Tag: Elijah Morgan

J.R. Konieczny, Matt Zona speak after Notre Dame loss to The Citadel

Read the players’ perspectives on the loss.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – [autotag]Matt Zona[/autotag] is one of the few Notre Dame players who had Elijah Morgan as one of his teammates. He probably didn’t count on seeing Morgan go off when The Citadel came to Purcell Pavilion. Sure enough, that’s what happened as Morgan scored a game-high 19 points in a 65-45 Bulldogs win over the Irish.

Zona grabbed four rebounds but was held out of the scoring column. Most of the Irish’s production came from [autotag]J.R. Konieczny[/autotag], who had 18 points and 10 rebounds. It looked for a while like Konieczny was going to carry his team to victory. Instead, the Bulldogs took over in the second half after allowing six unanswered points to start.

Zona and Konieczny were the two players selected to speak to the media after the loss under the watchful eye of [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] (more on him later). Konieczny looked emotional as he took his seat, and Zona looked like he was just trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. Here’s what they had to say:

Former Notre Dame player Morgan gets revenge in win for The Citadel

Nothing worse than an old friend haunting you.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – In 27 games for Notre Dame from 2019 to 2022, Elijah Morgan never scored more than six points. Since joining The Citadel, he has looked like a completely different player. He showed that and then some as he haunted his old team in a 65-45 Bulldogs win over the Irish.

The first half featured two teams battling closing as neither team could grab momentum or lead by more than four points. The second half began with the Irish (4-7) scoring six unanswered, and the Bulldogs (7-5) called a timeout.

From there, the visitors seized control and ultimately extended the lead to double digits as the Irish simply couldn’t respond. After that Bulldogs timeout, they outscored the Irish, 33-10, the rest of the way.

Whether the game’s location made it coincidental or not, Morgan was the man for the Bulldogs, scoring 15 of his game-high 19 points on 5-of-7 shooting from 3-point range and recording four steals. Irish fans in attendance as well as the few remaining players from Morgan’s time with the Irish had no choice but to endure the sight of him celebrating with his teammates, which included a bench that was vocal all night long.

Of course, Morgan didn’t do it all by himself for the Bulldogs. Madison Durr and Quentin Millora-Brown scored 15 points apiece on a combined 11-of-16 shooting from the field. AJ Smith briefly went back to the locker room after getting banged up early in the first half but returned to score 13 points.

[autotag]J.R. Konieczny[/autotag] was the Irish’s top player with a double-double 18 points and 10 rebounds. [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] had 13 points but also a game-high five turnovers.

While the other Irish players struggled across the board, none did so more than [autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag]. Starting in place of the injured [autotag]Julian Roper II[/autotag], he missed all eight of his field-goal attempts, six of them coming from beyond the arc. It was part of a night in which the Irish shot only 26.6 % from the field.

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Former Notre Dame guard Elijah Morgan selects The Citadel

Hopefully, he has better luck in new surroundings.

For a variety of reasons, [autotag]Elijah Morgan[/autotag] never found his footing at Notre Dame. By the end of his junior season, he wasn’t even around the team. With little hope for his future in South Bend, he announced in April that he was entering the transfer portal. Now, he knows where he’s going to play, and he announced such:

Morgan will try to deliver a boost to a Bulldogs program that desperately needs one. The Citadel never has qualified for the NCAA Tournament, and 11 of its past 12 seasons have been losing ones. In fact, the Bulldogs went 0-18 in Southern Conference play during the 2019-20 season.

The Irish have won both games between the programs. First was a 72-53 triumph in 1997, followed by a 74-50 victory in 2006. While the Irish obviously have a better record and a brighter future, Morgan pretty much had nothing to do with it. Sometimes, you have to do what’s best for you, and that’s exactly Morgan did.

We wish Morgan well with the rest of his collegiate career.

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Notre Dame guard Elijah Morgan entering transfer portal

A seldom-used player is looking elsewhere.

After three years of limited playing time at Notre Dame, guard Elijah Morgan has decided to look elsewhere. Morgan, the New Orleans native who just finished his junior season, is entering the transfer portal. While he still will receive his undergraduate degree from Notre Dame, his next basketball game will be with another program:

In 27 games over three seasons with the Irish, Morgan averaged 0.8 points, 0.2 rebounds and 0.4 assists a game. While he shot only 4 of 17 from the field from that time, he made all 13 of his free-throw attempts. Six of those free throws came over four minutes in a Feb. 26 blowout win over Georgia Tech, and they accounted for both his career high and his only points of the season. None of the six games he appeared in this past season, the fewest of his career, were decided by less than 14 points.

It’s clear that Morgan didn’t see his situation with the Irish getting any better, so his best move was to move on. Here’s hoping he gets the opportunities he’s looking for at his next stop.

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Notre Dame roster for 2021-22 season

Who will be hooping it up for the Irish this season?

It feels like college basketball remains far away, but Midnight Madness just happened, so it’s closer than you think. To that end, we should look at who makes up Notre Dame’s roster for the upcoming season. Many believe this is the team that can get the program out of the doldrums and back on track towards respectability. A major step in getting people to believe that would be the Irish’s first NCAA Tournament selection since 2017, which also was the last year they finished above .500 against ACC opponents.

This will be the 22nd iteration of the Irish with Mike Brey as coach. Despite having more wins than anyone in program history, he has two losing seasons in the past three and three losing conference records over the past four years. If he isn’t able to get this group to reach its full potential, questions about his future in South Bend certainly will arise. Here are the players who could determine where both Brey and the program headed going forward:

Notre Dame Basketball Player Review: Elijah Morgan

You have to give freshman walk-ons the benefit of the doubt because you probably won’t know what their value to the team will be ’til later.

You have to give freshman walk-ons the benefit of the doubt because you probably won’t know what their value to the team will be until later on. Such is the case with guard Elijah Morgan, who didn’t even play a game’s worth of minutes in his first year for Notre Dame. Consequently, there wasn’t a lot of exposure for the New Orleans native, so there’s no photo of him on our service and no video highlights of him on the athletic department’s YouTube channel. It’s a reminder that unless you can make a big difference right away, you’re typically stuck on the bench in your first year with a major program.

But if Morgan can take one thing away from this season, it’s that the best of his 12 games came at Cameron Indoor Stadium. In five minutes of Notre Dame’s blowout loss to Duke, he scored five points, three of which came on his first and only trey of the season. He also picked up one assist. Hopefully, he’ll have more to offer the Irish in the future.