to preserve as much of their cap space as possible for the duration of the contract remaining stretched between three and five seasons to ease the cap hit to the team. More often, however, a team will eat the deal at once, especially when it’s a smaller contract or just a season or two left on it, with what remains on the books still owed known as “dead money” in league parlance.

And in a recent HoopsHype analysis, it seems several Celtics alumni made the top 30 contracts of dead money in the league for these sorts of deals; let’s look at which deals they are on and where they are ranked.

Every player in Boston Celtics history who wore No. 9

Today’s installment focuses on the 15 players who wore No. 9 over the years as of September 2023.

The Boston Celtics have more retired jerseys than any other team in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean the rest of their jerseys have little history of interest tied to them.

In fact, with 17 titles to their name and decades of competitive basketball played in them, their unretired jersey numbers pack some of the most history not hanging from the rafters of any team in the league. To that end, we have launched our accounting of that history, with every player in every jersey worn by more than one Celtics player in the storied franchise’s history accounted for.

Today’s installment focuses on the 15 players who wore No. 9 over the years as of September 2023.

On this day: ex-Celts Jackson, Hewson, Kimball, Lovellette born

On this day, former Boston Celtics Demetrius Jackson, Jack Hewson, Toby Kimball, and Clyde Lovellette were born.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, former point guard Demetrius Jackson was born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1994. Jackson played collegiately for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, with whom he made second-team All-ACC honors and was a finalist for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award.

The Indiana native was drafted by the Celtics with the 45th pick of the 2016 NBA draft, and he signed with the team on July 27 of that year. He spent most of his sole season with Boston shuttling back and forth between the Celtics and the Maine Red Claws — Boston’s developmental affiliate in the NBA’s G League as he worked on his game in the hopes of securing a longer-term deal.

That wasn’t in the cards with the Celtics, however. The team cut Jackson the following summer. He averaged 2 points per game at the NBA level with Boston.

On this day: Jackson, Abdelnaby sign; West, Hankinson, Tatum born

On this day, former Celtics Demetrius Jackson and Alaa Abdelnaby signed, and Delonte West, Phil Hankinson, and Earl Tatum were born.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, former franchise point guard Demetrius Montell Jackson Jr. was signed to a multi-year deal after being drafted in the second round with the 45th overall pick of the 2016 NBA draft.

A product of the University of Notre Dame, Jackson played in the Las Vegas and Utah Summer Leagues that summer, putting up promising numbers ahead of his rookie season with the Celtics. He would spend the bulk of his inaugural season with Boston’s G League developmental affiliates — the (Portland) Maine Red Claws (now, Celtics) — appearing in five regular-season games with the parent club as well.

The South Bend, Indiana native would average just 2 points per game over that stretch, however, and would be waived and stretched at the end of the season.

On this day: Avery Bradley, Abdel Nader inked; Bill Dinwiddie, Luke Kornet born

On this day, the Boston Celtics re-signed Avery Bradley and Abdel Nader, and former Boston big man Bill Dinwiddie was born.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, the Celtics re-signed guard Avery Bradley to a four-year, $32 million deal, fully guaranteed with no player or team options in 2014.

Bradley had been drafted by the Celtics with the 19th overall pick of the 2010 NBA draft out of the University of Texas and would remain with the team until the final season of that new contract. After he began its final season, he would be traded to the Detroit Pistons with draft assets in exchange for small forward Marcus Morris Sr., one of the last remaining players from the team’s last era of contention.

Bradley’s trade was necessitated by the signing of former Utah Jazz All-Star forward Gordon Hayward in the summer of 2017. He averaged 12.1 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game while with the team.

Where do Boston Celtics alumni rate among the NBA combine’s highest leapers?

A number of Celtics alumni can be found among the highest leapers in combine history.

With the 2023 NBA draft set to take place on the night of Thursday, June 22nd, a new cohort of athletes (some, admittedly, less athletic than others) will be joining the Boston Celtics and the rest of the league, at least for a little while in some cases.

Much of what will determine how well they will do in their prospective careers in the association in a sport where verticality is key is their ability to leap from both a standing and running position. To determine that aspect of their overall toolkit, players are measured for their maximum vertical reach in both contexts at the NBA Combine ahead of the draft.

A number of Celtics alumni can be found among the highest leapers in combine history — let’s take a look at which made the history books courtesy of research from the staff of our sister site, HoopsHype.

Most recent Notre Dame players to be NBA draft selections

All of these players did the Irish proud before making the jump.

Nobody on Notre Dame’s veteran-laden team from this past season will be selected in Thursday’s NBA draft. In fact, given the inexperience across the board on the upcoming season’s roster and under a new coach no less, it could be quite a while before we see another Notre Dame player drafted. On the bright side, that means no early departures except via the transfer portal. Then again, it sure would be nice to have NBA-ready talent in South Bend.

The only way to deal with a challenging present and short-term future is to look to the past. In this case, the way to go about that is to look at former players who heard their names called on draft night over the past several years. Of the 62 former Notre Dame players who have suited up in the NBA or ABA, 41 have entered professional basketball via the draft. Here are the most recent ones:

Mike Brey, Nate Laszewski and Cormac Ryan speak after loss

The Irish seem almost speechless about this season.

SOUTH BEND – Wake Forest took Notre Dame by surprise in the second half, and you could see that after the Irish’s 81-64 loss. Sometimes, even after a tough defeat, you’ll hear plenty of words from Mike Brey and whichever players are selected to take part in the postgame news conference. This time, nobody seemed to be in a good mood. While Brey still has his usual bright and chipper moments, [autotag]Cormac Ryan[/autotag] and [autotag]Nate Laszewski[/autotag] looked completely at a loss as to what had just happened.

When a team already is at 10 conference losses and still has a month of games to go, it has to be deflating. That many defeats in league play will get to anybody, even a veteran-laden team like the Irish. The feeling in that locker room is obvious, and there’s no sign that anything on the court will change that feeling anytime soon.

Here is some of what was said after the loss: