Tag: Georgia Tech

4 darkhorse candidates to make serious noise during March Madness

One of the reasons we watch March Madness is for an upset. You want to see which team is going to have a Cinderella story at the Big Dance.

You can admit it. One of the reasons you watch March Madness is for an upset. You want to see which team is going to have a Cinderella story at the Big Dance.

While there is no guarantee that the NCAA Tournament will have a sleeper advance far, and the favorites could all end up in the Final Four, that in and of itself is part of the fun.

Create your men’s and women’s tournament brackets at USA TODAY Sports

No one can properly predict who will create these heartwarming stories. If we could, it would no longer be much of an upset. But if there are any teams who go farther than expected during this postseason, we are pretty sure it will be one of these four programs.

Notre Dame makes scholarship offer to another 2022 quarterback

With Ian Book out the door, the debate for Notre Dame is whether Brendon Clark or Drew Pyne will be his successor at quarterback in 2021.

With Ian Book out the door, the debate for Notre Dame is whether Brendon Clark or Drew Pyne will be his successor at quarterback in 2021. But what if neither of those guys is the long-term solution at the position?

Tyler Buchner is a big-time recruit but what about the recruiting class of 2022?

Maybe the upcoming season will be a bridge between Book and the next great Irish quarterback. Specifically, Pyne and Clark could be keeping the seat warm for Drew Allar, a pro-style quarterback from Medina, Ohio, who has received an offer from Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees:

Allar now has offers from 22 schools. Just this week, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Illinois and Ole Miss joined the list. He’s also drawn significant interest from programs like Wake Forest, Iowa, USF, Washington, Iowa State, Kentucky, Michigan, Texas A&M, South Carolina, Penn State, Indiana, Michigan State, Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

Related:
Notre Dame’s best football recruit from each state since 2000

Notre Dame’s 2022 Recruiting Class Commitments

Notre Dame scholarship offer tracker for 2022

Prominent college programs always are looking for who might be the next person to represent them at the most important position in sports. Allar will do that somewhere, but we don’t know where exactly yet.

Running Back Recruit Justice Haynes Receives Offer From Notre Dame

Sometimes, when seemingly every program is after somebody, you gotta make your move.

Sometimes, when seemingly every program is after somebody, you gotta make your move. Lance Taylor could see this during his pursuit of Justice Haynes, a running back from Blessed Trinity Catholic in Rosewell, Georgia. The time to make an offer to play at Notre Dame to the offensive player of the year in his state’s region was now or never. Luckily, Haynes confirmed that Taylor chose now:

Notre Dame’s offer was the fifth Haynes had received since Wednesday. The Irish came in just behind Oregon, Western Kentucky, Ohio State and Auburn in that order. Despite this latest round of offers pouring in, 247Sports sees Georgia as the clear front-runner to land his services. This all comes on top of the offers he’s also received from such schools as Florida State, Miami, Penn State, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Arkansas and Georgia Tech.

It goes without saying, but having to field offers from so many prominent programs in such a short period of time is a good problem for any recruit to have.

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Former Vol Brent Cimaglia reveals transfer destination

Former Tennessee kicker Brent Cimaglia entered the NCAA transfer portal on Jan. 29.

Former Tennessee kicker Brent Cimaglia entered the NCAA transfer portal on Jan. 29.

He opted out for the remainder of the 2020 season on Dec. 7.

Cimaglia announced his transfer destination on Sunday. He will play for Georgia Tech in 2021.

“Honored and blessed to receive this opportunity,” Cimaglia said on Twitter. “Proud to be a Yellow Jacket, big things to come!”

“The last four years have meant a lot to me. I was able to fulfill a dream of playing in front of the most passionate fan base in the country. I have made lifelong friends and will cherish these memories forever. With the being said, it is time for me to move forward in the best interest of me and my family. I will be entering the transfer portal to finish my last season.

“I want to say thank you for everything, Volnation. You will always be part of my life and as always, Go Big Orange.” –Brent Cimaglia on Jan. 29

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Six Power Five conference teams the Oklahoma Sooners have never played

For a team with a history that spans over 120 plus years of playing the sport, there are six teams in the Power Five that OU hasn’t played.

With a team that has as much history as the Oklahoma Sooners football program, it might be hard to believe there are still teams they haven’t played. Continue reading “Six Power Five conference teams the Oklahoma Sooners have never played”

How Notre Dame and Georgia Tech stack up via BetMGM

Mike Brey and the Fighting Irish try to get within a game of .500 in-conference tonight as they’re in Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech.

Notre Dame has been playing significantly better in the ACC as they’ve won four of their last five contests after starting the conference season a measly 0-5.

Mike Brey and the Fighting Irish try to get within a game of .500 in-conference tonight as they’re in Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech.  The two were supposed to meet at Notre Dame early in the new year but that game was postponed due to COVID-19.

The Irish enter tonight’s contest a slight underdog against the Yellow Jackets according to the line posted at BetMGM, The King of Sportsbooks.

The line: Georgia Tech -4.5 vs. Notre Dame
The total: 141.5
Moneylines: Georgia Tech -200, Notre Dame +170

Looking for some action on this game or others? Place your legal sports wagers online at BetMGM in CO, IN, NJ, TN, and WV. New Customer Offer: Risk-free first bet up to $500! Terms and conditions apply. Visit BetMGM and bet now! 

Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET tonight at McCamish Pavilion.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

Notre Dame women’s basketball falls in ACC opener

The Notre Dame women’s basketball team fell in their ACC opener on Sunday. Details and highlights here.

The Notre Dame women’s basketball team got off to a rough start in ACC play, falling to Georgia Tech 82-67 Sunday at Purcell Pavilion.

Maddy Westbeld led the way for Notre Dame with a team-high 21 points and nine rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Yellow Jackets swarm.

Lotta-Maj Lahtinen led Georgia Tech with 19 points and eight rebounds.

The game started well for Notre Dame; the Irish led 18-15 after one quarter. But Georgia Tech’s offense was relentless the rest of the way: It put up 20, 26 and 21 points in the final three quarters, respectively.

Georgia Tech accomplished all of that despite committing 10 more turnovers than the host Irish.

Notre Dame falls to 2-3 on the season and 0-1 in ACC play. Georgia Tech moves to 4-1 overall after winning its conference opener.

Notre Dame returns to action on Thursday when it plays host to Virginia Tech in another ACC matchup.

Notre Dame’s Maddy Westbeld Named ACC Rookie of the Week

Notre Dame freshman Maddy Westbeld is off to a nice start in her collegiate career.

Notre Dame freshman Maddy Westbeld is off to a nice start in her collegiate career. The ACC can see that after naming her the conference Rookie of the Week. It’s a bright spot for an Irish team off to a 2-2 start.

In the Irish’s most recent games against Michigan and IUPUI, Westbeld averaged 20 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and two steals. She also was 55.2 percent from the field on 16-of-29 shooting. In the fourth quarter of the Irish’s loss to the Wolverines, she scored 12 of her team’s 20 points.

Westbeld is the ACC freshman scoring leader at 17.5 points a game. That’s also good enough to lead the Irish by 3.2 points. Nationally, she is one of three freshmen with over 15 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists a game. In fact, her 6.8 rebounding average also leads Notre Dame.

The Irish already have wrapped up their nonconference schedule. They have a week off between games before tipping off ACC play Dec. 13 against Georgia Tech.

ACC Will Have Basketball Teams Wear GPS Devices for Contact Tracing

By anyone’s standards, this has been a rough year for college football as far as playing scheduled games.

By anyone’s standards, this has been a rough year for college football as far as playing scheduled games. Perhaps that’s why the ACC doesn’t want to take chances as far as its basketball season. With COVID-19 cases forcing entire football teams to quarantine, the conference is hoping to avoid that for basketball.

For the 2020-21 season, the ACC will have members of all men’s and women’s basketball teams use wearable GPS devices for both games and practices. The idea is to measure exposure to players, staff and opponents who might be infectious. This would allow teams to make quarantine decisions for individuals instead of everybody, which is required without that data. At minimum, this will be required for all conference games.

Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner only sees good things coming out of this:

“Instead of saying ‘We’ve all got to shut down,’ — you don’t want to shut down — but maybe it’s two or three (players) and not an entire team. I think it’s a real game-changer. It’s a real positive step.”

With all of the games that go into a college basketball season, there is even less room for error compared to football. Forcing an entire team to quarantine for two weeks would take a big bite out of its schedule. It’s simply not an option. Props to the ACC for taking this step and improving its chances to have as complete as season as possible.

Updated: List of this week’s college football games canceled/postponed due to COVID-19

Add another top team to the list of college football programs who won’t be playing a game on Saturday afternoon after this ACC cancellation.

Yesterday we shared with you the list of all college football games that had been cancelled or postponed as a result of COVID-19.  We said then that we would be surprised if anymore came to be but that in this 2020 world we’re living in that we couldn’t be certain.

My exact words on the matter were as follows:

As of Friday afternoon, it’s hard to imagine any more college football games being called off for this weekend but it’s certainly a possibility in this strange time. – Nick Shepkowski 

Well, it turns out we can add to the list we put out on Friday as No. 4 Clemson’s game at Florida State has been postponed due to a positive test of a Clemson player on Friday.

That’s certainly a shocker for both teams as well as the entire ACC and all of college football.

Here is an updated list of all the Saturday games that have been cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19:

No 4 Clemson at Florida State
Ole Miss at No. 5 Texas A&M
Georgia Tech at No. 12 Miami (FL)
Charlotte at No. 15 Marshall
No. 22 Texas at Kansas
Central Arkansas at No. 24 Louisiana
Michigan State at Maryland
Wake Forest at Duke
Houston at SMU
UL Monroe at Louisiana Tech
UNLV at Colorado State
San Jose State at Fresno State
Navy at South Florida
Arizona State at Colorado

Here’s to hoping I’m not having to update this list again later today.